Very interested in this program. But I'm already worried about support. My sole need for the product includes the purchase of multiple integation plugins, so the free demo for my intents & purposes is mostly useless. So I created a support ticket regarding the product & a couple of the add on plugins. A response was "guaranteed" within 24 hours (don't know what's guaranteed) but its been more like 48 without a response. I'm leary to purchase without some existence of support. I bought my share of software from developer on their way out, one even hours before they shut the site down. So again, how's the official support?
Official support is GOOD. Its 5 business days per week Responses are on a first come first served basis within categories. Troubleshoot category (urgent problems for live sites) gets precedence as it should do over presales enquiries, requests for mods etc Support community (the forum ) also is very good. Ive seen gripes about it but I have called on the ticket system numerous times over 2 yrs and never had a problem with it. Also note that adding to a ticket as opposed to creating a second ticket, will put your ticket to the end of the queue again (just a function of the helpdesk they are using).
Second vote for GOOD support. Over the 4+ years I've been using it I have consistently gotten my responses within 24 hours. The community is also a great place for getting most things sorted out.
Thanks for the encouragement. Since you both have experience with the product, maybe you can help me, or point me in the right direction. 1) Does the developer have a decent record of keeping the available integration plugins current? 2) I'm using Vbulletin 3.7.x series with an established memberbase. Is there a method in place to import my existing subscribers/usergroups from Vb to aM? If so, I want to integrate other scripts on the aM plugin list, notably: Xcart - would like to see Zencart Openrealty These 2 (along with vBulletin) are all listed as offering both "Usergroup support" & "Single Login support". 3) Would I be correct in interpreting that aMember can allow a single subscriber various access to all 3 scripts with a unified login? 4) Also (the kicker) could these 3 scripts be under different domain names or in separate databases while residing on the same server (IP)? Thanks for the insight.
1) Not bleeding edge current and usually only once a product has been officially released (read: no updates to beta/pre-release to prevent double work). If you are someone that jumps on new versions quickly, I suggest two things, (1) testing new versions out yourself in a test environment (2) if there is a problem, start communication early with support here so they can get to resolving the update before it becomes an emergency for you. 2) Getting the usernames and emails from VB is easy. As passwords in VB are stored encrypted, however, I believe you will need to reset the passwords. 3) While I have not tested all of those applications myself, that is what the intent is. 4) If the domains are subdomains of a primary domain (primary.com, sub1.com = primary.com/sub1, sub2.com = primary.com/sub2) then yes. If this is not possible (no technical reason it should not) then it becomes much more difficult requiring use of remote calls, etc. Also (the kicker) could these 3 scripts be under different domain names or in separate databases while residing on the same server (IP)?
Thank you! I actually downloaded the trial version & was happy to see that ALL available plugins were included with the trial, which allowed me to play. Above that there was INDEED a zencart plugin that wasnt on the integration list WHICH WORKS! I uploaded the amember script to my domain which contained my vbulletin memberbase, however there was an issue, I suspect it involves the VbAdvanced vbulletin plugin. long story short, the amember admin script conflicted within the same domain. So I uploaded the amember script to another domain & setup the zencart & VB plugind to remotely connect to both domains (on 2 other seperate domains) & it seems to work fine. Records are produced in all 3 databases. aM even handles discount groups in zencart & usergroups in vbulletin. The only issue I've had so far is trying to import VB users into aM, the plugin makes a good looking CSV, but when I try to import I get the following error: Fields not found or number of fields < 3 Anyone encounter this before? (Also, anyone getting topic reply notifications from this forum? I've set it to "instant email notification")
Regarding your error, for a VB import you should do the following: 1. A CSV export from VB containing just username and email (unless you have custom fields?) 2. Use the import feature in Amember a) set username to field one b) set password to generate or fixed (whether you want random or everyone to have the same c) set email to field two Regard topic email, you have to be subscribed to a thread to receive notification.
Yeah, thats what I read in the docs. Setting the fields & generating passwords, is that an option given after importing, or does it need to be edited into the CSV? I ask because I don't see where to perform steps a,b,c anywhere. Ive attached a screenshot of my import form. The error occurs after submitting this form.
No it's an option WITHIN the import screen itself. You will need to clear the data and reimport this time setting the options when you set up the import process.
Sorry I'm confused, The screenshot above is the 1st. step (of 3) for the import process. For example, when I click the import link, from the left side menu, the above form is all that is displayed. My process: I first went to my vB forum ACP & used the Amember supplied VB plugin to generate the CSV. (succesfully) I saved the CSV file to my local machine. Then I attach the generated CSV (actually its a .txt). Then, using the browse button, I submitted the above form. the error in red above, returns immediately after submitting the above form. My CSV is structured like so: 1st line: (generalized to protect users record) Code: vBusername;user@usersemail.com All subsequent lines match the same basic structure, file size about 240kb. Should the 1st. line be edited to contain the username field number & email field number? or is that remedied in the second step of the aMember import form? I can tell, because I cant get to step 2 without the above error. Thanks again, I feel like I owe you support tokens
Red, I assume then that the trial version is a slightly different release to what Im used to. Sorry if I led you astray
No need to apologize, That was my first inclination, that the import function in the trial version was crippled to allow only 3 records max, to import. (as eluded to in the error) But I edited the import file down to 3 records & resubmitted it with the same results. One thing I HAVENT done is added "fields" thru the aM ACP, if I created new fields like "email" & "username", do you think it would change the import form to include 2 new input boxes to establish the relation to the import file? I know I'm working you hard, but would you or anyone care to attache a screenshot of your import form for comparison? I'm trying to avoid the ticket system, as I have yet to purchase & the less i bother the developer, the more time he has to work on the actual bugs & code enhancements. I know this topic has gone astray from the original post, (regarding support) but I do want to say, I did indeed get a response to my initial ticket. Thanks for the insight indeed.
Let me get this straight (and Im flying blind here as I dont use VBulletin). Is there an import data to amember function within the vBulletin plugin? If so was this what you used? I was referring to the Amember control panel Import/Export function which is a standard option, not even connected to vBulletin I wouldnt create NEW fields as username and email are very specifically used as std fields within Amember And dont worry about my time..I am not always as readily available in here but I was and still am doing some research in the forum for another project I am looking at so it's no biggie to stop and answer Also since this is almost a Q&A write me an email sjmitchell52 AT gmail DOT com and give me a skype IM or yahoo messenger IM address and we can get thru this in mins rather than hrs
Kinda, the VB plugin from amember allows you to generate a CSV dump thru the VB ACP. it doesnt transfer any data directly over to aMember, you still have to use the built-in aMember import form. The VB plugin simply gives you the populated CSV dump to import. Gotcha, I was just making sure I didnt misconfigure aM to properly import the CSV dump. I appreciate that, but I figure the discussion might help someone else here in the future, so I don't have any problem waiting for a response. If you indeed need any personal info to investigate, the by all means, get ahold of me at: redg8r aht tampabay.rr.com Thanks again.
I just installed the trial version and followed the above steps with no problem. One thing that differed from your screen shot is that I changed the semicolon in the interface to a comma.
My CSV file produced a semicolon seperator, but I tried it again using a comma & still get the same error. In your CSV, was the first line an actual record, like mine? I'm wondering if the first line should actually contain the field name? I have about 7,500 users to import, could that be an issue? <sarcasm>I could always enter them individually</sarcasm>
My first line contains a record. Just for testing, try just working with one record in your file.. at least eliminates the number of users from the equation.
Don't sweat it, it's a bug(plain and simple) I just decided to try the trial and got the same thing with only 21 members. I tried aMember over 1 year ago and I walked away after my 30 days were up without ever getting a solution to my problems. I wonder if the support has changed at all now? Time will tell...