Lucene index update maintenance?

[NC Software]

I'm familiar with JIRA and their use of Lucene and as you know from using JIRA too it prompts you when to rebuild the index. At times it needs to be maintained. Does AbleCommerce auto-rebuild the index? Does it inform the Admin when it needs a rebuild? Is their guidance on when to rebuild it? I assume when catalog changes are made there are triggers to update it behind the scenes? What needs to be done and when by an Admin to maintain an optimal lucene index? I prefer SQL FTS as it is a server based index, it's a separate server, and it's not disk I/O and in my case has much more resources available but it seems the FTS index is not optimal or is using incorrect search methods such as not using CONTAINS logic?

Yes, I'm gearing up for GOLD so prepare for my usual barrage of questions/findings.

On that note:

Please update all nugets for your next round of updates, they are WAY out of date! I really want to be able to keep nuget updated for security and bug fixes but I tried even in your source solution and the dependencies are a mess and quite frankly I failed in an effort to see if I could even get them updated. Also update the .NET framework to 4.6.1 which is the latest.

[NC Software]

Tried my first deploy, it failed, missing logo.gif from bootstrap_responsive/images

[NC Software]

And more: Could not find file App_Themes\Bootstrap_Responsive\style.css

[NC Software]

After finally getting the deploy to complete and setting permissions on the folders first run failed due to missing CommerceBuilder.WebAPI.xml file - this needs to be added to your web deploy functionality please if it's required.

[NC Software]

AbleCommercePublish.pubxml is missing from the project under PublishProfiles folder

[NC Software]

database.config didn't deploy

Next error: NHibernate.Caches.SysCache.dll missing - didn't deploy

How can I be sure all files are deploying from VS.NET 2015 to the server? I need a 100% intact solution in VS 2015 under version control that I can deploy to any server at any time and it is of 100% integrity that can run the site. It seems like you all have fallen way short in web deploy testing especially from WAP. In the end I am spending hours on this trying to get a site to deploy properly AND run at the R12 stage. It's extremely disappointing as my time costs me money and the reason we pay you money is to not have to spend this time. I really thought holding off this long would have yielded better results. The documentation seems lacking in several areas from system requirements (hello, SQL Server 2016 is now out) - what SQL Server collation requirements are needed? This needs to be specified. SQL Server compatibility modes for newer versions, i.e. can I use 2014 or do I need to set 2012 because that's the latest your documentation outlines?

So someone please tell me what files are required on the server to run AC GOLD R12? And why aren't the required files setup for web deploy?

What actions are required after deployment, i.e. rebuild the index? If you've been working on a dev machine actions are going to be required post deploy - what are they?

Please do not set us up to fail - set us up to succeed!

[NC Software]

Finally running but the purpose of web deploy is to be able to deploy your dev site to production and ensure all files are in place. So much was missing from trying to deploy this WAP solution that it nearly defeats the purpose of WAP as you may as well use the WAS and just FTP the entire thing up! Sad! Config files were missing, images missing, DLL's missing, so much missing it's just a matter of when the next error occurs. This should be an atomic scenario, dev, publish, run all maintained in version control as well.

[NC Software]

Okay, added the files/folders to my project so they should deploy better, off to the styling fun!

[NC Software]

Are we supposed to have a styles.css in the bootstrap responsive theme folder area? It showed as broken (missing) in VS 2015. Also the logo.gif as I reported in various themes years ago. Seems like you can't compile the .less file without the styles.css file that's missing.

I suggest AC do some Q/A testing for missing/broken files and also web deployment to ensure when someone downloads your product and deploys it that it actually deploys the required dependencies. Numerous were missing in my first efforts in R12 from config files to DLL's etc.

[mazhar]

Are we supposed to have a styles.css

Not really, we are using less to generate .css files. You will need to install "Web Essentials" extension in your Visual Studio. Every time you will update style.less it will automatically generate stylesheet. We are using minified version of generated style sheet called style.min.css.

[NC Software]

I tried making a change in styles.less and then save, got the error below and seems like it can't find LESS

Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error FileError: 'less/responsive-utilities.less' wasn't found. Tried - \App_Themes\Bootstrap_Responsive\less\responsive-utilities.less,\App_Themes\Bootstrap_Responsive\less\responsive-utilities.less,less\responsive-utilities.less in \App_Themes\Bootstrap_Responsive\style.less AbleCommerce D:\Dev\acgold\Website\App_Themes\Bootstrap_Responsive\style.less 52

In some googling it seems I have to download and add this to the site somewhere? I reviewed various areas of the AC documentation and didn't find any information about downloads required or where to put it. Did I miss something? Is there a reason this is not in a comment at the top of the file you provide?

This again is a terrible "new user" experience with very poor documentation both in the help sites and in the solution. Your frequent users / developers here have let you down in my opinion. As of R12 this should be a polished file set coming from you, no hit or miss deploys, a checklist of files to be sure deploy if you intentionally left them out, broken file associations in the .csproj etc. etc.

[NC Software]

Please tell me exactly what I need to download and where to put the files to make this setup work as expected.

[NC Software]

Through googling I found to download the bootstrap source, copy the less folder to the theme folder for bootstrap responsive. I made a change to style.less and saved it and now the files generated properly.

This needs to be documented in the installation guide, merchant guide on theming, wiki and PDF, who knows where. I really suggest merge all these sources and completely rewrite the documentation in a much better system, Atlassian's wiki product Confluence. This is not helping your business I'm afraid...if I wasn't tied to AC as an authentication system for everything I use I would probably not switch to GOLD but so be it, back to work...

[Katie]

There are several options for editing the Bootstrap theme. We have a document within the Merchant Guide to assist:

http://help.ablecommerce.com/mergedProj ... _theme.htm

[NC Software]

Thanks Katy, I skimmed that earlier, now I see it at the bottom:

In order to customize the Bootstrap Responsive stylesheet you will have to do the following:

Install Web Essentials plugin in for Visual Studio

Download Bootstrap source code "LESS" package and keep under the responsive theme folder.

Make changes to Style.less file.

Web Essentials will automatically update style.min.css file and you should be able to see updates.

[Katie]

Yes, it's the first option within the Editing section.

OPTION 1: EDIT THE THEME USING A 3RD-PARTY BOOTSTRAP EDITOR

I use Option 3 myself, because it allows me to keep the site upgraded without having to re-merge any custom styles.

OPTION 3: USING A CUSTOM STYLESHEET TO OVER-RIDE STYLE.LESS

In Gold R11, we added the custom.css file so you can skip steps 1 - 3 in that section.

But, whatever you prefer is always the best option!

[NC Software]

I just needed to ensure any missing files were auto re-generated as several showed missing in the project. So this allowed the theme to rebuild I suppose. I'll review your option, not quite ready to do the dirty work yet.