First I would like to ask for a mod section be added to the forums so we can put these things all in one place.
 
Second I have a lot of other mods still being tested that are very complex and require editing many files. It is while adding these mods to do things such as calculate price based on default options, or reworking how default options are done, that I have come to the conclusion ViArt is not that artsie. Having to change the same calculation routine in 12 different files that could have probably been shared in a single include function file goes to show how staticly desgined ViArt really is and is not mod friendly at all.
 
It's not ViaArt's fault that it is like it is, after researching some hundreds of carts I thought it was the best sollution for the money. The problem is that every single shopping cart I have looked at from OSComemrce to Miva are designed by programmers who are not really retail and/or e-retail merchants, therefore they only assume they know what is best to put into the cart and what the merchant will need or how he will need it to work, but doesn't really have the fuller and deeper understanding of all the angles on the business. ViArt does come closest to my needs over more of the others but it is not perfect, none of them are.
 
So I will be offering up some of these mods, including things like Drop Shopping and better Marketing tools and cart functionality for ViArt. However I think it could have been designed a bit more fluidly with shared classes (actually ViArt isn't object orientated anyway, but even still more shared includes and libraries would have been more efficient.)

Also I would like to note that these forums are extremely weak in comparison to main stream forums of today. Adding a real forum in place of this arcaic one would probably serve everyone best.

Absolutely agree for the the mod section avalaibility inside the forum, also ..the creation of a forum.. with advanced tools think are a good service to viart user.

Yup
 
It really is time to sort out the forum Eugene. It is now too big to be in these general categories. It will be easier for users to help other users once it is reorganised too.
 
Some that I have seen divide their forums into modules (eg payment, shipping, customisation etc).
 
Frequently asked question solutions can be transformed into stickies which will assist with your manual updates.
 
The wishlists I have seen that are most effective are divided into modules again, as are subheadings in module discussion...eg under Shipping there could be subheadings of UPS and Royal Mail.
 
I know this seems like an uphill struggle (and a pretty unproductive one at that) but it will eventually save all you techies some time as users will be answering each others questuions and not bothering you so much with support tickets, and it will be easier to do it now rather than when it is humungous.
 
Rant over
 
Cheers
kim

Even though ViaArt states it's for PHP programmers, I've come to the conclusion they really don't want people mucking around with the code or making any kind of mods for it. Sad becasue the more successful carts embrace this, such as x-cart and oScommerce. I think they would rather not worry about the headache of answering customer questions regarding modding or maybe they think it would interfere with their extra money making on customer service requests. I dunno, sad really. I'm going back to my own free open source, fully mod and plugin supported shopping cart, that I was workign on before I started screwing around with ViArt.

Almost back to oscmax myself charles

Hi Charles,
 
Thats a pity.
 
I had read your posts with interest and was hoping to learn and help with mods or at least help with testing them.
 
I wish you well in your endeavors and if it is not to personal, I would like to know what made you pull the plug.
 
Regards,

Have to say agree with splitting the forum into section and replacing with better one here and in Viart.
 
Besides that I have found viart totally best value for money out there in terms of # functions and features and ease of setting up quickly to look professional. Not had any problems.
 
But there are aome simple tweaks that can be added by the team I think and I will be posting these soon in suggestions.
 
Don't forget software is quite new and cheap compare to other featured filled carts

Everything is compromise isn't it?
I currently use Squirrel Cart and am in the process of moving everything to Viart.
 
SquirrelCart is much easier to muck around with - and I am definitely not a programmer. But I am moving because it is an American program and
1 They don't have the time to make PayPal pro work in the UK. I was encouraged by Viart being a British Company.
2 Viart gives me a number of good features that enhance the customer experience that I don't currently get. Not the least is the facility to add costs as well as prices to options - and the 'Rate Me' feature I expect to be very useful.
 
What would I like to see?
 
Yes - the forum is so very lightweight - I will link to the Simple Machines forum that I currently use until the Viart forum becomes serious.
 
Opportunity for developers to offer mods (for sale) - Viart has the facility to offer this. I expect that this would make Viart dynamic and exciting to work with.

If the support group at ViArt isn't willing to split out Mods into a separate category, I would be willing to host a ViArt Mods forum space on my site. I would setup a separate subdomain with a separate installation of ViArt to be used just for Mods. Would there be any interest from this group to have it hosted outside of the ViArt site?

Yes . . . most open source sites spawn such sites, so I would be interested to learn more.
However, only after Viart confirm that they are not interested in hosting this - or something similar - themselves.

Wouldn't you say the lack of response from ViArt pretty much speaks for itself?

On another note, sorry about starting to distribute mods and talking about what I had planned to add and then abandoning the project. You see the problem is that for the more complex mods there is just too many pages to be altered. The same code for generating some things is not reused, instead it is found in many different files written in different ways and when the next updates come out I fear all that is just going to get broken. Like I said, it is not a very mod friendly program.

I have to agree, the lack of a decent user support group almost put me off purchasing and I am reasonably computer literate with html and php.
 
If someone is considering buying and then sees this forum as the only support network and arn't as technical this will put them off with buying.
 
If Viart want to keep the forum here as an example for what can appear on a selling site but give blessing for a more advanced forum elsewhere they will only benefit in the long run with more sales and users.
 
Ultimately these users will end up supporting each other and cut viart's support workload dramatically.

Hello,
 
Thanks everybody for all your suggestions and your discussions. You are always welcome to express your ideas and offers which will help us to make our shopping cart user friendly and improve our services. We will think over how to reorganize the forum to better suits the needs of our clients.
 
In addition, we would like to note that we recommend our clients to contact our support team at http://www.viart.com/support and send us the requests about the problems or questions to receive guaranteed answers and support. Usually, we do our best to send the answers within 24 hours to all our clients.
 
Forum has been created mostly for open discussions among our clients if they want to share some ideas with each other. However, we can inform you that our support team has been increased and we assure you that we are going to may pay more attention to forum threads as well.
 
With kind regards,
ViArt Support Team
 

Welcome news Anjula. However the concensus here seems to be that if you paid primary attention to the forum, answers would be available generally to users by searching, reducing the demands on specific support to your email address and making your time more productive.
 
A good example of how this works is the forum on Opensolution.org who, like you have limited time, but comprehensive answers to questions can be found by Googling.
 
It still doesnt stop people asking the same questions though

I have to concur with everyone about the value of a forum that provides answers to the many questions that keep cropping up.
Whilst I have many reasons to move from SquirrelCart to Viart they do have an excellent forum that I would commend to Viart - http://www.ldev.com/forums/.
I am so keen to see an excellent product further improved that I must admit that I would love to see more forum-based activity and free up the time of those who make Viart work so well, and work even better ... and sooner?!!
I love to get the answers to my support questions - it feels like talking to friends. But I would be very happy to see more solutions readily available on the forum and use the support service when the question is very specifically my problem or where I really need personal help - sometimes where I do something stupid .

I'm just about to purchase Viart Ent. and was surprised to see a lack of "addons / hacks / mods" etc. Coming from a long VBulletin background (where moding is absolutely huge) it's kind of disheartening to see the lack of customization.
 
Being new to the viart forums, I don't have a sense of the demand for a 3rd party "Viart Mods" website.. can anyone guestimate how many people would be interested?

adding to that.. .
 
where are all the Templates & Skins?
 
The default included cart skins are archaic, and a very poor reflection of the quality of ViArts product. (In my professional opinion, including some modern skins would boost ViArts sales 10 fold)
 
A Templates & Skins section is a must!

Hi Colin!
 
I have been stuck on the same issues, my final decision is to go with ViArt because I absolutely can't find a cart with this feature set in this price range anywhere...but on the other hand coming from using Joomla and CubeCart I sorely miss the thriving community aspect.
 
I have been seriously considering setting up a site that would be an independent ViArt forum/wiki/download repository for info on hacks mods and skins where we could share these things and build on the current manuals.
 
I actually have a domain and a hosting account but I have been holding off to see if there is any interest in this sort of thing.
 
If you'd like to throw some ideas around or possibly collaborate on this please feel free to drop me an email!
 
amanda1863 [a] gmail.com

Hi Amanada,
  
Couldn't have said it better!
 
Yeah, if I'm going to build my next business around this Viart software I'm going to need the best community / support I can find.
 
Count me in on whatever's required to get it up.
 
Emailing now..

Hi Colin
Your ideas is perfect. a dedicated site for mods/skins etc would be perfect. i have done 200 skins for asp portals erlier and have done superhuge amount of graphics. So this idea i will vote for ...
 
If someone is interessted i have webservers and we could register a new domain and i will set up a new site.
 
Maybe "Viart" can donate a licence of Viart enterprice for this ...
 
Let me know all what you guys think ...
 
Regards Chris

Though at this stage I would not pay for extra features (want to have the existing ones working perfectly first). I would very much appreciate a site with mods and general community hangout joint so to say. Would also be willing to contribute whichever modding I am doing with my cart.

I think such a forum would be very valuable.
 
I am used to the cubecart forum and that is huge pile of usefull information and help at hand.
 
But are there enough people to make such a forum work? If the activity on this forum is anything to go by, I would think not.
 
Daan

I think that Viart should give Vanilla Forum a try.
 
 
http://www.getvanilla.com/
 
Vanilla is an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, fully extensible discussion forum for the web.
 
It works in the following browsers.
Firefox
Safari
Camino
Opera
Internet Explorer 6

AmandaK: Sent you an email but didn't hear back? Check your spam folder?
 
I've installed vanilla forum before, it's very modern and slick.. unfortunately after doing some testing I found that most people didn't find it intuitive.. it's almost too ahead of it's time.
 
It's also lacking a lot of functionality and scalability that vbulletin provides. it's more sutiable for an extended blog than a resource site like this will be