Hi all
I find the publication of info on Viart updates/patches not very clearly documented and really think it could be much better organised within the viart.com website.
By the very nature of Viart; the fact it can be so customized by users (in terms of editing the actual source code) I think many customers must be cautious of instantly always updating the entire viart system whenever a new revision / sub revision is released, because for many, simply overwriting all the files with a new revision is going to cause lots of problems and loss of modifications. Therefore the task becomes very time consuming and not so simple.
For this reason, I find the collation of all these many various zip patch files that are released very important. However, how these are displayed on the viart website isnt so clear.
1) I find the listing format of these articles on
http://www.viart.com/announcements.html simply very far from ideal. This page gets updated very often and older patches get hidden very easily! I want to see a definitive clear list of what patches were released for whatever exact version of viart I have installed somewhere. This is especially relevant to a client I may have that has a year old install. I dont want to have to go fishing through all the old pages on this area of the site, hoping i have the definitive list of patches but not being sure.
2) All these patches (unless they are vital security patches it seems??) are not announced via emails / rss. So an admin / developer / shop owner is only going to find these by stumbling upon them by chance and whenever they remember to look!
3) I think viart could actually help themselves in terms of support! They seem somewhat overwhelmed with support often and it can surely only help if the viart system itself (under the admin somewhere clear) and other parts of the viart support pages made clear reference (with direct links) to pages on the viart.com website that show all available post release patches!!! If there was a clear system of pages with friendly urls that related to each main revision of the program users could im sure often solve more issues before raising tickets! eg:
http://www.viart.com/updates_viart_v3.4.html
http://www.viart.com/updates_viart_v3.3.html
http://www.viart.com/updates_viart_v2.1.html
Also such links could be posted on relevant areas of the support pages at this website and as reminders when tickets are raised. It really could assist if setup well in being the front line response to many support issues and possible tickets.
I already have old installations of viart at versions different clients that I know arent willing to pay me constantly to update their viart system every time a new release is made. Its unlikely they will need the new features and its not worth causing possible new problems just to have these new un-required features. HOWEVER; Updates such as these patch files are another matter. Fixes that are tweaks or security resolutions are much quicker and less problematic to install and will more likely be relevant / important to the client. I have already had requests from clients of my own asking about how this works and if i can inform them whenever "important" security releases are made.
Organising this area of the viart website better would really assist not only viart customers but also I believe Viart support. I hope this can be improved upon...?
