Prestadumped

[sean_mac]

I decided today, having messed around with prestashop's different versions over the past two months, that I would dump it completely and even recommend my own clients stay the hell away from it.

 

At first glance, prestashop looks impressive but then as you go into configurations, customizations, modules installs, themes etc you get to see how backwards and badly developed it really is, and most definately not worth it's salt

 

The slightest error can send prestashop into a spiral of errors, some more often than not unrecoverable requiring a full clean reinstall and a loss of hours upon hours of work.

 

Modules, if developed by anyone with a brain, would be made backward compatible, meaning newer versions of PS should be able to take older modules that were paid for, themes should be directly editable even for the newbie, but instead PS is an unstable mess, featuring overpriced modules that in alot of cases cause more problems than they're worth.

 

For no reason, in design, pages links to an "access Denied" warning that cannot be fixed because even the developers don't seem to know why and it's frustrating to work with.

 

With all it's errors, instability, crashes, lack of true customisability, prestashop is nothing more than a big pile of irritating to work with shite.

 

Too many things go wrong with it too often and it's not one for the collection.

 

Whether you're a newbie, or a seasoned web designer, I would personally recommend that you place Prestashop where it belongs, in the recycle bin.

Edited August 17, 2017 by sean_mac (see edit history)

[selectshop.at]

You are talking about which Prestashop version ?

Prestashop 1.6. is nearly bugfree and usable at any webspace. The most of problems users are having with the use of Prestashop are caused bad configured servers, not suitable for the use of Prestashop AND users not knowing what they are doing when they make changes to code.

 

I have several customers very satisfied using PS 1.4./1.5 and also 1.6 and some of them using Prestashop since years...

 

Before I came to Prestashop I used several other solutions like OSC, XTC, Gambio, Magento and opencart. As ex user of these competitors software I can say that Prestashop is the better solution and also cleaner in coding and database architecture than the others used before.

[sean_mac]

Don't get me wrong, Prestashop is a lovely CMS but I find over the last few months it's gone from crashing out entirely to giving access denied to pages section in design for no reason at all, template changes disappearing and module installations causing major unrecoverable problems.

 

I currently have a theme.css file I spend ages modifying and it now is not working so I have found myself having to literally start all over again....AGAIN and again.

 

Prestashop 1.7.1.2 is the version I preferred because it's less shit than 1.7.2.1. But the amount of badly developed and over priced modules out there is unreal imho.

 

Literally every change to the site including module installs has to be done on a test server first before it can be trusted, it should be trustworthy from the time you pay for it.

 

For what it is, it should be better developed in my opinion.

[selectshop.at]

The problem you are facing are a bad configured server. Besides Prestashop 1.7. is still in development and a transitional version. Perhaps you missed these topics:

https://www.prestashop.com/forums/topic/603366-release-of-prestashop-171/

https://www.prestashop.com/forums/topic/566115-prestashop-17-is-now-available/

 

The intention of Prestashop 1.7. was to replace the old and light to learn smarty with symfony (therefore changes on css do not work for you). Unfortunately the framework change was not possible in the time they stipulated and now we have a hybrid version using parts of symfony and parts of smarty which are completely two different worlds and aren't compatible together. This is the reason why all PS freaks are warning to use PS 1.7. in development. This version is still beta and nice for to play or learn, but not really a candidate for Users/Sellers.

Wait for to upgrade the release of 1.8. which should be 100% symfony framework, or accept that PS 1.7. is for to trash or learn on how to migrate one framework to another on the example Prestashop.

 

Official doc for developers: http://developers.prestashop.com/themes/gettingstarted/index.html

[Scully]

First of all, I understand the frustration from sean_mac. It's a pity to throw work into the bin. On the other side, we would have gone a completely different approach.

 

1st
Figuring out whether or not any PS 1.7. version would be an option at all must be first step. There are several very well frequented threads discussing problems and issues with 1.7. We evaluated 1.7. two times and aborted it after studying some of these threads and after performing a test installation.

 

2nd

Most newbies start prestashop with customizing in terms of design and appereance. Instead we always recommend to only focus on functionality at the beginning. Okay, you can upload a custom logo if it makes you feel comfortable. But setting up categories, some products, maybe attributes is way more important. Having a plan how to set up the order flow, order stats, payment processing. Which data you need in terms of customers and addresses. Only after you feel familiar with the most important basics, start with designing and taking care of all little details.

 

And overall I don't find the wording in the first post to be appropriate to the situation. Nobody is forced to use the software, it's for free and every other shop systems need customization and have their downsides as well.

 

Just my 2 cents.

Edited August 18, 2017 by Scully (see edit history)