When to Upgrade

Posted on March 25, 2011, 5:59 am, by David Hills and received No Comments ».

Two weeks ago, Internet Explorer 9 came out I immediately upgraded my copy of IE on my home computer.  This week, Firefox 4 was released and I immediately upgraded my work and home computer.  I like to get the latest software releases, since the new versions have more features, typically run faster, and include bug fixes.  I have Internet Explorer 8 on my work computer, and you’ll note that I did not immediately upgrade to version 9.  This is because I have to use IE when I run our payroll through our provider.  It seemed prudent to check with them first and make sure I’d still be able to pay my employees after upgrading!

Generally, upgrading or downgrading a browser is not a big deal, so I don’t worry about too many risks. After all, it is pretty trivial to go back to a previous version of a browser or even use an alternate browser.  What about eCommerce?  Mission critical software is a different matter.  When or how often should you upgrade to the latest version?  I know of several ShopSite stores that are running versions of our software that are over 10 years old!  Those merchants are happy with the feature set of the older version of ShopSite and it does what they need.  Other merchants always want the latest updates and embrace the newest features, like those added for Social Networking.

You may think that the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mindset is the way to go.  But by doing so, you will miss out on new features and probably better performance.  And perhaps that is ok for you.  But what happens if it does break because of a software flaw that had been patched in an update?  Is being down for a day or several days acceptable?  Two recent situations illustrate how being on an older version may cause your store to go down or be down longer than desired as a result of the actions of 3rd parties.

At the beginning of this year, the United States Postal Service decided to change both the names that are returned and the data that is returned by their real-time quotes interface for a few of their shipping options.  Unfortunately, there was no advanced warning that these changes were coming.  ShopSite, like many other carts, had to scramble to adjust to the changes.  Obviously, patches were easiest to do on the latest version of ShopSite and were released to hosts and merchants using v10 sp2 (service pack 2) first.  Those merchants that were already running sp2 could have their host copy over a few files and quickly be back to getting the latest USPS rate quotes.  This was much quicker and easier than for the merchants that needed to upgrade from an earlier version of ShopSite before applying the patches.

A more recent example happened just last week when PayPal moved their data center for Payflow Pro users.  PayPal warned both merchants and us of the coming move and no problem was expected.  However, there was an unforeseen change in how some of the data had been formatted/transmitted.  This caused a problem with some stores that were running the original version 10 of ShopSite, but it had no effect on stores running service pack 2.  ShopSite 10 was released in 2008, service pack 1 (sp1) was released in 2009, and service pack 2 (sp2) was released in July of 2010.  There’s no software fee for the v10 users to get sp1 or sp2, so the reason for not upgrading sooner was probably either a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mindset or concern that upgrading may break something.

Fear that an upgrade could break something is a valid concern.  A software upgrade can change the way something previously worked, so it is often prudent to wait a little while before upgrading.  That being said, I would think that within 1-3 months any significant upgrade issues would have surfaced.  It is easy to ask your host how upgrades have gone or to check with other ShopSite users in the forum.

If you do not immediately need the new features that an upgrade provides, waiting a few months for any minor wrinkles to be ironed out makes sense.  However, the more successful your store is, the more important it is to stay current with the latest and greatest version. The internet is a rapidly changing animal.  ShopSite is keeping pace by continuously evolving to support the latest interfaces, features, and standards.  It’s great when you can use the same product for 10 years, but our recommendation is that you upgrade more often than once a decade!

 

iPad 2 and Ecommerce

Posted on March 11, 2011, 7:10 am, by David Hills and received No Comments ».

Last week, Apple announced the iPad 2, the next generation of their highly successfully iPad.  The iPad 2 has cool, new features like a dual-core processor and front and rear cameras.  It is lighter and thinner.  But alas, it is still missing a feature that I deem critical.

First, let me state that I own the original iPad, use it almost every day, and originally wrote about it when it first came out.  I use my iPad to check Facebook, do some reading using the Kindle app, view online news articles, and occasionally do some shopping.  But the one thing that I can’t do from my iPad or the new iPad 2 is view Flash content, such as is found on many websites and in some online videos.

Now, I don’t often need to view Flash content, but when I do need to and can’t, it is a pain!  Often someone has posted a link to a short video clip and I can’t watch it.  Yeah, sometimes the videos are those silly ones on Youtube, but sometimes they are serious ones and I can’t watch them either.  And why can’t I watch them?  Because Apple’s Steve Jobs has decided that Adobe’s Flash is bad on the iPhone, iPod, and iPad, but it is ok for the Mac!

It doesn’t matter that some Android-based smartphones can display Flash content while the iPhone cannot – Apple will not support Flash on their mobile devices.  Personally, if there was a tablet computer equivalent to the iPad that supported Flash, I would have purchased that instead.  But the iPad has been the only serious game in town.  I thought that when Motorola’s Xoom tablet came out that the iPad would have some serious competition, but even it does not yet support Flash.  (Motorola does plan to add support for Flash on the Xoom later this month.)

Ok, what does this have to do with Ecommerce?  Well, Apple makes cool, useful products and has tons of users.  If Apple’s devices do not support a given technology, then many potential shoppers will not have access to the technology.  If possible, I recommend that you do not use Flash content on your web site.  The iOS ecosystem of iPhone, iPod, and iPad is estimated to be over 185 million units and growing.  That is a significant install base that cannot be ignored.

And what is the alternative to Flash?  Apple wants vendors to move to HTML5.  And while this is happening, the Flash install base is so large that it will take a very long time before all current Flash content migrates over, if ever.

 

Two-Step Authentication

Posted on February 18, 2011, 12:14 pm, by David Hills and received No Comments ».

If you have ever watched the original Get Smart television series, you’ve seen in the opening credits how Agent 86 walks through a series of security doors before getting to a phone booth that descends to take him to headquarters.  The series of doors reflect how secure the building is.  I was reminded of this scene when Google introduced two-step verification for their apps this past week.

Two-step (or two-factor) authentication requires two things before you can gain access.  The first step is the typical login name and password.  The second step, in Google’s case, is a code – six digits – sent to your cell phone or generated by their app on your smartphone.  Since only you should have access to your cell phone, even if a malicious site got a hold of your password, they would still not be able to gain access because they do not know the random code.

ShopSite has provided two-factor authentication since version 8.1.  For merchants that store credit cards, two-factor authentication is one of the requirements for PCI compliance.  Besides logging in with a username and password, ShopSite has a Merchant Key that needs to be uploaded (the second step) before you can view credit card information.  The Merchant Key is an encrypted file that is stored locally on your computer or a memory stick.  Without the key, ShopSite cannot decrypt the credit card data, so it is important to have a backup copy of the key stored on a CD or other device.

Besides making a merchant’s access to credit cards much more secure, the Merchant Key allows stores where multiple employees can log in the ability to restrict credit card information to only those employees that have been given the key.  For example, an order fulfillment employee without access to the Merchant Key can log in to process an order, but cannot view the credit card information.

I have no doubt that two-step authentication is here to stay.  And the more important the data, the more one needs this feature.  It is an extra step, but that’s the way security works – the more security we have, the more inconvenient it becomes.  At least we don’t (yet!) need to go through multiple doors and a phone booth like Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, had to!

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