What Are v3 Owner's Feelings on the v4 Upgrade

[swopedesign]

I am a v3 owner (Linux), and I've not been particularly happy with SiteBuilder, not as happy as I think I should have been. I have several complaints about the product, and now discover that v4 has been released. I am not convinced that v4 will solve the problems I've had with the previous release, so I'm not convinced that the upgrade is worth the asking price. SWSoft's support schema and documentation are less than adequate IMHO. A simple browse thru these forums attests to this.

I honestly feel that SWSoft sells this product without adequate support (unless you pay for support), adequate knowledgebase, or adequate documentation, that they're more interested in selling their software than supporting their customers and their customers's businesses. Which is why we buy the software in the first place, right? For our business?

I am curious how other v3 owners feel about the v4 upgrade? I wonder if enough v3 owners unite and choose not to upgrade, if SWSoft will notice?

 

[flupke]

I will upgrade, here a few reasons:

- customized template (customer request)
-support of google map (customer request)

 

[Hultenius]

Can't say I'm impressed, seems more like 3.5 to me.
I was expecting more.

However, 3.5 is still better then nothing.

 

[flupke]

see attachment

 

[flupke]

oups, just noticed that PDF can't be attached,sorry, I had a summary of the v4 new features

 

[swopedesign]

It's not the features...it's the support

You can post a list of features. v3 also had customizable templates. You just had to download them, use the guide to create them, and then upload them. So they were also customizable. Unless I'm missing something...templates better be very, very, very easy to update in v4 to make it worth paying for.

Google Maps is a nice feature, but not worth $200 v4 fees. When even some of the simplest features, such as uploading files (in my case, very small .mov files) fails, and the solution can't be found after 2 weeks, and it *should* work...well, new features don't mean much to those customers. My customers.

And the knowledgebase is not current, so the issues that are solved in the forums aren't posted in the knowledgebase, well, how does one go about resolving their issues with AVAILABLE solutions that just haven't been posted? The info is at SWSoft somewhere. SWSoft must have more answers than they post to the knowledgebase.

Since the current users aren't well supported, without paying extra $, and the knowledgebase isn't populated with current information...hmmm, do we see a reason to pay for the support? The answers aren't posted for the benefit of all SiteBuilder's users when a solution has been found, so users must pay for it if they need help. It is encouraging to pay the additional fees for support, isn't it?

The problem is I WANT TO WANT TO UPGRADE, but I'm not convinced or compelled to pay out any extra $ for the lack of consideration and courtesy given to purchasers of previous releases. What will SWSoft do with my $200? Provide better support? Update their knowledgebase? Provide prompt support thru these forums? Or none of the above? Do you see my point? Can I expect better support and reliability with the upgrade? I'm just not convinced, and I want to be. I want to like SiteBuilder like I like other software.

 

[Dmitry Frantsev]

If we are talking about support here it is better to contact with sales team and check SWsoft's website - support section http://www.swsoft.com/en/support. SWsoft offers a variety of support services to meet your unique needs. A standard support incident has a response time of 12 hours.

This forum was created for people who can share useful information related to SWsoft products and, for example, for those people who does not want to buy a support package and response time is not guaranteed here, BUT all forum branches periodically checked by developers or guys from support to answer for customers questions.
As I know, knowledge base is always added with new articles. If you could suggest something to add or anything else, we appreciate that. Just write into "Sitebuilder 4.0 for Linux Suggestions and Feedback" section. This section was created specially for these purposes.

As for the license upgrade, if you have active SUS on the license it should be upgraded to next version without any additional fee.
Thank you for the feedback which you provided and let me know if you have any additional questions/thoughts.

 

[swopedesign]

Two weeks and still no solution?

It's been two weeks since I posted about the upload problem on one of my SiteBuilder sites, i.e. not being able to upload .mov files larger than a couple dozen K.

I don't find any similar answer either in these forums or in the knowledgebase.

What I do find are a couple of SWSoft open-ended responses without follow-ups of any kind. I'm willing to try whatever's necessary to solve this problem, but I ain't gettin' any other help here. I've checked everything I was asked to check.

Of course, this just underscores my posts about the question to upgrade or not to upgrade and SWSoft's focus on providing software but not adequately supporting its users without charging additional $. Forums are a great feature. But if the answers aren't in the forums, and SWSoft doesn't respond to problems posted in the forums...well, then, the forum hasn't helped resolve that problem for any of its users.

 

[swopedesign]

Yes, I'm a penny pincher

There are at least four aspects to my issue with the upgrade.

1) I'm a penny pincher. I've not earned enough business with SiteBuilder to recoup costs or profit from the original v3 license. It is hard to sell when I myself have had issues with SiteBuilder on my own site trying to market SiteBuilder to new customers. If I don't believe in the product, I cannot sell it. I'm just not that used-car-salesman type.

2) I am a firm believer in customer service. Today's company's are wrought with poor customer service policies and procedures. These companies think more of their own pockets than their customers needs. A product is created to serve a need or desire in customers. If that product fails to serve the need appropriately, in this case SiteBuilder, and the company fails to respond to the inadequacies of the product to make it fulfill those needs, what happens to the customer? They don't return to make future purchases. I feel like I should get what I've paid for, in a timely manner. In this case, software with primary features that work flawlessly.

3) Doesn't this concern SWSoft? I know there are millions of potential customers for their products, but does that necessarily mean that they release a product, a few minor updates, start work on a new release, and fail to support existing users in sufficient manner in this forum and the knowledgebase?

4) I understand business is about making profit. So how to generate more short-term profit in the software industry? Do what SWSoft is doing. Release slightly upgraded products every year or two. Encourage users to pay for additional support and software updates by offering it at time of original purchase, but also encourage it by providing less-than-industry-standard support in the forum or knowledgebase. That pushes users in a real bind to cough up $ for support.

I rant so much about this subject here because SWSoft has a potentially great product with SiteBuilder, but their support falls so short that users like myself are sure not to upgrade without any compelling reasons to do so. That is contradictory to what SWSoft *should* want to grow their business and make more profit.

Obviously, SiteBuilder has something that I care enough about to go on and on about. Sooner or later, I and others like me who haven't posted on this topic will grow tired of the BS and move on. We won't even care enough to post anymore, or upgrade SiteBuilder. If SiteBuilder isn't reliable enough to help us sell it and grow our business, we'll find something that will. Even if the competition isn't as pretty, if it works as well and offers adequate support, the competition will look pretty enticing.

PS: I write regular software reviews. I'd requested to review SiteBuilder 4, but never got any response from SWSoft. That's probably a good thing for SWSoft. I tell it straight to the reader, what's good, what's bad, what falls short. The subject of my posts here might likely have made their way into my review, unless v4 performed flawlessly.

 

[Dmitry Frantsev]

Re: Two weeks and still no solution?

Concerning uploading files feature. I have checked that on v.4 and was able to upload file 3,8M with .mov extensions without any problems. It can be also checked on demo server:

http://sitebuilder4.demo.swsoft.com/Wizard

On my test server with v.3 I was able to upload this file after increasing following values in php.ini configuration file:

memory_limit = 64M
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M

Please make sure that you are using appropriate php.ini file. As Sitebuilder uses it's own PHP by default file /opt/php51/etc/php5/fastcgi/php.ini should be edited. You can check it also using following way:
Create phpinfo.php file in /usr/local/sitebuilder/htdocs folder which will contain following code:

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

After that run it through browser as following: http://sitebuilder.hostname/phpinfo.php
and check "Configuration File (php.ini) Path"

Originally posted by swopedesign
It's been two weeks since I posted about the upload problem on one of my SiteBuilder sites, i.e. not being able to upload .mov files larger than a couple dozen K.

I don't find any similar answer either in these forums or in the knowledgebase.

What I do find are a couple of SWSoft open-ended responses without follow-ups of any kind. I'm willing to try whatever's necessary to solve this problem, but I ain't gettin' any other help here. I've checked everything I was asked to check.

Of course, this just underscores my posts about the question to upgrade or not to upgrade and SWSoft's focus on providing software but not adequately supporting its users without charging additional $. Forums are a great feature. But if the answers aren't in the forums, and SWSoft doesn't respond to problems posted in the forums...well, then, the forum hasn't helped resolve that problem for any of its users.

 

[swopedesign]

Need to read more carefully...

I am still with v3, NOT v4.

The php.ini file is the first thing that I looked at with this upload problem. All 3 parameters are set to 128MB. You can see this at http://www.nitrouswebsites.com/phpinfo.php

(I will be deleting this file very shortly for security purposes).

The path that you provided to SiteBuilder's php.ini is not valid (that I could determine) for v3. I accessed SiteBuilder's folder on my server in the users directory, but I did not find any folder like anything you've listed so I could locate this php.ini file.

 

[swopedesign]

Found the php.ini file...still same error... Invalid File

After a lot of looking, I found the php.ini file for SiteBuilder. Its limits were 32 MB, well large enough to upload a 9 MB file. I increased these 3 limits to 128M, the same as my standard php.ini.

The resulting error, Invalid File, is the same. No change. I am attempting to upload to the same site, same page, as before.

So what's next?

 

[swopedesign]

Settings I changed were...

memory_limit = 128M
post_max_size = 128M
upload_max_filesize = 128M

 

[Dmitry Frantsev]

Re: Found the php.ini file...still same error... Invalid File

It is hard to say what can be the issue, as on our test servers on v.3 and on v.4 it works fine. As you are using v.3 you need to upload file with type: 'File', not 'Media' one.
Is it possible to check this situation directly on your server? If so, please create a support ticket and give me the ticket number and I will check this situation personally for you. Ticket can be created here: https://www.swsoft.com/en/support/sitebuilder/form/
Let me know when ticket will be created and you will get confirmation with ticket number.

Originally posted by swopedesign
After a lot of looking, I found the php.ini file for SiteBuilder. Its limits were 32 MB, well large enough to upload a 9 MB file. I increased these 3 limits to 128M, the same as my standard php.ini.

The resulting error, Invalid File, is the same. No change. I am attempting to upload to the same site, same page, as before.

So what's next?

 

[swopedesign]

Confirm File Type = File (not Media)

Yes, I am attempting to upload as File, not Media. So that part's good, too.

I will open the support ticket.

One more question...Can SB3 and SB4 exist simultaneously on the same server?

 

[swopedesign]

Support Ticket Submitted as requested

I've submitted the support ticket as you've requested.

 

[Dmitry Frantsev]

Re: Confirm File Type = File (not Media)

Originally posted by swopedesign

One more question...Can SB3 and SB4 exist simultaneously on the same server?

If you try to install v.4 it will detect that v.3 installed and will upgrade it. Theoretically, I think it is possible to have 2 different Sitebuilder versions on the same server. In this case these versions must be installed into different directories, must use different databases and different configuration files, which should be configured properly. I have not experience in such customization so I can not say exactly if it will work properly or not, but basically it should work.

Originally posted by swopedesign
I've submitted the support ticket as you've requested.

Could you give me the ticket number? I searched the ticket by your e-mail address but found only several old tickets.

 

[swopedesign]

Perhaps the ticket wasn't actually submitted

I didn't receive any confirmation email. I did get a page that indicated that I did not have a support plan for my SiteBuilder license. So does that mean that the ticket wasn't submitted? I didn't read anything that said it wasn't submitted, but then I didn't read too closely.

 

[Dmitry Frantsev]

I have created ticket for you with following subject:

#344198: [Sitebuilder for Linux v.3] upload file issue.
Please check your e-mail. You should already get a notification.

 

[swopedesign]

No notification received...

I did not receive any email notification of this ticket. I checked all my junk mail messages, too, to be sure my junk mail filter didn't mark it as junk. Nada.

If this is coming from out of the U.S., many messages are blocked at the server level due to high incidence of spam from foreign countries (India, Indonesia, etc).

Do you think this is what has happened?