Hi there,
I really like this app - and wondered what the upgrade path was going to be. I know that David built this primarily as a way of demonstrating what his wonderful magicparser could do. However we all use this app to do more or less the same stuff so I wondered if treating price tapestry as a open source project might be a good idea.
The reason I say this is that if one of us develops an improvement to the script then it would be nice for the rest of us to have access to it. For instance I would like to be able to have sub categories so that I could build a category tree down the leftnav (not sure how I'm gonna do this yet. But I'm betting others would like this ability too.)
I'm gonna put a username and password on the admin page - (which I bet everyone has done so this is effort duplication.)
I'm at the beginning of building my portal so I was considering building it around the skinning metaphor - making future installations easier and obviously making the script more attactive to first time users.
Rotating banners across top, bottom and right nav - with an administration area for controling banners.
David how would you feel about this? - probably the more features pricetapestry has the more copies of magicparser you are going to sell.
Also how do other people feel? Would people be willing to share improvements?
Regards
Wayne (PriceLid)
Hi David,
I understand your comments, though in the future if you would like to put just the pricetapestry part of the project opensource (thereby keeping magicparser a saleable component and keeping to your business model) then I would like to be considered for the development team.
Regards
Wayne
Hi David
Wondered if you knew that PHPnuke although open source still charge what they call a download fee.
Might be something to remember - not bugging you I promise, just wondered if you knew.
Regards
Wayne
Short of creating a username and password for the admin page, it might be simpler just to password protect the admin directory from within your website control area if you're using something like CPanel.
Hi Wayne,
Thank you for your comments - i'm glad you're enjoying the script!
Open source is a completely different business model to the way in which I am working at the moment; and it would be something i'd have to think very carefully about.
There are a number of reasons why I have not chosen open source as an obvious route for Price Tapestry; with perhaps the most significant relating to the support commitment that this project generates.
The script as it stands has gone through significant development from "Version 1" in response to lots of feedback; and the current distribution has become very stable and without any modifications for some time now.
To take your points specifically; hierarchical categories is something that people have requested in the past; but on closer inspection there just isn't the quality of data out there to make it a worthwhile development. The "Big" price comparison sites manage it through human data processing and categorisation - but they employ armies of people to do it for them.
Also with regards to password protecting the admin directory; I have very intentionally not included this as part of the distribution because it can be notoriously difficult to get working! Creating .htaccess and .htpasswd files is simple in theory, but in practise it requires an understanding of file permissions and fully qualified path names that can be very difficult for a novice user on a shared hosting account to get working. I feel this aspect is best left to the many tutorials on this subject; and 3rd party password protected folder methods that exist in some hosting control panels - they're far easier to use.
Thanks again for your interest and I hope my comments sort-of make sense. Things may change in the future but i'm afraid it's not a route I want to take at the moment.
All the best;
David.