Pages - honest feedback

[FZ]

Having now seen firsthand just how much less control we have over things in Pages compared to IP.Content in 3.4.x I feel like slitting my wrists after the upgrade. I now have to relearn an entire ecosystem of making templates and have pretty much thrown years of block development for my site down the drain. 

Honestly, I don't think that I will bother learning how to do things in Pages that were so simple to modify via HTML in 3.4. I'm just super disappointed in this product. I wouldn't advise anybody who has spent years building up a site with pages, blocks and databases on 3.4 to upgrade to 4.x. You lose too much and you gain nothing. 

[Rikki]

Would you mind going into more detail about the 'less control' aspect? I use Pages heavily since I manage our website, documentation and so on, and I find we actually have more control in Pages. Letting us know what you feel is missing would help us in future.

[FZ]

So when creating a block in IP.Content you'd get to the templates part of the wizard and there was a variety of templates to chose how to display your feed. Now there's just one for the plugin.

Trying to decipher the new coding behind the templates is just way too time consuming because the list of variables that I used to simply be able to click and insert into the parts of the template where they were needed is no longer there. 

Something else "missing" is the ability to click on a block preview while looking at the list of blocks and have it show in a lightbox. Now I have to go into the block setup itself and see the preview there, which to be honest isn't laid out in a friendly manner at all. 

IMHO, the IP.Content way of doing things was perfect for people like me who aren't coders, but who could manipulate the templates by making small changes. All that functionality is gone (or very well hidden because I can't find it anywhere). 

[Andreas Eriksson_76263]

On 7. juni 2016 at 4:44 PM, FZ said:

IMHO, the IP.Content way of doing things was perfect for people like me who aren't coders, but who could manipulate the templates by making small changes. All that functionality is gone (or very well hidden because I can't find it anywhere). 

I have used ip.Board for many years, and are no coder by any means.... But, as FZ states... it was much easier in a way to change and build templates with the old 3.x system... or the 4.x could be on the same level if we " the non coders" would be able to have a list of variables. As of now i don't have a clue how, or what to extract from the DB´s i create. 

I guess i could go in to the DB it self and try to find out about that part, but as 4.x is so user-friendly all-around, the template and block part should be a bit easier.

You would probable increase your sales to non-coders if building templates and blocks would look more like the "page-builder" funktion. Easy extract from your DB, then build the block/template by selecting div´s,rows and cols and display it as you like.

[Netherlord]

Pages is Awsome. What i would like to see though is more examples. Most of the time i can accomplish what i want but i find it hard to do it due to a lack of examples of what i can achieve. Call it knowing what is possible or just inspiration but yeh i would like to see more examples.

[MeMaBlue]

8 hours ago, Netherlord said:

Pages is Awsome. What i would like to see though is more examples. Most of the time i can accomplish what i want but i find it hard to do it due to a lack of examples of what i can achieve. Call it knowing what is possible or just inspiration but yeh i would like to see more examples.

I am a potential client for the content app,  (have the normal suite for 2x domains, and just migrated and in a test phase) and yes, 

I actually dont know i i am able to acheive what i want to with the pages app, before purchasing, 

and support cant give me a specific answer as of if i can acheive what  i want,

and has referred me to the community.

So actually i am hesitating to go this way  if someone does not give me a specific description of the potential of what i am buying. 

(for this reason i have also posted this , which is very specific/complicated and maybe thus not having any answers, or i havent described it well enough )

If i had a more detailed description maybe my developer would know if he can use the pages app or not, or just make something on his own. 

I guess that there is not so much time for the staff to actually try the product out by trying the options  and give examples   with screenshots or case studies ?

or is there something i am missing too, that i havent found? 

A comparison in real life would be  a kitchen mixer accesory pack, where you would have a brochure explaining what every attachment would be able to make and at least one or two example of recipes of how to use it.  and in this media era, for example,  a youtube video with someone clicking and draging, showing you live and fast,  some versions /ways to maximize all the potential of the app.  ?  

maybe there hasnt been time for it ? or its a copyright issue?   I would  apreciate it to get any tip. 

my proposition to those who have the pages/content app,  and are satisfied / are using it succesfully

could you perhaps post screenshots and  method descriptions of how you acheived this result? 

is there any such existing topic for the 4.0 version+apps? 

this way clients or wannabe clients will all know whats possible ...   not necessarily in a detailed discription, just some hints on how to do it/possibilities