[ic] ISP SAYS MINIVEND IS LAME AND BUGGY

Steve & Patti Getzinger steveandpatti@wubs.org
Fri, 08 Sep 2000 09:37:45 -0500


  Here is a twist for customer usability but requires work on your end. Once you
have a catalog built copy it into wherever your area of "virgin" catalog
material is for use with makecat and call it just like barry or simple. I have
been using MV since version 2.08 or so and ran into user problems with ease so
what I did was build a site that took only text files. Wrote a ton of if's into
the pages and everything goes smoothly. Example:

index.html

page split into 5 pieces. further split each piece into sections. now create
directories with user friendly names (very important part). So here is a tree:

catalogs
   store
      mainpage
         top_of_page
         left_side_of_page
         center_of_page
         right_side_of_page
         bottom_of_page

Since we have split each section into pieces we use [include] with some if's to
make it happen. Print a booklet with a list of filenames and where to put them.
So if I decide the leftside will have a max of 5 paragraphs I tell them
leftparagraph1.txt and so on for their text entries (we name our images the same
just with appropriate extensions) Are we starting to see it?

Now when joe public calls and says "I replaced leftparagraph1.txt and it's not
on the site" we do a look for the incorrectly named or placed file and mv it for
him. We gently explain he simply typoed the name and to be careful when naming
files. This approach has proven far more successful than teaching clients MV
(tried that first :) )

Ok Steve that sounds all nice and good but I have someone that really does not
grasp directory trees. No big deal, ftp login puts them in their home directory.
Tell them to upload files there and let cron do the work. I use this one with a
client that has RA content he creates. Weasel his way to the correct directory?
I think not. "Just put it here and the server will automatically handle it for
you"

This is a ton of work to get setup. In fact I am still "perfecting" it but so
far it has proven very successful. All formatting goes on the .html docs,
nothing but straight text in the .txt files. on-the-fly menus help :) but again
just split it up and make it simple for the client. If they can't name files ...
If they can't type a text doc ... But I am experimenting with "if the filename
looks anything even close to "this" change it to "this".

Hope that helps someone. I will say every single problem I have had with
MV/Interchange has been me :) Oh yeah buy more ram, trust me you need it :)

Steve

Dan Garwood wrote:

> Dave,
>
> I think it would be very easy for john q. public to use if there were
> documentation...If you need assistance give me a yell.
> Thanks
> Dan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hubbard, David [mailto:dhubbard@med.usf.edu]
> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2000 8:41 AM
> To: 'Dan Garwood '
> Subject: RE: [ic] ISP SAYS MINIVEND IS LAME AND BUGGY
>
> Hey Dan,
>    I noticed that you're in Tampa...And do you have any other
> ideas?
>
> Thanks for any help you can give me,
>
> Dave
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Garwood
> To: interchange-users@minivend.com
> Sent: 9/7/00 5:00 PM
> Subject: Re: [ic] ISP SAYS MINIVEND IS LAME AND BUGGY
>
> well jim the first thing I need...something out. dgarwood@tampabay.rr.com
>
> thanks
> Dan
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim" <jimsnet@spidernet.com.cy>
> To: <interchange-users@minivend.com>
> Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 4:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [ic] ISP SAYS MINIVEND IS LAME AND BUGGY
>
> > The server i am on support mysql...month..
> >

> =========================================================

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