Hey there!

With all the recent forum posts from users asking questions on when we are going to release an update or add a feature to an application, I thought it would be best if I start communicating with all of you each month on what exactly we are working on.

This list will be the active projects that are currently in development or have been completed. It is important to note that until a specific release date is announced, these are "in development" projects. It is always our goal to get things out as fast as we can, but sometimes priorities may shift or we get sidetracked watching an episode of Star Trek.

Shopping Cart Creator Basic and Pro:
I swear on my first born child that this program will be released in September. I have already informed everyone at CoffeeCup that I will go on a hunger strike if there is any more delay. Unfortunately they laughed at me on the hunger strike part as I could stand to loose a few pounds anyway. Regardless, all of your forum posts, support e-mails, phone calls and sky writings by bi-planes over our office have been heard.

The release of Shopping Cart Creator Pro is a complicated one as it is just not one program we are working on. We have to update Shopping Cart Creator Basic, Shopping Cart Designer Basic, Shopping Cart Designer Pro and all themes included with the software as well as the ones we sell individually. Each of these all have to be coordinated to a simultaneous release.

Shopping Cart Designer Basic/Pro:
As I mentioned above, these two programs are getting updates to correspond with the changes with Shopping Cart Creator.

Website Access Manager:
We have a great update coming this month. This update is really enhancing all the cool things you can do on a server level with htaccess. Here are just a few new features that you will find in version 4.0:

-Custom Mime Types
-Browser detection and redirection
-Ability to customize which fields to display in the main view area.
-Hot Link Protection.
-Other customization options and fixes.

Themes:
-All of the HTML Editor themes were updated in August. We spent some time making sure all themes validate and cleaned up the code to be more standards compliant.

Visual Site Designer and S-Drive:
Version 6.1 (or 7.0), we are not really sure what to call this yet, is about to go through a full public beta in the next week or so. This update will give some lucky people access to not only this update but to S-Drive as well. Many of you have been asking what this is and how to get access. All I can say is If you are interested you can request access here.

Web Calendar:
We are just wrapping up a new version of Web Calendar. This is a complete rewrite of Web Calendar. Taking advantage of the (new) powers of CSS and JavaScript, it now generates web standards compliant HTML calendars (oh yeah!). Not only that, they are extremely good looking too. We will be selectively inviting users to join the beta program over the course of the next few weeks. Keep your eye open for an e-mail from us.

Facebook and Twitter:
If you have not already noticed this yet, we are pretty active with both of these services. We have found it is an excellent way to communicate with a much larger user base and it gives almost an instant way for you to know about the latest activities here. If you have not yet subscribed to our Facebook or Twitter accounts, please don't delay. We may just leak something about Shopping Cart Creator Pro there first….

Well that is about it for September. It is going to be a busy month for us.

Scott

Thanks Scott for the update

Scott,

Thank you for the update. One question regarding VSD 6.1/7.0: Do you know (or can you reveal is probably a better question) if the next version of VSD will address the text size issue related to changing from 96dpi to 120dpi font size in Windows?

I have a client who has purchased VSD and wants to take over maintenance of his website. If this issue will be resolved, then it won't be necessary to show him a work-around; we'll just wait until the new version is released. If not, then we'll go ahead with the work-around training.

Thanks,
Ken

We made a lot of changes to the markup VSD produces, but I am not sure if we even looked at that problem. Even coffeecup.com does not look that pretty when you increase the DPI higher then 96.

Here is a test site I made with the latest build that you can try and see how it works for you:

http://sample1.coffeecup.com/

More specific information on the VSD update will be posted after the beta has completed.

Scott,
Thanks for taking the time to write this detailed status report. Your efforts are truly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Kirk

Thanks for the report!!!

When you say September, you mean THIS September, right?....just kidding.

Thanks for the quick reply Scott. That's what we needed to know -- we'll go with the work-around. Looking forward to the post-Beta release and all it has to offer. -- Ken

September 7th would be good, that's my birthday.

This Friday would be better yet. That's my birthday and you can just wait and download it on the 7th. Then we BOTH get a b'day present.