Any Version 4 News?

  • Hi Drew,


    I think the community will appreciate the update and what sounds like more updates to come. However I think what is required more than anything else is a more open/honest channel of communication as to the state of play regarding perch. This primary topic of this forum and the slack channel, for the last 6 months has been concern for the future of Perch. The lack of communication coming from the core team, has left many developers feeling uneasy about continuing to sell perch to clients. I for one launched a (runway) shop site earlier this year, and felt/feel, somewhat uneasy about my clients fairly hefty investment being based on a platform that has a less than certain future. Clear communication (either way) would significantly reduce the level of stress and concern that has built up as a result of the radio silence.

    You have a great, much loved product, backed by a loyal community (many of whom are willing to help). Just keep us in the loop.




  • Sounds good! Can I ask how you will address the pricing issue if Perch 4 is released?

    I think most of us would support a change if it meant Perch would survive or even thrive.


    Something like Craft's licencing which Includes one year of updates and $59/year for updates after that?


    Either way, the update and the possibility of version 4 is very good news! :thumbup:

  • I also believe that if we the users want to see Perch stick around then we probably have to agree that we all need to pay for the continuous maintenance updates and probably and increase in license fees. Money is a requirement for time invested.


    The technical functionality of Perch is truly outstanding and although I've only been using it since 2016 I still find new stuff all the time. However, I feel Perch needs some marketing help in order to grow the user base and also more admins on the forum so people with questions can get them answered more quickly. I would be willing to kick in some marketing hours every month and I'm sure many people around here would kick in time to help with the forums as well. Just something to think about.

  • I've just put out a 3.1.7 release fixing what I hope is the last of any PHP 7.4 compatibility issues that have been reported. I've also addressed an issue for MySQL 8.0.4 and up that was flagged.


    I've been looking as to how I can accelerate the progress of Perch 4, and one of the main stumbling blocks is the promised user interface refresh. If I can scale that back then a lot more can be shipped a lot quicker.

    drewm take a look at the admin style by Jay George https://github.com/JayGeorge/jaygeorge_perch_admin_style


    That is a great starting point/approach for now that makes it easy for developers to stylize the admin easily and get rid of the flashing when doing custom admin styles. I am one of many I'm sure from the community that would lend a hand at working on a new admin layout/style.

  • If I can scale that back then a lot more can be shipped a lot quicker.

    if I or others can help in any way, don’t hesitate to ask! You don’t have to tackle this alone. Looking at the conversations in the slack channel there are others who would like to aid.


    Maybe describe what your problems are or show what you have got until now and people can offer their insights or even help with coding.


    Maybe no scaling back is needed. Just participation from the community.who knows.


    But maybe you want to do everything on your own?


    Hope I can help,

    René

  • I prefer close-source personally.


    I like what Perch is.


    I don't want any changes other than on the UI side or else some plugins or add-on's.

  • Any

    I've just put out a 3.1.7 release fixing what I hope is the last of any PHP 7.4 compatibility issues that have been reported. I've also addressed an issue for MySQL 8.0.4 and up that was flagged.


    I've been looking as to how I can accelerate the progress of Perch 4, and one of the main stumbling blocks is the promised user interface refresh. If I can scale that back then a lot more can be shipped a lot quicker.

    Is this still the current state of things? It would be good to have more regular updates given how changeable things seem to be. The current pattern of nothing... nothing... nothing... HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT/CHANGE OF DIRECTION is pretty taxing.

  • My two cents is that UI updates hold very little value personally. I'd prefer to see that the codebase was being maintained and that a few better options in terms of managing collections in bulk was supported. I would be happy to sell in ongoing license support and upgrades to clients as an option. Perch is still one of the fastest and flexible CMS's to set up and I can reliably get very little support requests in terms of managing the CMS once it's set up which is a big win for me, as well as having very little maintenance burden.


    Composer support would be great, as I have implemented my own solution to keep core maintained via composer on the sites I work with most. I'm not a Perch shop (most of my work these days is with Shopify) and for very small marketing sites I will go the Netlify CMS route, where I only need to offer the client small tweaks to a very static site but without having to set up a server. I've used and evaluated other CMS's but I have yet to find one that client's like as much. So I will always pick Perch for a site that requires regular client updates, but does not require constant development.


    I have been watching this thread - and silently hoping to see some positive developments / updates. Love the product, and appreciate that the landscape has changed and Perch needs to adapt to that 👍

  • After a temporary blip … when long standing compatibility issues where fixed (much appreciated) … its reassuring to know that normal service has now resumed i.e. total lack of communication from the perch team - Its great to see "customer service" (read contempt for users) being taken to new levels - Cheers!

  • Drew that's sounds positive …the frustration comes from not knowing what the future holds, leaving developers and designers with no option but to look for alternative solutions, all of which take time to evaluate and test. All I and others ask is that you keep us informed as to where we stand going forward in a more regular and timely fashion.

  • My happiness always seems to be something for the future.


    but seriously, I’m genuinely curious what you think makes me happy.


    Changes that would make me a happy Perch customer
    - good pricing to support solid development,
    - opensource more of perch to support community participation

    - one place for all grapaperch-approved third party software. As part of the Perch infrastructure. (Download and install from the perch site, community support via the forum and a way to pay or donate for these addons/custom field/apps) if desired by the author.


    René