Support Team

[Lindy]

Point taken and thank you again for the feedback. More proactive interaction with the community from a support standpoint is something we're aiming for.  

I think you'll also find if a technician happens to know an answer that falls outside of the scope of support, they'll typically do their best to point you in the right direction -- even if it's followed with a disclaimer. As mentioned, technicians are not necessarily developers/engineers and their experiences outside of product support (as in, within-scope) varies. 

If you have examples of incidents where you were deferred to the community for basic support items, I would ask that you take a little more of your time and e-mail or PM me those request numbers . Absent modifications, server assistance, etc. you should never be referred outside of the support system and that's something I'd definitely like to address if it's an issue. I realize your time is valuable and appreciate your assistance with this. 

You will find documentation for IPS4 an infinite and ever-evolving improvement over previous products and versions. We've brought Charlie on, in large part, to maintain our documentation and knowledgebase, so if there's something you feel is missing - please do let him/us know. 

Thanks again for your time. 

[John 3:16]

Thank you Lindy, I will take some time to go through my past tickets and PM you if necessary.

I appreciate also your time & willingness to address my concerns.  So, Charlie is to blame for this missing docs! I am kidding but look forward to those docs getting beefed up.

[The Jimmo]

​ehh IPS hosts a Marketplace where people modify and monetize modifying IPS code to some extent, and if you didn't have that core group of guys that made mods and hooks IPS would have probably 2/3s less clients (thus the marketplace push before the documentation push). 

​The IPS Marketplace contains Hooks, Themes and Applications. These are the ways that IPS prefers any "modifications" to happen, as they are technically not modifying the source code, they are "bending it" in less technical terms. If a problem arises they can say disable said hook/theme/app and have pure IPS code running. Instead of scrambling through the source code figuring out what was changed, deleted, etc... Thus if it is one of those 3rd party items is the issue,IPS isn't technically liable for the problem at hand (but will probably help to their fullest extent).

Back to the original topic, I did want to say that as a developer, IPS has been very helpful. Anytime I had a question they have responded or someone else has responded on the community. Unfortunately, they can only lead you to the lake, they can't force you to drink . When writing documentation you have to write it to your majority audience so if you're writing in-depth development docs, it's going to be a bit technical. The beauty of a community though is asking questions and getting help from others, not just IPS. It's a great way to learn and understand these docs that once were "too technical". 

Of course though the great thing about IPS is that they are very customer focus and they want to help each individual so feedback is great!

[John 3:16]

Mr. ForeverPontiac, maybe you can go ahead and answer all of our dev questions then, since you seem to understand how to "take a drink"  

Yup, the docs are written for devs, brilliant!  So if IPS is going to be exclusive then they need someone to translate the docs, are you volunteering?  I don't speak geek and most questions go unanswered, oh they get answers but they don't get near a solution or even give a start to a solution.  Bravo to those devs who help, I mean really help the person with a IPS lic, we cannot all become devs or hire one right away.

For me, if you need to know internet marketing I will answer any question in a non-cryptic way, I do all the time.  It's complex stuff but I can still give the information in a very simple way anyone understands.  When it comes to dev work, I have no idea, I can hack my way through but it's still a hack in the end.

So, if you speak Mandarin & Hebrew and I speak only Hebrew, then no matter how you explain it in Mandarin then I am forced to learn your other language.  Why not break it down for us non-programmers in the docs and not force us into learning something we only need once or twice a year, even if we learn it, we don't use it enough to retain it.

Here is my disclaimer, I know devs that are not familiar with IPS, they are cool people with a very specific skill-set, but if I ask them a question they are happy to break down the results.  I am thankful for this community and the devs, like you, for those that answer and rescue all of us that need help with answers we can use.  So give us answers we can use

[The Jimmo]

Mr. ForeverPontiac, maybe you can go ahead and answer all of our dev questions then, since you seem to understand how to "take a drink"  

Yup, the docs are written for devs, brilliant!  So if IPS is going to be exclusive then they need someone to translate the docs, are you volunteering?  I don't speak geek and most questions go unanswered, oh they get answers but they don't get near a solution or even give a start to a solution.  Bravo to those devs who help, I mean really help the person with a IPS lic, we cannot all become devs or hire one right away.

For me, if you need to know internet marketing I will answer any question in a non-cryptic way, I do all the time.  It's complex stuff but I can still give the information in a very simple way anyone understands.  When it comes to dev work, I have no idea, I can hack my way through but it's still a hack in the end.

So, if you speak Mandarin & Hebrew and I speak only Hebrew, then no matter how you explain it in Mandarin then I am forced to learn your other language.  Why not break it down for us non-programmers in the docs and not force us into learning something we only need once or twice a year, even if we learn it, we don't use it enough to retain it.

Here is my disclaimer, I know devs that are not familiar with IPS, they are cool people with a very specific skill-set, but if I ask them a question they are happy to break down the results.  I am thankful for this community and the devs, like you, for those that answer and rescue all of us that need help with answers we can use.  So give us answers we can use

​Think you took what I said as an insult rather than an explanation.

Please feel free to ask questions you have the documentation or IPS in general and I will try and help. I think you're cutting out the community before even asking it.

The issue with the development documentation is it is not you and I talking together. There is an assumed amount of knowledge that one has about programming prior to going into these. I wouldn't expect to read an Accounting article and not expect myself to go on Google and look up some definitions of acronyms and other items. I am a programmer, I am not an Accountant, I am not the article's intended audience, so it is up to me to ask questions and find out answers. It is not necessarily the author's job to walk me through Accounting 101.

The documentation that I've used so far of IPS' has been really helpful as it explains and steps you through what you need to do and the initial concepts of each area. E.g. The Form Helper doc, this walks you through the definition, how to use it, the capable forms of use and what else is available to you as part of that functionality. I've referred to this doc more times than I would like to admit to get everything just right. Note how it doesn't walk through each implementation as that would be overkill, nor does it walk through different combinations and other things possible. It is understood that IPS introduces the basics then you learn and expand on your own through experimentation.

Without an example of where the documentation fails in your eyes, it is hard to say what is assumed knowledge and what it is actually lacking. Might be interesting to see a Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced tags on documentation though maybe to worn of this.

Also I think it's key to keep in mind that the IPS4 documentation is still a work in progress for IPS and now is a good time, hopefully, to influence it. In the mean time though, asking questions on the community is always key as that's how a lot of my blanks of knowledge have been filled in  

[John 3:16]

Nah I am not offended, I understood you were not insulting me, I have read your stuff before, you do help around the community.  I was merely saying that when you are in a world of dev you tend to remain in that world, everything you do is effected by your main focus,  8++ hours a day will do that.

I am saying, it's not as cut and dry as we all would like it to be.