Future of Contribute

[rooms]

Our company has worked with Contribute for a long time so long and so far we
are very satisfied with the eas-of-use of the product. Now there are rumours
around that Adobe won't develop Contribute further on. Rumours are ... rumours.
But we have to notice objectivly that development of Contribute has been slowed
down or already stopped since the release 3.02.

So does anybody know more about the plans of Adobe concerning Contribute?

Thanks a lot for your help.

[Ritesh Banglani]

Hi,

I am the product manager for Contribute, and am glad to know that you have had
a good experience with the product. Please rest assured that Contribute is very
much under development, and we are working on new versions to add exciting new
functionality to it.

If you would like more information, please get in touch with me directly on my
email below.

Ritesh Banglani
Contribute Product Manager
[email]ritesh.banglani@adobe.com[/email]

[Marc Hosein]

Hi,

I am a Group Product Marketing Manager at Adobe. One of my responsibilities
is to manage Contribute marketing. I am also very pleased to hear that you
like Contribute. Adobe is committed to supporting and developing Contribute
for the foreseeable future. Please stay tuned for exciting new announcements.
Thank you for your continued support.

Marc

[Ramesh Gopalakrishna]

Hi,

I am the Senior Engineering Manager responsible for delivery of future
releases of Contribute Product. I would like to reassure you that Contribute is
core part of the web strategy and we are looking forward to releasing newer
versions of Contribute with exciting futures useful to Contribute customers
while maintaining the ease of use.

Regards,
Ramesh Gopalakrishna,
Senior Engineering Manager,
[email]rameshg@adobe.com[/email]

[joe]

lol is this april 1st?

Are we meant to believe that adobe are sparing senior execs to comment on
the future of this bug ridden programme whilst they cannot help any of the
poor users on this forum?

"Ramesh Gopalakrishna" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:e8280g$g99$1@forums.macromedia.com...
: Hi,
:
: I am the Senior Engineering Manager responsible for delivery of future
: releases of Contribute Product. I would like to reassure you that
Contribute is
: core part of the web strategy and we are looking forward to releasing
newer
: versions of Contribute with exciting futures useful to Contribute
customers
: while maintaining the ease of use.
:
: Regards,
: Ramesh Gopalakrishna,
: Senior Engineering Manager,
: [email]rameshg@adobe.com[/email]
:

[Ritesh Banglani]

Hi,

I am very sorry to know you are having problems with Contribute. Please write
to me directly about the bugs you have encountered, and I will make sure we fix
them quickly or provide a workaround. We are also stepping up our support
efforts so that customer issues are addressed promptly.

Please do continue to send your feedback - I assure you it will be worked on.

Ritesh
[email]ritesh.banglani@adobe.com[/email]


[q]Originally posted by: Newsgroup User
lol is this april 1st?

Are we meant to believe that adobe are sparing senior execs to comment on
the future of this bug ridden programme whilst they cannot help any of the
poor users on this forum?
[/q]

[joe]

Hi,
Mmmmm I still smell a rat :)
Well, how about the fact that contribute cannot preview a page that has a
database connection in like this:
<?php require_once('Connections/whatawasteofmoney.php'); ?>
Rather than wasting your time on that why don't you help some of the poor
souls on this forum?

"Ritesh Banglani" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:e8e48s$3ji$1@forums.macromedia.com...
: Hi,
:
: I am very sorry to know you are having problems with Contribute. Please
write
: to me directly about the bugs you have encountered, and I will make sure
we fix
: them quickly or provide a workaround. We are also stepping up our support
: efforts so that customer issues are addressed promptly.
:
: Please do continue to send your feedback - I assure you it will be worked
on.
:
: Ritesh
: [email]ritesh.banglani@adobe.com[/email]
:
:
: [q]Originally posted by: Newsgroup User
: lol is this april 1st?
:
: Are we meant to believe that adobe are sparing senior execs to comment on
: the future of this bug ridden programme whilst they cannot help any of
the
: poor users on this forum?
: [/q]
:
:
:

[IanW]

Ritesh, I emailed you directly but have not received a response.

I am sure you can feel the sense of frustration at a lack of news on the
future of Contribute.

We are a licensed user of Contribute and CPS, like the product alot and what
to expand our use. But the lasck of news is worrying. All I can find is this
from Max 2005 (Oct 2005)

[url]http://blog.deeje.tv/musings/2005/10/max_2005_the_fu.html[/url]

I have seen absolutely nothing since.

Dreamweaver was updated to include a fix for the Active Content issue, why not
Contribute as well?

Is there any more information available?

Regards
Ian
[email]iwelsh@ueharlax.ac.uk[/email]

[joe]

Ian,
Do not be taken in, he is a troll.
Sorry, adobe do not monitor these forums at all. At best you get fellow
users.
Some of the experts from the DW forum ( Murray et al) used to help here but
even they have given up.
There are acknowledged bugs in Contribute from contribute 2 days that have
not been addressed.
When it works, Contribute is great... a quick look at this forum gives you
some sense of the frustration when it does not.
Joe
"IanW" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:e8jbtd$mvv$1@forums.macromedia.com...
: Ritesh, I emailed you directly but have not received a response.
:
: I am sure you can feel the sense of frustration at a lack of news on the
: future of Contribute.
:
: We are a licensed user of Contribute and CPS, like the product alot and
what
: to expand our use. But the lasck of news is worrying. All I can find is
this
: from Max 2005 (Oct 2005)
:
: [url]http://blog.deeje.tv/musings/2005/10/max_2005_the_fu.html[/url]
:
: I have seen absolutely nothing since.
:
: Dreamweaver was updated to include a fix for the Active Content issue,
why not
: Contribute as well?
:
: Is there any more information available?
:
: Regards
: Ian
: [email]iwelsh@ueharlax.ac.uk[/email]
:

[Shane T - Adobe TS]

Hi Everyone,

I know that this is a frustrating time for you. Normally, Adobe doesn't
comment on unannounced or unreleased products. But with the former Macromedia
products transitioning over valid questions have been raised.

What I can say:
Adobe is continuing the development of Contribute. The product team is in
place. If you want to have someone's ear, they have replied to the thread
already. Adobe is moving forward with the next release.

What I can't say:
When we will be shipping (Unless Ritesh tells me I can)
What will be in the new version
What bugs we have fixed (well, except for the note below)

As for the Active Content issue that Ian raised. It is already fixed in the
next release and has been for a while. At the time, the team looked at the
schedule and decided whether or not we should roll out a dot release to fix it
or if we should just wait since the next version was coming up. I can't dictate
schedule, but if it seems like the next release gets pushed out for any reason,
I will be asking the team to try to find a solution for the Active Content
stuff and provide the fix to our customers. The team understands this as I said
the same thing to them during the conference call to talk about the issue in
the beginning.

This information doesn't answer all of your questions I know. I am asking that
rumors and second guessing should please stop. It doesn't do anyone any good.

Thank you all for your continued support of Contribute.

Shane
WW Product Support Manager
Adobe Contribute

[IanW]

Thanks. Just to follow up - I received a good response from Ritesh.

We have no current issues or problems with Contribute 3.11 or CPS 1.11 which
we use extensively.

For me the frustration lies in seeing what, for us, are very interesting new
features showcased at the Max 2005 sneak peek (link in previous message),
especially regarding blog publishing, and then hearing nothing for so long.
Perhaps you shouldn't have teased us so early?

Can we hope that future product development might mirror the openess of the
Flex 2 public betas?

Anyway, enough siad, we are eagerly awaiting the new release which by the
sounds of it, is not too far away.

Regards
Ian

[joe]

Hi,
Guess I got to eat humble pie here. I was wrong.
That is not to deny that support on this forum is very poor.
Although I still support a few schools that I installed Contribute in, I use
a different CMS now for new sites.
One bug I found took me through escalating levels of support in the UK
through to Bill in the US only to find two years later that it has not been
addressed.
Contribute remains one of the better cm solutions undermined by appalling
customer support
I often look on here to see if I can help but the nature of the issues is
complex and at times, baffling.
Some technical support here from adobe would allay frustration rather than
future promises.
However,
apologies for denying Riteesh
joe
"Shane T - Adobe TS" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:e8jvhr$ioj$1@forums.macromedia.com...
: Hi Everyone,
:
: I know that this is a frustrating time for you. Normally, Adobe doesn't
: comment on unannounced or unreleased products. But with the former
Macromedia
: products transitioning over valid questions have been raised.
:
: What I can say:
: Adobe is continuing the development of Contribute. The product team is in
: place. If you want to have someone's ear, they have replied to the thread
: already. Adobe is moving forward with the next release.
:
: What I can't say:
: When we will be shipping (Unless Ritesh tells me I can)
: What will be in the new version
: What bugs we have fixed (well, except for the note below)
:
: As for the Active Content issue that Ian raised. It is already fixed in
the
: next release and has been for a while. At the time, the team looked at the
: schedule and decided whether or not we should roll out a dot release to
fix it
: or if we should just wait since the next version was coming up. I can't
dictate
: schedule, but if it seems like the next release gets pushed out for any
reason,
: I will be asking the team to try to find a solution for the Active Content
: stuff and provide the fix to our customers. The team understands this as I
said
: the same thing to them during the conference call to talk about the issue
in
: the beginning.
:
: This information doesn't answer all of your questions I know. I am asking
that
: rumors and second guessing should please stop. It doesn't do anyone any
good.
:
: Thank you all for your continued support of Contribute.
:
: Shane
: WW Product Support Manager
: Adobe Contribute
:
:

[IanW]

Ritesh, my response to your email is failing to deliver. Here is the text:


Thanks for responding it is appreciated. We don?t have any current issues
with Contribute 3.11 or CPS 1.11 ? all is OK here.

Yes, it is the blog publishing features that we are interested in and that
were showcased at the Max 2005 sneak peek. Ever since then we have been itching
to know more! We currently use Contribute for faculty and staff publishing so
we would definitely be interested in features that would be attractive to our
students in particular.

I would be very interested in being added to the beta. I was on the Murdock
(3.1) beta and have helped beta several Coldfusion releases.

We are also a user of CPS and are beginning to play with custom publishing
services using our Coldfusion servers, so we would also be interested in CPS
developments too.

Regards
Ian
[email]iwelsh@ueharlax.ac.uk[/email]

[gallery]

> : What I can say:

> : Adobe is continuing the development of Contribute. The product team is
> in
> : place. If you want to have someone's ear, they have replied to the
> thread
> : already. Adobe is moving forward with the next release.

I am delighted to hear that Adobe is continuing development of Contribute.
All of the web site clients in my company are getting Contribute as their
content management program and it has been a huge success. We are thrilled
with it.

I do give each client about an hour of personalized training and provide
them with a customized training manual. We also help out the first few weeks
if the client needs it ... this happens rarely.

My only request for the next version would be to allow the user to create
absolute links to graphics and to text links. Right now all the
client-created links are relative.

I am sorry that this group is not as active as it was before Adobe took
over. I could not have survived the learning curve without the generous help
of the regulars in the group and the people at Macromedia who monitored
this group. They made ALL the difference.

My hope is that the next time I look in on this group, Adobe will have
realized the critical nature of the group, and it will be bustling with
activity.

[Sudharshan.S]

Hi,

In the latest version of contribute (Contribtue 4), the user can change a
relative link to absolute link by editing the properties of the Images. To do
this, you need to publish a page with an image. Then edit the page and edit the
image properties. In the Image location, specify the absolute path for the
image (http://<hostname>/Path to the image) and publish the page. Contribute
does not change it to relative path and preserve this setting.

Hope this helps.
Sudharshan

[Avinash Rao]

Hello gallery,

And good new is .. Adobe Contribute 4 is scheduled to release by Oct,2006
(1st week or so).

-Avinash

>> : What I can say:
>> : Adobe is continuing the development of Contribute. The product
>> team is
>> in
>> : place. If you want to have someone's ear, they have replied to the
>> thread
>> : already. Adobe is moving forward with the next release.

> I am delighted to hear that Adobe is continuing development of
> Contribute. All of the web site clients in my company are getting
> Contribute as their content management program and it has been a huge
> success. We are thrilled with it.
>
> I do give each client about an hour of personalized training and
> provide them with a customized training manual. We also help out the
> first few weeks if the client needs it ... this happens rarely.
>
> My only request for the next version would be to allow the user to
> create absolute links to graphics and to text links. Right now all the
> client-created links are relative.
>
> I am sorry that this group is not as active as it was before Adobe
> took over. I could not have survived the learning curve without the
> generous help of the regulars in the group and the people at
> Macromedia who monitored this group. They made ALL the difference.
>
> My hope is that the next time I look in on this group, Adobe will
> have realized the critical nature of the group, and it will be
> bustling with activity.
>