Prestashop system has been hamstrung

[David H]

Killing the Prestashop brand.

I created my first Prestashop site in 2007 I believe. It had a thriving engaged community and an eager devoted set of developers. I installed 1.7.2.4 (latest version) after some research but obviously not enough to discover the Frankenstein nature of the new code.  Much of the core modules that cover the most rudimentary functions are now premium and cost upwards of $50. Most of the modules available are for version 1.6 as 1.7 seems to be abandoned by the user base. 30 Bees (https://thirtybees.com/blog/what-is-thirty-bees/) comes to mind. 

I posted a simple question about the dysfunctional combinations images function about a week ago and not one single reply. Most Ecommerce businesses start out small and will gladly upgrade to paid modules when they grow and time becomes scarce. I fully understand that Prestashop needs to make money but the "freemium" model they have embrace will surely sink the company in the long run. 

How does Prestashop hope to attract new customers, or retain loyal users with an attitude like this. I have spent the last month developing my site and it's due to go live next week. I will then migrate it all to Woocommerce as it is too much of a liability to have absolutely no support for extremely simple problems. 

The Community edition has been abandoned by the community!  Sorry to see you go.

[El Patron]

Hi, with only two posts I am not sure you are best judge of community involvement.  Here is problem with the 'open source' thinkers, that everything should be free.  But how is that self sustaining?  How do developers pay the  bills send the kids to college.  How does PS create enough income to re-invest in core?  

 

 

[Pierre_d]

I guess that many people believe that "open-source" equals "free". But if you don't pay for it, somebody else has to. Prestashop developers don't work for free. Besides, if you are setting up an e-commerce website, then you want to make money with it ?

[David H]

I've been involved since 2007 shortly after the inception of Prestashop. I'm not begrudging developers making a living, I'm just comparing the community how it was and how it is now. Also, one has to look at the core functions of other e-commerce platforms in contrast to PS. We all exist in an elastic market, especially when it comes to e-commerce platforms. The core functionalities of Prestashop have been hobbled in comparison to how it was. Also, there is no denying the Frankenstein nature of  v7.1 coding which it is reported was hurried to market after a very long time of stagnation. 

I sat until 1:00am trying to create a product with combinations, my last before going live, and continued to get a " ... Can't save your settings" error message. This is a known issue which has not been addressed by PS, and I may say, inexcusable as it is a core functions. And yes I did clear the cache etc. etc. to no avail. 

My other post is a simple question about product thumbnails posted maybe 10 days ago and no response. Surely, even that is below the low bar of support you believe the Community version deserves. 

And, true to form you use your time to berate and not to assist on a simple issue. 

You've confirmed the Prestashop culture and ASAP I'll be migrating all my sites to Woocommerce where online assistance to simple issues is available with a simple Google search. 

I'm fully prepared to pay for customisation, but not for broken or hobbled core features. 

I empathize - trying to secure a larger piece of a shrinking market is hell.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2018 by David H (see edit history)

[El Patron]

in all honesty though it will be lost in the ether is PS does not have a very good test/roll out strategy.  We are doing client 1.7 upgrades and some of them have been pure  hell and because there are six of  us total we can overcome.  But can solo manager?  Yes and  no, we have seen some pretty good ps 1.7 shops but they were built with in-house expertise and no a solo operation.  (blood sweat and tears)

open source has stupid mentality, let developers create change and then community tests it.

but  also too be honest there is only the 'very' rare remark that 1.7 is ready (in this forum) so that is where you should consider getting advices before committing to a particular release.

we just did a client shop where 1.7 had so much broken basic stuff it was incredible,  but apparently open source is push out he door let community test....we have seen this with 1.4/1.5/1.6/1.6 releases, usurally we will declare to clients when it's safe to get in the pool.  Not there yet. lol  Of all the things I  could have written for my new blog, I had to rant about ps releases. https://www.prestaheroes.com/en-us/heroic-blog/prestashop-insights/rant-prestashop-major-release-management

oh, my fav thing to tell people when they threaten to move to other ecms,  don't let the door hit you in butt on the way out.   but consider other ecms's as well like shopify.  

happy selling

 

[Matteo]

Dear, i completly agree with David H!

 

Migrating from many magento 1.9.X shop to a new ps 1.7.2, the first day i'm quite happy... simple installation, less complex ... after some day we discover the completly FAULT of the 1.7.2 project.

 

The basic function that every ecommerce platform has was removed from code in a way that is ridicoulus !

Better for PS developer team to ask for a pay version that destroy an ecommerce distribution to margin on external module selling!

 

We have found a LOT of code bug, most of them stupid like a noob (ME) with no coding skill can resolve!

Piece of code leave from older version that now has no variable assigned ... a lot of not indexed variables ... a completly not suitable installation for NGINX (in 2018 ???!!! )!!

 

We try to open abou 6 post on 4 different forum, 0 ansert (NO ONE)! I personally use PS from 3 month and i've ansuwer to 5 different post of new user, i think is crazy that an ecommerce community has NO one people capable of answer quetion for the LAST release bug of a software :P!!!

 

The complete need of extra module make store un-mantenable, with dependency from many and many external developer to get basic function that every ecommerce has!

 

There is no sitemap support default in prestashop hahahhahha this is crazy!

The multilanguage caching system not work out of th ebox in many areas of the default template

The default theme has a lot of missing / wrong named variables like category or manufacturer (the theme js try to access from the $product object that in PS 1.7.2 has no longer a query that get this information)!

 

Crazy!

 

We come from a magento with 5 years and 30'000 product that is a rock solid wonderfoul core compared to this buggest release of PS!

 

I'm very disappointed, I'm incredulous that this can happen in a "stable" release of an ecommerce developed for 10 years!

There is completly no developer sense in this release! 

 

is a beta software release of parts removed from a previous version!