Is Virtuemart Dead?

[chanetsa]

I have been using Virtuemart for a few years now and am seriously considering moving on to something else.  All you have to do is look at the number of questions people have posted with no answers for weeks and even months!  This is not a good sign.

I have just installed the latest version 1.1.2 on Joomla 1.5.7 and it does not work!  I won't get started on the problems, there are too many.  If there were answers to questions in the forum, I would persist - but look for yourself...

Is this the end of Virtuemart?

[TonyG]

I have been using Virtuemart for a few years now and am seriously considering moving on to something else.  All you have to do is look at the number of questions people have posted with no answers for weeks and even months!  This is not a good sign.
I have just installed the latest version 1.1.2 on Joomla 1.5.7 and it does not work!  I won't get started on the problems, there are too many.  If there were answers to questions in the forum, I would persist - but look for yourself...
Is this the end of Virtuemart?

Hi chanetsa

This is a typical frustration post. You can't find solutions to your problems so Virtuemart must be dying. The real problem as I see it, is that not enough people are willing to help. You said you have been using VM for a few years, how many times have you actually visit this forum purely to try and help others? Everyone that have used VM will gained some knowledge and therefore will be able to answer some of the questions that goes unanswered but the reality is most users only visit the forum to look for solutions, with the exception of very few people who visit the forum just to help. Everyone that use this great software is part of the problem and also the solutions. We all need to try and do our bit.

TonyG

[thierry0169]

This is really a typical frustration post !!!!
I am a new user of virtuemart and new in this forum.  I have posted a question today and received an answer 30 minutes after...


Maybe you must change your way of searching answers....

[carnevalle]

I share your concern. I think the lack of answers is frustrating. Both regarding  documentation and community-support. I picked up Joomla and Virtuemart per recommendation but the hours spent hacking and pulling out hairs would have been better spend coding my own solution.

Of course 'the real problem' of an open source project is the lack of help in the community, but how is that diferent than saying, that Virtuemart as a project is suffering and maybe lagging towards the end?

[overeasy]

All Open Source projects I've ever used suffer from a similar liability.  Because they are free, the developers either don't feel a need to fully support them or they simply can't afford to.  In the end, it doesn't matter which is true, 'cause users just want this stuff to work!  You can't spend your entire day tracking down patches and snippets of code, you (if you're serious about your work) have to get onto other clients and projects.  And speaking of that;  any open source stuff that doesn't work or is buggy just ends up making us look silly.  I'd rather tell my clients to opt for a more expensive, but fully vetted and supported system than stay with something that needs this much hand-holding and maintenance.  "Free" isn't really free if I have to charge for all the hours it takes to make things work....

[PromoNet]

I can understand the fustration you have also.  Years ago the forums tended to be buzzing with help and advice on all things hacks tweeks and mods.  But generallly since the new realease came out its been difficult to get answers to what generally should be simple queries.

But like a previous poster stated the community should be more prepared to come onto the forums and dispense a bit of advice themselves.

I've actually managed to develop a whole site into an enquiry basket which i was going to publish all my files to the forums but i was never able to finish the site as I could not find answers to simple questions.

I've had to strip out vmart several times and reinstall because I could not find answers...  however I'm going to sip my coffee now and go twawl and see if I can offer any advice before I goto bed, from my limited experience that is

[jodarf]

Yes its hard to find answers - only because there are sooooo many questions put in the forums asking the same thing.  I have been using it for a while and apart from being a little slack in my posts, have not really needed to ask questions as the help and previous solutions usually solve my problems.

Come on people - think of a solution rather than pointing out the problems.

Just yesterday I gave this post ago to try to prompt people to SHARE MORE
http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=47576.0

Why not add your mods and configuration on this post to SHARE with others who are having problems or finding it hard to implement a solution.

BTW - Good luck finding something as powerful and flexible as VM!!!!

[jmds]

I have been using and building sites with Virtuemart for a number of years now and I think a quick look through the link below suggests that the product is extremely usable.

http://virtuemart.net/index.php?option=com_bookmarks

I am sure some people do find getting support through the forums can take time but remember, people who give support through the forums do so at their expense not yours. I personally do not feel that commercial software support is always any better but at least you have the right to complain about it.

[chanetsa]

It is interesting that this post has received so much attention - more than the poor people who have not had their posts answered for weeks!

I must confess that my first post was submitted in frustration   It was almost like a cry for help.  This used to be a very active forum with strong support and it seems to have deteriorated significantly.  Look how many requests for questions have not been answered for more than one month.  It was not like that a year ago.

There are certainly a number of people who have done a great job to keep this product growing, none more so that Soeren.  However, I feel it is a sad reality that if community members cannot get answers to questions or be directed to previously answered questions that relate to their problems, then the product will increasingly become irrelevant.

Where I have been able to help in the past I have done so and have also donated financially.  However, if members cannot benefit any more then they will be forced to move on...  That's a reality of life.

Off my soapbox now and off to make a last attempt at getting answers to my questions...

[RtX]

I find open source software support in general to be better than support I have to pay for.  I recently asked the supplier of a well known accountancy program to help me overcome a problem installing their software that meant that Vista's UAC kept asking me for permission to run the program every time I started it.  Their helpful response was a templated answer:  this is probably to do with a new feature in Windows Vista called user account control.  You can read about this new feature on www.microsof..... blah blah blah.  I pay an annual fee for that drivel.  I get much more from the open source community.  I also feel motivated to give back. 

New to VM but keen to learn,
Richard

[nefar]

I have been using Virtuemart for a few years now and am seriously considering moving on to something else.  All you have to do is look at the number of questions people have posted with no answers for weeks and even months!  This is not a good sign.
I have just installed the latest version 1.1.2 on Joomla 1.5.7 and it does not work!  I won't get started on the problems, there are too many.  If there were answers to questions in the forum, I would persist - but look for yourself...
Is this the end of Virtuemart?

Hi chanetsa
This is a typical frustration post. You can't find solutions to your problems so Virtuemart must be dying. The real problem as I see it, is that not enough people are willing to help. You said you have been using VM for a few years, how many times have you actually visit this forum purely to try and help others? Everyone that have used VM will gained some knowledge and therefore will be able to answer some of the questions that goes unanswered but the reality is most users only visit the forum to look for solutions, with the exception of very few people who visit the forum just to help. Everyone that use this great software is part of the problem and also the solutions. We all need to try and do our bit.
TonyG

Hmm, and yours is a typical fanboi response.

[jaylenong]

I think those who have contributed much for VM and this forum should never respond to this kind of question. What I see some bad people try to discourage you guys who have contributed much by putting this kind of thread. At the end they hope that VM will die, that's all what they want.

Please, please either delete or simply ignore this kind of thread. There are always many bad people out there who are never be constructive but very destructive. They will be laughing and very happy if all the good people become discouraged and surrender at the end.

[carnevalle]

Do you think that you are contributing in a constructive way with this kind of message? I doubt that anyone browses to this forum because they hope to see VM die.

It is a real problem that people - like myself - can't find answers to my question. I am new to Joomla and Virtuemart and therefore I can't contribute much, but If I wasn't shit-deep in invested development and an overdue deadline I would definitely seek out another solution.

I am not trying to be a bad person hoping that Virtuemart will die. I am just making the point, that if people - like myself - can't get the answers we need the project will die. Hopefully you see the difference.

All my respect to the people investing in making the project work. I wish I could help, but when this project ships I doubt that I will return to make another implementation.

[arana]

i am currently using VM , and i was asking my self this question, why? because i want to start a new site and donw want to start anywork with a product that looks so dead, it does look dead, and i dont say that just because of the many unanswered questions, but i dont see any posts of the developers or site admins saying what is being done (if any), or if they are working towars VM 2.0, or trying to fix any bugs or any news at all, VM is currently working ok for me, but there are things i would like solved/changed and i dont  have the knowledge to do for myself, i come here, ask and notice that is not only me with the same problem, i used to recommend VM to many people beacause i find it extreamely easy to use/install, but once you need to do something more suitable for your site , you end up with no solutions, unless you hire a developer, and even then sometimes it is just better to go for a commercial solution (not always), i for example am stuck with an easier way to assgining items to categories, i have more than 5000 items and more than 10000 categories (some items belong to many categories, some of those categories have the same name , example chevrolet -> blazer->s10, chevrolet->camaro) well my problem is that when assigning an item to a category the category dropdown becomes a useless listbox with many items inside it,and doesnt have a way to find the correct one (there are so many), a TREE SCTRUCTURE to select only what you need with checkboxes, would be perfect here, i know it should be VERY EASY to do, but i dont know how to do it,  this is a huge problem with so far no solution that i know about and i have searched a lot.
so when you are frustrated like this , that when you started using it it worked one way, and after entering so many items and categories , it worrks in a different way then you come for a solution and find none, of course you become frustrated.
trying to find an alternative, i am still trying. but dont get angry at people that ask a question like this, it IS A VERY VALID question.

other many times asked questions:
how to make search look in the category names also? if i have a spare part that fits a 2000 chevrolet s-10 and also a 1999 chevrolet camaro and it is listed inside both categories it should appear when i search for camaro 1999 compressor, but it just searches the item description, so it never finds it.

another one:
how to make a category page list all the products it has inside all the categories inside it (recursively) still pending

these and many other are for many people "basic functionality"
when you do not see this stuff solved, but you see instead very old posts with no answers, and no news from the developers, and dont even have a clue if it will be included in a future version or if it will be any future version, then you have nothing left but wonder if this is dead and you should find somthing else.

[MikeUK]

It is interesting that I am replying to this. Perhaps I should be spending this time helping someone?

I personally don't understand the idea that the VM team are in any way to blame for lack of 'support'. This is a community forum. We make it work or not work. If any of us decide to develop a site for ourselves or other people using open-source software, it is our responsibility to make sure we can make it work. It is presented as it is, and it is a piece of software most of us could only dream about developing. But that doesn't mean we should expect it to do what we need it to as is.

If you look closely at a large number of unanswered questions, you see many are redundant. Either they are too basic and the poster should read the manual first, or they are asking too much and trying to change functionality of VM without knowing where to start. Or sometimes it is a fair idea, but the poster hasn't given anything to start with. I've seen a number of questions like "I need VM to display my products backwards, can VM do this? If so, can someone help me?".   Of course, the answer is 'Yes, it can, if you know how to!' But what constructive help can be offered here, other than 'please tell us what you've tried and any other details'?

I think that I, and everyone else in this thread who thinks support is not good enough, should go out their and support more (and being a newbie is no excuse)! Probably the VM team and not posting all the time because they are busy working on VM (and possibly trying to make a living).

So, I don't think I will post in this thread again because I probably could have helped 3 people in the time I spent writing this!