NOF 12, iMac, VMWare and a ton of questions

[Twitchin Kitten]

I just upgraded from NOF 10 to NOF 12 and am playing around trying to see what's new and all that.

I'm using an iMac, Snow Leopard (dont' want Lion yet), and am running the NOF via virtual machine (VMWare). I had no problems with this set up for NOF 10, but I am having issues previewing pages now. Firefox wont' even load with color and images and in IE it does not "work" for things like hovering and the navigation bar.

I first tried the XHTML layout and the Navigation bar does not even load at all on preview. This is for the 'internal' preview as well as the local. So I switched to HTML4 with Tables and it seems to work, but not the hovering links. The links work, they just don't change on the hover as they do in the site style preview area when designing the site. I tested with all versions of the html layouts and they all behave the same.

Next, I'm using the e-commerce built in. Does this support digital downloads and how do I set up a digital download page?
I'm pretty unfamiliar with the built in cart so please excuse my stupidity here.
How do I get notified of purchases? Do I have to manually check with PayPal daily? Am I alerted somehow?
Does the cart have some kind of tracking system of the customers, inventory and downloads/shipped items or do I do all that through Paypal as well?

[franko]

Can't help with your preview issue. It may have something to do with VMWare but all I can say is NoF12 runs just fine for me on windows 7.

Re the e-commerce. NoF e-commerce is rudimentary at best. Basically it's just a small catalogue application which links to PayPal, Mals or another shopping cart application. Frankly, I rarely use it; if I only have a few products then I just use the PayPal buttons directly on a page. If it's larger then I've always used Mal's e-commerce together with PayPal. Both Mals and PayPal support digital downloads, I believe; NoF doesn't AFAIK as it's not a shopping cart but, as I said, basically just a catalogue.

[Twitchin Kitten]

Can't help with your preview issue. It may have something to do with VMWare but all I can say is NoF12 runs just fine for me on windows 7.

Re the e-commerce. NoF e-commerce is rudimentary at best. Basically it's just a small catalogue application which links to PayPal, Mals or another shopping cart application. Frankly, I rarely use it; if I only have a few products then I just use the PayPal buttons directly on a page. If it's larger then I've always used Mal's e-commerce together with PayPal. Both Mals and PayPal support digital downloads, I believe; NoF doesn't AFAIK as it's not a shopping cart but, as I said, basically just a catalogue.

Franko, the NOF 10 worked flawlessly in my VM. There has to be something that does not jive between the old and new version. I really hate being limited to one browser to check things - which is IE and we all know what junk that is.

Anyway, I did notice how primitive the cart was in the application. I checked out that Mals cart thing and I don't like it. I don't like having my stuff on someone elses servers. I have an old license for Cube Cart and I may wind up just updating that and using it instead. Full control on my end and I have the database.

I'm starting to think I wasted my money on this upgrade to NOF 12. Its not really chock full of anything new that's giving me that 'tingly' feeling.

[Ritch]

See my signature for my configuration.

I was running my iMac with VMware Fusion for several years but progressively I seemed to be getting problems and resorting to workarounds.
I decided to swap to Parallels Desktop 7 and since then have no issues running any Windows software. Delighted with the other features that Parallels offers too.

Ritch

[Twitchin Kitten]

See my signature for my configuration.

I was running my iMac with VMware Fusion for several years but progressively I seemed to be getting problems and resorting to workarounds.
I decided to swap to Parallels Desktop 7 and since then have no issues running any Windows software. Delighted with the other features that Parallels offers too.

Ritch

So you think it's VM Ware then. damn
Unless Parallels is free, it's out of the question for me right now. I'm spending too much money on items that are just not working out and NOF is the ONLY program I need to use that is run off windows.

The guy at the apple store said the VMWare is the better option than Parallels too.

what about WINE? Have you tried runnign this on WINE? I have CrossOver installed but NOF won't even open up the program in there.

[franko]

I really hate being limited to one browser to check things - which is IE and we all know what junk that is.

You can set any of the browsers you have installed to preview your site. I do mine in Firefox. However (and it's a big however) most of the punters out there use IE simply because it comes with the OS that the vast majority of them use. Well over 80% of my visitors are using IE with Firefox coming a very distant second. That is changing, though, as many more people access the web via smartphones and tablets. I have the Android browser and Firefox running on my smartphone, but not IE. I figure if you're smart enough to use a smartphone, you're smart enough not to install IE on it!

[Twitchin Kitten]

So, anyone come up with a solution or explanation yet?

I'm still banging my head against the wall with this version of Fusion and really frustrated that I can't preview in FireFox at all.

Franko, I understand most people will use IE but that is completely irrelevant. I paid for a product and it should work as advertised and I shouldn't be this frustrated with it.

[1FugleyKiwi]

So, anyone come up with a solution or explanation yet?

I'm still banging my head against the wall with this version of Fusion and really frustrated that I can't preview in FireFox at all.

Franko, I understand most people will use IE but that is completely irrelevant. I paid for a product and it should work as advertised and I shouldn't be this frustrated with it.

But it DOES work as advertised. And it is advertised as a Win application. When you start adding extra layers between app and OS, you are the one causing the software to not work "as advertised".

Of course, you could "do as I do".

I test in IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. I local publish, then use each of the browsers to open the html. If I notice anything "odd" in a browser, I leave it open on one screen and compare on the main screen.

HTH

[Twitchin Kitten]

NOF 10 works flawlessly in the VM.

NM, I give up.

[Twitchin Kitten]

Been getting a mess of emails asking me to check out the latest version of Fusion. Still getting the "we're working on a Mac version but nothing imminent" answer to this and I come here to check out the product and all the images show people using Mac machines on the home page of NOF!

Kind of hysterical IMO to show off using a product on machines that just won't cooperate without begging from a VM of some sort.