Attention
If your Photo Cart is suddenly getting a 500 error or only displaying a blank page then you or your hosting company has updated the PHP (programming language) to PHP 7 which Photo Cart is not compatible with (and will not be compatible with) mainly because of the removal of the my_sql functions which are replaced with my_sqli functions.
You would need to have the PHP version downgraded to 5.6 in order for Photo Cart to work. If downgrading the PHP doesn't work then you may have to update Photo Cart to the last version of 7. Download Photo Cart 7 upgrade files. Upgrade instructions.
Photo Cart was retired in 2015. Check out Sytist.
Upcoming Releases - My Wish List
While Stylist is a great new product it certainly differs from Photo Cart in a few areas.
Could you tell us the direction that Photo Cart is heading in? As each product has a varying feature set I am confused to the direction that is being taken. There are features in Stylist that are missing from Photo Cart and vice verse.
As new products for photo studios emerge each day there are a lot of features Photo Cart could benefit from. For example, many competing products offer online contracts and advance tracking of finances on the back end.
Here are a few things I am wishing for in future releases of Photo Cart:
Ability to pre-sell of packages to clients.
Online contracts
The ability to set add-ons to specific galleries and not have add-ons display in galleries that are not relevant to them
Better backend financial management -
ability to determine total $ amounts sold prior to taxes
ability to determine total $ amount of sales tax collected
Any information as to where this product is headed would be greatly appreciated.
With Sytist, I have started from scratch and have a better basis.
I am not saying there won't be another Photo Cart version, but at this time I am concentrating on Sytist.
Funny you mention the online contracts. No one has ever asked about that until a couple of days ago and then 2 people within 60 seconds contact me about online contracts / digital signatures. I briefly looked into it and more complicated than just typing a name in a field. I am sure I will look more into it later though.
My Email Address: info@picturespro.com
Thank you for the info.
As a new customer I have to say your answers concern me. I have been a linux server admin for a long time and I know from experience that supporting two different code bases is not an easy task. In the end, one always suffers.
Honestly, without a certainty in direction I have a loss of confidence in where you are going. I think others will too and it is going to hurt your sales and business reputation.
I am sure there is a certain attachment to a product you worked on for 10 years. However, you need to let us know if we are now using a legacy product. I see that each product has features the other doesn't. This makes it feel like you are losing important features in whichever your choose. Is there a feature road map for the new product? What new features should we expect with Stylist as it evolves?
Is there a stand alone cart using the Stylist base? I use Wordpress and am not looking to switch. Where does this leave me (and likely the majority of your current client base already using a CMS)?
I see you have offered a discount for moving over to Stylist but as someone who just purchased within the last 6 months there is no way I would switch at what is almost the majority of the price I just paid.
You could use Sytist as a stand alone shopping cart by just installing it on a sub domain. When Sytist is installed, it is a clean slate with no sections and you create what sections you want to have and just create a clients section.
My Email Address: info@picturespro.com
UPDATE***
Just want to say I am no longer confused. It took me all of day to figure out what was going on here and realize I was stupid not jump on board. Best decision made. This system rocks and it keeps getting better week after week.
I've watched and been involved in, post on this forum over the years and like anything else, you have a variety of people with different views of what photocart is and what it should be. At times, Tim responded to some issues based on the volume of the poster (squeaky wheel gets the grease) and not the concerns of the larger group. With that said, most were minor issues (viewing customer passwords as example) that we can live with.
I did have a few concerns the biggest being "FREE UPGRADES FOR LIFE". My reasoning is simple, a ton of development work and time and zero income, except new sales. This model works well as long as the company is small or the software is not sole source of income. I would think a 66% discount for upgrades to new versions and only support two versions back.
PicturesPro has grown, maybe even more than Tim ever expected. Why, because PhotoCart filled a need. There are hundreds of "All-In-One" solutions; website, blog and cart. The problem was most of them put all development effort on the frontend (website), the blog and then cart just thrown in at the end. Many charged commissions on everything. For me at least, finding PhotoCart was like a breath of fresh air. I could use any one of Thousands of websites or blogsites that are just awesome and then have a link to the BEST DANG PHOTOCART out there. Perfect.
Tim states that this support forum is not the "official" support for photocart. Well it might be like that on paper but in practice i'm not so sure. I do know that Dave (LetDaveDoIt.com) carries the load for PhotoCart support. At least on the forum side of things. If Dave goes away, this forum dies. Tim is on the forum only when a new update or product is released, then gone until next update. I'm not saying Tim should be active daily here, I'm just saying that if Tim is the brain then Dave is the backbone.
I think PhotoCart may die and if it does that will be very sad day for me.
But then I was like why am I doing this? Why go into another market when I kinda know the photo selling business. Wouldn't it be nice to start a new system from scratch and knowing the mistakes I had made in the past and knowing what I know now?
So then I started writing the photo selling part and my OCD kicked in.
"Name the killer options that make the new Sytist platform a must have."
This really depends on what your market is and why type of photography you are doing. If you are doing something where you need password protected sub galleries, Sytist doesn't have that (has sub galleries, but not password protected). Photo Cart does. The compare page I have listed the features I could think of.
http://www.picturespro.com/compare/
I hope to make these new forums the official support area. I have written the new forum system in a way that I think it will help people find the answers they need easier (eventually) with the use of the categories, search & FAQs. I get a LOT of emails and had the old forums as more as community support. I am going to be active in the new forums.
I do thank everyone for their business and hope you are all doing well with your businesses. The photo business is not the same it was 10 years ago.
edit: Forgot to answer the discount is good until you use it. There is no expiration on it.
My Email Address: info@picturespro.com
I echo all of the concerns that SHUTTERSPEAK has. As a company that sold a product that advertised free upgrades for life as well as someone who has spent $417 in the last one year plus at least +100 hours of time customizing it and built a system around photocart - to see you abandoning the software that has brought you so many loyal customers and referrals upsets me.
Over the last few months I sent emails asking about feature upgrades I really wish you had been upfront about things, especially when I asked about specific integrated features over the last few months that are now available in Sytist.
No matter how you put it, even making it 50% off sytist doesn't take care of your loyal customers as well as your relatively now customers. As a company, you made a promise for updates for life and made it a feature of your product. From a PR standpoint, it sends the wrong message as to the direction pictures pro is taking and how it stands by its products and promises.
I think you should take a serious look at alternative ways to make sure that you take care of loyal customers. For example, making anyone who purchased version 6 and up should get the new software for free. Version 4 a small fee and original purchasers the 50% discount.
Nami
Upgrades for life AND free tech support? That's not a long term model for success. You either have to charge for the tech support or charge for the upgrades or you focus your efforts on donations.
Anything else is just a hobby, not a business model.
Photocart is by far the best product on the market for what it does. Sytist shows promise to eclipse that. I'll happily pay for the upgrades to keep the coding moving forward.
First off, Happy Newyear to you and your family.
To get a bit more on-topic, since you state that PhotoCart won't be abandonned, let me briefly just tell you that you maybe should alter your pricing strategy to a maintenance contract type? I'm sure that there are many of your loyal clients who are willing to pay a small yearly fee to keep PhotoCart development going? 17-20% of the initial price is a normal maintenance fee in Software-land? > just my thoughts, hope i'm not being shot at for this :-S
As for features that i really mis (maybe they are in v7, but i didn't upgrade my version yet):
- image crop: when e.g. a client chooses a canvas of some x/y size, it would be nice to have them crop the picture themselves, so they see immediate result on their choice?
- personalization? What about personalized photogifts? Is there any plan on letting a user choose a picture and have it instantly displayed on the product (e.g. coffee mug, smartphone case, bag, etc)? This is absolutely a 2014-item, since personalization is a major keyplayer in a typical 2014-Consumer-brain?
Thanks for your help & support,
Greetings from Belgium,
T.
I don't think you are understanding just why the individuals that are upset are upset. A major concern is for a company to service its clients and stand by its product. If Sytist is truly a separate and new product, why would a company delete all the old data and forum? The actions of Pictures Pro show that it is phasing out support and service of PhotoCart. I emailed Tim at the end of September asking about the integration of Stripe and was told there was no plans of integrating that within the system. To see it available within Sytist is a clear signal on the impending abandonment of the PhotoCart platform.
I don't think someone who has had the platform for multiple years and been through multiple upgrades will feel the effects of this as much. But look at ShutterSpeak, whom I think is entitled to a full credit of monies paid for photocart to use towards Sytist. ShutterSpeak purchased a product that was promised free upgrade for life and within 6 months is being told that actually, there won't be any upgrades and the companies efforts are all going to be directed to a different product. Put yourself in those shoes. How would you feel?
And to touch on your other comments about it not being a long term model for success, I think you are very wrong. Firstly, since I have been a user of photocart any real "Tech Support" has come from other photo cart users. I have also purchased pertinent plugins like Design Proof and the Slideshow add on and in recent discussions with Tim have suggested that I would pay for additional plugin features like a Contract module for the invoicing system. There are many ways of monetization while still maintaining updates.
Best,
Nami
As for image wrap, what does it wrap around. I may have a cup, mug and laptop cover, you may have purse, keychain and chair cushion. Add to that how big is your image vs my image. The company that offer that also do the printing of the object. Now don't shoot me, I could be wrong, but just based on what I've seen.
To other concerns, IMHO, PhotoCart as we know it (upgrades, etc...) is a thing of the past. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I think it's all but fact.
Did photocart need a major overhaul? Maybe. Were there room for improvements? Always. I'll follow up with more thoughts later.
As a company that sold a product that advertised free upgrades for life
Free upgrades. When there is an upgrade available, it has always been free for 8 years and 5 version. That is not a promise there is going to be an upgrade. States that when there is an upgrade it is free.
If Sytist is truly a separate and new product, why would a company delete all the old data and forum?
BECAUSE IT WAS OLD. I wrote that old forum probably 10 years ago. The way passwords were encrypted in the old forum database doesn't match my new system and no way to make them match. I needed to write a better forum system. Simple as that.
Blame on me. Free upgrades was a bad business model. So I had to come up with a new product to stay in business. Sytist is that new product and if you read my previous post, it wasn't my intention to turn it into a photo selling system.
My Email Address: info@picturespro.com
Thanks for replying.
I do see what you want to do with the business and I truly do think you went about it incorrectly and has a result will hurt the reputation of the company. There is an overall feel that in this move you haven't taken care of your customers and this really could have been avoided.
Pictures Pro never announced that Photocart would now be a legacy product to its users. Till now, there has been no email to customers letting them know that most likely photocart will not be updated again. Communication is key. What direction is the company heading, etc. Honestly and transparency could only have helped you in this transition. The few times I emailed you over the last few months, which I am sure you had already been working on Sytist at that time, you could have easily said you had something in the works and to look out for it. That it would be a platform where these features could more easily be integrated.
I am in business myself and fully understand that supporting a platform for 10 years is a failing business model. But a year to two years is entirely reasonable. Most products come with a warranty. Shutterspeak should be taken care of differently than say a user who bought version 1, 2, or 3.
I truly feel you need to pick a stance and stick with it instead of making contradictory statements.
Case in point -
Time stamp Sunday Jan 5th, 8.54am: Sytist is a new product and it wasn't my intention to turn it into a photo selling system.
Time Stamp Friday Jan 3rd, 12.14pm: Wouldn't it be nice to start a new system from scratch knowing the mistakes I made in the past and knowing what I know now?
To summarize. The issue isn't that you wanted to make Sytist. It is how you went about it.
1st off, PhotoCart still works as described on it's sales page (and will into the foreseeable future), and that's what you decided to buy... yes, free updates for life are great (and there have been many), but this is a product that is designed to be used to generate profits for you... has it not paid for itself many times over already (excluding recent purchases, in which case it should) if it hasn't, maybe try a different line of work? Or try a different software... like Sytist (yes it is a different software, from a different build theory with different, albeit, some similar features, with different goals, and a different means to get there).
2nd, "Free Upgrades for Life"... maybe this is the end of PhotoCart's life (from a developer's view). Ten years in the software industry is a pretty good run! Tim is offering a generous discount (for all of us loyal customers), does Intuit offer 50% discount for their new must have software? Does Intuit let you continue to use their software with all features intact indefinitely? Just sayin'.
Yes, it would've been nice to be notified that PhotoCart was being phased out... WAIT! Who said it was? Oh! Was there a statement somewhere that promised a future upgrade, not that I saw. (Note: I would have liked a notice of this new product, but somehow I found it anyway)
QUIT YER Bitchin' !!! If you like PhotoCart, stick with it, if not, go shopping! (personally, I'm pretty excited about Sytist and how it might make my customers' shopping experience better, afterall, their opinions are the most important...right?)
~signed... tired of the I-Deserve-Everything-For-Free mentality (ie welfare abusers)
Enter the wacky right winger calling names like you know people. Her concerns where validated by the creator of Photocart. Don't like it? Discuss it intelligently like the rest us.
Otherwise just STFU...
Maybe you are ok with someone telling another member to "Quit their bitchin" publicly or calling members with different concerns "welfare abusers." Fact is this post was in the gutter when I got here.
I also personally know the OP and she was hurt and upset by his tone. If an admin like yourself is ok with the first offensive post. Don't get upset when things escalate.
And let me say, boy am I glad I did. There is so much more potential with this platform and encourage any fence sitters to do it. I believe Tim has even given recent buyers of Photocart a choice to exchange their license over to Sytist. Do it! This thing works. Are there bugs? Hell, ya. It's in Beta dude. And you have the chance to help Tim make things better. And boy has he been busy fixing things. I personally hope there is more potential in the future for other business applications. So he can make more money and keep developing this platform.
So people can say quite yer bitchin, and shut the fudge up all they want, just have the decency to come back and apologize for your human gut instict to blurt out dumb shit.
Let's all go back to creating beautiful images and helping to make the world a peace loving community. (J/k)
Loading more pages