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MachForm Community Forums » MachForm 2
No compelling reason to upgrade to version 3
Started 12 years ago by williamansley | 14 posts |
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I am very disappointed that multiple user accounts or conditional logic were not added to Machform 3 as well as (or even instead of) the very nice but ultimately purely cosmetic new features. Since we have already heavily customized Machform 2 to make up for some of its shortcomings there is no compelling reason for us upgrade to Machform 3, even though we qualify for a free upgrade.
Don't get me wrong. Machform is a great product (even a fantastic one, considering the price) and it does have very good support through this forum. It helps us tremendously when making simple forms, and we will upgrade eventually, when we have time to redo our customizations, but I still wish that more priority had been given to adding new features that provided major new functionality rather than just (for the most part) adding incremental improvements to existing features.
Posted 12 years ago # -
How do you know multi-user accounts isn't in v3? Yuniar has told me multiple times that it would be included in the v3 release.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Well, it's not listed among the new features. Since it is perhaps one of the most requested features to be added to Machform, I would assume that they would trumpet the fact that version 3 has it, if it does.
Just to be sure we are talking about the same thing, what I mean by multi-user accounts is the ability to set up multiple user names and passwords in Machform (or better yet, integrate Machform with an external validation source, such as LDAP). Users can then log on to their accounts in Machform and create their own forms, which only they (or the Machform administrator) can edit. They will also be able to view and manage the data submitted to their forms, which will not be accessible to any other users (except the Machform admin, of course).
I would love to be wrong about this. If I am, then I'm sure someone from Appnitro will correct me soon and I will be delighted to abjectly apologize.
Posted 12 years ago # -
yuniar
purely cosmetics? oh wow.. that's hurt :(
multi users is not coming yet within 3.0 indeed, but it doesn't mean we're stopping here. I don't want to make promises, but I just want to say, be patience guys.MachForm Founder
Posted 12 years ago # -
Now that I have had more time to review the new features of version 3, I'll admit that using the phrase "purely cosmetic" was too harsh and I apologize for using it. You have added some significant (and much needed) functional improvements as well.
As far as being patient goes, while I know it is a virtue, if we have to wait another four years for version 4 to come out with multi-user functionality, I may run out of patience before then.
Posted 12 years ago # -
My recommendation is to install V3 when it is released and try it out - there are some great new features included (Not JUST cosmetic, although the ability to alter the themes in so many ways is amazing)...
I found Version 2 and 3 to be like night and day in terms of what we can do with it, quickly.
Thanks Yuniar for all the help - you've been awesome
Posted 12 years ago # -
@jpello: I agree there are some great new features in version 3 and I have admitted I was wrong to use the phrase "purely cosmetic" to describe them. But the fact remains that none of the new features make version 3 a "must have" upgrade for my institution (a community college), and the fact that we have already had to heavily customize Machform 2 to make it usable for us makes it impossible for us to move to version 3 without a lot of extra work. So we will have to wait until we have some extra time to upgrade to version 3; it probably won't happen until the summer.
If Machform v3 had multi-user account or even conditional input, then it would be a "must have" upgrade and we would have made the time to upgrade sooner, rather than later.
Posted 12 years ago # -
It is quite simple to add an 'form_owner' field to the table 'ap_forms' and modify the authentication section to authenticate against an ldap if the admin login fails. I guess the problem is that making this work out-of-the-box for every ldap/remote authenticator is hard. I'll be happy to submit my modifications to yuniar for ideas for a multiuser option in V3.1 :)
Thanks again for excellent software, and outstanding support!
Posted 12 years ago # -
After reading the confirmation from yuniar post up there, I don't know if we will upgrade right now either. The multi-user feature is a HUGE priority for us and for the amount of people that have requested it, I would think it would be a pretty big priority for machform as well.
Posted 12 years ago # -
In our organization, multi-user support isn't as big of an issue. I do all of the form work and we use it mainly for registrations for events, I have been running the beta and it is big improvement over version 2 in my opinion. I admit that I am one of those people that benefits from easy to use interface because I lack in the code department. New features I like are the Themes, easy payment options, and the program runs faster overall. I know I will upgrade.
Posted 12 years ago # -
First, I want to say the new features are good for me.
But, same as williamansley, it is very disappointed to hear version 3 still not multi-users.
I have already had to heavily customize version 2 to make it can support mutli-user, so I will not upgrade it to version 3 until it supports multi-user ( it's best if it can support LDAP authenication ). Because I don't want to have a lot of extra work to migrate the data from my customized environment to version 3 and then more customization on the v3 program codes to make it support multi-users.
I hope MachForm v3 can support mutli-users in coming updates ( althrough it does not release ).
Posted 12 years ago # -
When you take a piece of work that someone has collaborated on, and poured hours and weeks, and years of blood, sweat and tears into, and hate on it, It wont exactly inspire Yuniar to put your ideas at the top of the list.
Campaign for it, start an unofficial forum and talk about it, show the people working on this that the features important to you, matter to more people than just you.
I'm just saying...
And by the way, Yuniar, great job. My biggest suggestion at this point would be to develop a system where people could create custom "modules" or "patches" that after approved by you would be made available. Then, when V4 comes out, you could incorporate what already works into the "gold" version.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I too waited for the conditions on Machform V3. I was a bit disappointment to see that didn't happened.
Any way, the other updates are great improvements.Regards,
Posted 12 years ago # -
@badtrout: I completely disagree that the rather mild criticism I and other have expressed in this message thread qualifies as "hating on" Machform.
Multi-user support is *critical* for our use Machform. Our situation is the same as wcchong; we have had to customize the software to allow this functionality; we simply don't have time to perform an upgrade and then redo this customization. If and when Machform supports multi-user accounts, then we will upgrade our installation.
Posted 12 years ago #
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