The NEW Hostbill store. Let's talk about it.

[UCG_Keith]

We ran a "auto-upgrade" on our Dev environment and all of the same features that we have are still there.  We have not lost Live Chat or any order pages - SO FAR. 

However, we did notice that HB did not provide a changelog for this version (4.6.0:4305) so we have no idea what they did.  FYI - this is NOT compliant.  Out here in left field - this concerns me that a vulnerability can easily be placed into the builds and would never know it if it is not tested.

We are running a Vulnerability Scan on this build now - fingers crossed!

[bsmith]

This is the order page.

I do not have the chat installed. I am checking the other modules.

[Patrick]

We ran a "auto-upgrade" on our Dev environment and all of the same features that we have are still there.  We have not lost Live Chat or any order pages - SO FAR. 

However, we did notice that HB did not provide a changelog for this version (4.6.0:4305) so we have no idea what they did.  FYI - this is NOT compliant.  Out here in left field - this concerns me that a vulnerability can easily be placed into the builds and would never know it if it is not tested.

We are running a Vulnerability Scan on this build now - fingers crossed!

Maybe i'm not understanding you but i see a changelog here http://hostbillapp.com/changelog/ for 4.6.0 but feel free to test the heck out of everything.  Let me know the results of your scan too

[bsmith]

This changelog?

Version: 4.6.0 Date: 05-24-2013
Added/Changed
Added: HostBill Extension Store: https://hostbillapp.com/clientarea/?/software_store/
Added: Software Store Plugin: https://hostbillapp.com/clientarea/?/software_store/applications/software_store/
Added: .co.za EPP module: https://hostbillapp.com/clientarea/?/software_store/domain_modules/co_za_epp/
Added: Domain Registrar: DMC-3 system domain registrar module (CPS-Datasysteme)
Added: Chat History QuickList: You can now browse chat history from client profile.
Added: Module: Clickatell SMS - added source address option that the message will appear to come from also known as "Sender ID".
Added: Module: Autologinshare - Option to check for client billing balance on log-in
Added: Settings: Remove/Allow html tags in imported ticket messages
Updated: Order page templates list changed to show thumbnails for each template
Updated: Stats: By country/By service stats are now ordered from highest to lowest totals


Bugs Fixed
[Adminarea] HTML Code on Ticket Message
[Adminarea] Estimates - Line items do not wrap, running over other columns and off the end of the page - other bugs in estimates too
[Module] Hostbill Auto-Upgrade - files saved by update
[General] Refresh Live Chat
[api] Error: Call to undefined method Clients_Model::blowishPass()
[general] 5% likelihood of doubled client balance when adding funds using some gateways
[general] Tickets: Reply notifications are sent twice to assigned staff members
[module] BugTracker: Gravatar breaks https
[module] Direct Debit: SQL error when updating dd form

[UCG_Keith]

Sweet - it was not there when they performed the auto-update about 2 hours ago.  We must have just gotten the notice I guess and beat them to the log.

BTW - I just ran a test on the live chat; including offline tech and online.  Everything seems to work for us.

I will post the results of the VS.

Thanks!

[Patrick]

This is the order page.

I do not have the chat installed. I am checking the other modules.

Thanks for the screenshot.  Any complaints so far, feel like anything missing?  I unfortunately do not have a dev license so i cannot do this test. 

[Lawrence]

I got a somewhat different image than Bsmith.

[bsmith]

It looks like you're adding an order page. I was trying to change an existing order page.

[Lawrence]

It looks like you're adding an order page. I was trying to change an existing order page.

Okay I see it now. Everything's functional on my end (so far), so I guess it's not all that bad. I just think it's not a good idea to charge for something for clients who subscribed to something prior to that version.

Let's say a customer buys HostBill at version 4.5.8 with all that proposed functionality. Now, they have to pay for it if they want updates. I don't know how to handle this, it's a bit confusing. We obviously need security updates.

I also can't justify charging $99.95 for an orderpage with all the bells and whistles, and the same for an orderpage with less than 100 lines of CSS. This is so confusing.

[pcardoso]

My first post here already looks like one of the last...

Is it the end of Hostbill? So now we have to pay for everything?
We can't update because we may lost functionality and even if we keep them, they will not be updated anymore until we pay AGAIN for them?
This is what I can understand on the site, but English is not my first language so maybe I got it wrong...

We bought Hostbill in October hoping to change our internal developed software for something better but now I can see we made the wrong choice.
We are still not using it in production because it still misses some critical features like Client Groups with different discounts by product category or the possibility to have the domain renewal date different from the domain expire date (can't understand why does the software has both dates if it always updates both on domain synchronization), the translations errors and some other ones but now I feel we will never use it in production...

The guy is completely crazy or what?
If I did business like that I wouldn't have enough money to eat now.

Regards
Paulo

[Lawrence]

Is it the end of Hostbill? So now we have to pay for everything?
We can't update because we may lost functionality and even if we keep them, they will not be updated anymore until we pay AGAIN for them?
This is what I can understand on the site, but English is not my first language so maybe I got it wrong...

I'm no lawyer, but I'm reading on consumer protection laws right now. I've already found one, and I'll be posting a topic in the announcements section before the end of the day.

[Patrick]

I'm no lawyer, but I'm reading on consumer protection laws right now. I've already found one, and I'll be posting a topic in the announcements section before the end of the day.

Well since it's something you haven't posted yet, share your thoughts on what it is you're looking up. 

My first post here already looks like one of the last...

Is it the end of Hostbill? So now we have to pay for everything?

Regards
Paulo

This has been something i've been wondering for awhile.  I don't think their idea is wrong or bad, but us existing customers do require updates to the stuff we have that is now premium.  Existing customers must be grandfathered on all existing order pages, modules and applications including live chat.  Continuing to use it without updates is a risk considering our "older" versions are still encrypted and we're left holding the bag with no other recourse other than to repurchase each individual item and Lawrence calculated the most commonly used at over $3,000 additional or we all have big decisions to make.

• Stay and continue using hostbill with existing outdated software/pages
• We cut our losses and move to an alternative software
• Stay and spend an additional upwards of 3 grand ($3,000+) to keep updated on what we already purchased

Considering one is in BETA right now for very cheap, a move is very tempting.  It's received very high reviews and spoken pretty highly of.  I've spoken to the developer quite a lot over the last 3 years so it's a strong contender for us.  It's scary to think that items are not being removed in favor of additional fee's.  Leaves me to wonder what's next?

[Lawrence]

• Stay and continue using hostbill with existing outdated software/pages
• We cut our losses and move to an alternative software
• Stay and spend an additional upwards of 3 grand ($3,000+) to keep updated on what we already purchased

Just a warning, anyone who does this will probably lose their legal protection for the order pages they buy, and are not entitled to a refund in such case. (They will have a new agreement in regards to the new order page) Just throwing it out there. Again as I've said before, I'm no lawyer so this is not legal advice.

[tallship]

[Adminarea] HTML Code on Ticket Message
[Adminarea] Estimates - Line items do not wrap, running over other columns and off the end of the page - other bugs in estimates too
[Module] Hostbill Auto-Upgrade - files saved by update

We're going to update - because of the long standing bug that has been fixed. It may actually be our last update ever, and we may be moving to another platform entirely for all of our new services. We have lifetime Blesta and WHMCS licenses too.

Regardless of whether kbkp grandfathers users or not, this has gotten so ridiculous because I KNOW that kbkp will introduce bugs in the future that will break things, bugs they won't feel obligated to fix because of the grandfather aspect - if that's even something they're going to even bother to half-heartedly honor in the face of a class action lawsuit or criminal proceedings (And like Patrick has pointed out, criminal proceedings - fraud, for example - are exceedingly difficult to even have charges brought up in a foreign jurisdiction).

I don't even know whether features we haven't implemented yet will work if we try to add them after the update. I'm hoping so, since I really need to do at least this one last update for the fix in the estimates/quotes system.

I want to take this time to thank everyone who voted that bug up to the top of the pile too. I had been repeatedly asking that bozo to fix it for almost a year and a half.

kindest regards, 

[Patrick]

We're going to update - because of the long standing bug that has been fixed. It may actually be our last update ever, and we may be moving to another platform entirely for all of our new services. We have lifetime Blesta and WHMCS licenses too.

Regardless of whether kbkp grandfathers users or not, this has gotten so ridiculous because I KNOW that kbkp will introduce bugs in the future that will break things, bugs they won't feel obligated to fix because of the grandfather aspect - if that's even something they're going to even bother to half-heartedly honor in the face of a class action lawsuit or criminal proceedings (And like Patrick has pointed out, criminal proceedings - fraud, for example - are exceedingly difficult to even have charges brought up in a foreign jurisdiction).

I don't even know whether features we haven't implemented yet will work if we try to add them after the update. I'm hoping so, since I really need to do at least this one last update for the fix in the estimates/quotes system.

I want to take this time to thank everyone who voted that bug up to the top of the pile too. I had been repeatedly asking that bozo to fix it for almost a year and a half.

kindest regards, 

Well i'm glad it was fixed.  I'm also thinking the same as you, this next update may be our last also.  The prospect of introducing new bugs on purpose has been a fear for some time now.  It's no different then holding a gun to your license holders.  Though there are jurisdictional limitations to a court proceeding, if enough complaints went through to their higher ups, they may allow legal proceedings to continue and not protect the local business due to world wide fraud.  KBKP Software is one straw shy of absolute fraud. 

Clearly they do not understand business with international clients.  It's not a free pass.  Sweden all these years have thought they were free and clear and laughed off international intellectual property owners.     Now aside from the pirate party, changes have come within that country to protect world wide interests.

There are options, so it's all about what will cost you more.  Is your business loosing money?  Start finding out how much is caused by hostbill.