Well its been a while since I played with nexus.. so I grabbed myself the latest copy and took it for a spin.

The Good
The admin interface has been cleaned up a lot since I last looked at it. Its much improved but still suffers a few consistency issues.

Nexus Core Module
I think that the ipnexus core module is top notch. It providers everything a good framework should and more! The nexus core module admin menu is clear and well laid out (well maybe except for the "pages and menu management" menu ? Why is it in core ? It should really be in the "content management" module menu)

Customer Management Module
The customer management module is pretty good also. I do think that you could consolidate all the "Modify customer" menu options into way less links . The "change password" , "change email" , "edit customer" and "edit member group" should all go under one "edit customer" page. So the Modify customer menu would only be "Edit customer" , "Disable customer", and "Delete customer" and "Merge customer" (moved up from Customer Tools)(much cleaner).

Content Management Module
The content management module is top notch. I really love the online forms builder. Its probably the best one that I've seen. My only grip is that the "ip board integration" menu item should be placed last on the menu by default (not everyone is going to have an IPB board installed... and having it first makes it stick out like a sore thumb).


The Bad
Probably my biggest disappointment comes from the Billing Management and Hosting Modules. Both these modules seem so lacking in the features you would really need to run a sucessful store or Hosting company.

Billing management Module
I was so surprised that the front end of the online store doesn't even support basic "add to cart" functionality. Maybe I'm missing something but for the life of me I could only make single purchase one at a time. Also the admin menu contains menu items like "paypal logs" ? What if I am using a different payment processor other than paypal?
The tax system is completely inadequate for almost any online store. All I can do is apply a flat tax to everything .. A lot of different places have two separate taxes ... and if a client is from another country I don't want to collect tax from them. To do tax well you really needs multiple tax rates based off of country/region codes. I also felt the the create invoice screen needed an overhaul also.

Hosting module
I'm not sure if the hosting module isn't finished yet? But it also seems way to basic. Their is an enom option for tlds but I don't know where the fronted is for checking and purchasing domains?

The Ugly
Bugs Bugs Bugs. I was really surprised at the amount of bugs this late in the game. Some tables don't stretch 100%, some variables display "array", whole sections don't even run, clicking on the static content in the content management module gives you "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '-', expecting '}'" (I was easily able to find around 20 bugs in about 15 minutes of testing. Nexus needs a lot more internal testing between beta releases.)

I think this is all great feedback marcele.



This is something we are struggling with. If you DO have the content management module, it DOES make more sense for it to be there. The problem is, Nexus needs a way to be able to create menus and pages even if you don't have the CMS module (i.e. to display the store and the user control panel) and that is why this functionality is in the "core".

What would be good is for this item to "move" to CMS if the CMS module is installed, even if it is only the display portions of this (i.e. the functionality and code could still run out of the Nexus, but just be managed under the CMS tab). This is something internally we are trying to determine how best to handle.


Billing and Hosting I won't comment on as these are the two modules I'm least familiar with. I do know the "Add to cart" functionality is supposed to be in 1.1. I think the goal right now is to get what is there and finished and working out the door and focus on major features for the next major release. I could be wrong though.

Regarding bugs, yes, well, it IS a beta mind you. With software of this size, it's hard to catch a lot of things. For instance, if we find a bug of course we go in and fix it. But I, for example, simply login, read and reply to tickets, and occasionally look up a customer. Nakisha does similar things, plus a few other things. Charles might run sales reports. When we get into the habits of what we do on a daily basis, quite often we don't click around to every single page in Nexus (there are thousands if I had to guess) and thus sometimes bugs creep through. Combine that with the fact that we just recently went through and language-abstracted the ACP (a very tedious task, often prone to stupid typo errors) and the fact that Rikki is overhauling much of the interface on a daily basis, and you have a recipe for typos, and parser errors caused by stupid things (i.e. missing quotes, missing brackets, and so on). This is exactly why we are releasing betas frequently (constant feedback about the changes and help in identifying our simple mistakes (and our big ones, should the case be)) and we urge you to submit any bugs to the tracker so we can squash them.

The other day I submitted a page full of bugs I'm more than happy testing out Nexus as I will know how it will feel when it is released as stable.. I have noticed a lot of things have changed since the beta update . The admin control panel is getting better. Thanks Rikki

Long time no see, glad to have your feedback again



The placement of "Pages and Menu Management" is something we've discussed a lot internally. It's a part of the core application and not the CMS application, that's the most basic reason it's there and not in the CMS tab. We're probably going to add some redirect links in the CMS application to go back to the core for static page editing and vice versa. There's some other ideas we are looking at that, but that will probably be the short term solution.



There are a lot of options in the Modify Customer menu, but I'm not sure what we will be doing with that. That's more Rikki's area, so I'll leave that one to him.



IP.Board is not intended to be the first page, we will switch articles to be the default location of CMS.



You can purchase multiple items at once, you can see our IPB order form for an example: IPB Order.

But yes, this is not a full on shopping cart by an stretch of the imagination. That will definitely come, just not in the first version. The tax system is basic, but it will be expanded on in future versions. Overhauling the Create Invoice screen is on our internal todo list, but that's something else that may not make it into the first version.

If you are not using Paypal, then the paypal logs are clearly not going to be useful to you, that's only there to provide additional information to those that do. The other gateways still have the transaction logs that contain their relevant information.



The hosting module is finished, in that it allows you to add servers and manager the accounts on those servers. The system does all the account creation, suspension, balancing, and the like. We will be adding more registrars and control panel options after the initial release. The front end for purchased domains is on the customer screen, when you view a customer that has purchased domains they list there.




There are a lot of display quirks still, we're still in the middle of transitioning to an updated interface, so that is creating some issues.

The Billing module is designed primarily for invoicing, transactions, payment gateways, graphing etc. In 1.0 it also has a package manager, which is the same one you see when buying a product from us. You're right that it doesn't have true shopping cart functionality. As I understand it, this is going to be released later, perhaps 1.1 as Brandon said.

I would highly recommend that if the tax system is going to be expanded .. that you do it before the first launch. Changing the way the tax system works after launch is going to be a lot more work then if completing it now (you have to worry about messing up everyone's current accounting year - Not something that you are going to want to switch half way). Just take a look at the way that magento did their tax system. It's both simple and completely powerful. You could honestly replicate it in about a day or two of work.


That menu item should be hidden if the paypal module is not activated.



Maybe I'm missing something ? I'm still confused ..so how does a customer actually purchase a domain? Most hosting carts have a domain checker then if its available .. then add it to cart?

First the registrar has to be setup and enabled in the hosting application. Then in the billing application you need to create a 'Hosting' Package and then when someone tries to buy that package they will be asked to choose a domain. It will also check to see if the domain is available, as well as show other TLDs as suggested domains.

Sweet

One thing I would recommend is to try and set up some of these options up by default (with a few sample products). Originally I didn't know that the billing module could support adding multiple items ... and I didn't think that the hosting module has this functionality when dealing with domains. The end user trying nexus will come off thinking that it wouldn't have this functionality when it actually does!

Good work guys!

Also .. I couldn't see anything on setting the default currency for billing ? Am I missing something ?