H-SPhere 2.4 Patch 3 Almost Live!!

[tkraffty]

OK, so here's my official (albeit halfass) testing summary... It's late on a Friday, and I'm ready for a drink

(1.) POSSIBLE BUG: On some of the plan sign-up pages, there's text like "TYPE: transfer_new_misc_domain" in the upper-left corner

(2.) PRAISE: Glad to see the last plan sign-up page doesn't try to close itself any more...

(3.) COMPLAINT: The new icons looks nice to me, and I'm smart enough to hold my mouse over them waiting for the ALT tag text to appear... Most "normal" users won't do this. "Usability 101" says average users will NOT click something to see what's on the other side (they're not adventurous like us geeks). If they don't understand the link, they won't click it... But they'll damn sure call us resellers to ask where to find option "x" or whatever...

(4.) DESKTOP ISSUES: I wouldn't have thought it possible, but the new HSPHERE uses even MORE Javascript for the menu options, error-checking, etc... As a web designer/developer, I can say there are two significant issues with this: (a.) First, more and more people these days are using script-blocking applications which are usually included with their anti-virus software. Also, 95% of these people would have no idea how to "turn off script-blocking" even if you told them... They won't even have a clue what might be wrong when their CP pages don't work, and this will likely generate numerous support calls... It's easy enough to handle, if you happen to get someone who says more than "nothing in my CP works", but it's still a support call. (b.) We need to view/test this CP using all the most common browsers/versions and/or specifically provide a message telling users what browsers are supported or not - again, to reduce the number of calls which will increase our support overhead.

...On the user-CP side...

(5.) SUGGESTION: Creating/Editing an e-mail is a little strange now... I like that you can change one kind of resource to another without having the delete it, but they've used CHECKBOXES that allow you to choose what kind of resource it is (mailbox, forward, alias, autoresponder)... I'm thinking they should use RADIO-BUTTONS instead, because users will get error-messages or not know what kind of resource was created, if they accidently check more than one box... (need to "dummy-proof" this page)

(6.) BUG: Related to above, I created an "email forward" and then changed it to an "email alias" but left the "forward" box checked. Now when I view this resource, both boxes are checked... So which is it? I know the answer, but my dumb customers won't... Unless they take the time to decipher the icons (which they won't), we'll get more calls from confused users not knowing whey their "forward" (which is actually an alias to a mailbox they never check) isn't working...

(7.) STRANGE: Created new mySQL DB, and then a new user with "dba" privedges, but just as I clicked the Finish button, I noticed the new user's permissions drop-down menu were set to the default "read" option... Maybe these menus should show the user's actual permissions, 'cause I have no idea if I just updated the user from "dba" to "read" (looks like not).

...On the reseller-CP side...

(8.) BUG or just INCOMPLETE (?): Most of the links from the new top-menu bar are pointing to pages which have the OLD page version/skin look-and-feel... Same with some of the detail options (like clicking User Permissions on a mySQL DB user)...

Update for above item: Either the installation is incomplete, or I got caught here by the same problem our international friends are having with languages changing from page to page... Another user changing Skins?

(9.) STRANGE: OK, so now the reseller's Ticket Center (old look again, BTW), has basically two duplicate lists of incoming tickets, except with different sorting. One list says "Newest Unassigned Tickets" (sorted by time submitted, I'm guessing), while just under that, there's a list of all the same tickets titled "Highest Priority Not Answered Tickets" which appears to be sorted by priority. Either way, seems weird to display two lists instead of one "sort by" menu/reload option at the top...

(10.) And the #10 thing I've found in just the past half-hour of testing? OK, ..well... nothing... (I've lost my focus for today

But I'm very worried PSOFT *still* doesn't know how to thouroughly test their product (too many past examples of errors to mention here)... So, aside from the bugs/notes above, what's the back-up plan if something goes wrong?

[ScottM]

I like to let my customers have the option of building there own pages and I do this through the site Studio program. Where did this feature go? Please email me if I have overlooked it or if it has moved.

Please do not take this away.

[patrickfaustino]

When the upgrade is done, will we have to change configuration information? I'd hate to have to re-enter merchant credit card info etc. etc..

Please make sure we don't have to do this otherwise, things could get very difficult for some.

Maybe, I didn't look but is there a list of new features that we could check out? More particularly, what is the list of things that this patch fixes? My use of the current version has been pretty stable and would rather stay with that unless there is some good to be gained.

The interface looks cleaner but am willing to forego aesthetics for familiarity and stability.

[Risewire]

Where is site studio?

[cdwise]

Originally Posted by admin

Nope still no sharepoint. FP is still 2002 as well.

Unless WSS is installed FP 2002 is the latest FPSE. There are no new server extensions for FP 2003.

Cheryl D. Wise
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
http://mvp.wiserways.com

[cdwise]

I was getting an error when I tried to create a MYSQL plan after choosing not to debug it appeared to work normally. I didn't try to complete the wizard though. (Attached a copy of the error message.)

Some of the little information i tags: parked domain, mail relay, anti-spam, everything related to asp secured, asp.net, aws stats, ODBC DNS, billing type have not information available.

Where to you set-up ColdFusion plans?

Is there some way of making the control panel smaller, resizable? I'll be using a tablet pc most of the time. If I have it in slate mode my browser max width is 768px. Even in laptop mode I don't browse full screen.

Cheryl D. Wise
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
http://mvp.wiserways.com

[howsermd]

I spend some time just poking around, changing some things here and there and it looks good to me and seems to work well.

[smo]

Originally Posted by tkraffty

regarding the changing language (Dutch/German) some people have seen... I'm guessing that's because other people are changing your CP configuration at the same time you're testing things... just my $0.02

Could be... didnt think of that since I wasnt even through setting up the account.

the only thing I dont understand is why it goes back to the icky brown interface when you log into a customers account....I really like the other layout much better. Things are much better organized and easier to find... but maybe thats just me. Seems like the change should affect all screens and not leave some looking like the older version.

[todoempresas]

I was browsing the CP and it looks great. There is something wrong with the translation. I changed the language to spanish and there were things not translated at all, for example, Misc.
The most important thing I have been waiting for and I could not find is the possibility of having multiple FTP users in win servers. I would like to have the possibility of allowing users to diferent folders in each win account.

Thanks,

[admin]

Originally Posted by ScottM

I like to let my customers have the option of building there own pages and I do this through the site Studio program. Where did this feature go? Please email me if I have overlooked it or if it has moved.

Please do not take this away.

SS did not change from 2.3 to 2.4 we just did not install it on the test system. it will be there on the live one..

[fgomes]

I prefer the old interface because the user interface is better. With the new interface, the navigation is a bit inefficient. If there is an option to choose the navigation style, it would be great. Or maybe, should combine both the style, presenting the submenu in the old style.

I tried to change the url and it failed. After reading all the postings I realize why it had failed. I was under the impression that this demo was setup like the Visual Studio online trial. Or like the one on the signup page on MatrixReseller. I haven't checked the various features yet.

[rive]

This Version es better than actual version, I am a junior member but I like it!, it looks great!, take care about Spanish Translation

Adios Amigos!

[jake]

Originally Posted by admin

Ok please take a little time to login and look around and report any bugs here. It would be a BIG help.

This is our test system for H-Sphere 2.4.

H-Sphere test System

Login:reseller
Pass:demo1

This is a test reseller account. You can setup accounts look around and get use to it. Once a week or so we will clean out the account and reset it up.


This is running 2.4 Patch 2. We are giving 2.4 about a week to two weeks before going live on our main system as long as no MAJOR bugs are reports to us or psoft. This will also give us time to make sure all of our custom work can be moved over smoothly.

Ok, I only tested a few features. First, the responsiveness of the horizontal menu bar accross the top is slow, perhaps this is due to the fact its a test site. If I place a cursor over the menu item there is a SIGNIFICANT delay (especially when compared to similar menus else where in your website) before the child menu is displayed, but the design itself is GOOD. I really like the overall design of your website. Also, there seems to be inconsistency in selecting the icon sets. I can check this again later.

Problem noted: Select "Look and Feel" -> "Corporate Logo" -> Where "Reseller Web NEW NAME" add a second line with CR e.g. "Second Line", this causes a second graphic, "H-Sphere control panel logo" to be generated. If the second line is removed the problem is corrected.

Having only been using Vortech less than a month my experience with your service is only one word "GREAT"


Ok

[dweimann]

Hmm, I have mixed feelings about 2.4. One one hand it seems to be an improvement, yet there are still many rough edges. The UI is ineffecient, the general text and layout is sloppy, and some stuff is just silly. I think Psoft should hire a bunch of peeps from this board and get a really great product. What I like about hsphere is the potential. It has the potential to be a really great CP. It still seems like psoft is still not sure how to deliver that.

Yeah, i've also been thinking that there is waaay to much javascript and no good way to turn it off. Field validation is one thing, but its starting to get scary. In general, we need a way to turn things off and rip things out to do things the way we want. One of the interesting principles of UI design is that it is often best to let the user determine the way he wants to work, rather than you arbitrarily picking one. The CP definetly suffers from this.

I'm sort of reminded of my time I spent working for Netscape back in the hayday of the company....during 96/97. While I admired what Netscape did and believed they fought the good fight, it was no secret to many of the people working there that the browser was getting old and kludgy. By version 3 they were recycling code and when v4 came out they just built ontop of the old bugs in 2/3. Psoft really seems to be doing much the same. The hsphere product has really great potential. Sort of like Netscape in 96. When are they going to wake up and realize that potential?

[powvex]

One thing that is still missing, is how to remove/install/unistall scripts.
Why we cant?