Is osCommerce/mopics going backwards

[Anonymous]

I noticed that the older versions of mopix lets you add the thumb nails and large pics in the catalog new products area,
you could just upload them one by one, each with there own upload box. 18 upload boxes for small and large images making upto 9 images diplayed plus upload boxes for the main products pics.
also in the older version of osCommerce there was an area in
the in new products for keywords and description ie the meta tags.
this was for every new product added not just an overall metatag.

It seem osCommerce 2.2 has lost these options,
Did i miss an option to enable these features?
how can i get these options working on osC MS2-MAX 1.5

[jpf]

You must have a contrubtion installed before - Dynamic metatags....

[michael_s]

That is manual mopics. We use Dynamic Mopics, which bypasses the manuall adding of images through the admin. Now you just have to upload the images and dynamic mopics finds them and dynamically adds them.

That is not backwards movement!

[Anonymous]

I understand builds better now, Great work by the way!

[Anonymous]

It's not backwards, but more complicated, to be sure.

Also, it removes any capabilities for a non-web dev person to manage the images. With the older version, I was able to turn over image management to an assistant, now I have to do it. A debateable upgrade, in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Give your assistant access to upload images to the image folder, tell them how to name things...Must not be able ot trust your assistant much if you can't trust them to do that

[Anonymous]

It's not a question of trust, it's a question of brains and ability. Sure they can be taught, but I do not have time to teach and answer questions and to fix it when they make mistakes. If you don't see the major usability differences between giving a novice user a web interface or an FTP interface, you're missing the point completely.

[michael_s]

Guest, (take your pick!) This is all very interesting, but the fact is, MAX has dynamic mopics in the current version, and that is not changing any time soon. I installed it because it is easier for the vast majority of users out there, and MAX is not really an application for newbies or people who don't know how to use BASIC internet protocols like FTP.

I used both the manual mopics and the dynamic, and I felt the SPEED of dynamic mopics was much more important than the web interface. FTP is a much faster and easier process than browsing, clicking , refreshing, one product at a time.... aaarrrgh! I mean the time saved is incredible.

I suggest you take the time and teach the novice the RIGHT way to do things Then you only have to teach them once. The fact is, after entering 100 products manually, with say 5-6 images each, they are going to ask you if there is a better way, and when you say yes, chances are the will ask why the hell you didn't show them in the first place.

MAX does not cater to the lowest common denominator. If you don't know what you are doing, or are unwilling to learn the most basic internet skills (like FTP), there are other options out there, built specifically for newbs.

IMHO, if you don't know what FTP is, you have no business administering a website, let alone an e-commerce site. Of course, I have a lot of opinions that get me in trouble, like if you can't change a tire, you should not be allowed to drive!

[Anonymous]

msasek, you obviously don't really understand how much time it takes to add products. There is a middle solution - if you use imagemagik, you only have to add one picture of each, and it would be automatically resized to fit the configuration of the shop.

We are a company that write software for other companies... stuff like CMS and Catalogs and online Magazines. Giving them access to FTP, and trusting that they will get the names right, is absolutely impossible. You think all shops are one person working on his shop, but this is not how the world works.

As an example, we gave one of our customers a list of file names, very specific names, printed in a readable font (courier). Every week, when they make the weekly updates, there were at least 2 or 3 mistakes. The customer paid us more, after a while, to create a friendlier interface. In the end, it was a simple "Browse" button in the browser, which simply ignored the name of the original file given. It was asking for the files by context, the people fed the files they knew were right (because they can look at the image, and it's visual, and there are no names to remember). Now, there are 0 mistakes, and it takes less time and it's less of a pain in the butt for them.

And in general, we simply KNOW based on our experience that it is much simpler, in any serious and lasting environment (one where employees can be replaced, and that's inevitable), to create web interfaces that don't expect any kind of expertise.

Aric

[michael_s]

Aric, I most certainly do understand the process behind adding products, in fact I have populated several stores with over 40,000 products each, and dozens with over 10,000 each. If done correctly the time to populate a database is minimal. The issue is how to do it quickly, and dynamic mopics dramatically speeds up the process by completely bypassing the slow and tedious web interface. With a double click, 10,000 product images can be updated, limited only by the speed of your connection. There is no more expertise needed than the web interface requires : select your files and upload.

Anyone who works with large databases on a regular basis knows that a single product interface , such as the web interface in osCommerce is not the way to go when doing updates, populating or changing. Anything that allows you to update multiple products at once is much more efficient. That is what mopics does. A simple scheme to update multiple products simultaneously, by uploading files to the server.

Mopics is not about resizing images, it is about allowing multiple images per product page (different images, not just resized, and as many as you want), easily, without having to manually add each image through the web interface. Could it be improved with dynamic image resampling? Absolutely.

Next, in any serious and lasting environment, efficiency and productivity are much more important than initial simplicity. Any person can be trained within 30 minutes how/where/what they need to do using mopics. That 30 minutes will allow them to update thousands of products in the time it takes to do a dozen through the web interface, saving many many hours of work.

Finally, Aric, I realize that mopics is not the best solution for non-internet folks, and since you have created such a nice interface for osCommerce, why not release it to the users of osc, so that all may benefit from it?