Not sure if you have ever checked out themeforest.net, if not give it a look. They have some PS templates there: http://themeforest.net/category/ecommerce/prestashop
Looks like some people also have shopping cart woes. I am in the same boat...Don't know what to do, I have fixed so many bugs, made so many changes to the code and all my custom addons it just scares me to think about going to a different cart. This would involve learning a new system, learning the code, database structure, how to write addons and then finally changing them all over which I am in no way ready for and for sure don't want to pay someone 5-10K to do it. I have found out that most coders are idiots at least the ones that take on most of the jobs out there. It sucks but that is just how it is.
I think for now I am just going to stick with them, write my own custom store cart addons when needing them and just see how it goes. I have checked out Magento and it is great I just wish they were around when we started using ISC...If they were I wouldn't be in the heap code of mess that I have created for myself.
Finally giving up
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MegaFemaTron2
- Confirmed
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:37 pm
Re: Finally giving up
Yes, I live on Themeforest. I actually have an out of this world Prestashop theme now from there by a guy who really takes his time and just has the one theme that he keeps improving on.
I felt the same way you do about all that I'd already sunk into Interspire. In the end, I just let it go. I spent all this time working on setting up and learning Prestashop (not very long indeed) and just switched the entire site over today. So no more Interspire. I feel nothing but relief.
Prestashop is still very good so far. I've been doing all the updates and everything (1-click) and nothing is breaking. Every time something gets wacky it's always because I have some setting I need to change because I didn't know what it did in the first place (who needs to read documentation?).
So far the only thing that bugs me about PS is the one step checkout. It's ok but so far off from industry standard, it makes me feel like it was done on purpose so developers can make addons for it. For guest checkout a customer has to hit a save button instead of "next" before anything that makes sense happens. The biggest issue on the one page checkout at the very bottom, it actually tells the customer they have to login to see the payment options when in reality they have to put in their address up top and hit the "Save" button because the payment options are linked to the shipping destinations (how stupid is that!!!). If I were a customer, I would abandon ship right at the save button and payment options should never be withheld for any reason.
Other than that, the cart is everything I could want for now. We'll see how it holds up when the site gets underway. But I can say for the first time in a while, I feel like I'm in business.
My shop now still has the classy look I need but now looks like a shop.
I felt the same way you do about all that I'd already sunk into Interspire. In the end, I just let it go. I spent all this time working on setting up and learning Prestashop (not very long indeed) and just switched the entire site over today. So no more Interspire. I feel nothing but relief.
Prestashop is still very good so far. I've been doing all the updates and everything (1-click) and nothing is breaking. Every time something gets wacky it's always because I have some setting I need to change because I didn't know what it did in the first place (who needs to read documentation?).
So far the only thing that bugs me about PS is the one step checkout. It's ok but so far off from industry standard, it makes me feel like it was done on purpose so developers can make addons for it. For guest checkout a customer has to hit a save button instead of "next" before anything that makes sense happens. The biggest issue on the one page checkout at the very bottom, it actually tells the customer they have to login to see the payment options when in reality they have to put in their address up top and hit the "Save" button because the payment options are linked to the shipping destinations (how stupid is that!!!). If I were a customer, I would abandon ship right at the save button and payment options should never be withheld for any reason. Other than that, the cart is everything I could want for now. We'll see how it holds up when the site gets underway. But I can say for the first time in a while, I feel like I'm in business.
My shop now still has the classy look I need but now looks like a shop.
ISC 6.1.1 Ultimate Edition
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MegaFemaTron2
- Confirmed
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:37 pm
Re: Finally giving up
I thought I'd give another update since I've been using Prestashop for a little while.
So far so good. I've only had to buy a few plugins and the cart is updated regularly.
The cons:
Plugins are too expensive and they usually lack good support.
You need plugins for something that should be standard like:
a one-page checkout/checkout page that makes sense to the buyer
no ID number in the URLs
You really have to find a theme with a developer who is completely dedicated to it (I've only found one!) because updates often break the theme.
You need to write a script to regenerate images if you have a large amount of products (I would say over 40).
The pros:
There are tons so I won't list them all. But basically the cart is solid. I don't get errors all over the place or fight to get anything done or have to go diving in code to get what I want. I haven't had to look at the Prestashop code not once! Moving features around is very simple. Adding new functionality via plugin is very simple. I haven't tried writing my own plugins yet but I will eventually. It comes standard with some great features like a loyalty program, customer followup, great stats collecting, coupons, etc. There are also a lot of free plugins that are good like adding the ability to have prices listed when you pin to Pinterest, categories with images on your homepage, etc.
The best part are the filters. Now I can have fewer actual categories (the biggest issue for my site was have TONS of categories) and I can have a neat selection of options on the sidebar to help customers narrow their search and it's very easy to setup and rearrange.
It has turned out to be a great cart and I'm glad I switched.
So far so good. I've only had to buy a few plugins and the cart is updated regularly.
The cons:
Plugins are too expensive and they usually lack good support.
You need plugins for something that should be standard like:
a one-page checkout/checkout page that makes sense to the buyer
no ID number in the URLs
You really have to find a theme with a developer who is completely dedicated to it (I've only found one!) because updates often break the theme.
You need to write a script to regenerate images if you have a large amount of products (I would say over 40).
The pros:
There are tons so I won't list them all. But basically the cart is solid. I don't get errors all over the place or fight to get anything done or have to go diving in code to get what I want. I haven't had to look at the Prestashop code not once! Moving features around is very simple. Adding new functionality via plugin is very simple. I haven't tried writing my own plugins yet but I will eventually. It comes standard with some great features like a loyalty program, customer followup, great stats collecting, coupons, etc. There are also a lot of free plugins that are good like adding the ability to have prices listed when you pin to Pinterest, categories with images on your homepage, etc.
The best part are the filters. Now I can have fewer actual categories (the biggest issue for my site was have TONS of categories) and I can have a neat selection of options on the sidebar to help customers narrow their search and it's very easy to setup and rearrange.
It has turned out to be a great cart and I'm glad I switched.
ISC 6.1.1 Ultimate Edition