DC / DIM - tweaks to help users to roll back to earlier versions

AndrewJJP

Gordig said:

IceCrMn said:

Gordig said:

Ultimately it doesn't matter how easy or difficult it would be to implement. Daz has not chosen to make rolling back an option except in limited circumstances, so any argument you could make about how easy it would be to implement a change they're not interested in making would be futile. 

True, but a PA could write a standalone application to do this. Or just anyone that had the skills and motivation.

The files needed are already on the users computer by the time this app would be used.

It would mostly just need to track what versions are downloaded, or downloadable currently for the given account.

Then offer to backup up , uninstall, or install.

IDK, Could be a popular idea for those users that want this type of capability.

A PA could, but I wouldn't consider it likely that the Daz store would accept such a product, since they don't seem interested in allowing the functionality it would offer. 

It's not really a product. It's just how I think it should work. I wouldn't buy it or try to sell it.

The sitiation is this... The installer removes access to the old verion of the product without warning. There are no instructions on how to mitigate against this.  I can think of all sorts ot reasons for it...

1. Daz actively wants to make its users lives as difficult as possible if an new install breaks functionality and they want to roll back.
2. it's a harder, or a riskier change than I am assuing.
3. Nobody has thought about it. It's just always been this way and nobody has questioned it until now.
4. They don't view it as undesirable, but they have limited resources and other things to do.

My money is on 3 or 4, but I can't know that. I really do feel that 1 is very unlikely because it's not in any company's interests to make its customers' lives difficult.

AndrewJJP

frank0314 said:

sausagemix_d9e00246a7 said:

FSMCDesigns said:

sausagemix_d9e00246a7 said:

FirstBastion said:

If you have the option never choose automatic updates. Manual installs and updates assures you control whats happening on your computer.  Keep all your old software  installers so you can backup and backtrack.  Make it a rule.

Cool. Daz could still take a step to improve their customer experience by providing dls of at least the last version.

Agreed, but customers need to take some of the responsibility themselves. When you have a version that works, head over to your product library and download the version in there and tuck it away just in case. I have been doing that for years and it has saved me from issues more than once. I am still on the last version of DS myself

What customers do themselves isnt the point of a "suggestion" thread. Minimalizing the problem to put the onus back on the customer, especially in the presence of content breaking bugs when a resolution that plenty of smaller/new companies have (they even host them on github in some cases) is kinda confusing. I mean its something to only imporove the experience and alleviate a problem that commonly occurs. There is no VIRTUE in discoraging common solutions because you have your own means of dealing with a problem.

The purpose of zips/installers is to be able to back them up or save in a safe location. A brokerage, any brokerage, is only required to offer you 1 download and it is the customers responsibility to save that file, not the brokerage. Brokerages allow mostly unlimited downloads as a courtesy and not the rule.

Many sites will only also allow access for a limited time and you can pay for that to be extended. In the case of Daz, I believe products can disappear from Daz for legal reasons sometimes, even for those that purchased them, so backups are certainly good practice.

So for me personally, this isn't about whether you should back up or not, because you should. And I do, using cloud backup. This is much more about reducing the number of scenarios in which a backup is needed, and making it clearer what needs to be backed up. Although I (genuinely) apologise if the procedure for backiing up in DC and DIM is documented somewhere and I didn't look hard enough.