Converting from Listings Manager

Luke

Actually there are a couple of things preventing me buying CMS builder. Not least of these is that I am expected to pay for the conversion. I was under the understanding that when I purchased LM - it included free upgrades... there was even talk of an imminent upgrade being worked on as I made my last purchase. Then it was suddenly dropped completely. It appears that the team were developing their php and MySql skills and decided to dump Perl driven apps.

That’s all fine - no problem with all of that - it makes good sense.

CMS builder is more expensive though and the conversion can’t be rocket science. I would prefer to read an explanation / description of how to do it myself. I might then consider purchasing CMS builder for the upgrade of some of the sites I manage.

However, I am wondering what the benefits will be?

What is in it for me to convert from LM to CMS builder?

I wouldn’t mind having a copy of CMS builder to play around with and get to grips with it - but to pay and pay twice per single upgrade.... sorry - that would make me a bit silly.

Hi Dave R,

We have a import script that imports listings from LM to CMSB, but it's not quite polished enough to be released, which is why we're still doing it through consulting. We haven't automated things enough to have it be seamless.

I wouldn't recommend upgrading until you have a really good reason to, such as when you are re-designing the site or adding major new sections or features.

CMSB is basically just a better framework for developing sites with. We can build sites in half the time with it. Some of the features include being able to future-date records to be "published" or removed on specific dates. You can also create all kinds of custom search engines that are very powerful, and many many more things.

If you are a webmaster then I'd think of it in terms of what do you want to do with your website that you can't now and figuring out if you could do that with CMSB.

If you are a website developer I'd recommend is learning and using it on a new site. It's much easier to learn on a new site than by converting an existing (and potentially complex) site. And ideally you'd be building that new site for a client who would be paying you for it and covering your costs.

Hope that helps, let me know any other questions!

What happened to the FREE upgrades for LIFE offer - offered when I bought LM?

What happened to the upgrade of LM which was promised in these forums when I bought my last copies of LM?

Why should I pay twice now - for something I was told would always be free?

How would you feel if you were in my shoes given the circumstances above?

I have three websites in need of a redesign - build on LM. Plus several others built using other iTools apps - I’m feeling a bit dumped on to be honest.

I look forward to reading your answers...

Thanks
Dave

P.S. It wouldn’t feel so bad if there was some explanation somewhere on this website - giving the details and process of the conversion... one that did NOT include even more $$$

Hi fellow Dave,

I get your frustration. Here's some honest answers to your questions:

>What happened to the FREE upgrades for LIFE offer - offered when I bought LM?

We took Listings Manager as far as we could, and eventually decided to end
end-of-life the product. So you can use your copy forever but it's unlikely there
will be any more upgrades for it.

This wasn't our intention, but it's the way things worked out (see below).

>What happened to the upgrade of LM which was promised in these forums when
>I bought my last copies of LM?

Future plans are always speculative. I spent 5 years working on the amazing
upgrades we planned for LM and AM1 (which were built on the same core).
Long time customers will remember this gap in our releases. We were trying
to build a super-product.

We eventually did release Article Manager 2 (which is also now end-of-life'd)
but in the end we decided it made more sense to change course than to repeat
that cycle.

Now we release every 2-4 weeks on average. Releases have less features
but come out more often.

>Why should I pay twice now - for something I was told would always be free?

You shouldn't. I wouldn't. If listman is working great for all these years why
spend any time on it unless you know doing so is going to generate additional
revenue. If it's not broken why fix it?

Our news section, for example, is powered by AM2. We want to switch that to
CMSB eventually, but even though it's doesn't cost any money, it will still take
time and be a hassle, which is why we haven't done it yet.
http://www.interactivetools.com/news/

>P.S. It wouldn’t feel so bad if there was some explanation somewhere on this
>website - giving the details and process of the conversion... one that did NOT
>include even more $$$

We're still figuring that out and doing conversions manually. What we have is
an import script that usually imports LM data into CMSB. All the viewers (prev:
published pages) need to be setup manually like you would with a new CMSB
site. We haven't actually had a lot of requests for people to switch over.

Why don't you email me at dave@interactivetools.com and let me know which
sites and products you have and what you would like to happen, then I'll see
what I can do for you and we can go from there.

Hope that helps!