Vantage Update and Other News
With the release of ClassiPress 3.1 now behind us, we have dug back into Vantage to see where we are and what still needs to be done.
Dave, Pete and myself spent all of yesterday reviewing where things stand with Vantage and tried to gauge how long it will take to complete. At this time, though, we just do not have a reliable timetable for its release.
While I write that, it feels like I can hear a thousand groans reverberate across the land. We definitely know how much everyone wants to see Vantage in the marketplace. Trust me, we want to make it available to you just as much as you want it – really.
Why is It Taking So Long?
When I joined AppThemes back in March, development on Vantage had slowed to a crawl. There were just not enough resources to work on Vantage, complete ClassiPress 3.1, address support issues and take care of all the other issues that come with managing a business.
Dave and I sat down and spent a lot of time discussing and reshuffling our priorities. At that time, I strongly suggested that all resources be applied to finishing ClassiPress 3.1. It’s a product that people had already purchased and we owed those customers an update. During that period, we did not work on Vantage at all.
A New Framework
Now that we have completed CP 3.1, we are moving most of our production resources to Vantage. In the process, we are developing a new AppThemes framework and Vantage will be the first new product built from scratch that uses the framework.
The framework will introduce new features and make AppThemes products more robust and more secure than ever before. Building Vantage on this new framework will make it a better product when we do release it.
A New Team
We have also had an influx of new blood added to the team. We already announced the hiring of Pete Mall and we’re happy to reveal that we have added two more members to the development team.
The new team is helping to transform the way we make our products. They are experienced WordPress core contributors that know the space well.
That means Vantage will not only be the most advanced application theme on the market, but also built by some of the best WordPress developers around.
So What’s the Plan?
Vantage 1.0 has a definite feature set. We have had the new team members review code and make recommendations. We went through the Ideas Exchange and will be including some of the suggestions. We know what we are building, we just do not have a clear time table yet.
I know you want some answers so I will give you my best guess. Vantage will not be ready before October. I can’t say if it will be ready in October or November – it might even be December. If it goes past January, I’ll eat a banana slug. That’s about the best I can say right now.
I will be pushing the team as much as I can and will give everyone updates along the way. I appreciate your continued patience and look forward to giving you more good news soon.
Thanks,
Shannon
Comments (51)
Thank you Shannon!
Good luck to you and the team in your Vantage endeavors.
All I ask, is that you please give us all an early Christmas present. Please…Please…Please?
Thank you,
tbase
Thanks tbase. We’ll do our best to make it a happy holiday.
Thanks Shannon. We really do appreciate your honesty and being so open about the Vantage theme process.
Thank You, Ben. We’re doing what we can to be more responsive and communicative.
Thanks for the update on this Shannon, I think maybe a regular update, even once a month or every 2 months would be great to show progress and get us all motivated about vantage again! 🙂 The top 3 ideas in the Ideas exchange look like they are a must really so if they are coming also then a December release would be super. Personally I do not mind this wait again, if you guys have but your shoulder to the wheel on this now – sounds like exciting times ahead with a new framework as a PLUS 😉 Best of luck.
@jamesweb: We’ll definitely post regular updates. Thanks for the encouragement.
Good to hear Shannon. I think alot of people were caught out last time around thinking it was being made, regular updates solves this and keeps us all in the loop. Much appreciated.
go go power rangers! : )
Moving your resources from classipress? Don’t you know that CP is still full of bugs?!?! E.g. Pages don’t turn, price field isn’t editable with text and most critically, some users can’t post an ad!!
I believe that in addition to tease out what new items would have to do is improve the current issues and do them without bugs such as ClassiPress 3.1
that is flawed on all sides, 3 have been solved but there are still unresolved and 2 which I think is important because it is one of the most sold in appthemes.
thanks guys
@Greg & @quim: To reiterate from my post, “…we are moving most of our production resources to Vantage.” Not all the resources are moving to Vantage. We are still in a state of transition, as well. Dave, Seth and Pete are working on CP 3.1.3 and should have that out soon.
A lot of changes are happening internally. We’re building a great team and changing some of our internal processes. Our goal is to release new themes on a more regular basis and provide updates to existing themes on a consistent and reliable schedule.
ok ,thanks .
I look forward to seeing Vantage come out, but have been very unhappy with the latest release of ClassiPress. I have installed 3.1.2 and cannot even get the basic functionality going. I have posted questions in the forum but gotten zero useful responses. I was basically told these issues would be worked out in later versions, but is hasn’t happened yet. Stuff like this is the reason I haven’t upgraded to a club membership yet.
@Les, My apologies to You if You have been unhappy with ClassiPress and support in the forums. I can say that we are aware of the current issues and are working to correct them as quickly as we can. I have been told that 3.1.3 will be released very soon – Monday or Tuesday. We will post the news as soon as it is out.
Hi Shannon,
Awaiting for Vantage. Please give as a Christmas present
Jacob
So what does this mean for the future development of ClassiPress?
And I’m not referring to bug fixes, I mean adding new features and improvements that will lead to version 3.2?
@Mister X, ClassiPress will continue to be developed. Our goal is to release new themes – like Vantage – while not sacrificing support and continued development on our existing themes. It’s the primary reason why we brought on three new developers in just the past couple of months.
Pete Mall was the first of the new developers. He’s become very familiar with AppThemes code and has already had a major impact. The other new developers are still getting acquainted with our code. Once we have all three of them up to speed, our production capacity will be pretty phenomenal.
Hope that answers Your question.
Yes, thank you for the response Shannon.
Sounds like a business plan and feel more comfortable now with the upcoming vantage theme…I have been waiting for it over a year now…it’s great to hear that Shannon. Hope you guys make the Vantage real and successful soon. Ps. Please take consideration of my ideas posted in idea exchange.
@Leo: Thanks for the comment. I’m sorry You have had to wait so long and we appreciate Your continued patience.
Thanks for the update. I hope Vantage offers reviews, ratings, daily deals or discount coupons that merchants can offer.
You’re welcome Michael. We will publish a list of expected features Vantage 1.0 in a later update.
Great News Guys. Look forward to Vantage!
Hi,
Just curious if Vantage will offer merchants the ability to have a storefront something like in the link below?
http://support.volusion.com/build
@tbase: Vantage will be a business directory listing theme. It will not have storefront capabilities.
it’s good to hear that!
Please let us test this theme, whenever you have a beta!! plz plz!!
I think that’s the least you can do after all this waiting period!! 🙂
@Christian: As we get closer to release, we will let everyone know our plans regarding testing of Vantage.
Awesome!!!! Thanks Guys!!
That was exactly what I was hoping to hear!
Love the banana slug promise. Sure beats a “pinky promise” or the classic, “we’ll do our darn-dest” kind of promise. Just so we know you’re serious, I think you should go ahead and procure your slug now, start fattening him up for the big day, put a little countdown clock over his/her habitat with sign that reads, “Save a Slug – Launch Vantage,” that sort of thing. At least we’ll be entertained while we wait. 🙂
Are there plans to incorporate some sort of affiliate program functionality in this new framework? It’s been something that has been seriously lacking in all of the previous themes released so far and would definitely influence my buying decision.
Since AppThemes itself has found an affiliate program critical to their success it stands to reason that offering that functionality in all of the themes would benefit everyone. I know MANY people who have been looking for themes like those offered here, but the lack of built-in or easily-added affiliate functionality has stopped them from purchasing.
@Jen: I think that this could be a solid idea and something we should consider. If You have not already, can You please add this to our ideas exchange here: http://ideas.appthemes.com. Thanks.
is vantage loosing steam keeping hope alive? the update on Vantage before this one had over 200 responses, this post to date only has 31…hmmmm!
I just wanted to add my support to the project. I have a url all ready to go.. I don’t want to commit my project to any other script 🙂
Thanks, Peter. We appreciate the support.
Shannon,
my site is still in development with hopes to launch by the end of Sept. using Classipress because Vantage is not ready. When you release Vantage, are we able to smoothly transition (export/import) data from classipress to vantage or will we have to reload all the data and start from scratch?
@Colleen, Vantage will include an export/import tool so you’ll be able to manipulate data in excel and then import it into Vantage that way. Thanks.
Yeah me too! It’ll be a test of my patience to hold out. I’m ready to fly on this theme!
I was about to purchase ClassiPress but when I saw that Vantage theme is coming out soon, I just had to wait because Vantage would be perfect for the site that I’m about to launch. I hope it gets release soon… I’m very excited about it! 🙂
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Can’t wait!
Hİ
Many thanks
best regards
I just sent a support email asking about the vantage release. If you see it, there is no need to respond. This post answers all my questions about the release. Thanks for keeping us updated! Keep up the great work AppThemes!
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