New problems publishing

[ColinP]

I could be mistaken but it appears that the process of publishing a module (not for sale, just for testing purposes) has become much more difficult.

Previously one could just click on Publish in the Build menu of VM Designer and then the module would upload and then automatically download into VM ready for testing. All nice and simple.

Now the category set in VMD is mysteriously no longer recognised and it has to be set again in the Dashboard. But if you then try to save the change another problem arises as it refuses to save unless you also enter a valid address for the Help URL.

Only then can you manage to publish and therefore test the module in VM.

Maybe this is just something weird that's happened for me, but if anyone new to module development encounters the same problems they may just give up in frustration. A first attempt at getting a module going needs to be as simple as possible. These extra steps could put some newbies off developing for VM.

[alefnull]

i'm also having troubles publishing, but for me the process seems to stop dead after clicking the "publish..." menu item, at which point the module builds successfully and spits out the normal build output, and then ends, and that's it. no dialog comes up, and the module is not available in Voltage Modular.

no idea what the problem is, because everything else works fine.

[seal58]

That a missing help URL prevents from SAVE is annoying. May be, CA wants to force developers to create help sources. But a missing help URL should only be necessarry when the developer wants the product to be approved. A private developer does not need a help for himself!

By the way, some devs found a very strange way: they use the link to the module in the shop as "help URL".

There is another issue in the product manager:
- open products list, select the product you want to edit.
- select a tab of the product data, enter some data, click on SAVE.
- select another tab and sometimes you'll get a warning "not saved ...".
- ignore warning, go to another tab
- go back to revious tab, see: all is ok. Data have been saved.
So why the big warning window does appear?

[ColinP]

Yup I did a similar workaround for the URL.

I've not encountered the scenario that alefnull describes but the not saved warning bug has been there for quite a while.

Another problem is that image uploads sometimes don't work.

Another thing to watch out for is that when you submit a module for approval a message pops up and disappears before you have time to read it, the page remains the same so it looks like the submission failed. But if you then hit submit again it "closes" the build and it's then not possible to do the final publishing step even after approval.

Another problem I encountered is that while trying to update a module having discovered a bug after submission but before approval I hit the delete button thinking it would delete the current build but instead it deleted all builds for that module. So I then reinstated the module and published but now I have what looks like a malfunctioning demo version. In the library I have two versions one "free" and another regular one. Neither work.

It seems to me that add hoc changes are being made to try and improve things but instead of improving things they are introducing new problems.

I'd suggest that a rollback to an earlier version is the best option here as we seem to be just going from bad to worse.

[seal58]

Next issue:
product is approved, then published, a click on VIEW shows a yellow border arround the view button - nothing else!

[tristanshoutsf]

i'm also having troubles publishing, but for me the process seems to stop dead after clicking the "publish..." menu item, at which point the module builds successfully and spits out the normal build output, and then ends, and that's it. ...

I just started playing with Designer, and I am having this very problem. Everything appears to work correctly in Designer, but Publish... doesn't appear to do anything beyond building the module. No publish dialog and my module does not appear in Voltage Modular.

[ColinP]

I just started playing with Designer, and I am having this very problem. Everything appears to work correctly in Designer, but Publish... doesn't appear to do anything beyond building the module. No publish dialog and my module does not appear in Voltage Modular.

Have you looked in your "Dashboard" on the CA website? I wonder if your module is listed in the Products section there.

When I publish a new module it doesn't turn up in VM but does appear in my Dashboard's Products section, then when I change the Category setting and add a dummy Help URL then the module eventually does get downloaded into VM.

[tristanshoutsf]

Have you looked in your "Dashboard" on the CA website? I wonder if your module is listed in the Products section there.

I'm still new at this. Not at all sure what the Dashboard is. I looked in the Library in my CA account, and saw the very long list of modules I own, but not my experimental one.

[ColinP]

I'm still new at this. Not at all sure what the Dashboard is. I looked in the Library in my CA account, and saw the very long list of modules I own, but not my experimental one.

When logged into the CA website, in the "smiley" menu there should be a New Dashboard (Nebula) option below the LIbrary option. Click on this to go to the Dashboard. Then on the left-hand menu select the Products option. This is where you should find any modules you have published.

[seal58]

I'm still new at this. Not at all sure what the Dashboard is. I looked in the Library in my CA account, and saw the very long list of modules I own, but not my experimental one.

In the VM module library there is a category 'under development' on the bottom. There you should see your first published modules before they are approved and published within Nebula product dashboard.