Put password timeout settings in Control Panel

NWClips Craig wrote: @Brett - It just expired on Sunday (4/12) after the initial period included in the price of the cart software.  Of the two actual items I submitted tickets for, one was fixed by clicking a box I was initially told (pre-sale) I would not need if I used a Bootstrap theme.  The second one apparently does not have a resolution yet (the ability to bulk import formatted HTML to the Product Layout - Tabs Area field) which means having to do a lot of manual copying and pasting for each product. I typically don't bother tech. support with things that are simply annoying like this issue or those unnecessary (IMO) extra confirmation boxes that pop up at bizarre times when setting up cross-selling relationships or importing/exporting.  I was in tech. support for several years and led a team that rarely had time for those types of things which is why I put these into the "Suggestions" forum. Whenever I run into something that obviously isn't working as expected (exporting category information for a product for example) I tend to first search the KB's and community forum for a resolution then try and figure out why, if I have enough time, or at least find a work-around.  After that I post or send my findings so the tech. support staff and/or other users can know. While researching 136 shopping carts, most were rejected if they couldn't be moved from host to host, but one requirement I had was a community forum.  What I didn't realize is how few people actually post here.  I also missed the fact that there's no way to submit suspected minor bugs other than submitting a ticket (which you need to have a support plan for and, like everything else, my friend/customer is trying to avoid unless it really becomes necessary) or posting here.   Another example:  When working with a lot of products sequentially from the PC Control Panel, you can "Modify the next product in this category" after you save the current product, except that it doesn't use the category that you used on the locate/search screen so you may or may not get the next product.  My guess is that it uses the next product from the first category the current product is part of instead.  That means for each product you need to first perform a search (i.e., locate it), select it, modify it, then do the whole procedure again.  This is a huge time waster especially since these changes can't be done with a bulk import...  All of that said, I still consider this a "Suggestion" not something I should have to create a support ticket for.

That's a shame about the support expiring on the 12th. However, I'm a bit confused, so perhaps you could clarify a couple things for me. First though, let me tell you a bit about myself so you know where I'm coming from. We've been using PC (ProductCart) to run our main eCommerce website since, I believe, 2008. I am the developer and defacto sysadmin for the business, and am generally in charge of all things related to the website. I thought I should mention this to make it clear that I, like you, am a PC customer and user. I haven't ever built any official PC plugins, I don't work with the development team, and I haven't really done any professional work on PC aside from for our one main site, and once more for a different client with whom I did a bit of freelance development.

You've mentioned that the PC installation you're working on is for your "friend/customer". If you don't mind me asking, in what capacity are you involved with the project? Are you the developer, designer, marketer? What is your position and involvement in this project for which your customer has purchased and will be using PC?

Regarding the two issues for which you've submitted tickets - you said the first one involved clicking a box you would not need if you used a bootstrap theme - which box was this? I am working on building a new theme for our site to use when we deploy with the upgraded PC (moving from v4 to v5) and perhaps this would concern me. As for the second issue, I'm not sure I understand what the issue is with bulk importing the tab area content.

I haven't extensively used the tabs, but don't they pull info from other parts of the product details? How do you have your product tabs setup? From what I can see upon taking a quick glance at my PCv5 admin dashboard and going to one of the products, it looks like I can set each tab to display a specific piece of information, for example the Product Long Description. Isn't that field accessible via the bulk import/export?

To clarify, while you won't find a "tab area" field in the bulk import/export area, I believe that all of the information you can assign to the tabs are indeed included in the import/export functionality. Which data have you assigned to the tabs that you are unable to import/export? Or is this an issue with the "formatted HTML" not properly importing?

You mentioned that you researched 136 different shopping carts. Might I ask why the ability to easily move from host to host was so high on your requirements? It would seem to me that most folks building a site are going to stick it on one host and keep it there. I'm having trouble thinking of a situation where you'd necessarily need the ability to easily move from host to host, but perhaps I'm missing something obvious. Also, I'm a bit surprised that, after taking the time to research (a whopping) 136 shopping carts, you wouldn't have taken a bit more time to check the community forum and make sure it's relatively active.

I understand that your customer is trying to avoid any unnecessary costs, but I'd advise against foregoing the support plan. Not only does this plan give you access to the support team, it also gives you access to future updates. Since you've just purchased and we are basically in the early stages of v5, I suppose you probably won't end up needing the support plan for updates. I could be wrong, but I believe the way it works is that you are given access to same-major-version updates (eg 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 etc) but not next-major-version updates (eg v6). That being said, you probably won't run into a situation where you need the support plan in order to access an update, at least for a while.

However, even though you probably won't need to pay for access to any updates / patches released, it sounds like you're going to end up wanting to pay for access to the support team. When it comes down to it, unless you are willing and able to dig into the code yourself and troubleshoot these issues, you're going to end up having to pay someone to do it. Whether that's paying a consultant to come on board and resolve these issues, or paying for the official PC support plan, time is money and someone's going to end up having to spend time to go in and make changes to the code.

I agree with you that there could be a more streamlined bug report system, but I can kind of see why PC may have chosen not to implement one. The problem with bug report systems is that people tend to submit reports for things that aren't necessarily bugs. I've seen it many times where people submit things that lean more towards personal preference, feature requests, or hosting issues, and which aren't really "bugs" that can be fixed by the development team.

Just as desktop software has a list of "minimum requirements" and typically will not run if those requirements are not met, PC (and most eCommerce software) has requirements that the server / hosting plan must meet in order to run correctly. Considering the great amount of research you did (136 carts), I would hope that you've spent a reasonable amount of time researching your choice of hosting provider to ensure that they have a service which meets the requirements of PC. I believe you mentioned earlier that you are using GoDaddy - before purchasing your hosting plan did you check to verify that the hosting you purchased via GoDaddy meets ProductCart's operating requirements?

Speaking of which, what kind of hosting plan are you using? Is it some kind of shared Windows hosting, or is it a (virtual) dedicated server? If it's the latter, I would assume that you'd be able to change just about anything you need, including the session timeout duration.

Regarding the final issue you mentioned, I believe this is going to be one of those things that falls under the banner of "personal preference / not really a bug" as you mentioned (that you consider it a suggestion and not something you should have to create a support ticket for). The problem is, there are going to end up being many different ways for each thing to work, and the development team can only do their best in implementing what they feel is the best solution. Inevitably it's going to be wrong for some people, so they have to go with whatever is going to work for the majority of their customers.

Wow...  Ok, let's see if I can answer all that!  LOL.

So, to try and summarize everything, all tools have their quirks and I'm still learning them for PC's Control Panel.  One of the hurdles, being new to this, is that I don't always know where the problem resides (e.g., with PC's Control Panel, the theme, the host, etc.).

Hehe...