Why I won't be purchasing ScriptCase

Scriptcase 8 Suggestions
#1

  1. Many of the tutorials show buttons/features not present in the latest edition.
    Example: Editable Grid Tutorial show ‘Create Editable Grid View’ & ‘Edition Lookup’ - these are NOT present in V6
    This leads to frustration and annoyance - especially when you’ve spent twenty minutes trying to find a ‘Feature’ that’s no longer present.

  2. Creating a N-N (Many-to-Many) relationship is neither simple or well or fully explained in the documentation.
    What you really need here is a Visual Query Builder: See Attachment

  3. In general, the documentation is confusing - there seems to be too many steps to do simple things, Example: Creating and using a Session variable in a TAB application. Why do I need to set the Session variables in the TAB? The TAB doesn’t use the information, the Session variable has ALREADY been set so any Application within a TAB should be able to access it.
    Additionally within the documentation, there are many many misspellings and the poor grammar can lead to confusion.

  4. Calling each of the Web Applications Sections an ‘Application’ - it’s not, it’s a section,
    Example: MyBLOG is the application; Login, Logout, Contacts, Add Member, Delete Member etc are Sections within the MyBLOG application. I am, after all, creating ONE Web Application not many.

From the above you might believe that I found the whole experience of working with ScriptCase to be bad - this is not the case.
Generally, I found that the program was stable and did what it said it could do. Forum members were helpful and polite.
The Security & Log Modules work especially well but overall, the amount of work I’d still have to do after I’d done as much as possible within ScriptCase needled me.

I hope that you take these criticisms in the way that they are intended - as constructive.

Yours, Primitive_man

Have a nice day.

visual_query.gif

#2

Re: Why I won’t be purchasing ScriptCase

I would be interested in what you plan on using other that ScriptCase. I tested and evaluated 30 or more commercial and open source programs of this type last year. Several may have been easier to use, with better documentation, but I didn’t find anything that had as many features as ScriptCase. Well, I did find one, but it is extremely expensive and the support is terrible.

So where do you go from here if you don’t mind me asking?

Sorry to see you go.

Ted Berry

#3

Re: Why I won’t be purchasing ScriptCase

I’m the first to admit that there’s a lot to be improved in SC. The documentation certainly contains errors. And the fact that English is not the native language but Portuguese gives problems because sometime questions are not understood. But imho they always have been very reactive to problems and willing to repair issues. I too have investigated in a lot of products but they appear to be very technical (then I like to access my own libraries), or very static (only new versions in a vvvveeerrrryyyy long time causing you to sit on errors for months), etc. SC is by far one of the best with regular new versions. Some things do need a lot of work, but it’s a case tool, one might expect that not everything goes as fast as you would like. If you can win (a lot of) time on your full project then you can focus on the parts which needs a more manual approach. I haven’s seen any tool where this is so easy as with SC. But that’s my opinion.

Be aware that the tool works out of the browser. Features like your visual query builder are mostly on desktop apps. I use 3rd parties to do that, and copy the sql into SC. Works like charm.

Sorry to see you go too.

#4

Re: Why I won’t be purchasing ScriptCase

In response to aideeaidee:
Firstly, as stated, I meant and mean my comments to be constructive.

  1. You state that ‘English is not the native language [of the developers] but Portuguese’ - I was aware of this and that it can be prohibitively expensive to hire a full-time documentation writer, especially for a small, growing company.
    So, in the interest of ‘constructive criticism’ here’s a possible solution:
    You already have a wealth of experienced ScriptCase users - put them to use with an incentive. Offer them a discount on future versions if they’re willing to submit a unique tutorial. Have the tutorials placed in a vote system - get enough votes and they get the discount. This will a) Prevent people from adding spurious content. b) The tutorials will have to work - if they don’t then they don’t get the votes/incentive. c) Allow people who speak other languages to add tutorial with the same ‘vetting’ system - you could additionally, add further incentives to people who add tutorials with multiple languages. and finally d) You could also incentivise people to keep their tutorials up to date.

  2. New versions don’t necessarily mean a product improvement - many users regard upgrades with suspicion, especially if there are multiple ones’ within a short time - because the question begs… If they’ve found x number of errors/problems in x months alone, why did they release it?
    New versions also represent other worries - Will it fix the problem and/or create new ones? - Will my half-developed Application survive the upgrade or will all my work go down the pan? Can I roll-back an upgrade?

  3. I am also aware that ‘Visual Query Builders’ tend to be in desktop applications - but the Query Builder that you’ve incorporated is half way there already. In fact, with the use of jQuery and drag n drop it could be 90% of the way there. If I had the time, I’d build it for you. A simple Google search of ‘jquery visual query builder’ will bring up several - full and in develoment

In response to teddyberry:
I feel it unfair to make recommendations concerning other product on this website but I will say that I have, like yourself, tried numerous other alternatives. Some cheaper and some more expensive. What I will say is this. ScriptCase is a good product but it was unsuitable for my needs - this is not reflective of them but of my requirements - yours will, obviously, be different from mine. As to my final choice - I’ll PM you.

#5

Re: Why I won’t be purchasing ScriptCase

Of course everybody has his/her own choices. I agree that there is a lot of room for improvement. I still believe that if you choose a case tool then there will be limitations in use. If this fits or doesn’t fit is up to the customer. I like you comment point 1 though. I disagree on point 2. Of course the procedure used by SC needs improvements, if you search for my comment on this you will find a rather large post on this matter. I don’t like the way it is updated because it can introduce new bugs and I like to have a DTAP street. But that being said, I have experiences with products with very limited updates which means that if you have a bug you need to live with that for a long time. So yes, please regular updates, but also a better way of updating needed. Point 3 is not an issue for me. Useually I write my sql statements faster than any generator can generate for me and mostly more efficient too. But it depends of couse on the complexity you need. Never the less, I had no intention to offence you and I did see it as positive comment. Just tried to put some other argues on this matter. I am a happy customer, and yes I did buy the product although there most certainly are issues.