This is something I am never going to subject myself to again

[Brainchild Labs Pty Ltd]

Here is my rant for the day, well make it for the year.

I am just starting to come out of a depression due to a WHMCS import assist experience I am having and still fixing.

What started out to be .... "Lets amalgamate 2 WHMCS installations into 1" ended up being the biggest HEAD F$%K in history.

@WHMCS you really need to look at your Import Assist script and get it right.

There are so many issues with it, I cant even begin to discuss and rant on about what it should do and should not do. Eg..... You import products but then by accident I find out there are no product prices on my products on the new installation. WOW!

Here is a list of a few things I want to kill my self over.

How can you create an import script, but not import everything that is on one installation, eg. You dont import Pre Defined replies, You dont import knowledge base, You dont import email templates....... and the list keeps going on and on.

Not to mention when it comes to 3rd party plugins WHMCS does not have a bar of it, make sure you check with your plugin authors if they support some sort of an export / import. Trust me 90% of them wont.

This is a note to all Authors / Developers / WHMCS.... get things right, if you create a Project Management Addon, and the user has 300 projects and wants to migrate to a new installation, what happens? Do you offer an easy export option to json file or some other format that will be easy to get up and running without headaches? If the answer is NO then you need to reevaluate your processes and procedures.

I have used WHMCS for close to 10 years now, and whilst it has gained SOME SORT OF TRACTION, it is so far behind the 8-ball that I think it needs a complete rewrite from the ground up. There is not much difference between v4 to v7 when it comes to the core functionality.

Where is the mobile app? Dead and burried they do not care, yet 3/4 of the community who bought it, are crying for a decent mobile management app, why is this not important? are you living in the stone ages?

I am finding issues and cleaning up a lot of mess with the amalgamation of 2 installations into 1 and I will never go thru this again, its just too hard.

Let this be a warning to anyone looking into doing this prepare yourself for some sort of chaos and carnage.

Cheers.... Mitch

[Brainchild Labs Pty Ltd]

Oh allow me to now add something else.... None of the cancellation requests from my old installation came across, so now I need to resubmit cancellation requests in the new installation. AWESOME, WAY TO GO WHMCS 😉

[brian!]

12 hours ago, menkom said:

it is so far behind the 8-ball that I think it needs a complete rewrite from the ground up. There is not much difference between v4 to v7 when it comes to the core functionality.

well said.

12 hours ago, menkom said:

Let this be a warning to anyone looking into doing this prepare yourself for some sort of chaos and carnage.

as more people will see it there, it might be worth adding a review to the ImportAssist MarketPlace page - leave out the fruity off-topic to IA stuff in there though, otherwise it would give them the excuse to delete/moderate the review (they might anyway). 🙄

[Brainchild Labs Pty Ltd]

Hi Brian, I know you have been around for a while..... good to see you here ;)

Sorry if I sounded brash, but I am one to give an honest review when needed and this was needed........ and I needed to vent hahaha.

Ill post that review.... it was just more a head's up for anyone else thinking this Import Script was going to be the answer to everyone's dreams.

[brian!]

5 hours ago, menkom said:

Hi Brian, I know you have been around for a while..... good to see you here 😉

it feels like the longest six years of my life!

5 hours ago, menkom said:

Sorry if I sounded brash, but I am one to give an honest review when needed and this was needed........ and I needed to vent hahaha.

from what you've probably been through with this, I don't think it was too brash at all...

venting to other users should be praised and encouraged; venting to WHMCS do things right is sadly pointless... their staff who read this thread will be powerless to do anything about it (even if they are inclined to)... those that can do anything are living in their bubble where it's a) perfectly normal for a new release to need 3 betas, 4 GA's and for there still to be bugs unfixed within it;  and b) think that it's acceptable for users to wait 4+ years for a feature request to be completed... I could go on with other examples...

it would make life simpler if I wake up one morning and find it absolutely reasonable to continually pump out buggy software, provide very poor communication with the customer base and apathy in general... I thought the situation was bad enough 5 years ago, but it's getting worse...

i'm not expecting bug-free releases in the future from any software company, but if WHMCS can get to the stage with a major GA release, that it only requires a handful of hotfixes for obscure situations that couldn't have reasonably been found during beta, then that's a step forward... instead v7.8 was released with 50+ bugs (according to the changelog), most of which seemingly centred around payments and billing... which is the core functionality of WHMCS and the part that most needs to be right!

5 hours ago, menkom said:

it was just more a head's up for anyone else thinking this Import Script was going to be the answer to everyone's dreams.

good to warn others - though similar complaints have been made over the years about it - so as a migration tool, it only has a very limited use...

[WHMCS John]

Hi @menkom,

Thanks for taking the time to provide your feedback on ImportAssist .  I'm sorry to hear that the tool did not import all the data you needed, for the avoidance of doubt, a comprehensive list of everything it will import is published here: https://docs.whmcs.com/ImportAssist#What_will_Import

From our 10+ years experience of importing and merging installations, this includes all the core data needed for essential operations when buying/merging previously separate organisations into one.  I appreciate that you'd like to see more items imported, and I can certainly bring up your suggestions next time this is discussed by the product team.

In the meantime if you'd like advice or assistance getting any final things straightened out post-import, please do let Technical Support know.

 

With regards to the mobile app, I've seen a sneak peak and it's looking pretty cool. We hope to have some more news about a public beta soon!