Update on thirty bees

[lesley]

I wrestled with making a blog post about this, but I thought it would be the wrong place. I just wanted to give everyone a quick update about what we are up to and why things seem slow.

As most of us know PrestaShop is scheduled to release the last version of 1.6 in October, http://build.prestashop.com/howtos/misc/2018-release-schedule/ This is going to leave a lot of shops without bug fixes and updates. Currently there are around 6 times more shops on 1.5 and 1.6 than on 1.7.

With that being said what we are doing is gearing up to start marketing to those users to grow the thirty bees user base. I have been rewriting some articles that will get published as pages on our site to better inform people of what thirty bees is and what we are all about. These are pages we will link people to to try to help them make the decision on converting to thirty bees.

We have also gotten with several module makers and developers that maintain email lists and partnered with them on advertising thirty bees to their mailing list readers.

@Traumflug has been rewriting the way that translations are built so we can built with little effort for the updater. While also working on the updater as well. We hope to have it out soon, we just did not realize all of the little pieces that we needed in place for our infrastructure to be able to push updates seamlessly and in a stable way.

Things are moving along and growing well, its just a lot of behind the scenes work we have been gearing up for to try to make a major push to grow thirty bees and start attracting investors to the project, so we can grow it even more.

[DaoKakao]

Nice post, short and clear.

[datakick]

Thanks for the info. Updates like this can really boost morale

[doclucas]

Sounds good. This also emphasizes why keeping TB PS 1.6 backward compatible is so important. Good luck, @lesley :)

[doclucas]

I think it would be very wise to: 1) Add a full features comparison table for PS 1.6 vs TB 1.x to the "why us" page. 2) Partner with the major & good quality module developers (such as presto-changeo, Knowband etc.) to add a section for thirtybees on their websites and test their modules for TB compatibility (and adapt them if needed). It's win-win for both them (more revenue) and the platform's success. 3) Add a changelog of all the recent versions, since 1.0.3 till 1.0.6 and moving forward

[dosbiner]

@doclucas said in Update on thirty bees:

I think it would be very wise to: 1) Add a full features comparison table for PS 1.6 vs TB 1.x to the "why us" page. 2) Partner with the major & good quality module developers (such as presto-changeo, Knowband etc.) to add a section for thirtybees on their websites and test their modules for TB compatibility (and adapt them if needed). It's win-win for both them (more revenue) and the platform's success. 3) Add a changelog of all the recent versions, since 1.0.3 till 1.0.6 and moving forward

Great ideas, 4) future road map is a must I think

[devnix]

As @doclucas said, this is where the Prestashop compatibility and a smooth and easy migration system between shops are essential components for TB to live.

[doclucas]

@dosbiner said in Update on thirty bees:

@doclucas said in Update on thirty bees:

I think it would be very wise to: 1) Add a full features comparison table for PS 1.6 vs TB 1.x to the "why us" page. 2) Partner with the major & good quality module developers (such as presto-changeo, Knowband etc.) to add a section for thirtybees on their websites and test their modules for TB compatibility (and adapt them if needed). It's win-win for both them (more revenue) and the platform's success. 3) Add a changelog of all the recent versions, since 1.0.3 till 1.0.6 and moving forward

Great ideas, 4) future road map is a must I think

A road map is already displayed, or at least a placeholder, but it's not set because it probably hasn't been planned yet.

I forgot to add to point 2 - ask those PS 1.6 module developers to report any reproducible compatibility issue with TB so that your dev/s can resolve them. The wider compatibility TB has with PS 1.6 add-ons, the higher chance it has to gain a much wider user base.

[lesley]

@doclucas we have partnered with presto-chango, we have a module section on their site.

I have tried to reach out to others, but they are reluctant. What would really help is if the community reached out to them. When I ask them they say they will consider it. But it 10, 20, 30 people ask them, they will likely see it as something to do.

[doclucas]

You gotta improve your selling skills, bro. j/k :) Did they explain why they were reluctant? It's a complete win-win for them. What have they got to lose by mentioning one more cart name for modules they already created?

[musicmaster]

Good news that there are plans.

However, I found it disappointing that nothing is mentioned about migration. The migration module hasn't been updated since april 2017 - despite some obvious need for improvement. And with each new TB version the migration becomes more convoluted as the module brings you only to 1.03 and after that you still need to go to 1.06.

Sure, I know about the plans for a new updater. But my impression is that perfect has become the enemy of good enough.

I have been saying this for the past one and half year: Thirty Bees is shooting itself in the foot by neglecting the migration process from Prestashop. When you know the routine it can be done. But someone new to TB is more likely than not to get stuck somewhere in the migration process.

[lesley]

Our updater should be able to handle migrations, all it would take is to build the initial package and port it to the updater.

[toplakd]

Thats why I'm waiting for the updater to come, as I'm stil on PS. What about the left column issue on PS, I've tried all things mentioned in posts on my 1.0.5 but can not enable left column on all pages with TB default theme as I do have left side navigation which I'm using for desktop visitors.

I do not want to move my ps theme to TB, as I want to modify the TB theme to my current specs.

[lesley]

I will get that commit put in the next version. Its a PITA commit tbh because it deals with so many different language files.

[toplakd]

Nice.

Original theme should have all options available for using/not using, so one can build own theme from scratch from totaly compatible base.

And maybe adding Fancybox V3 by default as only small changes are needed in product.js and product.tpl to work properly when clicking on bigimage/thumbnail so that it opens only once (as without edit it opens 2 fancybox instances ).

[lesley]

It has nothing to do with the theme, it has everything to do with the database information that is loaded into the shop.

As for fancybox, it will not be updated in the existing community theme.

[toplakd]

Ok. Once left columns are working I will make the changes and post modified files so one can use Fancybox V3 with self modification.

[doclucas]

Did presto-changeo explain why only 10 out of 69 PS 1.6 add-ons they have are available for TB? https://www.presto-changeo.com/28-thirty-bees-modules

[lesley]

Because a lot of the other modules are not popular and do not sell well. If you look at their 1.7 modules they only have 24, but modules like the mailchimp module is not needed because it is free for thirty bees, the 1.6 to 1.7 migrator is not needed, th oscommerce to prestashop is not needed, the zen cart to prestashop is not needed, magento to prestashop is not needed, ect. So its a combination of some are not popular and some just don't fit into our platform.

[doclucas]

why the cart-to-prestashop (or cart-to-thirtybees in our case) modules not neeeded?

[lesley]

Because for a similar price people can use an automated solution with a company we are partnered with, which provides us revenue. https://thirtybees.com/migrate/

[doclucas]

cart2cart are insanely expensive and their product offering is normally a one time deal, so if you want to go through the process while developing, and then re-do it while you deploy, it's gonna be crazy. True story - I contacted them to migrate osCommerce shop with 100,000 products to another platform. They quoted a 2-3 business days work with a $900 fee. I bought a module that did the same exact job for a fraction of that price and I re-used it several times while I did the migration. Now, I totally get you want and need that revenue but don't you think that by offering cheaper migration tools to the community - you are going to enlarge the user base, which is something this project needs the most at the moment?

[lesley]

I don't control whether they make their modules compatible or not, they do. The reason they did not do it is because they would need to rewrite parts of the module to handle our database structure changes, its not as simple as sticking a thirty bees logo on it. They apparently do not sell enough of them to be worthwhile for them to port it to thirty bees.

With that being said, I always use cart2cart, just buy the insurance where you can migrate more than once over several months. I prefer their ajaxified approach over the modules which generally time out and you have to keep restarting.

[doclucas]

Strange, I'll check this out. This kind of modules are a very important thing for this project.

I never tried cart2cart due to their pricing, but I did try some migration modules and never had issues, despite migrating some huge databases. I am sure that most customers would rather pay $120 for a re-usable module (even if they need to re-start the process to continue) than $900 for a limited service that does essentially the same job (and if you are a programmer, you can even improve the purchased module to do even more).

[lesley]

In the end it comes up to what I said before. Demand. If community members start reaching out to module developers and asking them for support they will see the demand, then they will make things compatible.