Any Version 4 News?

    When V4 was announced we were given a rough timeframe, which was missed due to issues which have been discussed elsewhere on the forum. Can we expect some news soon about a revised timeframe for it?


    At the moment we don't know if it'll be weeks months or years before release or even before announcements. Could we have some idea of what the roadmap is please?

    I must admit, it's impossible for us developers quoting for projects to consider Perch in upcoming projects with this unknown timetable and uncertainty. As much as I've loved Perch (& Runway) with nearly 70 licenses and becoming a registered developer a few years ago, I'm around 6 weeks away from moving to another provider for new projects.


    It's not a decision I've taken lightly, but the choice of product is so critical to the quality of product I deliver. With the recent silence, delays, lack of support and updates, it's one I've had to take. I am the biggest Perch fan going, and will never rule out a return, but in it's current state it just doesn't match my very minimum requirements for a product that I rely upon daily.

    I don't think you're alone Ryan – more and more of us will be considering our options over the coming weeks and months. The lack of communication is unacceptable now.


    Unless we get an update and some reassurances soon, then going forward – as clients need updates – I'm going to have to advise that they move platforms. I've already got several big projects lined up for this year and I just can't justify choosing Perch at the moment.

    Due to things changing and me needing to split my time differently, I'm not sure what the roadmap is. There's a bunch of work done on v4, and I need to figure out whether I scale back on the initial 4.0 and ship it, try and roll those features into a 3.x and ship it, or wait until I've got more of 4.0 done.


    There's been some talk of compat issues with PHP 7.4, so I'd want to track those down and see what can be patched.

    Moving the codebase over to Github and letting the community contribute would be a great way to help move things forward. Both Craft and Statamic (amongst others) are doing this with success. You could trial this with V3 while you work on V4.

    Quote from JordinB

    drewm - I understand with your recent new roles, time is a valuable commodity. I'd be more than willing to help on a volunteer basis (no strings attached) to do some PR's to fix bugs anything else you'd need help with.

    This seems logical. If Perch isn't viable as a full time endeavour at the moment, opening it up a bit makes sense. The community is compitently handling most of the support on the forum, I'm sure there are devs with enough skill to help with the codebase.

    A lot of this apprehension about Perch would be nullified if the communication just improved. I'm completely sympathetic to the situation – it's hard to justify time to a product that isn't currently sustainable – but at the same time, it's not unreasonable to expect the product creators to be a bit more active in the community. Answering a handful of forum posts every couple of days, tweeting a Perch thing or two, or dropping into the Slack room now and again is not too much to ask.

    Quote from drewm

    Due to things changing and me needing to split my time differently, I'm not sure what the roadmap is. There's a bunch of work done on v4, and I need to figure out whether I scale back on the initial 4.0 and ship it, try and roll those features into a 3.x and ship it, or wait until I've got more of 4.0 done.


    There's been some talk of compat issues with PHP 7.4, so I'd want to track those down and see what can be patched.

    drewm with my business hat on I would say ship an initial V4.0 sooner rather than later, this will breath (with all respect, because I really respect what you have made over the last 10 years) life into the product / create excitement. If it's paired with the new subscription model it may help the revenue which could allow you to have extra resources to develop new releases quicker, updates, documentation etc. Just my 2 cents but it is what I would do.


    I would also say Perch Shop should be a paid add-on. At the moment we can literally build a shop on a £60 Perch License. Compared to something similar like Craft I would say Perch is currently undervalued / too cheap.

    Thanks for getting back to us drewm. I think most of us would like to see something soon so a 3.x would be welcome.


    Would you consider allowing some to help with Perch maintenance and development? You have mentioned that you wanted community members to contribute more, I recall you saying that some of Perch's first-party apps were built as examples to encourage others to build their own and make them available. You also mentioned the possibility of a Perch marketplace type thing to give devs more support to build apps and add-ons. As it looks like making a Perch marketplace isn't viable right now, allowing some to help maintain Perch would seem to answer the call for more community involvement.


    We all want to see Perch survive and thrive. We're a little dismayed though that it seems to be withering on the vine right now, especially as there are talented devs who are eager to help. There's still a lot of enthusiasm for Perch in the community.

    drewm thanks for the update.

    I would agree with ex-jedi. Theres a good mix of knowledge in the community from devs to designers and I am sure they would be willing to offer their help with keeping perch moving forward.


    I have been using the product for a 8+ years and it is still my default CMS. I really don't want to have to look elsewhere as I love building sites with Perch. It would be nice to see an update each quarter. For me it is also paramount that issues that arise like SCA for the shop payments are fixed and keep up to date with the latest PHP versions. I think that would give people more confidence that the product is being maintained and here to stay.

    I would see no issue if the base license price increased from £60 inc vat to around £100 inc vat and put a restriction on the timeline (perhaps 12 months) when you can change domains after a license has had a domain set. That way it will stop people reusing old licenses on a new project 3/4/5 years down the line.

    Quote from drewm

    There's been some talk of compat issues with PHP 7.4, so I'd want to track those down and see what can be patched.

    Thank you Drew,


    As to the Roadmap, I may have mentioned before, a company called Steinberg who make multimedia and audio software; recently changed how they develop their products, which was originally to the dismay of many users but on the whole I think most people accept that if they want new features quickly and bug fixes early, then there will inevitably be issues along the way however while many will choose to be on the bleeding edge, there will always be a stable version to draw on; even if not feature complete or else the previous version.


    Cheers

    Quote from ndwl

    On Sunday (3rd May) it will be exactly 1 year… yes, 1 year since there was any official news posted to https://grabaperch.com/news

    and 1 year since any updates to Perch. X(

    its hard to think of what to say that hasn't already been said. It's so frustrating!