[TYPO3-commerce] Commerce blues or Why I am switching to tt_products:

[Ralf Merz]

Hi zylonne,

how often do you plan to "retweet" this message?
I think your post did not get an answer because you are saying that 
you´ll going to be offlist now.

So replying to someone who isn´t there anymore doesn´t make much sense.

I feel sorry for your anger about the commerce Extension. There are 
still years old bugs, but the base core of commerce gives you a really 
good shop framework that is very flexible, in my opinion. Of course, 
this flexibility makes this extension also to be complex in some ways.

Demanding a 100% working code of a developer fitting all needs is not 
the right way in my view, but trying to help and give thanks would help 
everyone much more.

Well, if you think commerce is not the right thing for you, feel free 
to try other things.
But, I also want to thank you for your post. There is much truth in it. 
You wouldn´t have written it, if you haven´t had a reason for it.
But to tell people not to install it is a bit hard. I´ve installed 
commerce on a production server a few weeks ago without any problems. 
Well, I have to say that I know commerce since 3 years now, but such a 
long experience is not needed with commerce to install it.

There will be a book about commerce, I say "soon", as I don´t know the 
exact time. Maybe this will help you.

Have fun
Regards

Ralf Merz

On 2009-09-08 09:25:16 +0200, zylonne <zylonne at web.de> said:

> 
> How I wish I had read a post like this before wasting literally weeks of my
> time on typo3 commerce.  I bet that there are a lot of people out there like
> me, who see the commerce extension and think, hmm, maybe worth a try.  Let
> this posting be a warning to you! Here we go:
> 
> 1. The Installation:
> You can bring down your whole server just by clicking on "install this
> extension". No dependency checks are made, and there are a LOT of
> dependencies. Install all those extensions in the wrong order, and you will
> have a blank screen, I mean, no Front End, NO BACKEND, NO TYPO3! Do not ever
> install commerce  on a production server for the first time unless you think
> it is fun desperately googling for help during a few panic stricken minutes
> while your whole site is down.
> 
> 2. Select Attributes:
> For some reason the developers of commerce believe that the ability to
> select attributes for your products is some kind of advanced functionality.
> For example, you sell t-shirts. They come in 3 sizes and 5 colors.  The
> commerce solution is to list ebay style 15 articles!  Oh but there is a way
> to do it with drop down selects, only the code is broken, broken, broken and
> has been for years. I finally got it working after spending many intimate
> hours with the product php code. The problem?
> Even when it works there is a fundamental structural flaw in the select
> attribute code. Instead of using the radio/select form data itself,
> javascript is used to set some hidden variable  that the basket page
> expects.
> 
> BIG BUG: user selects color "yellow", javascript  reloads form. But  client
> hits "Add to basket" immediately instead of waiting 2-3 seconds for the form
> to reload.  The basket still shows the original selection, because there was
> not enough time for the hidden form variables to get set.  I consider this a
> serious bug since this is the single most important functionality of any
> shop software "Add to basket".  No user will EVER understand that the reason
> their attribute selection is not carried into the basket is because they hit
> the button too fast.
> 
> 3. No documentation for payment gateways:
> I have looked everywhere, written everyone I could find to write, posted to
> this list. There is simply no documentation anywhere on how to actually get
> a payment gateway working. Sure there is the paymentlib, and the paymentlib
> for commerce. I installed them. But when I configure everything that seems
> reasonable to configure and hit that payment method all I get is this on
> checkout "_ERROR". Maybe it works, but how can I know how without any docu?
> 
> 4. Buggy Addresses:
> Sometimes when I proceed to checkout I am asked to add an address, sometimes
> not and the checkout skips right through to the end. I have no idea why.
> Looking through the list there seems to be a long history of problems with
> billing/delivery address. This afternoon was for me the final straw. First I
> was offered the form, then I wasn't.  That's it. On to tt_products.
> 
> 5. Clientitus:
> This is by far the biggest problem with commerce. What is it? Clientitus is
> a sickness that affects some, but not all, open source software projects.
> 90% of the code does what it is supposed to. 10% does not (see the
> http://forge.typo3.org/projects/extension-commerce/issues commerce bug list.
> )  That 10% never gets fixed because everyone actually running commerce in
> production is using some local branch.
> Look, I understand as much as anyone that there is a need to make a living.
> And I know how complicated it is to merge local branches to the main trunk.
> But if those bugs never, ever get fixed in the main trunk of the project
> (to say nothing about the TER version, 9.8, that is so fully non-functional
> that the first thing everyone on this lists tells you to do is to get the
> svn version) then a project has clientitus.
> Cynics might say that the core developers intentionally foster clientitus
> but I don't even believe that is true. I think they just don't have time to
> deal with the main trunk and its many, many problems.
> 
> So, you like that fancy backend interface and still want to give it a try?
> Be prepared for one of these 3 options:
> 
> 1. Hire a commerce core programmer for 100EU/hour to get your commerce
> working. Pay them again to merge the code each time a new version comes out.
> 2. Fix everything locally yourself. Then you never, ever upgrade to some
> future version of commerce that has fewer or different bugs because your
> code is all particular to your project.
> 3. Become a Commerce Saint. Join the core team with NO CLIENT paying you.
> Devote your life to fixing all of the commerce bugs just to say you did.
> 
> Signing off this list now, thanks to everyone who helped me here and
> offlist. Good luck.