Bugs and Fixes
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- Allan Curtis
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 213
- Thanks: 0
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Hi all,
I can't tell you the number of hours that I (like many novice "Joomlaians") have spent reading many hundreds of posting, often finding conflicting advice, links to other articles which link to more, or information off topic, etc ... it is very time consuming and frustrating.
Please consider adding a new Moderated section, to each Template, where official "bugs" can be documented and tested resolutions posted.
Once a new template release is published, the posting should be flagged with the version number that includes that fix. While the moderators do a remarkable job, responding quickly (in most cases), issues are often left "unsolved" ... after reading through pages of postings to not find a resolution can be annoying, to say the least.
When a Member loads a new release, it is very important to know which "solutions" are included.
It would be a huge service to RocketTheme members to post a notification of all bugs as soon as they are confirmed, and provide a status and link to the "Solution" more official - hopefully fixes that have been tested and ready for prime time. :cheesy:
Seasons Greetings to all,
Allan
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- Nanci Memory
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 5763
- Thanks: 3
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Hello Allan,
First, thank you for your post. We understand your frustrations.
All "Official Updates" are published as they are released to their respective area for Joomla, WordPress and phpBB3 template related issues and Extension bug fixes.
For other areas and issues, any other process would only make the process more confusing and labor intensive. If a "bug" is truly a "bug" and if a "fix" is truly a "fix" then it will be included in the next released "Official Update" for said template, extension or RocketTheme product.
At present, the forum method plus the continued additions of more and more valuable tutorials to help our members is preferred and will be the continued method of support.
If there is a template related issue that is a "bug" or something that needs a "fix" but goes unanswered for whatever reason, please do not hesitate to post your thread again.
We understand not all issues may be addressed 100%. However, we do our best to address the template related issues providing our members with the best possible support.
Thank you. -
Mark your threads as Solved. Please, Please, Please!
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- Allan Curtis
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 213
- Thanks: 0
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Hi Nancy,
Thanks for the prompt response, I assure you that my experience with the RocketTheme forum has been mostly positive. The Moderators do a terrific job and I can't think of another forum where I have seen such quick, thorough responses.
It is the ability to retrieve information from the knowledge base which, in my opinion, requires some improvement. Users of the forum are dealing with thousands of postings for each Template as well as many thousands of General Postings. They have to sift through this mass of information, to find the "real" answer to a question. I am sure you have experienced the same issues trying to find previous posts on a topic.
If information is more easily retrieved and the "real" solution/resolution clearly indicated the Moderators would see less repetitive questions.
If a "bug" is truly a "bug" and if a "fix" is truly a "fix" then it will be included in the next released "Official Update" for said template, extension or RocketTheme product.
I have noticed that after two or three releases the templates are seldom updated. For example, the Mynnx template from April has 14M posts, many of them current - the last update to the template was 1.5.3, released June 3rd. If fixes are released periodically during the first year of a Template, it would result in much more stable subsequent installs with less repetitive postings...
If my suggestion of a separate section for "Bugs" (which may be the wrong word) within each Template is not considered an acceptable improvement, perhaps an icon could be assigned by the Moderator to flag the posted resolution to a topic. This alone would be a HUGE help... knowing the Moderator has endorsed the solution to the problem. Being able to scan (or search) for the icon could save hours of time.
There may not be a "perfect" solution but some improvement in our ability to retrieve credible answers is in order...
Enough said... if you think this has merit please forward internally...
Allan
ps The Tutorials are a great help...keep them coming!
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- Ben Lee
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 4193
- Thanks: 42
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When it comes to "bugs", that's a tricky issue. There is a section of the forum where moderators can request that the developers check the issue to determine if it actually is a bug and then the fix for it gets worked on. As for posting the "solved" icon or highlighting posts in the solved categories, that's tough with this many posts. Lots of answers reside in "Help, my site is broken!" posts and that doesn't help the search too much. Also, it's tough to sift through what solutions are particular to one person or many. We try to post the most common items in the Tutorials section for each template and maybe we could try moving more solutions over there if needed.
Is a large knowledge base of links to their respective forum topics what you're looking for? Categorized links to scroll through instead of using the search function on the forum?
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- Allan Curtis
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 213
- Thanks: 0
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Hi Ben,
I have used your Tips and Tricks thread a number of times and have found this to be very useful when configuring a new install.
What I am seeking though, is a way to find a solution to more obscure problems, such as the format suddenly breaks, a feature stops working, a module does not appear where or how it should, users unable to login, not necessarily a bug but an explanation / solution is required.
As you move to more complex templates, which include third party products, the issues will grow exponentially (as you discovered with the Affinity Template.
For example, I posted the following thread which was not answered by a Moderator... probably because it was not something they felt they could not address... it should have at least been acknowledged.
http://www.rockettheme.com/forum/index.php?f=236&t=72613&start=0&rb_v=viewtopic
My real concern though, is that Forums, by design, are difficult to use as a knowledge base as they are like a Wiki and full of opinions from well-meaning Members who may or may not really know the solution to a question.
What do I want?
1. A search function that will find solutions not problems ... I don't really want to be presented with hundreds of postings from Members outlining a similar problem .. I want to know the solution.
2. When I find a solution which requires changing the code, such as moving the Menu to a different location, I want to be absolutely sure that it has been tested and endorsed by an expert in that area.
Perhaps a filter/search option which allows the results to be filtered to only show "Moderator postings" ... that might be enough to allow a Member to zero in on the solution.
Best wishes,
Allan
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- Ben Lee
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 4193
- Thanks: 42
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That's been talked about, but it's tough because all those issues are dependent on the particular user. It's can be the same answer, but people are looking for help finding the issue.
In all honesty, the items not covered in the Tutorials and Guides, in the Tutorials section on the main site, and the bug fixes in the new versions of code, really can be answered in three lines...
Check your code for unmatched tags, tags not being closed.
Check for Java conflicts from loading extensions with conflicting java libraries.
Don't copy from MS Word and turn off the HTML editor when entering any code you don't want stripped out.
That really is the answer to 90% of the issues on the forum. After that, it's customizations that a user wants to make and those are only limited by the imaginations of the community.
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- Nanci Memory
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 5763
- Thanks: 3
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Hi Allan,
Thanks once more for your post. I did not take this thread as anything but a positive critique.
We value the input from our members. This is all "good stuff" as Ben would say... and your input is valuable.
Again, thanks! -
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- Allan Curtis
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 213
- Thanks: 0
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Hi - this is a bit cheeky, forgive me.
I tried to search for solutions to the three issue which Ben listed as causing 90% of the problems...
Search found 1 match: +unmatched +tagsThis post...found
Search found 1 match • Page 1 of 1
Re: Bugs and Fixes
... of code, really can be answered in three lines... Check your code for unmatched tags, tags not being closed. Check for Java conflicts from loading extensions with conflicting ...Search found 31 matches: +java +library
Search found 31 matchesSearch found 137 matches: +paste +from +word
Search found 137 matches
My point is, these are three great topics for a mini-tutorial or FAQ ... of the 3 issues I would know how to solve the pasting from Word problem, but would not know how to go about the other two without some direction as to which files / code to check.
Hmmmm... maybe an FAQ section would be the way to go! As topics are solved, which are generic in nature, they could be posted (or at least the link could be posted) in an FAQ, which is fully searchable... might have merit!
Cheers... thanks for your interest, hope something comes out of it.
Allan
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