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Features / Usability

Features / Usability


Is version 19 not ready for prime time

posts: 6 Guatemala

While I am new to Tiki I am not new to free software and free Wiki and CMS software. I picked Tiki for a project because it seemed like the best tool and I picked version 19 because it was released and there didn't seem to be any "warnings" about its use.
That said, I seem to encounter a big every few hours. Bugs that result in a site that doesn't really do what users need. Here are two examples — both reported:

  • Email seems to not work most of the time. I attribute this to using php mail rather than SMTP but it doesn't matter. It is broken and switching to SMTP seems to be undefined or ill-defined.
  • Creating Article of Blog content nut using the WYSIWYG editor is broken. That is, the paragraph breaks vanish and I see no way to correct this.


My question is should I have picked Tiki 18? Or, ???

posts: 758 United States

Phil, new versions in Tiki may take awhile to get the bugs worked out, the developers seem to be working hard on that right now based on all the bug reports they are working on. I would give Tiki 19 awhile myself before jumping on board, that being said, Tiki 18 seems to be much more stable and ready for Prime Time, I have been using it and I am satisfied with it's performance, there a few buggy areas in 18 as well, but those areas are specialty areas such as the HP5 plugin and a few of the graphic display features that are a tad outdated, and they are working on those as well. Tiki19 is a big jump in a good direction, they are moving to Bootstrap 4 for the themes among other things.

I would use Tiki18, give 19 a few months to get worked out, keep an eye on the bug report area at https://dev.tiki.org/Development to see how they are doing.

John


posts: 4656 Japan

Hi Phil,

Sorry about the glitches you've experienced. I don't know about the email problem, but regarding the paragraph breaks when not using the WYSIWYG editor, be sure "Wiki paragraph formatting" and "Create line breaks within paragraphs" are activated on the Editing and Plugins admin page (tiki-admin.php?page=textarea). I believe this is the default setting so should be in effect already but is something to check. As far as I know, this function works properly when configured this way; to confirm, I just tried in my local Tiki 19 test site and the paragraphs in a new blog post were formatted as expected.

-- Gary

posts: 6 Guatemala

Thanks for your response. The settings were correct but I have had "things change" so I am confused. One thing I find interesting is that if the WYSIWYG editor is on, it seems to apply to new posts but not editing old ones.
All in all, I am a bit disappointed. The main reason I went with 19 was I wanted to be using bootstrap 4. I am now stuck with 19 or I need to do a lot of backtracking.


posts: 6 Guatemala

OK, the blog problem was my fault. My (lame) excuse was that the site is in Spanish and I misread some information.
So, for me, the big issue is SMTP mail. With most shared hosting I have used, you really want to use the mail server, not the web server to do your email. I am really surprised an SMTP choice doesn't exist.

posts: 2428 Czech Republic
But there is SMTP choice. Just go to tiki-admin.php?page=general, switch from "Basic" to the "Advanced" preference filter on top left in the admin menu bar (if you haven't done so yet) and then scroll down on the first tab (General Preferences) to the Mail section and choose SMTP in the dropdown of the "Mail sender" field. Then fill in the information provided for your SMTP server.

posts: 6 Guatemala

You are absolutely correct. This basic-advanced choice has caught me many times during the setup.
Thanks.
Note that I also read in the documentation somewhere that it said Tiki uses mail, not SMTP. I need to find it but I have a bus to catch right now.


posts: 6 Guatemala

Thanks for the pointer — while some of the info was regular PHP debugging there were quite a few good Tiki-specific tips. I highly recommend it for anyone as it is short and to the point. If you pick up one time it will probably same you more time than you spent watching it.
Note that I have been out of town. Returning, my one remaining mystery is that while the test email using SMTP works, none of the expected messages get sent out. So, debugging that is my project of the day.

posts: 6 Guatemala
Another excellent video. Typically, I avoid videos because they tend to waste a lot of time. Your videos are information dense which is great.
posts: 8633 Israel

Like you I don't like to follow video as it tend to make me loose my time.
So I try to make it as compact as possible.

My first attempt was a 3mn video but that was just impossible.
My goal is 7mn to 8mn video but so far I’m more around the 10mn.

Good to read that this is good enough .
Thanks for your comment I really need them Phil !


posts: 758 United States

I know someone that did a video tutorial about Admin tips in Tiki. hu hu hu

YES!!!!!


posts: 37

I agree with you that Tiki 19 should not have been released with some major (blocking) bugs like:

  • LDAP (basic) authentication is broken
  • WYSIWYG editor only shows a loading icon
  • Inline editor doesn't show a toolbar
  • Generating PDF's is broken
  • Connectivity with ElasticSearch 6 is broken
  • Smart menu’s are not ready for use

All these (except smart menu's) worked in Tiki 18.x

Don't understand me wrong, I am really happy with Tiki and all the hard work everyone has put in. So I'm hoping and praying that 19.1 will fix these all!


posts: 8633 Israel

Hi Wiebe,

Pray may have some influence while I’m not really a specialist on that domain, however everyone is welcomed to help (with or without coding skills).

https://tiki.org/Participate

For specifics you are mentioning I would suggest to check they are properly reported (create a ticket or improve an existing one) at: https://dev.tiki.org/Wishlist-Search-Page


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