Add-on XenReviews [CrowdFund]

[Daniel Hood]

Are those two bugs related to the filtering and maps? I remember those were particularly problematic.

I have maps fixed here: http://www.xenmods.com/reviews/reviews/services/
They just aren't working on the individual item. I'm not really including this as one of the bugs that are driving me crazy because it should be a relatively simple fix. It's just something I'm overlooking.

The other bugs are: the logo field isn't saving the image as the icon like it should be. Guessing it's due to the major overhaul of XenFields that Jeff did right before I took over, I just can't track down the issue exactly. And also filtering.

 

[Alpha1]

Are the conflicts between xengrid and other addons / sidebars resolved? Especially widget framework?
Have you upgraded to xf 1.5.3? Any problems with the serialized changes?

 

[Daniel Hood]

Are the conflicts between xengrid and other addons / sidebars resolved? Especially widget framework?

I'm running widget framework on my site though I don't have any grid items and widgets existing on the same pages so I can't be sure at the moment. XenReviews main add-on is my primary focus. I'd like to make that completely stable (obviously I know things like the map xengrid widget is a main feature so I'm focusing on things like that as well).

Have you upgraded to xf 1.5.3?

Yes, http://xenmods.com is on XenForo 1.5.3 and all add-ons I have installed are working.

Any problems with the serialized changes?

The only conflict could potentially be if there's invalid serialized strings in the options, I'll know that once I go to install it on a test environment with 1.5.3 installed. That'll be more of a last minute pre-release test.

 

[Alpha1]

I don't have any grid items and widgets existing on the same pages so I can't be sure at the moment.

I think its more important that both addons can co-exist on the same site. There was a conflict with anything that adds sidebars.
Vaultwiki has implemented a fix from their end to work around the conflict.

 

[Daniel Hood]

same site.

Did you mean same page? As I mentioned, both add-ons (bd widget framework and xrgrid) are running on http://xenmods.com.

 

[Alpha1]

Same site. Not page. See these bug reports:
http://xenreviews.com/forums/xrgrid-bug-reports/?prefix_id=2

 

[Daniel Hood]

Well yeah. I have not tested those other add-ons, as I don't have them, but bd widget framework and xrgrid are running together on xenmods. They just aren't on the same page together because I haven't tested that yet.

 

[Kintaro]

Really? LiamW works for xenmods now? Hm ...

What's wrong with he?

 

[sgr]

@Daniel Hood, is there an ETA for the next build?

 

[eberkund]

You have been promising a new build since July and haven't posted any updates in quite a while, what's going on?

Are you finally able to dedicate some time to this on a consistent basis?
How is the work of the new employee going?
Have the issues with the addon "packaging system" been resolved?
What has been done in the last 7 months since the last release?
What else is there that still needs to be done?

 

[Daniel Hood]

Apologies for the delay in response.

I've been talking with a variety of people about possible paths I can go with XenReviews. I've reached the conclusion that XenGrid needs to be depreciated. It has more bugs than worthwhile and bd Widget Framework has advanced significantly. I'm going to be porting the grid elements to bd widgets (like they were originally supposed to be anyways).

The actual XenReviews package seems to be the most stable part of the add-on which is great. This could honestly just be the fact that bugs from XenGrid and XenFields have been disguising issues with XenReviews but we'll see once I get to porting the widgets.

To answer your questions directly:

I've been working on XenReviews pretty steadily, it's not likely to get more consistent than that. I am however shifting Liam's focus to XenReviews. It's something I've been saying for a while, I was just attempting to get it to a stable enough point to where it's possible. I told Alfa privately the other day that I now recognize that as a foolish strategy. He (Liam) is reviewing the code now. Keep in mind, he is going to school so he's far from a full time employee. While Liam's main focus (as far as I'm concerned -- he still does his own thing though) will be XenReviews he may have to take breaks every now and then to do a custom job. We'll see though.

I'm ditching the packaging system.. so, yeah, it's resolved.

Honestly, not nearly as much as I wanted. Sorry. I didn't expect to run into bugs at every corner. There's no way to spin it. You guys know, the project has been a mess. Every time I get one thing working, something else is broken. I feel like I've been chasing my tail and banging my head against a wall.

Immediately? XenFields needs fixed. I can't really be more specific than that. I'm considering just replacing it similar to XenGrid. I'm building a custom fields system for Classifieds anyways, Liam and I will be open to switching to it. Stuart has continuously asked me how he can help with this add-on/situation. It's not a question I have a good answer to yet and something I've been brainstorming. For the past several months I've had the attitude that I just need to fix the bugs and push to a gold release. We will be approaching this differently now, if it doesn't work, we'll replace it.

I'd like to apologize again for the delay in response. I said that I'd never ignore questions and I pride myself on my quick response times. I felt bad not responding right away and you asked as I was in middle of organizing my ideas on how to continue and which path to take.

 

[empire]

I am really glad to hear that you’re going with Widget Framework. XenGrid seemed promising, but all our other add-ons use Widget Framework, and it's a lot of bloat to have to run it just for one thing.

Since we’ll be using your classifieds system too, it would be nice to have the fields handled similarly. (I don't care about XenCashier either, but maybe that's just me.)

I look forward to seeing what you and Liam do with it this year, and our beta testing team is at the ready when the time comes.

 

[eberkund]

I noticed that you didn't reply and it seemed out of character so thank you for that.

I am very to happy to hear about this new approach especially since I was favor of using widget framework originally. Having to go back sucks but at least this way it will cut down the size of the code base.

Honestly, not nearly as much as I wanted. Sorry. I didn't expect to run into bugs at every corner. There's no way to spin it. You guys know, the project has been a mess. Every time I get one thing working, something else is broken. I feel like I've been chasing my tail and banging my head against a wall.

Is this simply an issue of the amount of coupling between different parts of the code?

Do you have any estimates on how long (or even what tasks are needed to make that possible rather than a measure of time) it will take to get a standalone XR addon? Or even what refactoring still needs to be done before you consider things stable enough for Liam to join in? Or even help from the community, my offer to see what I can do still stands. I would be happy to continue this discussion in PM if you prefer.

 

[Mike Edge]

Wish this was making as much progress as classifieds is.. noticed xenmods already has a working version of classifieds.. Spring is almost here again and would love to use it for my project I had planned for last spring but couldn't as it wasn't released yet.

 

[Daniel Hood]

I noticed that you didn't reply and it seemed out of character so thank you for that.

I am very to happy to hear about this new approach especially since I was favor of using widget framework originally. Having to go back sucks but at least this way it will cut down the size of the code base.



Is this simply an issue of the amount of coupling between different parts of the code?

Do you have any estimates on how long (or even what tasks are needed to make that possible rather than a measure of time) it will take to get a standalone XR addon? Or even what refactoring still needs to be done before you consider things stable enough for Liam to join in? Or even help from the community, my offer to see what I can do still stands. I would be happy to continue this discussion in PM if you prefer.

It took a little longer to reply partially because it was you. I don't mean that offensively, if anything the opposite actually. I know a ton of people have run out of patience for this add-on, sadly. Your post kind of came across as you being at that point which is completely understandable. Due to how you've been through the whole thing (not just you, there's plenty of others that would have been equally shocking) kind of put me back a little.

I'm glad to see a positive response to my post, not just from you but all the likes as well. I was really nervous posting about depreciating XenGrid and potentially XenFields.

It's the amount of different parts, it's all the systems that were created, all the bugs, pretty much everything about the 100,000+ lines. I think when I start porting to widgets this weekend, things will start to move along. On the flip side, that's when I could finally start seeing bugs in XenReviews main product. So far the only bug I've seen that is 100% on XenReviews is the lack of icons working.

Liam is joining in before things are stable. I know my last post had a lot of content but I did mention that I'm giving up on the goal of having it stable before Liam joining in. I gave him two zip files (Beta 5 and Beta 6.2), we'll be talking about which one is the better base (taking XenGrid out of the equation) and moving on from there. We'll talk in private about you joining in. I would like to get a build out with widgets before I get any more hands on deck.

Wish this was making as much progress as classifieds is.. noticed xenmods already has a working version of classifieds.. Spring is almost here again and would love to use it for my project I had planned for last spring but couldn't as it wasn't released yet.

I know everyone has projects waiting that involve XenReviews (if not center around XenReviews). The difference in progress between XenReviews and the Classifieds add-on is simply the number of hours and me being more familiar with the code base since Classifieds is 100% me at this point and XenReviews is 99% Jeff at this point.

 

[Mike Edge]

I know everyone has projects waiting that involve XenReviews (if not center around XenReviews). The difference in progress between XenReviews and the Classifieds add-on is simply the number of hours and me being more familiar with the code base since Classifieds is 100% me at this point and XenReviews is 99% Jeff at this point.

Maybe so, but still extremely frustrating nothing has been released in months.. I mean just try to feel how all us buyers have to feel.. It's almost like, Whelp that 5 grand is spent and long gone, so I'll just throw this on the back burner now and take on another big buck project now instead. Thousands of dollars was invested in xenreviews, it should have been completed before you even considered taking on @Stuart Wright 's offer. What you did is like taking a car that was paid off and under warranty and threw it in the back of the shop to get repaired someday, while other cars drove right in with money in hand and got fixed.. I tried to keep faith and trust in you.. But seeing a usable classifieds on your site now while we been waiting months on months of excuse after excuse just doesn't sit well with me anymore.. In all honesty, your very lucky someone hasn't contacted the Gainesville County DA yet about fraud charges, this wasn't just a few bucks.. This was thousands and over the internet makes it federal too.. I hope for Stuart's sake, he isn't taken for the same roller coaster ride we were, not once but twice now.. I have nothing against you personally, always thought of you as a pretty nice guy.. But this is just getting out of hand, and to be fair, not only just you but several developers here with the months and months of excuses and broken promises.

 

[Daniel Hood]

Maybe so, but still extremely frustrating nothing has been released in months.. I mean just try to feel how all us buyers have to feel.. It's almost like, Whelp that 5 grand is spent and long gone, so I'll just throw this on the back burner now and take on another big buck project now instead. Thousands of dollars was invested in xenreviews, it should have been completed before you even considered taking on @Stuart Wright 's offer.

Im relatively good at putting myself in other people's shoes. Judging by your posts, I'm actually better than you at it actually since you can't seem to understand my side of things despite my numerous efforts. I'll explain it one more time. I GOT KICKED OUT OF THIS PROJECT. Afterwards, I found an alternative source of income (freelancing). My family is reliant on it. I can't give it up. Therefore, when I took this project back over so that you all weren't just screwed, I had to fit it into my already packed schedule. As for stuart, he has nothing to do with this. I'll slow it down for you, I freelance for 10 hours a week, if I have XenForo work I do that in those 10 hours. If I dont have XenForo work, I do overtime. Xenreviews is done outside of these 10 hours.

What you did is like taking a car that was paid off and under warranty and threw it in the back of the shop to get repaired someday, while other cars drove right in with money in hand and got fixed..

No, what really happened is I partnered with another mechanic. He convinced you guys he was a better mechanic. I got kicked out of the shop. I set up another shop. It's a successful shop. I rely on the shop. The other mechanic tried changing your Honda civic into a Bentley, got burnt out, got a better job, whatever. You guys brought this civic Bentley hybrid on bricks with missing spark plugs to my shop to finish up the conversion expecting me to ignore my new shop that my family relies on. It can't happen. Instead, I'll add the spark plugs and rims and other random things on weekends and at night when I have time. I may even hire an intern mechanic to help out after school.

In all honesty, your very lucky someone hasn't contacted the Gainesville County DA yet about fraud charges, this wasn't just a few bucks.. This was thousands and over the internet makes it federal too..

Because you directly call the DA for things like this. Also, in case that's what you want to do, alachua is the county and gainesville is the city. Jeff's in Boise, not sure the exact County. At least that's where he was last I knew.

I hope for Stuart's sake, he isn't taken for the same roller coaster ride we were, not once but twice now..

Meh. He won't be. It couldn't be a more different situation. Also, twice?

[Edit] can we also not pretend like I haven't offered "store credit" at a rate of 150%? Something you've ignored and actually given me more cash instead of using? As recently as a month ago? If you're so mad at me, what's that all about?

 

[Mike Edge]

I'll slow it down for you, I freelance for 10 hours a week, if I have XenForo work I do that in those 10 hours. If I dont have XenForo work, I do overtime. Xenreviews is done outside of these 10 hours.

Nothing needs to be slowed down for me.. Your work hours is not my concern.. receiving something I paid for over a year ago is.. If you don't have the time for the project, you should have never accepted the money... I have a family too, but I still deliver to my clients what I promise, when I promise.. Bottom line is those 10 hours a week should be spent on xenReviews weekly til completed, not taking on other projects.. You were already paid for the job.. If the money was still in escrow, you can bet damn well you'd still be chugging away at it, but since you got paid for it already, it's now at your leisure, which frankly is just pure bs.. When someone pays you a job, you do it.. you don't keep blowing it off with excuse after excuse... I guess another option also could be, stop taking freelance work so you can work those 10 hours of over time a week, and pay back the thousands received with your overtime pay.. Then continue Stuart's project after folks are paid back as our project should be top on your list as you were already paid to complete it, good money at that as 5 grand is almost 6 months min wage wages after taxes... You been blaming the code for months.. Why didn't you just start fresh then months ago? It could be finished by now.. Look how much you got done on Classifieds in just a few weeks. At the very least, xenReviews should have received 5 of your 10 hours of allotted weekly time and 5 hours for other things.. That's still a chance to work on xenReviews plus still 5 hours to make several hundred bucks a week from other projects..

 

[Daniel Hood]

Clearly my last post was a waste of time. Going to bed, have a nice night Mike. I'll let you know when there's news.

 

[Mike Edge]

can we also not pretend like I haven't offered "store credit" at a rate of 150%? Something you've ignored and actually given me more cash instead of using? As recently as a month ago? If you're so mad at me, what's that all about?

Because months ago I had faith still in the project, even did yesterday I believed you were working on this and was going to surprise us any day now with a big update, but like I said, seeing a semi working classifieds on your site today, just did not set well with me.. I felt like you spit in my face seeing that while sticking up both middle fingers... As we been waiting months on months end for a update.. A year has passed since a project I planned to stat using this for.. a project the money made from it could have helped with money that my family rely on, as it was going to be local based and I had advertisers that saw what it could be and agreed to advertising starting at launch day.. I'm not just mad at you, I'm fed up with a lot of the bs, smoke and mirrors and broken promises to out right lies from several developers within the community as of late. I try to be nice and patient with everyone.. but at a point yo reach that boiling point where you just have to say enough is enough..