>Port it to FB 4 or 5 and it'll be the sexiest EVER! Is it in an MVC pattern
>in FB3? 

No way! A large percentage of my users struggle with just the FB, MVC would 
shatter their brains. LOL Seriously, the number of people that buy my software 
that even have a clue about stuff like MVC and OO is so low that it just isn't 
even a consideration to go there. That's assuming I had a year or more to kill 
and completely reprogram it that way. Ecommerce buyers generally care about two 
main things...the features the software has, and how easy it will be for them 
to go in and make modifications. I try very hard to cover both bases well, and 
moving to MVC really would not serve either. Honestly, I do get far more people 
that complain that FB is too confusing than ones that want something like MVC. 
Granted, there are *definitely* some users that would like this, but it's a 
very small minority. In a recent survey of my users, less than 20% even cared 
about converting the software from FB3 to 4. They cared *way* more about the 
actual feature set. So I've spent over a year making it the best, most 
feature-rich software that I could. And I do believe I have that...I just have 
to get all the last bits of code completed, everything beta-tested, update all 
the docs, write all those complicated update scripts, etc. No problem, I just 
won't sleep this month. ;-) And even after this release is done, I have a 
pretty long list of even more feature and code improvements I want to make and 
I hope to do another major release in a relatively short time (1 year as 
opposed to typically several years.) E-commerce is still a rapidly growing 
field and everytime people see something cool on Amazon.com, they want it too. 
;-) 


>I think there are some experts around with alot of experience
>porting apps from FB3 to 4 or 5. 

Sure, if I had thousands of dollars to pay them for it. Believe me, it would be 
a pretty big undertaking to do, because it's not just a matter of converting 
the basic code (which is difficult enough.) It has to be done in a way that I 
don't have to make my current users completely redo all their store layouts 
(the current system for product/category/store pages, etc. is very tied into a 
FB3 layout system) and it has to deal with converting my entire role 
permissions and content access system that is based on the Hal Helms security 
model for FB3. The security system has been extended to do all kinds of things 
in the software, from selling memberships to the store to controlling which 
products an admin can edit, so it's going to be very tricky to deal with and to 
update existing sites as well. It's a very different matter to take an 
off-the-shelf software product and convert from FB3 to FB5 than it is to take 
an individual site and do it, because I can't leave all my current customers in 
the dust.


>I bet if you gave a few licenses away to
>some Fuseboxers you'd get all the help you need. I would help out.

Oh, I have offered, to the ones that have bought my software. And a number have 
offered to help in the past, but once they look at what *really* is involved 
and the hurdles that have to be cleared, it usually scares them off. After all, 
even a couple licenses doesn't go far in paying a developer's salary. ;-) 

Still, if the CF community continues to grow and my new version is as 
successful as I hope it will be, it may be more feasible for me to pay a really 
top-notch Fuseboxer to help convert the code. I agree that the improvements in 
FB4/5 are nothing to sneer at, and even though I do believe it's a fair amount 
harder for newcomers to understand than 3, it's still a goal of mine to get 
there at some point. But I still am proud of having one of the few e-commerce 
products out there that follows *any* kind of framework. It may not be the 
latest and greatest framework...but even if I did get it converted, it would 
just be out-of-date again in a few years any way! 

--------------------
Mary Jo Sminkey
http://www.cfwebstore.com
CFWebstore, ColdFusion E-commerce


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