Reviews

Current Version

Review posted by trixiemay on at

Excellent Addon

trixiemay
10:05am Bought the add-on
10:06am Installed the add-on
10:10am Had the add-on running

I used the pre-C5.7 version which was a bit of a mission to link and get running.
This is, for the most part, very automated.
Made a few tweaks to the add-on stylesheets to match my theme and all is good!

thanks Chad
Review posted by Ricalsin on at

What's with the negative reviews?

Ricalsin
Chad has done an excellent job building this addon, has dealt with the 5.7 core to move it forward and has been helpful for a number of years. Maybe he's no longer willing to be an instructor to all those who want him to debug their own code(?). As of September of 2016, this code works beautifully with an updated c5.7 core. It has some nice features that make it possible to extend it's functionality. For ~$30, people should complain less and study code more.

Chad, I would like you to use different nomenclature on your 'is_canonical' page attribute. Something like, 'canonical_date_paths' might be more appropriate? I make mention here to possible help others who might trip over it (like I did).

Thanks for your good work!
Rick
Review posted by Planet4 on at

Where is Support?

Planet4
I have used ProBlog prior to the new release of Concrete5 with lots of luck and very little problems. Since the new version with the new Add-on, I have had a number of trouble tickets and questions and bugs. All submitted as support tickets. None have been answered. Very disappointed as the new ProBlog seems buggy and you can't get help. I will probably use something else from now on. Bummer.
Review posted by tallacman on at

Superfluous

tallacman
Use Composer. Be happy.
Review posted by Junius on at

Big disappointment

Junius
Documentation is very poor. This Add-On is NOT for beginner. It's really hard to find what files you need to modify and where. I wanted to return the license, because it's useless for me. They answered my once, but I didn't get any help there; after that they didn't answer anymore. You can read about my problem here:http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/problog1/support/conver...

ProBlog uses core conversation block, which requires from visitors the whole name, e-mail, www-site-address and captcha for sending a message. In 5.7 you can't modify it unless you are php-coder. I am not, so I had to return back to 5.6. I Don't recommend this Add-On.
Review posted by fotogenic on at

The best $30 you'll ever spend.

fotogenic
This won't be a long review. But, I'm heavy into usability. I like products that are easy to install, quick to adjust, and packs a powerful punch. This blog is very robust. (It's worth more than what it's sold for).

Get this. You won't regret it.
Review posted by a575606 on at

Agree with last reviewer

a575606
I always take bad reviews with a grain of salt, and really purchased this addon with high expectations, but sadly have to agree with some of the points the last reviewer made. I had nearly the same issues.

Made one installation, ran into difficulties and wanted to uninstall and start fresh. Uninstall failed to fully clean out the addon's data in the database so ended up having to trace and delete old database entries manually to get a clean install.

Most of the templates had some bugs, or code which didn't work correctly on 5.7.4 (not sure for previous versions of concrete5), so have overridden many controllers and view files to get the addon to work.

I found support to be less responsive than they advertise. I submitted several tickets, most went unanswered for several days. Some never. I still have two issues with the software that aren't resolved. From the addon page I expected support to be a bit more helpful.

General documentation and how tos are a bit thin and there's no detailed documentation and few forum chats to help with learning the way the system works. So you really have to trace through the code to get the flow before you can fix any issues.

Overall I spent many hours on troubleshooting, and the whole point of buying an addon was to save time. I'm a developer, so was able to fix most issues, but for a non-developer I think this addon would be extremely frustrating.

If install / uninstall was smooth, support more responsive, and less bugs would give 5 stars. Functionality that I'm looking for is all there, blogs are easy to update, interface is good, and feature set is great. In its current state, can only recommend to developers willing to spend a bit of time to hack it into a working state.
Response by RadiantWeb on at
RadiantWeb
I am sorry you have had a bad experience. We are doing our best and hope to do better in the future as the greater C5 community transitions fully over to C5.7. I personally will be pouring more time into support.

Before 2.1.3

Review posted by booklogix on at

Must-Have for Concrete Blogs

booklogix
The enhancements brought by this add-on to concrete blogging is nothing short of impressive. Setting it up with social media sharing and SEO monitoring is a breeze! You can have a great blog up and running with every feature you'd expect and hope to have in no time at all. Tags and categories are great, and the interface for posting is simple and straightforward.

Support responded and resolved one minor issue we had in record time. Definitely recommended! The quality and service is top-notch.
Review posted by digitaris on at

No Longer the Most Powerful and Easy To Use and Manage Blogging App for C5

digitaris
AMENDED REVIEW - 03/08/2017 - I just noticed this add-on is marked as end of life. What started out as a solid solution for v5.6, began as a good solution for 5.7, but over time this new version add-on has failed to live up to its predecessor. There are many frailties with this add-on under 5.7, especially if the Redactor editor is customized, and although a developer can address them, it creates more support demands than it should. I am amending my original rave review to remove my recommendation for this add-on. Probably meaningless given its end of life status, but sometimes purchase decisions are made based on prior reviews.

I have migrated clients to a competitive solution - C5DK Blog - with fantastic results and excellent client reviews.
Review posted by Vivid on at

Fantastic

Vivid
Chad's add-ons have been essential to our company's success on projects. The ProBlog release for 5.7+ is no different. It's smooth, stable and easy to use. Setting up Blogs in C5's default composer takes more energy, and lacks the features ProBlog has to offer.

Additionally, the SEO tools provided by ProBlog have been a huge feature that clients have really enjoyed.

This is a powerful tool, $40 is a drop in the bucket compared to its usefulness.

2.1.3 -

Review posted by stuball on at

Needs Work

stuball
While the Concrete 5.6 version of ProBlog is well regarded, this version (2.1.3, April 2015) is buggy, fragile, and poorly documented. I would count this as beta-level software, at best, as it is easy to break, tricky to use for first-timers due to all-but-nonexistent documentation*, and apparently lacks basic features such as opting to have comments default to unapproved or disallowing comment attachment uploads by site visitors.

* Note: the C5.6 version has ample documentation that can help point you in the right direction for using the C5.7 product but sometimes the 5.6 answers don't apply to this version.

In some cases integration with outside services like Disqus is offered to add to or replace native features. This is a fair trade-off but only after searching for non-existent settings did I understand that this was the work-around to some limitations in this product.

Personally, as a first-time user, I have spent hours between finding information, posting or reading bug reports, and correcting issues with ProBlog.

For example, after deleting a file for a month in which posts no longer existed (trying to correct for a bug that I later discovered is to be corrected in the next release) a problem arose that essentially crashed the blog pages. Ok... my bad! Uninstalling and re-installing ProBlog should have allowed me to get back to square one, but the uninstall did not even remove the ProBlog-specific database tables, never mind entries added to other Concrete5 tables. I had to go through the ProBlog code to find where information had been stored and remove database records by hand. Of the issues with this product this is the one that was most troubling.

To be fair, the developer seems like a nice fellow and is actively fixing bugs and rolling out new releases. I posted one serious bug and it was fixed in about 3 or 4 days. I am confident that this will mature into a worthy Concrete5 native blogging tool. In the meantime, I feel that the product description - copied from the previous version - is misleading as it makes it seem like this is a mature product at this time.

If the uninstall was comprehensive I would rate this 3 stars. If you treat ProBlog gently it will work for you and allow you to avoid a separate WordPress install.

In time this will no doubt become a fine product - refer to the latest reviews for the current state of development. For now, however, use it with care.
Response by RadiantWeb on at
RadiantWeb
What am I missing here????? I see no support tickets for any of these "issues". Did you read the below docs??? Can you be more specific - WHAT is not documented well enough for you??? Did you ask for help???

http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/problog1/getting-starte...
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/problog1/how-do-i-do-x/...
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/problog1/seo-optimizer/...
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/problog1/pro-tips-and-t...

I hate that you felt compelled to A) leave a bad review to discredit our hard work and tell others not to buy it B) never ask for help.

Very very very disappointed in this. You didn't even give us the chance to right something before dinging our good effort and brand.

You clearly have absolutely zero clue how hard it was to even get a package from 5.6 to 5.7 to begin with. With a barely working core and no documentation I might add.

I completely do not respect or agree with this review. Tasteless and rude and shows a tremendous level of ignorance and arrogance on your part.

Filter Posts