[ic] saving carts poorly documented

Grant interchange-users@icdevgroup.org
Mon Sep 30 15:58:01 2002


>Hello readers... skip to the next post.  This is for the
>developers.  I have
>to keep asking this same question over and over, with no one seemingly able
>to answer here (Using Interchange 4.8 on a shared hosting environment, and
>cannot get the "save this cart" function to work:
>http://interchange.redhat.com/pipermail/interchange-users/2002-Sept
>ember/026
>563.html).  I have received a couple of Email suggestions from a list user,
>but unfortunately his suggestions are from the outset doomed by the
>Interchange documentation lacking in continuity, and my own level of
>understanding of Interchange. I have researched this in the lists going
>several years back, and it seems it has always been a problem without a
>definitive solution.  Maybe the developers don't think it's important
>enough.  There are several requests for help on this question that are
>simply ignored.  Why?  Well, in my case, I hope it's not because
>some of you
>assume I am too lazy to read the docs.
>
>So I would like to share with you observations from one who wasn't
>in on the
>development of Interchange since Minivend and earlier, who didn't see the
>development progress through thousands of contributions over the years.  To
>Mike Heins and others who have contributed to the development of this
>application, and of whom the brilliance of the accomplishment is
>undeniable,
>I share these "feelings" and observations.
>
>If you really want to help people trying to learn this application, please
>remember that you have forgotten more this morning than most of us will
>learn this year.
>
>Your time is valuable, but wasted on us dummies when jotting down ultra
>short snippets of "solutions" that can only really solve something for us
>dummies if the logic preceding and following the "solution" is at least
>hinted at, and only then if the documentation offers continuity, and is
>updated to include missing bits that were apparently intended to be a part
>of the "final version".  Otherwise, would you mind asking Nick at CPanel to
>remove Interchange from its offerings, or at least replace the "easy to
>configure" declaration with "Dummies Keep Away!" (you might also post that
>at the mailing lists, and at Interchangeville).
>
>Observation #1:  Interchange is not user friendly unless the user is a
>programmer proficient in:  ITL, Perl, Linux.
>Observation #2:  The sheer volume of the various documents found at several
>different sources, upon close examination for continuity, reveals that
>comments, instructions and remarks were many times made with the assumption
>that the reader is starting on page one and reading to the end (page 700?).
>Take for example, this snippet explaining "Carts" from Kevin Walsh's
>painstakingly developed RTFM
>(http://www.interchange.rtfm.info/docs/frames/icdatabase_54.html).
><! -- BEGINNING OF EXPLANATION -->
>8.7. Carts
>The contents of shopping carts may be saved or recalled in much the same
>fashion. See the Simple demo application ord/basket.html page for an
>example.
><! -- END OF EXPLANATION -->
>Observation #3:  RE: "much the same fashion" as what?
>Observation #4:  RE: "See the Simple demo application ord/basket.html page
>for an example"
>(http://www.interchange.rtfm.info/docs/frames/iccattut_34.html) ATTENTION:
>There is no example of saving a cart there.
>
>From RedHat's documentation (ictags: save_cart)
>http://www.icdevgroup.org/cgi-bin/ic/docfly.html?mv_arg=ictags06.18
><! -- BEGINNING OF EXPLANATION -->
>save_cart
>This tag saves the current cart or recurring order in the userdb under a
>given name.
>
>Observation #5:  That's nice.  Where does one create the tag?
>
>Summary
>
>    [save_cart nickname recurring]
>    [save_cart nickname="cart-name" recurring=1]
>Positional parameters: The first line shows the usage with positional
>parameters (given in order). The second line shows usage with named
>parameters.
>
> Parameters   Description                               Default
> nickname     Label for the cart.                       none
> recurring    Set to true if recurring. Set to false, or ommit if cart.none
> Other_Charactreristics
> Invalidates cache                 No
> Macro                             No
> Has end tag                       No
>Tag expansion example:
>
>   [save_cart mycart]
>   [save_cart nickname=mycart recurring=1]
><! -- END OF EXPLANATION -->
>Observation #6:  Because Interchange has been widely distributed
>as an "easy
>to use" shopping cart, free with CPanel hosting providers, it's no fault of
>the developers that this application causes such confusion and frustration
>with "the rest of us".
>
>Observation #7:  In six years using a computer on the internet (Windows),
>using Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, HTML, PHP, Excel,
>Office and
>multitudes of other applications, some more powerful than Interchange, some
>equal to Interchange in complexity, and many less impressive than
>Interchange, I have spent more time in the past six months trying to get
>what should be "simple" features of Interchange to work properly
>than I have
>spent in the past six years with ALL of the applications, programs and
>hardware installations I have worked with combined.
>
>Conclusion:  See:  Observation #1.

I'm not a true developer so I guess I was supposed to skip to the next post,
but here's my advice for what it's worth:

When I started with IC, I was troubled by most of these same issues.  My
best advice to you (which is what I did) is to hire an IC consultant from
this list who can answer your questions and provide you with pieces of code
when you need it.  After some time, IC will make more and more sense to you
until you are able to accomplish a lot in it entirely on your own.  If
you're serious about e-commerce it's completely worth it.  I don't think you
can expect to pick up IC (especially if you aren't a Perl programmer) and
its docs and learn it at an efficient rate when compared to how quickly you
can learn when you have someone to reliably answer your questions and
explain things to you as you need them explained.  It also cuts WAY down on
the frustration level.

- Grant