PHPCow Help

Hi:

Well, I only mentioned TinyMCE as an example, making a comparison between the current phpcow wysiwyg editor and a more feature rich editor.. This said, I just want a better editor, call it TinyMCE, FCKeditor, or another one.

When I publish an article with a future date, the article will appear on public view on that date.. that's for sure.. but, have you noticed that even when the article is set up to appear on a future date, it does appear on RSS feed right away and not on the future date/time you have set? I know cron is not the solution but an option that could be implemented.

Btw, setting up a Cron is not exclusive to dedicated servers and you can even use an external cron service (there are free ones) if you don't have access to SSH or a Cpanel cron.

Attachments... well, I dont know if it's only me, but in case of file attachments, I just don't know what is the point of the Attachment title & attachment description if none of them are "attached" to the file when posting it to the template.
Image attachments are ok.

News by email: I agree with you when you say that shared hosting has limits on number of emails sent per hour, but as you say, this depends on host configuration. A workaround on this is to use an external service, like Feedburner, that provides daily email subscriptions.

Prefix: yes, you can use the article.prefix along with article.date function on the article template, but I would like to use both date and prefix on category block, so when I'm creating ie, a single block I can choose to use date and predefined prefix both at a time.. Can you do that?

Support: You are going to excuse me here, but I don't agree with you at this point, first of all because Phpcow is not a platform or a mission critical software like Oracle. And second, because we are paying for the software. I really don't imagine asking a simple support question like "Can I do x stuff with phpcow?", then I pay "15usd per incident" and they answer "No, it's not possible at this time". Great.

More simple: can you imagine paying Microsoft for all the patches and security fixes they release for XP or Vista every month?

I have been with my hosting company for 7 years, and I don't plan to move at this time. I have been using Phpcow for almost a year, and the most "serious" incident I have had was caused by the php soap thing. Phpcow released a fix and that was it.

And because Phpcow is not a "one size fits all", there are some minor issues that are not solved yet. The cause? maybe my server configuration, maybe a bug in phpcow.. how to be sure? who knows. So phpcow should take note on the configs used by their clients to improve the software and at the same time improve the support given to clients.

So, for me, paid-only support is not an option right now. Many clients will migrate from phpcow to other software options.

And finally, as the topic states, these are "features you would like to see" and everyone is invited to post the features they want to see. This is not an official phpcow forum, so maybe there is no need for a rude discussion

Regards

I agree with alot of your points Bobby. Firstly that there indeed is no need to be rude in any discussions on here.

Secondly, on the support issue. I think it would be too hard to differentiate bewteen when to charge and when not to. Like you said if it was a simple question do you reall have to pay for it? Personally, when I started using this script all of my questions were little "can I do this" or that. I really rarely have a need for what I would consider paid help...but maybe thats just me.

Of course, if they connected up with here to answer basic questions they could help cut done on those and then for technical issue use a paid help option (I had to try to promote the idea LOL)

On M$.

(1) How many times does anyone ask questions from M$?
(2) Isn't PHPCow giving you free security updates for the year you are subscribed to?

On Server Vs PHPCow issue: This is a never ending debate. No COmpany can provide any solution for server setups ranging from hostdepartment to Verio which are two extremes when it comes to server /hosting costs. We have been 8 years in this business and have seen through how all companies react when it comes to this issue (not just PHPCow).

On Editor Issue: There are many who do not like fckeditor/tinyMCE etc. There's really no "Better" editor so to say which can rally satisfy all users (and that's why you have so many).

On News Over Email: Well for using free service i have no answer. For paid service http://constantcontact.com is the answer (used by many).

On Date-Prefix-Title: Doesn't {block.date}:{block.prefix}:{block.title} work in custom blocks?

On Publishing Scheduling: RSS issue has already been discussed in one of threads. Other than that being a BUG things work fine. We had a client who used one of those crap script for simulating cron stuff. The great stuff about it was that the script was placed in public viewable directory (it wouldn't work otherwise) and after passage of time even bots started hitting the script. End result you can imagine. I know your answer would be use robots.txt but i would like to know how many users are really aware of robots.txt file to control things?

I never said cron is exclusive to dedicated servers. Yes News By Email _WOULD_ need dedicated server for sure unless you are prepared for endless and pointless support discussions with PHPCow when your host suspends your account due to violating their AUP.

On Paid Support: For a $100 script it becomes a loss making proposal to offer unlimited support honestly. You would find users who cannot place a simple link despite being told how to (as they expect someone to do it free for them). It's for this reason that i suggested that they start PAID support. Offer some free support points with script sale and then once those free support points are exhausted then one would need to buy more support points. Idea here is pretty simple (if this happens):

(1) One would seriously start spending more time on Docs and FAQ and experiment on their own before hitting the panic button. Refer 5th point above :-D.

(2) Almost every CMS has either a third party consultant PAID support or some sort of PAID support. There's a big site even for free cms scripts http://www.joomlancers.com/ where people get their job done by paying for work on joomla etc.

(1) How many times does anyone ask questions from M$?
Maybe never, because they have an extensive support knowledge base that covers from A to Z the possible issues with all the products. Just take a look at the "Support" link on the MS website.

The point here is that Phpcow lacks an extensive support KB, maybe with an improvement on that side, things like "can I do this with phpcow?" would be a piece of cake, even for newbies or someone as experienced as you are.

(2) Isn't PHPCow giving you free security updates for the year you are subscribed to?
Yes, security updates are given as they appear.. I never complained about that. I need to add that security patches are only for a year. If you want to continue having those fixes you must pay for another year of support.

God bless diversity *lol*

You can use whatever service you like, for free or for a fee.. Feedburner was just an example.

Yes it works.. I was talking about single blocks. For many beginners, custom blocks maybe hard to understand, so maybe including the option (date+prefix) in single blocks would be just easier to have things done.

First of all, I paid 300+ USD for my phpcow license, not 100 bucks

(1) that's what we need: more docs and FAQs from Phpcow. More tricks, more examples, more "How to's".. Not a dedicated support phone line for every single question.

(2)Documentation for Joomla is soooooooo extensive: docs, faqs, community, developers, free addons, etc. You can build your professional Joomla site without paying a cent... I don't know what percentage of joomla users pay for support, but I guess they pay because they need specific tasks or developments or as simply as they do not know a thing about creating a site or they have so much money to spend.

Just to notice: Joomla can't be compared to Phpcow because Joomla is GPL.

My final note:

I paid for my phpcow license, I like the software. I only replied to this post with the things I would like to see on next version, most of them are improvements. If you don't like my opinion it's ok, I respect your point of view.

And as this forum is called "Phpcowhelp" we are all here to help or ask for it. So, I hope everyone is here for the same reason.

Regards

To conclude on M$:

If their documentation says it's Host/ISP problem, that's never challenged. So i guess same benefit of doubt should be made available to script developers as well. One finds so many posts all over net despite their so called FAQ on OE/Outlook error messages :-)

With 300$ they should offer 300 free support points. With $100 they should offer 100 free
support points.

On Blocks: Many things possible in Custom Blocks can never be achieved in Standard Blocks more so for fine formatting control. That's the purpose of Custom Blocks I guess. Putting in too many DB Queries on Standard Blocks could again mean a higher resource usage which would open up a pandora's box.

Joomla is free but professional support is paid still. Honestly when it comes to building a pro site with a clear business plan in mind people pay. If it comes to building a site with just google adsense in mind they will never pay.

OpenCMS is FREE but their support is very steep.
Moodle is free but people pay if they want things done.
I can't recall name of another elearning software which is free but support is 40 Euro/Hr.
It all boils down to business plan based on which one builds a site.

Don't get me wrong. I am not really arguing for or against.

Interesting link that i found on WP/WP-MU professional Support:

http://automattic.com/services/support-network/

OMG! Even $2500, the cheapest for support on wordpress? Thats insane. I mean wordpress has got to be one of the simplest PHD(push here dummy) programs out there. What idiot would really feel that they need to pay $2500/yr for a free script? They can't possibly be making money on that gig....no way or I am way undercharging my clients to maintain their wordpress sites LOL

Kaos perhaps you are really undercharging :-)
WP really becomes a bit involved to support with so many security vulnerabilities released every now and then. Upgrades i guess are not as straightforward as PHPCow.

I guess their pricing is based on assumption that it would be a ~5-6 hours of support Per month on an average. Free script really doesn't mean support should be cheap.

http://www.alkacon.com/en/products/suppo...pport.html
The professional support charges for another free script. Euro 1500/10 incident
These are generally the range of prices for professional support. Scalix and Zimbra charges $300/incident.

Here's a link for custom standard drupal theme being priced at US $1000.00
http://www.avenuewebmedia.com/custom-drupal-themes
So custom skin for any CMS isn't basically cheap (as compared to script). By custom i presume the same design isn't cloned on other site by same company.

I guess, its hard to think of charging for a script which, once you get used to it is cake to me to deal with. I am really reconsidering some of my prices...my clients will thank you phpcowfreaks LOL

Wow, I sadly admit, I only heard of drupal like a month ago and looking at it...wow, phpcow really is such an amzing script compared to their, atleast in my eyes. It just proves what we all feel, phpcow really has an amazing script, it may be frustrating to learn (as is every script) but the features are amazing IMHO!