And this is likely still an improvement from when it was a real CF app, at which point I had to work with it for just about the most painful year of my life. It was complete spaghetti-code trash. It was so bad that several years later I'm still honoring my promise to take every opportunity I get to steer people clear of it. In my experience, it's rare that software THAT POOR ever makes a real turn-around to become a high-quality application.
Granted, my experience with AC is about 5 years and several very major versions old, but it left a lasting impression... Oh, and add to it all the fact that the prices are completely out of this world for what they offer. Even back when I was working with it, the bang to buck ratio is so completely out of whack. --Ferg Mark A Kruger wrote: >I've used CFMX Able commerce... Here are a couple of notes..keep in mind >this knowledge is about 20 months old :) > > >1) I'ts pointedly NOT a coldfusion application. By that I mean it takes no >advantage of anything specifically coldfusion'ish. The ap functions as a >Java servlet with calls to and from the CF page. All the database >interaction is controlled by the servlet and you have access to none of it. >In fact, if you want to do something simple like add a field to a table you >will find yourself working around this issue. Each request is passed to the >servlet with the results returned from the servlet. > > >2) Get used to array holder syntax - ACB for CFMX doesn't use query objects >very much. Instead, the servlet loads Java Object 1 (a query pulled from a >database) Into Java object 2 (an array holder build for this query). Then >it loops through it with traditional Java counter syntax. > >3) Because you are not involved in the database code you can't fine tune it. >a store of ours had about 12 top categories and one of those had 40 or more >subcategories with a total of 11000 items for sale. The system called the >entire data set (all 11000 items) when accessing every page from the top >down. Then it looped through filtering out items that weren't in the >category - no caching, no "smarter" queries pulling limited subsets of >data.... just a big honkin query pulling the entire category with each >query. Needless to say we did not find this scalable. > >4) Making changes to the display is problematic. Since all the "data stuff" >is wrapped up in the servelt you would think there was a logical >separation - but the ACB engine uses custom templates that are controlled by >the database and written to file. That means if you create a custom template >you better figure out how to store it in the database or admin users who do >something simple - like add a new link - will overwrite all your hard work. > >5) It's also overpriced for the feature set and the usuablility. > >In my view ACB hired a Java programmer to "pretend" to create a CFMX ap. >There are no CFCs, no caching, no cf queries, no query driven outputs, no >custom tags.... nothing really "CF" about it. It could just as easily be JSP >and it would suffer from no further usability issues. CF is just a "wrapper >class" around the servlet. > >If you are going to use it "out of the box" as is - go for it. If you plan >to make any customizations (if I can borrow a line from Monty Python >here...) run away. > >You would spend less to just pay Mary Jo to add the feature you want. > >-Mark > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:229697 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
