Amazing! I returned here to see if anything had happened to this thread, and lo and behold ... it is ALIVE!!!
I would like to hark back to the original post and quote from office guy to reiterate the request for a tutorial in how all of your products integrate with each other from initial concept through to finished website. 
I agree with the objective ... but am not so sure that this is the way to achieve that objective ... see under.
The individual extensions work great when I know what I am doing with them... [/QUOTE]
Exactly.
... but just to highlight the point being made, I bought your SuperSuite some years back, and although I looked at some extentions straight away, I didn't actually understand their place in the process of building a website. Because of this, I didn't actually use any of the products for something like eight months.
My experience exactly. Goes back to the 'toolbox' idea IMHO. No point in having a bunch of tools when you have no idea what they are, or what they can do.
The next tool I used was data assist... all of a sudden I found the strength of a tool you make.
I again agree. And just like you ....
I couldn't do without it now, but it took me eight months to realise it! Universal email is another tool I took a while to figure out how to implement. The same with iRite. Validation tool kit... tried it, but just don't get it and how it works with pages I have created, so it is redundant along with site assist.
Here we differ. In the case of Validation Toolkit, I worked along with the tutorials, and I found the way in which the tutorials provided you with snippets all ready to use (just double click it in) invaluable. I did not find the tutorial particularly well-written because it was confusing to follow in places, but the singular virtue was that WebAssist had provided you with everything you needed to work through it, so it was just a case of reading it about half a dozen times over until gradually the concepts sunk in. Now, I again wouldn't do without it, although I find that it gets a bit irritating and loses track of itself when you are constantly adding and deleting fields, or changing from one type to another. In such a case it is good to keep a template backup in case you have to start over again from a particular point, and then just redo the validations.
What would be good is to see how you guys would take something along the lines of PowerStore and start from scratch with it and then construct it using your tools.
I agree that a series of tutorials concentrating on a set of discrete JOBS would be excellent, but I think that something along the lines of PowerStore is unnecessarily complex.
The individual tutorials are great if you know what you're doing with each tool ...
That's the point. As long as you know what you are doing.
... but if like me you don't understand where and when to implement tools, they aren't in my case going to get used, and in other cases they aren't going to get purchased.
Agreed. To express it in my toolbox language, you can't begin to see the usefulness of the tools when you can't imagine yourself using them, or see discrete and specific situations in which they might be used.
You could create an overview video tutorial of the process showing where each tool is used and why (start with tool A, then use tool B, then use tool C and so
Here is where this poster and I begin to differ on a remedy.
For example; double opt in email verification... I had a telephone conversation with one of your tech guys and he said use Universal Email, Data Assist and Security Assist. I am still trying to figure out how to do it... but that's a question I will post in another thread.
Well ... I think the point here is that this is just a string of several different JOBS, all strung together.
I'm not a novice, but I am no expert either.
I agree with this Poster ... and I think that WebAssist could do a better job of servicing and selling products to people like me and he.
The silly thing is, you have made development a lot easier, but in some instances, it's not clear how to use your tool, and so it doesn't get used or even purchased.
Agreed.
I have all of these wonderful tools, but I just don't use half of them because I don't understand where and when to use them. You might understand them because you recognised a need for them to be built.
Totally agreed. And here is what I think WebAssist should do. It's a question of teaching. I cannot find it now, but I once worked through a tutorial I found on the web on a site intended for women who are setting up their own businesses. The tutorial taught some basic PHP by working the student through what it took to upload some files into a database, arranging them in an array, and then displaying a picture file depending on which month it is.
When I purchased FileAssist, I immediately thought what a breeze that tutorial would have been if I had had FileAssist, because many of the procedures that tutorial took us through would have been unnecessary. FileAssist would have done them all. So ... that would be an excellent JOBS tutorial, demonstrating the power of this particular utility. You provide the person with the images and the database. The person then boots up Dreamweaver. And they work through the tutorial designed to do exactly what that tutorial did. But WebAssist also provides a running commentary explaining roughly what code is being implanted and why, and then a short while later ... boom. The person has learned something very fundamental, and you have also exhibited the power of this particular tool.
Or ... DataAssist. You obviously have no clue how intimading the whole procedures can be. So ... take it step by step. We are going to do this and then have DataAssist put some data in the Database. Now ... we are going to extract that data and put it over there and display it in that way. And then ... we are going to allow someone who has logged in to change their preferences which means that it is goiing to update in this way. And again, you give an idea for what code is being implanted and why. And so focussing on DataAssist alone, one starts to see the power of the tool.
Then ... same for SecurityAssist. Instead of just selling say the ContactFormSolution, why not take people in tutorial how some of the parts are built up? Because you pretty much have to pray and hope it all makes sense when you buy the solution, in order to make it work. But ... wouldn't it show off the power of your tools more if you provided a tutorial that divided it into bits and ... well ... you've got the idea and I've spent enough time.
What WebAssist should do is take each of those tools, and provide discrete tutorials showing those tools in action and how they do what they do, so that gradually people can learn to integrate them into their workflow. One a person has mastered an individual tool and got it to do some specific jobs, they can begin to see how entire projects can be constructed from putting together a whole string of different jobs, each of which they have individually mastered.
Which is pretty much how PowerStore is put together.
Bye again. Probably won't be back this time. I think I've now given you guys enough of my time ... and quite enough of my money. I own most of the things you make.
