Well, we all knew that CS-Cart was continuing to move toward the SaaS business and now it is becoming even clearer that those of us who like the software on our own server probably have our days numbered!
We just received the following message about Searchanise:
[quote]Hello,
You have received this message because your online store’s navigation is powered by the [color=#6DC6DD]Searchanise[/color] online service. This means that when a visitor in your store switches product categories or applies product filters, Searchanise handles the heavy load remotely making pages open much faster.
We are informing you that on March 10, 2014, Searchanise-powered navigation will be disabled for all existing non-Pro stores. If you want to continue using Searchanise for navigation processing, you need to upgrade to [color=#6DC6DD]Searchanise Pro[/color].
As a Pro customer, you will enjoy faster indexations, priority support, and many other [color=#6DC6DD]useful features[/color] along with fast navigation processing.
You can upgrade to Searchanise Pro right in your Searchanise control panel. See your monthly subscription cost on the [color=#6DC6DD]Pricing[/color] page.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask by replying to this message.
Thanks!
—
Best regards,
the Searchanise team[/quote]
Now isn't that cool! They send out a message saying that in 14 days they are going to “turn off” the “non-pro”. The sad part is there is NO WAY I would want to pay for their service because they claim it speeds up our server but it actually slows down the page on every load. We have been using it for a few weeks now because they discontinued the better search CS-Cart had so they could force us in to using something that they could make more money off us. I have seen 1 other quick search from 1 vendor but I don't like the “call backs” to their server. I did hear from shippingkit.com that they were going to redo some of their mods, but I am unsure when and if that includes their quick search that we loved.
I have already started to move towards the direction of looking for other shopping carts again as CS continues to take 1 step forward, 2 steps back and 3 additional errors with every update. Their upgrades continue to be riddled with errors and behind the times as to what they need. Likewise they leave bugs in the shopping cart and never fix them (like the Quickbooks export). Sadly, I am just not seeing a good, clear direction for CS-Cart and this just muddies the water a little more.
Wow this is BS. So basically then CS-Cart just includes a piece-o-crap search engine, but if you want a search feature that is standard on just about all other shopping carts (even free ones!) then you have to pay a monthly fee. No thanks!
I did give in to the monthly Twigmo fee since CS-Cart does not already include a standard Mobile version…but now the same thing with a simple search feature?? Unfortunately it seems CS-Cart is getting a bit full of themselves.
We tried the Twigmo and was very disappointed too. We used the add on from seonid for the mobile skin on version 2 but they have not upgraded for version 4 yet.
The sad part is with version 2 we learned last year that it was becoming quickly outdated as our organic search engine listing tanked with the “hummingbird” upgrade on the “g” site. Our sales tanked in less than a month when they released it. Now if you upgrade to version 4 you get tons of bugs, software that most major search engines still do not see or utilize very well and CS-Cart just trying to increase as many SaaS things as they can. We did install the Canonical software from cscartrocks and it made a HUGE difference in just a few short weeks. Now we just eagerly wait for them to release 4.1.3 to “hopefully” fix a batch of other bugs.
I'm sorry, I know CS-Cart is trying to move how they do business, but I strongly feel that their primary goal here is to chase away as many of the old timers or original users as they can. The sad part then is I just don't see a very big following other than the faithful few who have stuck out some of the annoying upgrades and jumps to can version 3 and move to version 4.
I know for us we are moving now working VERY hard to make any shopping carts of CS-Cart that we have installed to be “non-essential” websites. Meaning we are working to move our sites that we survive on or need to make money on over to alternative, more stable shopping carts that have a clearer focus.
John, I believe the “non-pro” they are referring to is the level you are on with Searchanise. Since I don't have this installed on anything other than a pro copy of CS, I don't know why I else I would have received the email…but you could be right. I guess I may be reading what they wrote here incorrectly.
In a nutshell: It is the free version of Searchanise which is being discontinued. Searchanise will be a paid-only (“Pro”) model. There will be no search functionality in CS-Cart. There will be little else for CS-Cart customers to stick around for.
Bring back a simple search that works - CS-Cart have in the past and continue to do so - bring in a 3rd parties search function. Shippingkit's is a simple, effective example and very light on load, I cannot say the same for Searchanize in my experience. Failing that, CS-Cart will be gathering up the dust sooner rather than later.
In a nutshell: It is the free version of Searchanise which is being discontinued. Searchanise will be a paid-only (“Pro”) model. There will be no search functionality in CS-Cart. There will be little else for CS-Cart customers to stick around for.
Bring back a simple search that works - CS-Cart have in the past and continue to do so - bring in a 3rd parties search function. Shippingkit's is a simple, effective example and very light on load, I cannot say the same for Searchanize in my experience. Failing that, CS-Cart will be gathering up the dust sooner rather than later.
[/quote]
Wow… I assumed they meant if you were not on CS Cart pro…Jeez, searchanise it isnt that good. I have it turned off for the past week or so…AND YES…even though you say it is supposed to speed up the site/server…my site also slows down when it is turned on
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[color=#000000]Are you seriously saying CS cart will be distributed without a search function…? nahhh! surely,[/color]
Wow… I assumed they meant if you were not on CS Cart pro…Jeez, searchanise it isnt that good. I have it turned off for the past week or so…AND YES…even though you say it is supposed to speed up the site/server…my site also slows down when it is turned on
[color=#000000]Xen VPS Full 16 CPU [/color][color=#000000]» 2048MB Dedicated RAM[/quote][/color]
[color=#000000]I have some CS-Cart[/color] stores running on a very high spec server yet Searchanize is slower. Even on a shared host, Searchanize is still slower.
[color=#000000]Are you seriously saying CS cart will be distributed without a search function…? nahhh! surely,[/color]
[/quote]
Not completely, I would assume the default search will remain, but it's not very good out the box, all products require a considerable amount of time spent adding every possible related search word and even then, the search results seem to be largely irrelevant.
I would hope CS-Cart would have a serious re-think here.
…and it will return and say no products found! The sad part is you just looked at a green cell phone but their search has been downgraded so low that it can no longer find it.
…and it will return and say no products found! The sad part is you just looked at a green cell phone but their search has been downgraded so low that it can no longer find it.
[/quote]
Hi Clips
While I an not defending or trying to say that the search in CS is very good.
I must point out that its not quite possible for the search to return a result using “green cell” as this string does not seem to be included anywhere in the product info.
If you do a search for cell or ce, green or gre, 32GB or 32, Iphone or ipho, iSight or Isig, iOS 7 etc your product is always returned in the results.
Its like asking a me a question in Russian, I don't speak Russian. So I need a little help…
If you want a result from Green Cell then you will need to put Green Cell somewhere in the product info.
Unfortunately I don't think CS Cart or any other search can read images, in this case even the image is not called Green Cell.
While I an not defending or trying to say that the search in CS is very good.
I must point out that its not quite possible for the search to return a result using “green cell” as this string does not seem to be included anywhere in the product info.
If you do a search for cell or ce, green or gre, 32GB or 32, Iphone or ipho, iSight or Isig, iOS 7 etc your product is always returned in the results.
Its like asking a me a question in Russian, I don't speak Russian. So I need a little help…
If you want a result from Green Cell then you will need to put Green Cell somewhere in the product info.
Unfortunately I don't think CS Cart or any other search can read images, in this case even the image is not called Green Cell.
Alan
[/quote]
Don't agree - the words green and cell are in the product name. It should show up.
Clips, did you try…
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]1. Open the file: /app/functions/fn.catalog.php[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]2. In this file add the following code:[/font][/color]
if (empty($params['match'])) {
$params['match'] = 'all';
}
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]above this line:[/font][/color]
// Search string condition for SQL query
That fixed it for me (and actually this was always needed in cs-cart, which by default searches on exact stringes.)
Let me please explain what exactly is going to happen on March 10 with the existing CS-Cart stores using Searchanise for free.
First of all, no, we are not forcing existing CS-Cart storeowners to switch to the paid Searchanise plan. All storeowners currently using the free version of Searchanise can continue using it for free. The Searchanise widget will continue to work just as usual.
On March 10, we are going to disable just one particular feature—navigation, which means that Searchanise will no longer drive categorized or filtered product listings. This feature was primarily intended to be paid because it creates a significant load on our servers.
As we are disabling it, and there are stores still using it, we have decided to offer these store owners a chance to keep this functionality if they need it. So, the newsletter was strictly targeted only for those storeowners, not for all Searchanise users.
We are sorry for the confusion that our newsletter caused to some of our customers.
Don't agree - the words green and cell are in the product name. It should show up.
Clips, did you try…
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]1. Open the file: /app/functions/fn.catalog.php[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]2. In this file add the following code:[/font][/color]
if (empty($params['match'])) {
$params['match'] = 'all';
}
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]above this line:[/font][/color]
// Search string condition for SQL query
That fixed it for me (and actually this was always needed in cs-cart, which by default searches on exact stringes.)
[/quote]
As I said I am not defending the default search in CS Cart. but in a very large store, having every word in a search term return a result would give lots and lots of irrelevant results. Even Google Doesn't do this unless you put a + between the words. “Green + Cell”
If someone was to search for “a green cell phone” the “a” could return results for every product in the store. 50000 results on a single search.
But every store big and small needs different functionality.
Alan, I'm not asking the search to do anything different than what the simple “auto-suggest” add-on that shippingkit.com did. So yes, it should be able to search for something as simple as mentioned. The fact that CS-Cart has continued to downgrade their search in the software in order to push people towards Searchanise is the part that is irritating.
The other part that is irritating is how badly Searchanise effects your site. I've shown it before! With Searchanise installed my speed drops from “A's” down to a B and C. Searchanise KILLS the first load of your page BEFORE it even tries to do a search for a customer. I would pay to have the old add-on from shippingkit.com upgraded but I don't want to step on their business.
Alan, I'm not asking the search to do anything different than what the simple “auto-suggest” add-on that shippingkit.com did. So yes, it should be able to search for something as simple as mentioned. The fact that CS-Cart has continued to downgrade their search in the software in order to push people towards Searchanise is the part that is irritating.
The other part that is irritating is how badly Searchanise effects your site. I've shown it before! With Searchanise installed my speed drops from “A's” down to a B and C. Searchanise KILLS the first load of your page BEFORE it even tries to do a search for a customer. I would pay to have the old add-on from shippingkit.com upgraded but I don't want to step on their business.
[/quote]
Hi Clips
I do agree with you in relation to the search, everyone has different needs. I have no experience of the shippingkit.com add-on. I do have searchanise on two sites. but it has not affected the page speeds at all.
What I found was that the size of my images and stripping the meta data out was more of an issue.
…and it will return and say no products found! The sad part is you just looked at a green cell phone but their search has been downgraded so low that it can no longer find it.
[/quote]
Konstantin, this is completely unacceptable for any shopping cart, even opensource carts have better search functionality which is highly embarrasing to CS-Cart, you have customers switching to other carts because this search bug is so horrendous, customers have to be able to find products on our sites or the software is useless. You really need to post a fix immediately, as in tomorrow when I get out of bed I expect to see a patch to fix the search functionality. If I can't find products on my own site then customers never will. Fix it - Sno
Don't agree - the words green and cell are in the product name. It should show up.
Clips, did you try…
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]1. Open the file: /app/functions/fn.catalog.php[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]2. In this file add the following code:[/font][/color]
if (empty($params['match'])) {
$params['match'] = 'all';
}
[color=#282828][font=arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif]above this line:[/font][/color]
// Search string condition for SQL query
That fixed it for me (and actually this was always needed in cs-cart, which by default searches on exact stringes.)
[/quote]
I think I do remember doing something like this way back when with version 2 or 1. I now remember editing it, but couldn't tell you what I did then. When I got the add-on from shippingkit I just didn't think about the edit part anymore. That did do the trick perfect. Thanks Flow!
So my questions now are:
Why isn't this piece of code in CS by default?
Is there a reason that CS feels this code is a bad thing?
I'm just unclear why this would not be included by default.
BTW, I have happily turned off Searchanise. I am now back to a faster page load of 93/87 instead of 89/78 just by turning off Searchanise. Plus, simple searches work just by adding the code. Will probably still get an auto-suggest add on at some point.
Alan, just go to http://gtmetrix.com and put in your website. Write down your results or open a new tab in your browser. Then go back to your website and turn off Searchanise. Do the test again and you will see how bad it affects the initial load of your pages.
Sno, I am guessing you are being silly or something? Not for sure what the final part of your post means.
I think I do remember doing something like this way back when with version 2 or 1. I now remember editing it, but couldn't tell you what I did then. When I got the add-on from shippingkit I just didn't think about the edit part anymore. That did do the trick perfect. Thanks Flow!
So my questions now are:
Why isn't this piece of code in CS by default?
Is there a reason that CS feels this code is a bad thing?
I'm just unclear why this would not be included by default.
BTW, I have happily turned off Searchanise. I am now back to a faster page load of 93/87 instead of 89/78 just by turning off Searchanise. Plus, simple searches work just by adding the code. Will probably still get an auto-suggest add on at some point.
Alan, just go to http://gtmetrix.com and put in your website. Write down your results or open a new tab in your browser. Then go back to your website and turn off Searchanise. Do the test again and you will see how bad it affects the initial load of your pages.
Sno, I am guessing you are being silly or something? Not for sure what the final part of your post means.
[/quote]
HI Clips
I guess this is just a different experience for every site, my site actually loads faster in GT with searchanise turned on.
On 93 -83 page load 4.6 seconds time to first bit 645
Off 93 - 88 page load 5.10 seconds time to first bit 784
The numbers for YSlow Grade: are better but the time difference to first bite is negligible but slower with searchanise turned off.
My site is slow as I have gzip_css_js turned off due to an issue with O2 mobile network in Ireland stopping the compressed CSS in its tracks and I have a lot of images on the front page.
but overall performance is not effected by searchanise.