View Full Version : GAZ 1.0.0 Gold Discussion
The Geek
06-21-2007, 11:54 AM
It is with great pride that I release the Geek Gazette 1.0 into the world.
Geek Gazette is a community newsletter system for vBulletin 3.6x that allows you to configure multiple types of newsletter and have them automatically generate and send to your users.
GAZ is now available for purchase in GeekMart (http://www.thevbgeek.com/geekmart.php?do=displayproduct&id=5) and available to download (http://www.thevbgeek.com/glic.php) for valid license holders.
Please leave this thread open for discussing the release. Bugs and features should be placed in project tools and new threads started to discuss troubleshooting. There will be no support in this thread :)
For a complete list of fixes from RC5, please view this report (http://www.thevbgeek.com/projectsearch.php?do=viewreport&issuereportid=4).
For documentation, please see the GAZ wiki (http://www.thevbgeek.com/geeki/index.php/Category:GAZ).As ever, a big thanks goes out to the beta testing team and Kirby.
nJoy
fastreal
06-21-2007, 12:03 PM
Let me be the first to say - ye ha!
fastreal
06-21-2007, 12:23 PM
I am having some trouble with your shopping cart system so I can't proceed to purchase. I tried running through the process twice more and it just keeps adding items.
The Geek
06-21-2007, 12:31 PM
I just ran through it and it seems fine here. When you add an item, it should say 'item added', then take you to the check out. Confirm and then continue to paypal.
Go ahead and start a new thread outlining the steps you took and ill try to help as best as I can.
Expensive compared to commbull (http://www.octanedev.com/commbull.php) which I've been using on 3.6.7.
Lower the price and I'll take a look :D
The Geek
06-21-2007, 02:08 PM
hehe, then I suggest sticking with commbull :D
Milad
06-21-2007, 02:43 PM
Yessssssssss, That's it.
I'm very happy that we approached the Gold finally.
Congrats to everyone.
peterska2
06-21-2007, 03:08 PM
I have to admit, while I like your products and I've been keeping an eye on this one, almost $80 is a bit much (branding free of course)
The Geek
06-21-2007, 03:28 PM
I totally understand, especially if youre buying with the dollar (which is really weak right now). Just to put things into perspective, over here, that $80 wouldnt even get me a tank of gas :(
Here is hoping the dollar gets stronger :)
Hey Geek,
is this one also working with the vb 3.5 series ?
The Geek
06-21-2007, 03:36 PM
It has only been tested on 3.6.3 and higher so I cant vouch for it. Ill see if I can set up some tests on 3.5 series. What version are you on?
Thx Geek,
I am still on 3.5.0 - and my forums are so heavily hacked that I dont wanna upgrade unless you con do ice-skating in hell ;)
brihan
06-21-2007, 04:08 PM
I totally understand, especially if you're buying with the dollar (which is really weak right now). Just to put things into perspective, over here, that $80 wouldn't even get me a tank of gas :(
Here is hoping the dollar gets stronger :)
I'll be happy to fill your tank. I'm guessing that would be equivalent to paying you about 10 cents per hour to develop this for me. ;)
Thanks for putting in the time and knowledge to to this.
I am having some trouble with your shopping cart system so I can't proceed to purchase. I tried running through the process twice more and it just keeps adding items.
I'm also having problems :(
I just wanted 1 copy, but when I was trying to figure out why the 2nd screen shows 0, I now have 3 orders placed. :( I like ya Geek, but not 200$ worth :p
829
after I hit check out, I get this
830
I'm trying to just get one BrandFree and year of updates
I sent you a PM Sam, hopefully we can get this settled soon :)
ps.. it looks like it's an issue with the brand free only. I Could get the regular version.. -
831
Code Monkey
06-21-2007, 05:36 PM
That's a lot of money. I will have to think long and hard on that one. What's it offer over combull. I have my own hacked up version of that but it's pretty messy code to begin with. However, it was free. :D
Code Monkey
06-21-2007, 05:50 PM
Loco clear your session cookies and it should work fine.
Code Monkey
06-21-2007, 05:56 PM
Since I have a major huge event going on at one of my sites tomorrow I went ahead and ordered. The market works with license free once I cleared the session cookie. It went to paypal, paid, redirected back here, got your PM thanking me and telling me it's now available in the d/l section. However it's not there.
The Geek
06-21-2007, 06:01 PM
It was a flub up on my part entering the prices for the Euro and Dollar. It is sorted now.
I used to use commbull a couple years ago. I'm not 100% sure where its at now, but the standard package is only about $15 above combull. This is a quick overview of GAZ feature set so you can compare it:
Scheduled issue generation (set up time frames to generate issues automatically)
Automatic sending. You can manually send out or let the cron job do it (between these two features, you don't ever have to touch it once it is set up)
Multiple newsletter systems. You can have multiple newsletters each configured with different modules and layouts, covering different aspects of your site.
Module system lets you snap and configure blocks of code around to suit your needs
Newsletter browser that lets users browse previous versions of newsletters
Each newsletter subscription can be configured via usergroups and subscribed/unsubscribed from the usercp and their admincp
Each newsletter is cached for speed and lower memory usage. You users will get an email in the style they use on your site and the language (and text direction) they use on your site.
There is the ability to move much of your CSS inline for better gmail and hotmail support
I guess that about covers an overview of it :)
I can understand why people feel its more $$ in dollars, so I am glad there is another option out there for people that need a newsletter system... sadly I can't just eat the design time cost because of the weak dollar. Makes me wish I was still in the US so it wouldn't make much of a difference and the UK peeps would be ecstatic over the conversion rate :)
Guess thats what I get for coding in one of the most expensive countries in the world :D
Tigratrus
06-21-2007, 06:24 PM
We bought a license during the promo sale a bit ago, but it didn't come with Brand Free and I don't see an option to upgrade to it? Please help us buy you a couple more cups of petrol ;)
James and Susan
The Geek
06-21-2007, 06:27 PM
lol, my car is hungry :D
Just paypal vbgeek at thevbgeek dot com £15.00GBP and then pm me the transaction number and Ill manually alter your license for you ;)
Thanks guys :)
Tigratrus
06-21-2007, 08:15 PM
Ran all the ACP -> GAZ -> Tools options and still getting:
Invalid Style and language cache item. You should rebuild your layout cache via admincp->tool->rebuild all layouts
Re-uploaded all files twice. and re-ran the xml inport, than re-ran the Tools, no joy... Any suggestions?
James and Susan
The Geek
06-21-2007, 08:28 PM
Start a new thread and let me know:
1- Is this when viewing an existing issue or when generating a new one
2- Does this error occur with new and/or existing issues
3- Did you ever see this during the beta stage? (I havent ever seen a report on it)
Cheers :)
themusicman
06-21-2007, 10:28 PM
I will be purchasing this very soon. Nice work geekman!!!
Code Monkey
06-21-2007, 11:08 PM
Man I am scrambling to style this thing before my big event tomorrow. :D
Anyway, where and in what script do I want to look if I need to vBSEO the links in the emails?
Thanks Sam :)
Hows mine look ? (http://forum.vbulletinsetup.com/newsletter.php)
The Geek
06-22-2007, 07:01 AM
Monkey: You can check in the modules themselves or in cache_issue_output function in geek/gaz/includes/gaz_functions_process.php
Let me know if you want a hook in there.
@Brandon - dont see any output? :)
leelo
06-22-2007, 09:19 AM
Damn thats a lot of money for something i know little about :(
I came here expecting to see it gold and there it was, but at that price (yes i understand you have to eat but so do the rest of us non profit admins) i'll have to be convinced its a worthy purchase.
I mean, i'm from the UK and a one year license to Vbulletin is only around £40.
I have absolutely no idea how the emails are formatted and look
What options the modules truly give us
If there are variables for Newsletter Title etc (i.e Such and Such newsletter - Jan 2007)
In short i don't know your product and what it can truly do for me. More information is needed.
If your only example is
http://www.thevbgeek.com/newsletter.php
Then i have to tell you,. its really not wowing me :(
I do need a functional vbulletin newsletter module but we really really need more information about this product. The wiki leaves you in doubt as to what it actually does achieve.
The Geek
06-22-2007, 09:49 AM
Fair enough that you feel more information is needed. Ill see what I can whip up.
As to the price, £25 per license (if I am very lucky) will land me somewhere around minimum wage for developing and supporting this over the next year. It simply isn't worth it for me to release it for anything less.
Thanks :)
leelo
06-22-2007, 11:47 AM
Understood and i truly known where your coming from. But look at it this way, GARS, a system far superior and more advanced than what i currently see in GAZ, is priced £5 cheaper at £19.99 ? Just seems a bit strange.
I'll await and see what this product really can do for me as i really would like a semi automatic newsletter for our community.
The Geek
06-22-2007, 01:23 PM
The difference is in quantities. GARS will outsell GAZ 10 fold so I am able to offset the cost because of the quantity.
Saying that, if I add up the dev and support time in GARS, Im still lucky to be making almost minimum wage on it. If I can't cut at least minimum wage while coding, I won't be able to justify coding at all. Nearly all my free time is spent coding and supporting. If I applied that time to something else, I would be freaking rich.
Regardless, I really don't want to debate the price bit anymore. I respect that it is too much for some peoples budgets, all I ask is that they understand my budgets ;)
If people don't want it because its too expensive, there are other options out there for less cash and it means I have less support to do on it :D
Thanks for understanding.
Code Monkey
06-22-2007, 03:24 PM
I was skeptical of the price, however, I went ahead and did it. I can tell you both as a webmaster, and as a coder of vBulletin mods as well as web applications, that this is a pretty nice tool. It's object oriented which will make it easy to update or mod. It's well laid out and you can tell that a lot of work has gone into it. More work than I would ever have time to do myself for such a need. It is far superior than another newsletter mod that has been around for years in both code and features. I hope that helps.
The Geek
06-22-2007, 05:41 PM
Thanks for the positive feedback, I hope you get a lot out of it :)
naesar
06-22-2007, 06:28 PM
hey,
i've been using commbull (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=127870), which has moved to a paid version (http://www.octanedev.com/commbull.php) for releases of vb3.6+ and it seems to work really good and has been around since vb2.0.
Have you used it and can you tell me the differences and if it's worth switching??
Thanks.
@Brandon - dont see any output? :)
Really ?
hmm, shows for me and if I logout :confused:
The Geek
06-22-2007, 10:59 PM
You could have me in a usergroup that isnt permitted to see anything
You could have me in a usergroup that isnt permitted to see anything
really ?
I've gone through and hit "save" on the usergroups, but nothing was changed..
I don't see how you can't see it ?
The Geek
06-23-2007, 11:46 AM
Whatever usergroup Im in over there isnt allowed to subscribe (hence see) the newsletter. If I log out it appears :)
Ill see if I can set up some tests on 3.5 series.
Hi Geek,
any news on that, mate ?
Code Monkey
06-24-2007, 02:00 AM
hey,
i've been using commbull (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=127870), which has moved to a paid version (http://www.octanedev.com/commbull.php) for releases of vb3.6+ and it seems to work really good and has been around since vb2.0.
Have you used it and can you tell me the differences and if it's worth switching??
Thanks.
That is the "other" one I referred to above. Frankly, I don't think they can be compared. This one has far more to offer in feature set alone. And the code is well laid out. And I am sure it will get even better as development continues.
The Geek
06-24-2007, 09:08 AM
Hey Marv, it just isnt possible. there are too many core vb functions that are only in 3.6 that are used throughout the code (i.e. query_read_slave)
Sorry man :)
convergent
06-26-2007, 07:04 PM
Geek, thanks for the release.. I will be trying to get it loaded in the near future and will also be emailing you about the Brand Free option.
For those that keep bringing up combull, or whatever its called... guys, have a little class. This is a release thread on a commercial product from TheGeek... can you please stop bringing up other products which I personally find offensive for TheGeek... I think he shows great character to allow them to stay and not react in the way that he probably should. At least have the class to open a separate discussion thread to compare it to other products and not clutter a release thread with it.
You get what you pay for... buy it, or don't, but stop whining about the prices in the release thread. (soap box off) ;)
The Geek
06-26-2007, 07:10 PM
Thanks convergent :)
However truthfully, I really don't mind. When I want to look into purchasing a script, I like to be able to see people comparing it openly with other products. Maybe if I thought GAZ wasn't worth it, I would have a problem. If I thought it couldn't stand up, I wouldn't like it.
As it is, I am not sure of combulls feature set anymore, but I can confidently say that GAZ's can't be beat :D
jluerken
04-01-2008, 11:42 AM
Hi Morgan,
when will you release a new version of GAZ? The actual one is needing some fixes and more features :-)
/jluerken
Danny Boy
04-02-2008, 02:30 PM
Is GAZ still being sold, I don't see it on the shopping cart page? I could really use it.
Thanks,
Dan
I could really use my GAZ to display properly :(
I sent a PM and posted a thread, hopefully someone takes a look sometime this week :(
Morgan
04-02-2008, 06:09 PM
The GAZ bugs should hopefully be fixed when the new release is out. Sorry, but I'm not going to fix bugs in the old code as a separate task, as that is only going to delay the new release and could cause confusion between code bases if people try to patch the new code when it doesn't need it.
LinkBliss_com
05-13-2008, 02:21 PM
Thanks.. I have four sites I would like to use it with...!
Eric
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