Kayako V4 Fusion
March 27th 2011 - Update
At last, we're done with internal testing and are ready to get some real-world testing done. All the existing features - as well as the new ones, of course - have been tested as far as we can.
The only thing stopping us from releasing now is the list of bugs in Fusion which must be fixed. We have had these raised for several months as 'critical' but some of the most important ones have still not been addressed.
We are caught in a difficult place here. We are legally unable to provide fixed copies of the Kayako files, because we have no right to distribute their copyrighted code. However, SupportPay will not work without the fixes being made. To work round this, we will be offering a temporary compromise.
Until Kayako fix the bugs listed below as 'critical', we will require that all SupportPay installations are done by us, at a cost of around £25 (still to be decided). This seems like the most effective way of getting people to contact Kayako to get these bugs fixed. The sooner they're fixed, the sooner we will be able to let people install SupportPay for themselves!
Don't want to pay any extra? We understand completely. All you have to do is this:
- Open a ticket with Kayako, requesting that they provide a fix for each of the bugs below.
- Get their support staff to open a ticket with us at http://www.support-pay.com/support showing the content of your email. Make sure they also pass on your name and the URL of your website.
- Open a ticket with us yourself, requesting a free installation.
Feb 6th 2011 - Update
We are now 100% development-complete! This means that we are now moving onto a stage of intense internal testing, before releasing beta-test copies to selected people. If you'd like to receive a beta copy in a few weeks' time, please let us know.
Unfortunately there are still a number of bugs in Fusion which will prevent us from releasing SupportPay. If you think you may want to use SupportPay for Fusion, please contact Kayako and ask them about the progress of the bugfixes! In each case, a working and tested fix was given to them along with the bug report.
We have every hope that these bugs will be fixed in a forthcoming update to Fusion and we look forward to being able to expand Kayako's new flagship product in the same way as for their previous one.
The following tickets are still outstanding with Kayako. We will be unable to release SupportPay for Fusion until at least the Critical issues have been fully addressed. Other, less-important bugs aren't listed here.
| Ticket No. | Reported | Title | Our Priority | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRC-955-92275 | Dec 5th, 2010 | All import records are cleared before a module import | Critical | When your records are moved from Kayako V3 to Kayako V4, many of the unique identifiers (i.e. ticket numbers,
user numbers) can change. A record is kept of these changes, allowing other modules to match up the old users to the new ones. However,
as it stands Fusion erases this record before migrating any new data. The only fix would be to completely reinstall Fusion and re-transfer
your V3 records, losing any work you have done since. Still a bug in 4.01.203 . The fix I supplied has not been used. Instead, a line of code has simply been commented out. This causes all module re-installations to fail. |
| DXV-848-61423 | Jan 6th, 2011 | PDO Error Handling badly broken | Critical | All database access has no error-checking at all, due to several bugs in the error-checking code. This means that any failures are not noticed by either Fusion or any modules, meaning that severe data loss may go un-noticed. |
| AKQ-594-95090 | Jan 18th, 2011 | Language files are not loaded for Modules | Critical | The phrases for modules are supposed to be loaded from a specific place. However, a combination of
two separate bugs means that they are never loaded. Without this fix, all labels and text in a module will appear empty.
Still a bug in 4.01.203 . No fix has been applied. |
| IPU-884-77693 | Jan 10th, 2011 | A failed module install is reported as Successful | Critical | If a module install fails for any reason, the installation is still reported as successful. This means that
the user will expect to be able to use the system and will not attempt to repair the installation.
Fixed in 4.01.203 or earlier. |
| YEU-278-67069 | Jan 17th, 2011 | Unable to load templates in module install | Medium | Each of the Client screens is defined using a Template. However, the module installation system simply
re-loads the Fusion standard templates each time. A separate logic error means that manually loading module Templates does not work
as expected. Without these, no Client screens will work.
Not fixed in 4.01.203, but a workaround exists. |
| RRY-383-91473 | Jan 11th, 2011 | A failed module install is unrecoverable | Critical | If a module installation fails, currently it is marked as 'Successful'. However, if this bug is fixed then the module will have no 'Uninstall' button which may try to clean up the previous installation attempt. Further bugs mean that it is not currently possible to run an Uninstall as the first stage of an Install because the database structures would never be installed. |
| OIO-784-79410 | Jan 23rd, 2011 | Returncode is ignored when sending mail | High | If an error occurs when sending an email, currently this is ignored by Fusion even though this
information is provided to it. This means it is impossible for a module to react to a failed email, resetting records or notifying
the user that the recipient of the email has not in fact been contacted.
Fixed in 4.01.203 or earlier. |
| TQX-790-82189 | Jan 30th, 2011 | Date picker fails using a built-in, standard format | Medium | The pop-up date picker does not recognise one of the standard date formats. Only the ambiguous "d/m/y"
and "m/d/y" formats are supported; other formats are incorrectly defined.
Not fixed in 4.01.203, but a workaround exists. |
| QXJ-265-78124 | Jan 30th, 2011 | Rebuilding the cache ignores Widgets, they may not appear | Medium | Administrator changes to Widgets may not appear under all circumstances. |
| SXA-103-33523 | Jan 13th, 2011 | Only possible to show a single Error or Info message on a page | Medium | If more than one information or error message is created, all but the last are ignored. Particularly for errors, vital information may be lost. |
| VVW-627-68228 | Jan 2nd, 2011 | Only a single command button can be added to Grids | Medium | In some of the Staff and Administrator screens it is necessary to add more than one button to the top of a data grid. Currently the Grid code is capable of doing this, but the code that adds buttons to the grid is not. |
Jan 28th 2011
When Kayako Fusion was released, it came as something of a surprise that it was so different from the previous version. Kayako had warned occasionally that it was a complete re-write, but we weren't quite ready for the scale of the differences. Writing any modules for V4 is a completely different job to V3.
SupportPay is a complicated piece of software, and the job of re-writing it for V4 was a major one. We had tried to take some short-cuts to make the job easier but it didn't pay off; the differences between V3 and V4 were just too much. There was no choice but to scrap the work and start writing the whole thing again.
We are now progressing well on the re-write; all the Client, Staff and Admin pages are complete and the PayPal gateway is fully working. The other payment gateways will be added next, along with some new features.
We can't give a specific date for release yet, but we will be looking for people to test it before too long. All of the existing features of SupportPay will be carried across to the Fusion version, except for the Staff Payment services. These may appear later if there's demand. On the other hand, there will be some new tricks added to SupportPay which were not available before.
Data Migration
As with SupportPay for V3, it will be possible to copy data from a TicketPay installation into SupportPay for Fusion. Of course, it will also be possible to copy all data from SupportPay for V3 into SupportPay for Fusion.
Upgrade Costs
Anyone with a valid SupportPay license will get the Fusion version as a normal, free upgrade. We will be running an "amnesty" promotion for any existing TicketPay customers for a limited time after SupportPay for Fusion is released - watch this space!
Timescale
We don't have a specific date for release, simply because we are discovering things all the time during the rewrite job. This is a piece of software that handles payments, and needs to be very thoroughly tested before we will consider making it available.
Some of the issues we have come across in Fusion will need to be fixed before we can release anything though. Kayako's developers are working through these as we submit them and we are hopeful that they can all be fixed before we are ready to release, but at least one upgrade to Fusion will be an essential requirement for SupportPay. Until then, if you are planning to use SupportPay with Fusion it is important that you contact us before installing any other modules into Fusion.