What has changed in v4 ?

[kikloo]

Hi,

What really has changed in v4, I just upgraded and I don't see any change at all except the flat theme. Even the package list is not shown according to package category, so what has changed ?? Order system is same, client account looks same, just steps have increased to access something. Earlier upon clicking the billing link in admin, it used to show summary, now you first click billing then summary then it shows the same (An extra click) why ? Same goes for the dashboard.

I kept on asking that in Services, username / password of the service either should be shown in the Information tab (when clicking Manage) or there should be another way. Every client calls me and asks me where is the username and password. I have to tell them all that they have to single left click on the service in order to reveal the username / password. This has not changed. Why ??

I just see a very sad update after a very very long time. You could have done better!!!! Just css changes ? Why should i care if you chose minphp or cake or something ?? Whats the benefit in that for me ?? Really disappointed.

[Michael]

Please see: 

b1: https://dev.blesta.com/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=10000&version=10603

b2: https://dev.blesta.com/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=10000&version=11001

b3: https://dev.blesta.com/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=10000&version=11002

b4: https://dev.blesta.com/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=10000&version=11003

b5: https://dev.blesta.com/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=10000&version=11004

b6: https://dev.blesta.com/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=10000&version=11005

I sadly can't get the release notes on Jira for the full v4 release :S but that should tell you.

The MinPHP upgrade makes future updates much better as it can support the new domain manager functions etc. It also is ready for PHP7.0 which a lot of people need as 5.4, 5.5 and soon 5.6 are going to be outdated and EOL. 

There's a long waited mass mailer included in 4.0.0 and it also has a lot more features I can't think off the top of my head. The dropdown menus is what people asked for as they found the submenu was hard to navigate with.

[Blesta Addons]

4 hours ago, kikloo said:

just steps have increased to access something. Earlier upon clicking the billing link in admin, it used to show summary, now you first click billing then summary then it shows the same (An extra click) why ? Same goes for the dashboard.

same feeling here about this aspect, i have already talked about the menus in v4, for me is really -1. i think they though of mobile device, but as admin all the hard work i do it in my desktop pc.

[Michael]

1 hour ago, Blesta Addons said:

same feeling here about this aspect, i have already talked about the menus in v4, for me is really -1. i think they though of mobile device, but as admin all the hard work i do it in my desktop pc.

From what I know mate a lot of people were complaining haha I know one guy here who complained about them, they are used to a competitor.

[Paul]

The blog post touches on some of the key changes, but there are a lot of minor changes.

6 hours ago, kikloo said:

that in Services, username / password of the service either should be shown in the Information tab (when clicking Manage) or there should be another way. Every client calls me and asks me where is the username and password. I have to tell them all that they have to single left click on the service in order to reveal the username / password. This has not changed. Why ??

What module are you using? Usernames & passwords are module specific, so the module could create a management tab to display that differently. Have you made a feature request for it? With 4.0 out, we are planning to implement a lot of things people have been waiting for with smaller more frequent releases.

[kikloo]

The changes listed look more bug fixes etc. I barely see any improvement in the accessibility. As said packages still don't show according to the package groups, they just drop in a big list which is not friendly at all. I have 3 package groups: domains, hosting, addons and when I view packages, I should see the package group then its packages, so it should be like:

Domain
x
x
x

Hosting
z
z
z

Addons
y
y
y

But its coming like:

z
x
y
z
x
y
z
y
x

So things like these needs improvements.

Thanks.

[Paul]

16 minutes ago, kikloo said:

The changes listed look more bug fixes etc. I barely see any improvement in the accessibility. As said packages still don't show according to the package groups, they just drop in a big list which is not friendly at all. I have 3 package groups: domains, hosting, addons and when I view packages, I should see the package group then its packages, so it should be like:

Domain
x
x
x

Hosting
z
z
z

Addons
y
y
y

But its coming like:

z
x
y
z
x
y
z
y
x

So things like these needs improvements.

Thanks.

If you go to Packages > Package Groups, you can click to expand each group to list its Packages. Is this organized more how you expect?

We are planning to make some changes to the way Packages are edited and created, as well as the way they are listed.. however, I don't believe there is any such task for what you're suggesting. If you wouldn't mind mocking something up, that may be helpful in understanding how you think it should be displayed.

[kikloo]

Yes, thats what I am looking for but still it should come as a list and I should'nt have to click the package group to list the packages, The default package list page should show as I have suggested. Also there is no option to sort package groups or packages (within the groups), that also needs adding.

[Paul]

17 minutes ago, kikloo said:

Also there is no option to sort package groups or packages (within the groups), that also needs adding.

You can sort packages within groups by dragging and dropping them with the group expanded. This will affect how they are displayed here, and on order forms. Package group sorting would be really nice.

[activa]

10 hours ago, Paul said:

If you go to Packages > Package Groups, you can click to expand each group to list its Packages. Is this organized more how you expect?

We are planning to make some changes to the way Packages are edited and created, as well as the way they are listed.. however, I don't believe there is any such task for what you're suggesting. If you wouldn't mind mocking something up, that may be helpful in understanding how you think it should be displayed.

I Love the way how the Quote plugin show the listing page, left side a list of status and right content the quotes list, make a look at it, fantastic and we love to see something like it in packages, clients, transactions, invoices ... ect

[kikloo]

Hi,

Nothing has changed re domain modules, there is no way to specify different registrations and renewal prices. No way to specify sale price. Very complex and difficult to use system, basically what I see is that blesta is not a proper web host billing system. The modules / plugins just provide basic stuff. Sad!!!!

[evolvewh]

2 hours ago, kikloo said:

Hi,

Nothing has changed re domain modules, there is no way to specify different registrations and renewal prices. No way to specify sale price. Very complex and difficult to use system, basically what I see is that blesta is not a proper web host billing system. The modules / plugins just provide basic stuff. Sad!!!!

Domain changes are under way and will be rolled out over several releases. You can follow that discussion here: 

 

[activa]

3 hours ago, kikloo said:

Hi,

Nothing has changed re domain modules, there is no way to specify different registrations and renewal prices. No way to specify sale price. Very complex and difficult to use system, basically what I see is that blesta is not a proper web host billing system. The modules / plugins just provide basic stuff. Sad!!!!

I can agree with you in term of blesta at the moment is so far from hosting industry, and this was mentioned several times in this forum.

But we can say BLESTA is a good replacement of other billing system in term of security and available code source and pricing, they have the chance to make more success if they can implement the spirit sense of hosting industry specially in order form. And we believe in blesta team capacity to achieve this task .

[Blesta Addons]

8 hours ago, activa said:

I can agree with you in term of blesta at the moment is so far from hosting industry, and this was mentioned several times in this forum.

But we can say BLESTA is a good replacement of other billing system in term of security and available code source and pricing, they have the chance to make more success if they can implement the spirit sense of hosting industry specially in order form. And we believe in blesta team capacity to achieve this task .

The Perfect Answer .

[kikloo]

I don't know, it's far from perfection. Hope they add the much needed features asap. They took almost a year to just rollout a flat theme. I had very high hopes with v4 but nothing seems to have materialized. 

Maybe Blesta feels secure becuase it's not popular enough to be hacked by hackers or it's not worth their time right now. 

Anyways  I am using it and I don't want it to get hacked. Let devs hear that they should speed things up with development of Blesta. 

[Michael]

6 hours ago, kikloo said:

I don't know, it's far from perfection. Hope they add the much needed features asap. They took almost a year to just rollout a flat theme. I had very high hopes with v4 but nothing seems to have materialized. 

Maybe Blesta feels secure becuase it's not popular enough to be hacked by hackers or it's not worth their time right now. 

Anyways  I am using it and I don't want it to get hacked. Let devs hear that they should speed things up with development of Blesta. 

Well three security experts went over the code.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=8898652&postcount=14

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=8885045&postcount=183

And localhost.re when he was around the guy who leaked the exploits in a competitor emailed Paul and said it was secure and safe. I can't find the image of the email though to add so yes it's secure enough. Unless they were lying :).

[Blesta Addons]

11 hours ago, kikloo said:

I don't know, it's far from perfection.

Show me one perfection Soft 

[kikloo]

Perfect meaning that right now Blesta is not an ideal software by point of usage for hosts that's why whmcs is number 1. You cannot compare only security with everything else like ease of use, functions available for admin, plugins, ease of customization. 

You also know that but somehow always shift the topic to security. Blesta needs to improve big time and that's the bottom line. 

[Blesta Addons]

24 minutes ago, kikloo said:

Perfect meaning that right now Blesta is not an ideal software by point of usage for hosts that's why whmcs is number 1. You cannot compare only security with everything else like ease of use, functions available for admin, plugins, ease of customization. 

You also know that but somehow always shift the topic to security. Blesta needs to improve big time and that's the bottom line. 

Totally agree with 90% of your judgment .

i think Blesta team aware about this point, from v3 and we are talking about this subject, Blesta is less features for hosting industry than all other competitors even if the free one of them. Blesta will touch the true success when it become 100% panel for hosting business . if they want  suggestions or any help e are finally here

[turner2f]

My " two-cents " is that Blesta needs to use many of the various features that the 3rd party plugins offer as a " blueprint ",  and then to integrate those same features into the core so that they can be stable and extensive .

Without many of these 3rd party plugins the user-friendliness, and rich features of Blesta would be missing.

Please consider rolling these same features into the core, and then expand on them.

[Daniel B]

59 minutes ago, turner2f said:

My " two-cents " is that Blesta needs to use many of the various features that the 3rd party plugins offer as a " blueprint ",  and then to integrate those same features into the core so that they can be stable and extensive .

Without many of these 3rd party plugins the user-friendliness, and rich features of Blesta would be missing.

Please consider rolling these same features into the core, and then expand on them.

Feel free to submit those features into the feature request site :). https://requests.blesta.com/

[turner2f]

Already did for some of them.

Although, I do not have time to post a separate request for each and everyone of them as previously requested.

==========

Hopefully Blesta will see this post and take the personal initiative to put it on their own "To-Do" list.

[Daniel B]

4 hours ago, turner2f said:

Already did for some of them.

Although, I do not have time to post a separate request for each and everyone of them as previously requested.

==========

Hopefully Blesta will see this post and take the personal initiative to put it on their own "To-Do" list.

I'd rather them spend their time working on the to-do list they already have instead of looking through tons of posts and plugins for things to add.  I'd say if we don't have the time to request them, they don't have the time to implement them

[turner2f]

Thanks Daniel B.

 

As a programmer / designer myself, I usually take the initiative to brainstorm how to improve my product and add it to my own task list.

===========

Additionally, I was requested to add a separate request ticket for every "single" feature I ( or WE ) wanted.

So if a 3rd party plugin has 20 features that we would like implemented into the core, we would have to write up 20 separate tickets.

Originally, it was easier to just write one ticket and to list the desired 20 features, but apparently that was not the " accepted " method.

 

FYI - I, and others, have already posted several requests at https://requests.blesta.com/ , but we are not getting much feedback as to whether our requests are even being considered or not since we are hardly getting any replies. Some of these requests by others are pretty old.

 

===========

We do not have an un-limited  amount of free time to invest in others' products, when we have our own business to run.

And to do so, would be like being on the payroll , without getting paid.

Particularly for features that might not even be considered at all.

===========

So hopefully Blesta will see some of these posts and take the initiative to create a "To-DO" list based on what THEY find interested in implementing.

[Paul]

18 minutes ago, turner2f said:

Additionally, I was requested to add a separate request ticket for every "single" feature I ( or WE ) wanted.

So if a 3rd party plugin has 20 features that we would like implemented into the core, we would have to write up 20 separate tickets.

Originally, it was easier to just write one ticket and to list the desired 20 features, but apparently that was not the " accepted " method.

If you create a single feature request for 20 features it's pretty much guaranteed to be ignored. When we consider a request, and change it's status to "Planned", for example, it means we are planning to do what the task describes. If there are 20 things in the task, and we only plan to do 5 of them, well, you can see the problem.

Now, if the feature request is something like "Add an Affiliate System", we don't expect that to be broken down into every feature of the affiliate system in separate requests. That would be ridiculous. While there may be many parts to an affiliate system, it's a single new feature.

Making 20 changes to an existing feature isn't a single request, it's 20. And that's what we're talking about when we're talking about adding improvements to the Support Manager.

For example, this request - https://requests.blesta.com/topic/support-tickets-add-a-from-column-on-ticket-list-page is very specific, and concise, and it has already been scheduled for development. This is a good example of a feature request.

Thinking about it this way makes it easier for us to look at a request, approve it, create a task for it in Jira, and follow it through to completion.

[turner2f]

Thanks for the reply, and understood.

 

If you happen to come across suggestions that are in the posts or in private messages that pique your interest, then feel free to to just create a ticket for it in a format that is suitable for you.

If not, then that's fine as well.

Many other developers that get feedback via email or on their forums, create tickets in a manner that is best for them in their venture to improve or update their own products as they go.

===========

When we get feedback, we will pick and choose what can be done for the client, so that we have a task list that we can actually understand and execute.

Or we will " refine " their original request in a format, that we can work with.

And then we make certain to reply to the client between 1 to 7 days on whether we can do it or not, or will even consider it for the future.

Other developers that we deal with do the same thing too.

==========

Some of the requests at  https://requests.blesta.com/ , have not been replied to as "denied" or "approved" ( or as being read ) so we do not even know if the amount  time we are investing for these requests are even being considered or not.

We know that it takes time to implement these things, but at the same time it would be helpful to all of us if we were to get a timely reply on your thoughts and "plan-of-action".