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Sergei_Sh
Starting Member
Australia
7 Posts |
 Posted - February 11 2006 : 18:02:42
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Hi guys!
I'm currently working on the customization of VP-ASP 6.07 Deluxe for the needs of my client. Being a web-developer myself, I can see the amount of effort your developers put into the product. And my impression is that it is a well-designed customizable application.
BUT
What I find really upsetting is the documentation for VP-ASP 6.00. It looks like it is written by programmers who make wrong assumptions about the VP-ASP knowledge level of the readers - they think that the readers know as much about VP-ASP as they do, but, as a matter of fact, we (readers) know very little about it, especially in the beginning, when we learn your application structure. What goes for your developers without saying needs to be explained in detail for the others.
For example, in the topic "Setting Up Currency Conversion" (http://www.vpasp.com/helpnotes/shopexd.asp?id=759) you explain how to set up default currency: "The currency that is "1" is the default currency and controls the master rate. So if your site is to display in Canadian dollars then you would set Canadian to 1." In that sentence you 'forget' to mention what value needs to be set up as "1". That kept me guessing and trying setting up different values to "1" for 15 minutes before I figured out what it is the "conversionvalue" which needs to be set up to "1".
Another very important thing that is not mentioned in the help notes (or at least I haven't come across yet) is that sometimes you need to restart your local computer before configuration changes can take the effect. It took me a few days before I figured that out. That needs to be mentioned on every page where you explain how to change configuration settings.
Such things are really upsetting because they waste my time, they also waste the time of your technical support people. By the way, I think that the tech support people are the best candidates to write the user documentation - the better they write the manual, the less questions they will answer afterwards.
And the last thing, why can't you produce the documentation in the form of a Windows HTML Help (.CHM) file? It is easy to use and supports indexing and search function so we don't have to go online every time we want to search for an answer.
Cheers. |
Edited by - Sergei_Sh on February 11 2006 18:08:47 |
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support
Administrator
4679 Posts |
Posted - February 11 2006 : 19:12:11
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Thanks for your feedback. We are in the process of creating a PDF version of our help notes to enable people to be able to download the guide to work locally.
I have updated the currency help note to read that the conversionvalue is what needs to be set to 1.
With regards to the local pc needing to be rebooted we have not come across this before.
Have you changed the xshopid setting in the shopconfig.asp file?
Thank you
Cam
VP-ASP Support |
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Sergei_Sh
Starting Member
Australia
7 Posts |
Posted - February 11 2006 : 20:10:27
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Hi Cam!
>With regards to the local pc needing to be rebooted we have not come >across this before.
>
Hm-m-m, well... I have just been going to give you an example of how I rename "shopadmin.asp" page and change the "xadminpage" value correspondingly and then I need to restart the machine for the settings to take the effect, but while I was double checking that I found out that clicking on the "Reload Shop Configuration" link in the Admin -> Set up section does the trick. But, anyway, my "xautoloadconfiguration" value is set to "Yes" and that is supposed to update the configuration automatically.
You need to mention this procedure ("Reload Shop Configuration") in the topics which deal with changing configuration settings like http://www.vpasp.com/helpnotes/shopexd.asp?id=811. This is so important that needs to be outlined in bold red at the top of each help note which deals with configuration settings.
>Have you changed the xshopid setting in the shopconfig.asp file?
>
No, as far as I remember i haven't done that - its current value is:
const xshopid="mysqlshop600"
Cheers |
Edited by - Sergei_Sh on February 11 2006 20:22:37 |
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support
Administrator
4679 Posts |
Posted - February 11 2006 : 21:51:38
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You should not need to even click Reload Shop Configuration in 99% of cases.
Try changing the xshopid setting to a unique name for every single instance of VPASP you have running.
Do you edit the config values in the actual table themselves or are you doing it through the SetUp?
You should never change a config settings properties or directly in the table record. Only use the SetUp section where it displays the field and the description.
If you do updateit directly i nthe table record then you will need to reload the config using the link.
Thank you
Cam
VP-ASP Support |
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Sergei_Sh
Starting Member
Australia
7 Posts |
Posted - February 11 2006 : 22:30:41
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> You should not need to even click Reload Shop Configuration in 99% >of cases.
>
>Try changing the xshopid setting to a unique name for every single >instance of VPASP you have running.
>
I've got a single instance of VPASP running on my machine. Do I still have to rename the xshopid setting?
>Do you edit the config values in the actual table themselves or are >you doing it through the SetUp?
>
>You should never change a config settings properties or directly in >the table record. Only use the SetUp section where it displays the >field and the description.
>
>If you do update it directly in the table record then you will need >to reload the config using the link.
>
>
Yes, sometimes I did edit some values directly in the configuration table as it was easier for me to find them there rather than looking for them in the admin area. I assumed that the configuration settings table is queried every time an asp page is requested on the web server.
That's just another example of what seems to be going without saying for you, but needs to be explained in the manual.
Thank you, Cam. |
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Sharon
VP-CART Super User
357 Posts |
Posted - February 24 2006 : 08:09:08
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quote:
Thanks for your feedback. We are in the process of creating a PDF version of our help notes to enable people to be able to download the guide to work locally.
When the PDF is finalised would it be possible to mention it in the Admin home page newsfeed? I don't want to miss it and I know that many others were interested in having a PDF when v6 was first launched. |
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vpaspza7
Forum Admin
Australia
41 Posts |
Posted - February 25 2006 : 18:30:04
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We will indeed.
Thank you
Cam
VP-ASP Support |
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