PAB Meeting on the 28th of May

Report · May 19, 2015

Hi everyone,

Hope you can join us for an Advisory board meeting where we will be discussing a high level roll-out plan for BC.Next

You have below the details and time of the meeting. We will be streaming the voice over Connect as well so make sure you have headsets.

Connect room: Adobe Connect Login

Time for the meeting: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20150527T2300

Detailed agenda:

Context – what happened since max, releases, current state
The plan to launch
What’s included in the 1.0 version
What’s not included in the 1.0 version
Goals for the remaining part of the year (this will probably have a dedicated PAB meeting when we have more details)

Looking forward to seeing you there.

The BC team

Report · May 19, 2015

Glad to see you back Magda! Looking forward to it.

Report · May 19, 2015

Got it Magda, welcome back.

Report · May 19, 2015

Looking forward to it!

Report · May 27, 2015

Hi Magda,

I couldn't attend the latest meeting. Can we get a recording to review and discuss points please?

Thank you.

Report · May 28, 2015

Hi Tarik,

Yes, Magda will post the recording on this forum later today.

Cristinel

Report · May 28, 2015

Thanks Cristinel

Report · May 28, 2015

Hi everyone,

Thank you very much for taking the time to meet with us yesterday. For those of you who could not join, but also if you want to get some details you might have missed, here is the recording from last night's session: https://my.adobeconnect.com/p93wvsvf7t2/

Also, you have the slides attached as well for a refresh.

Let me know if you have any questions that were not touched in the meeting, or any suggestions of directions we might take.

Magda

Report · May 28, 2015

Thanks Magda,

I started a new discussion with my feedback to not overload this post because I'm sure more opinions will come through.

Feedback on PAB Meeting of 28th May 2015

Report · May 29, 2015

Welcome back Magda, thanks for the links.

Report · Jun 26, 2015

What's the next step as followup to this initial meeting?

Will there be another one? What has been going on since that one, and how did the "vote" affect the final plan for moving forward?

I'm sure other partners would love to know.

Report · Jun 29, 2015

Hi Devon,

At this time we are preparing to close the migration, and the planning for the next phase has just begun. We expect to have something solid in about 2 weeks, at which time I will come back with an update for everyone.

Magda

Report · Jul 13, 2015

Hi Magda

Are we still on track for an update this week?

Regards

Mark

Report · Jul 14, 2015

Hi all,

As promised, I am back with some details on where we are, and how the plan looks like for the near future. Based on your feedback, we’re going to close BC.Next and Open Platform as soon as possible, focusing on fixing bugs and some of the gaps highlighted in the B C.Next Launch Plan and switch main focus to core product updates. As a result, we are going to:

Close off the migration to the new BC rendering engine; all sites have been migrated already and we are monitoring the system before closing down the previous version in a couple of weeks.
Applying the finishing touches on liquid (as described in the BC.Next launch plan document) before the official 1.0 launch estimated to happen in 2 or 3 months from now
With Liquid 1.0 we will also be preparing to launch Open Platform 1.0 with server to server authentication, hidden app folders and a new sdk version; even so, the development on this direction will continue after the launch with focus on web apps APIs and improvements to the SDK; the release schedule on these updates will be more fluid, as some elements may interfere with items from the next bullet point
As discussed in the PAB meeting our priority after closing these old projects is to complete some enhancements to the existing plans. We will begin work on adding SSL to a new plan, as well as building some core enhancements with focus on eCommerces fixes like tax engine updates, reporting and new payment gateways (stripe)

That last item is highly dependent on any delays from previous items, so I can only tell you a begin date, which will be probably late 2015. We would want to have this complete by mid 2016, but this is too far ahead to predict.

Hope this clarifies a bit our trajectory, but if you have any questions let us know and we will do our best to explain.

Magda and the BC team

Report · Jul 14, 2015

Hi Magda,

Thanks for replying. I know this has all been said in the past but I believe we need to get some quick wins announced asap as our clients don't see these big changes happening in the background - all they see is the admin editor looks the same as it has for 5 years. They are still running into the day-to-day frustrating issues.

My suggestion is that we build a list of a few quick win requests that can be deployed this year before we get cracking on other bigger projects like ecommerce.

A few examples of the top of my head below - they have to be quick to implement (not sure if these are or not) but at least we show the community that changes are happening.

1. Ability to copy a web app item.

2. Ability to archive a web app item to keep the list view clean.
3. Adding title as an additional tag in workflows and system emails (half my clients still refer to their clients as Mr Smith instead of John).

4. Updating File Manager to allow drag and drop image uploads

5. Classifications to match the order as how you set them up - at the moment they don't match
6. Implement the new BC Gallery module that has half written a few years ago

7. Fix up the Site Map module - so it is easy to work with and add to page

Do the PAB have other thoughts on something like this?

M

Report · Jul 15, 2015

I agree with Markus,

As I posted (above) a link to a feedback discussion I created, I was hoping that partners will add to the post things like this. I know I'm gonna be annoying saying this again, but this is the time I have to mention (I told you so) ... At an initial live meeting we were discussing the launch of the Open Platform. To recap, I was pushing for focus on core features and enhancing the platform before adding any more layers to the system, but instead, we ended up with many - not to get me wrong ... VERY GREAT Features ... such as APIs and Liquid etc... But the problem that they are full of bugs and workarounds to get the slightest thing going.

As example, I see some partners posting endless bugs and examples, but we don't see any follow through... I personally need BC team to understand that if we don't reply to the posts or add to them and agree to what the OP said, doesn't mean that we're not watching and waiting, it's just that there is no time to repeat what has been said or say "Yes I agree with such and such". I'm just assuming now that posts without replies and support from more than 1 other partner other than the OP, get put down the pile or ignored entirely ... (I know you'll tell me that you don't) ... But let's be realistic, I'm behind a screen just reading posts and waiting, I don't know what goes on in your office in terms of discussions and decisions you guys make.

There are many areas in the Admin that need improvements, we understand that the job can be challenging, but the smallest change brings happiness to us and insures us that things are improving. Once there is a long silence about the progress, people start getting worried.

The Admin Editor change, WebApp fields changes, the launch of liquid, and adding APIs, then fixing and adding few little extra things to all of them in previous releases made a huge impact. I guess more of the small fixes can bring more joy as well.

But I will disagree with you Markus in some of the items in your list because they are not as small as you think. I believe some base elements need to come first such as the SSL and your point 7 in relation to the Site Map. but there are small things that can be accomplished quickly and may make a huge difference.

Here is one of things that frustrated me one day and I got really edgy about it... Inconsistency ... Every module has something different which should be just similar across the platform. For example: (and again, I have mentioned this many times) ... Why is the CRM list is the only list in the platform that has a sortable table, why can't we have every module's list with that option so we can sort them by date or name etc... (I'm talking about the list inside the Admin - NOT what you output in the front-site). Why in the API, we call an item name something.name and in category it's something.category. Why is it {module_workaddress} in a page and {module_address....} in the invoice email, and the invoice email itself? ... Let's not go there yet .

These are just little very tiny details that I can think of right now, and I'll go to my original suggestion is to clean up first and make things consistent and improve on little things that make our life and our clients life easier, which I'm sure can bring some satisfactions to the community. However, I believe a proper list of these things should be put in place. Having Ideas and Bugs with other discussions in the developer forum is just a bit messy, those should be 2 separate categories and away from normal discussion threads. And probably a list of things that are in progress now with priority ratings.

Call me crazy, but that is my opinion ... When you train clients and you tell them "oh no sorry you can't do that here for some reason, that option just applies in this area", and both areas have similar looks, that's really crazy.

Developers, Designer, Engineers can remember that in System Email - some and only some module calls are different from one area to another up to a web-page, because we open the Admin every day and we understand the language. Clients don't, and just expect that the same feature, same button, same link exists in every module and the output/inputs are the same, no matter how many times you remind them and train them and even provide documentations about it. I found myself many times answering questions to clients by referencing a document page that we wrote for them ... Why? Because again they just expect that the platform should be consistent and every module presentation is the same.

Tarik.

Report · Jul 21, 2015

Hi Tarik

That is by no means a final list - just thinking out aloud re pain points we get feedback on from our customers.
Do no other partners have comments on this?

M

Report · Jul 22, 2015

I think you and Tarik are saying it well.

Compared to the days when we had a bunch of servers and maintained a CMS on those ourselves, BC is a lot easier when we create sites for clients, and is infinitely easier to maintain than our own servers and code. So sure, it's great when the tools get more powerful, etc.

Speaking for myself and our market, however, our success depends far more on the acceptance and ease-of-use as perceived and experienced by our clients. So I would vote for 80% of the development effort be directed towards making the client experience one that is irresistibly compelling.

This is becoming more and more important, as competitors continue to emerge. And there are many more choices today... https://www.getapp.com/website-ecommerce-software/content-management-system-cms/?sort=rating_rank

Give me some amazing new development capabilities, and I will wallow in happy geekitude, but I'll only sell maybe one new project a year. Give me a major jump in the customer experience and I'll sell 25 more a year.

Bill

Report · Aug 26, 2015

H‌i Magda,

it's been over a month since I replied above - is there a BC response to what has been suggested? Is there any other information to share in this PAB forum?

As you know, you guys are getting flamed in the LinkedIn forums - Is there a reason you are not responding? Are you hearing the general partner sentiment?

Report · Aug 30, 2015

Still no response. Simply amazing.

Report · Sep 08, 2015

PAB to BC.... come in... do you copy?

Report · Sep 09, 2015

Hi Markus,

As Magda stated before, we are now closing liquid and other BC.Next items. However, although we haven't stated publicly, as we wanted to keep it as surprise, we've started to gradually shift focus on core product updates. As such, while we bring the finishing touches to liquid, we're going to release support for Stripe payment gateway before Adobe MAX this year and we're likely going to add one more smaller updates as well.

And that's only the first items, as we're going to focus less on BC.Next and release more updates to the core product that will aim on bringing more benefits to the site owner instead of the developer.

Cristinel

Report · Sep 09, 2015

Thanks Cristinel,

This is very good news. Stripe = Big WIN for us. I'm not sure if I agree with your 'secret' strategy for new releases. If you told partners via a blog post you were working on adding Stripe and it's coming soon (expected in Oct 2015) and then delivered in Oct 2015 - that would be way more powerful a message and would get some positive chatter happening.

M

Report · Sep 09, 2015

I agree with Markus. Great news on Stripe! I know that would make people very happy including myself.

I also agree about making some announcement early. One example would be SSL support (without worldsecuresystems). Just let people know that you have it on your radar and it is in development but that you do not have an estimated released date.

You could even offer teasers about what is in development and what is coming down the road. I completely agree that it would get some positive chatter happening.

Lynda

Report · Sep 10, 2015

While we're talking, can someone shed some light on an apparent change with the PAB email support channel? Seems to have been a change in the past week or so... perhaps tickets are now going to Tier 1? I emailed about how BC determines which product/catalog URL to use as the default for a product, since there seems to be no consistency. The reply was essentially, "I don't know... ask another partner in the forums?"

Adobe Community

PAB Meeting on the 28th of May