Important updates about Business Catalyst site templates

[cristinel@adobe]

Following the trial site creation (June 18th, 2018) and trial site upgrades (August 27th, 2018) being discontinued, Business Catalyst site templates have become obsolete as their goal was to help with new site creation.

As a result, starting with November 3rd, 2018, the Business Catalyst site template feature will be removed. All sites currently marked as templates will be transformed into trial sites, with expiry date set for March 26th 2020. Customers can still access the sites and download the site content as long as the trial site is kept active. Just as with other trial sites, the expiry date of each template site (now transformed into trial) can be extended by logging in the admin area of the site. Expired trial sites will be deleted after 58 days of inactivity.\

Thank you,

The Adobe Business Catalyst team

[pChirita]

Hi guys,

Some partners reached out to us to ask for more time for this. November 1st 2018 seems too short for those with many template sites.

We definitely want to move forward with retiring this feature (template sites) on October 3rd - we have a lot of things to retire before the actual EoL date and we cannot let them all happen in the last months. However, we are hearing your feedback, and we will make these sites expire later than November 1st 2018 (essentially keeping them up and running for more time).

Would you please reply on this thread with an expiration date more suitable to your needs?

Thanks.

[pChirita]

Apologies, it looks like comments were disabled on this post. They are enabled now.

[Gongy2]

At least one more year please, most of my  templates have valuable functionality that I need to replicate into a new platform, but many platforms are not ready yet and  still need further testing. PLEASE EXTEND THE DEADLINE

[liturgy]

This is quite a surprise. I had planned on migrating my BC sites in 2020-2021 based on your previous advice. So I request that templates not be retired until 2021.

Paul

Liturgical Song

[pChirita]

Hi Paul,

Leaving aside the template feature, I'd like to make one aspect clear: We STRONGLY advise AGAINST waiting until 2020 to move sites off Business Catalyst. The platform will continue to function until March 2021 as announced, but you should start moving your sites to a different platform ASAP.

Regards,

Paul.

[Shane_McG]

Paul it is not as easy as that... We need time to do due diligence and fully understand new platforms, which only comes by building new sites on them and finding their limitations/quirks/API's/etc or we will end up with an even bigger mess!!

The fact you guys have not provided any additional export features has not helped us either. I think the least you can do is keep the system AS IS until the EOL date.

We have been a very proud and vocal supporter of BC over the years, creating lots of Apps and invested hundreds of thousands of dollars which is now worth nothing, please reconsider and know the REAL IMPACT these decisions have on businesses. Not to mention it hurts those who invested in BC the most!!

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Shane,

Templates have been a mean to create sites on the platform. They are not a paid functionality of the platform and more over do not contain customer data as they are empty sites. They can be archived through FTP for the most part, while web apps can be exported.

And we will not delete the templates, but transform them into trial sites whose expiry period can be extended by logging in the site admin. The abandoned one will obviously get deleted, if not saved.

Cristinel

[jeane43489873]

Please guys be reasonable.

You can't just keep adding new deadlines after the EOL announcement. This is very disruptive.

Many clients have seen the announcement and expect full services till the end.

Your logic to remove features because you have discontinued site upgrade does not stand. Those templates carry Intellectual Property and are part of workflows within companies.

We paid for this system and have a use case for it. Yes, it does not contain 'live data' but it is a very important part of our workflow.

You should have made mention of this on the EOL date announcement.

Please just stick to the EOL date and stop adding more headache to an already terrible situation.

[liturgy]

I’m not waiting until 2020 to migrate. I’m currently in process of determining new platforms for the different sites I manage. They have different needs, e.g. one an e-commerce business, one a membership subscription service etc.

The complexity of requirements and need for extensive testing of functionality for each replacement site makes the job of migrating much more difficult than building new sites.

EOL 2021 should mean that a site can last until 2021. Your strong advice to move everything off BC BY 2019 is OMINOUS. Why such ​STRONG ADVICE?

[pChirita]

Hi Paul,

Based on our experience, some people may postpone such complex tasks to the last few months of the end of life period, and then realize they don't have enough time to move off the platform. We strongly advise you to work on leaving the platform ASAP (i.e., researching new solutions, determining a migration path, and finally migrating sites) because we don't plan to give any extension to the March 2021 deadline.

Regards,

Paul.

[Anthony Wallace]

*** Hi Paul *** I suspect you have NEVER run a small business of your own – am I correct? To create a sense of URGENCY that BC Partners move their sites ASAP has ALARM BELLS ringing. The EOL has caught agencies by surprise and forced us to have difficult conversations with clients. Some new clients have opted to stay with BC and run the course of the EOL with a view to moving their site in the final 6 months to get the most from their investment. If you're suggesting that these clients may experience poor system performance or support from BC during the EOL period then this is nothing but an act of bastardy from Adobe. I'm sure the Industry Ombudsman will not look kindly on this.

[Shane_McG]

We still have a couple of years before sites are dead, BUT it takes a long time to fully get up to speed with new platforms and move all of your templates and back end technology. Team BC please extend this by at least a year. We are already in a sinking ship, don’t add more lead to it and make our job harder than it already is....

[Adam__Logo_Pogo_]

Starting to turn the lights off before everyone is out of the building... not cool.
So when is the true EOL date? I guess it depends what functionality you're using.

If we do not have full functionality of what the system, in its whole, provides then we shouldn't be charged full price.
Stop charging us for broken and degrading functionality!

It's Adobe's decision to EOL, so Adobe should bear the costs of that.

[pChirita]

Hi Adam,

I'd just want to kindly remind you that templates are a free feature, available to everybody, even to customers that have exclusively free trial sites for example.

Cheers,

Paul.

[Adam__Logo_Pogo_]

It's still part of the system Paul and makes up the service Partners have invested in.

All features and functionality helped sell the platform to Partners and is why we chose to use it. Just because Adobe label something as "free" shouldn't mean it's not actually part of the service and can simply be removed.
Labeling something as free is just a marketing tactic. Everything provided within BC is paid for by our subscription fees.

[BCPARTNER]

Adobe,

Please consider how we use Templates.  Aside from creating new sites, we frequently reference them to resolve issues with LIVE sites.  As you provide no "restore from backup" feature, we refer to Templates on a regular basis to recover the original, funtional, code.

Then, there is the inconvenience factor.  Marking them as Trial Sites will require that we routinely login to "extend" said trials, which is a time consuming process...not to mention the additional workload on your servers.

Again, please consider leaving the Templates as-is, along with all other functionality we are paying to receive, until the service End of Life date. 

Thank you,

Hanan

[Anthony Wallace]

*** Hi Paul *** I suspect you have NEVER run a small business of your own – am I correct? To create a sense of URGENCY that BC Partners move their sites ASAP has ALARM BELLS ringing. The EOL has caught agencies by surprise and forced us to have difficult conversations with clients. Some new clients have opted to stay with BC and run the course of the EOL with a view to moving their site in the final 6 months to get the most from their investment. If you're suggesting that these clients may experience poor system performance or support from BC during the EOL period then this is nothing but an act of bastardy from Adobe. I'm sure the Industry Ombudsman will not look kindly on this.

[lizgstar]

Hi guys,

Just so you know, I am currently researching new solutions, determining a migration path, and will be migrating sites well before EOL.

And, just so you know, because EOL was unexpected, I am doing this research outside of working hours as many other partners are.

And, just for your information, when I previously moved my business to BC from another CMS I took TWO YEARS to make that informed decision.

This decision is not one I want to rush into based on Adobe's changing timeline and now cutting back on functionality.

It is a strategic decision that is not just important for my business but also for my clients.

Can you please stop putting pressure on us, and stick to the EOL date and leave BC as is, and support us until then.
We have a lot to do.

Thank you.

[Liam Dilley]

Hey guys,

To Developers and Partners:

Both me and Brett have said it any time we speak to anyone - Do not wait to migrate, move away as soon as you can. The extended time people like me and Brett spent time to get for everyone is the time to work with clients and do the work, not to give you breathing room to get to it later. While the BC team insisted BC will run as it has done for the last year until EOL we have already seen various issues that should not have happened, have taken longer to resolve or still an issue today. You need to work to move your clients ASAP.

To the BC team:

Unfortunately this is an example of one of the core issues you had running BC - You did not quite get making websites and what clients did and needed for the websites as part of their business. (The most vital thing) which for me, along with another issue are the root causes of all the problems your end delivering on BC.

As I mentioned to you templates:

- Heavily marketed by you and the 3rd parties selling templates. The whole Template mode vs trial site as created to ensure they stayed there for the 3rd party template services. People paid money for these and a number of businesses relied on these. So there is money down on these. Them going into trial you know as well as we do is so that you can get them expired and deleted, advising to just renew or having to keep an eye on them - People do not have time for this.

- Your asking a lot of people right now. The reason for the extended EOL was to give people time to migrate, many of us are busy doing that and there have already been a few BC issues along with things like this your getting developers and partners having to mange on top of this. It is a bit much and you need to appreciate the work involved, going back to point 1 this leads to proper understanding of what is involved here. You guys do not really understand, which at this point - OK, but you need to listen to what people tell you on this stuff.

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi all,

Thank you all for the feedback.

We are committed on keeping the active sites live until the 2021. The includes paid sites, redeemed sites and trial sites which record at least one login per month. Templates are not any of those, but we understand that you need more time to move them out of the platform.

Therefore, we are going to remove the template feature from Business Catalyst on November 3rd, 2018 but extend the expiry date for those sites until 26th March 2020. Following that date, sites will not be automatically deleted, if they're still active (record at least one login per month).

Thank you,

Cristinel