Is there no quality control on the release of new plug-ins?
Some recent releases have been so full of bugs that it is difficult to believe they have been tested at all, even once, against the current release of phpWebsite.
Releasing plug-ins littered with bugs not only wastes the time of all the people who install them and have to discover for themselves how bad they are, but it also causes confusion for everyone, and the need for multiple new releases and updates.
All these problems could be avoided if plug-in developers would simply go thru slightly more rigourous testing procedures before rushing them out. Even a ten-minute test phase would avoid some of these daft problems and save everyone time and worry.
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First of all may I ask which modules/plugins you had problems with, which versions they were and which version of phpWS you were attempting to use them with?
Criticism is all well and good when it is used constructively...
As for the number of releases of plugins and plugins not working, it is worth pointing out that phpWebSite is still a pre-release version. Until it hits version 1.0.0 you are using a development piece of software and cannot reasonably expect everything to be problem free.
Recently, a number of changes in the core code have meant that all plugins have had to be updated to work correctly, and since there are more people complaining about plugins not working, than actually fixing plugins, it is a relatively slow process.
If you would be so kind as to let me know exactly which problems you encountered in which plugins I shall endeavour to fix them so that others do not have to endure the same misery that you have.
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He's most probably refering to my release of newsletter. Most of my conversions DO go through testing, and DO work on my system. Even the most diligent of coders make mistakes.
Newsletter, unfortunately, I didn't have an extreme amount of time to debug, but I knew people were really needing it. If I had been back on my Unix dev box, it would have made things simpler to test, however, I've had to use my Winblows box for the last week and couldn't thoroughly test everything.
I'm sorry for your inconvenience Wokkie. This is all done out of the goodness of our hearts. We volunteer to do this work when we get the time to do so. Sometimes real world distractions introduce a bug or two.
All you have to do is tell me what's wrong and I'll look and fix it. Can you say that for Microsoft?
Phil and I are working hard to get these plugins converted, and trying hard to keep up our standards of quality. Our procedures are set up to allow us to produce quality conversions and new modules.
Beta Testing is crucial, and even though I do my best to run through all the functions of a script, I can't catch everything. If you'd like to volunteer for testing, please let me know and I'll add you to the project.
Ed
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I would like to know how to install the newsletter module for phpws8.1
There are no instructions for it. And it has no .php extention or anything. Do I need to rename it? What's up with that mod?
Thanks, Marie Alline
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Marie,
you probably downloaded the file but didn't properly unzip/untar it
when you untar the file, it should have a directory called newsletter, inside it you'll find seven .php files, a README file, and a gif image, plus a CVS folder that you don't need.
place the newsletter folder in your mod folder, and browse to http://yoursite.com/mod.php?mod=newsletter&op=setup
to install the newsletter mod.
hope this helps.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Is there no quality control on the release of new plug-ins?
Some recent releases have been so full of bugs that it is difficult to believe they have been tested at all, even once, against the current release of phpWebsite.
Releasing plug-ins littered with bugs not only wastes the time of all the people who install them and have to discover for themselves how bad they are, but it also causes confusion for everyone, and the need for multiple new releases and updates.
All these problems could be avoided if plug-in developers would simply go thru slightly more rigourous testing procedures before rushing them out. Even a ten-minute test phase would avoid some of these daft problems and save everyone time and worry.
First of all may I ask which modules/plugins you had problems with, which versions they were and which version of phpWS you were attempting to use them with?
Criticism is all well and good when it is used constructively...
As for the number of releases of plugins and plugins not working, it is worth pointing out that phpWebSite is still a pre-release version. Until it hits version 1.0.0 you are using a development piece of software and cannot reasonably expect everything to be problem free.
Recently, a number of changes in the core code have meant that all plugins have had to be updated to work correctly, and since there are more people complaining about plugins not working, than actually fixing plugins, it is a relatively slow process.
If you would be so kind as to let me know exactly which problems you encountered in which plugins I shall endeavour to fix them so that others do not have to endure the same misery that you have.
He's most probably refering to my release of newsletter. Most of my conversions DO go through testing, and DO work on my system. Even the most diligent of coders make mistakes.
Newsletter, unfortunately, I didn't have an extreme amount of time to debug, but I knew people were really needing it. If I had been back on my Unix dev box, it would have made things simpler to test, however, I've had to use my Winblows box for the last week and couldn't thoroughly test everything.
I'm sorry for your inconvenience Wokkie. This is all done out of the goodness of our hearts. We volunteer to do this work when we get the time to do so. Sometimes real world distractions introduce a bug or two.
All you have to do is tell me what's wrong and I'll look and fix it. Can you say that for Microsoft?
Phil and I are working hard to get these plugins converted, and trying hard to keep up our standards of quality. Our procedures are set up to allow us to produce quality conversions and new modules.
Beta Testing is crucial, and even though I do my best to run through all the functions of a script, I can't catch everything. If you'd like to volunteer for testing, please let me know and I'll add you to the project.
Ed
I would like to know how to install the newsletter module for phpws8.1
There are no instructions for it. And it has no .php extention or anything. Do I need to rename it? What's up with that mod?
Thanks, Marie Alline
Marie,
you probably downloaded the file but didn't properly unzip/untar it
when you untar the file, it should have a directory called newsletter, inside it you'll find seven .php files, a README file, and a gif image, plus a CVS folder that you don't need.
place the newsletter folder in your mod folder, and browse to
http://yoursite.com/mod.php?mod=newsletter&op=setup
to install the newsletter mod.
hope this helps.
Hmm, it appears that when you download the file, it is renamed to have just the extension .gz
Rename it so that it has the extension .tar.gz and unpack in the usual way. All will be fine :-)
The safe alternative is to download the modules from the files section of out Sourceforge page at:
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/phpwsplugins/
--
Icerunner