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Is Inline.Net's iHTML Any Good?

Posted by Cliff on from the reading-between-the-marketspeak dept.

One sprout out of our fine crop of Anonymous Cowards has this query: "A few months ago our company bought a e-commerce package from Inline. The trick to it is that it is written in their own language, iHTML. Outside of normal configuration issues, the package never worked right out of the box and trying to understand it was quite a pain. When I downloaded fixes for the package there were new features added which ALSO had bugs! I was just curious whether other Slashdot readers had any experiences with iHTML and whether any of you thought it was a 'sound' scripting language."

12 comments

  1. If you're going to go proprietary by harlan · · Score: 2

    Personally, I prefer to use PHP for server side scripting, but I have nothing against other languages. I can understand why many people go with these proprietary metalanguages because they try to make the scripting languages seem like extensions to HTML, which is easy on non-programmer's heart. Although I've never used coldfusion, I'd say it's the largest of these. They're probably a safer bet.

    1. Re:If you're going to go proprietary by dhomick2000 · · Score: 1

      iHTML has all the power of Cold Fusion and it costs a hell of a lot less! Tack onto that a superb support staff that is top in the biz, and you have one hell of a product. I have used iHTML for numerous projects. Check out http://www.ileaguemanager.com for one of them. I find it extremely powerful and easy to learn. It is fast and reliable. Try it, you'll see.

  2. stay open by holzp · · Score: 1

    be prudent. stay open. go with jsp or php. what if your single provider decides to double their price?

  3. Go with something truly tested by Drew+M. · · Score: 1

    Slashdot runs on mod_perl, many many sites run on PHP.. yahoo for example... Quite time and load tested, known to work very well. There are quite a few free (and very stable) e-commerce packages avaliable for these two dynamic page generators, including minivend (search freshmeat.net).
    I never quite understood why people always felt when they pay big $$$ to buy a product from a company, they expect it to be better than something they got for free. Another example of that is W2k vs FreeBSD, *ahem* no contest performance-wise or stability-wise.

  4. iHTML can always suit some purpose. by bingeldac · · Score: 1

    I have worked with PHP, ASP, Perl, and many other languages including iHTML. While every OpenSource hero will tell you to always use PHP or Perl every language has something to offer. After using it for a few months I must say it has some impressive features that you can not develop in other languages quite as easily. Choose the language based on the task. Seeing as how iHTML is not that expensive (ala ColdFusion) if it fits your needs use it. The one site I have seen (and done a little work on) written in iHTML is SearchKing. While it is not a great website it has some interesting functionality that was easy to build using iHTML.

    Bingeldac denies any responsibility for the
    spelling and/or grammatical errors above.

  5. [ot?] CF footnote by StandardDeviant · · Score: 1

    Just a footnote to anyone considering going with ColdFusion: it has documented security issues. Search (for example) securityfocus.com for examples. I don't recall if all of them were end-user fixable, but they might have been (I don't have access to it).

    Before anyone gets too riled up, I'm not saying that CF is a crappy language (on the contrary it does look cool from the little bits I've seen). Also it should be noted I'm not a full-time security or CF person, so this is just an informal heads-up that people looking into CF should also see if there are still any issues with the current version(s)...


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  6. Help! I can't make it work!! by DeeKs · · Score: 1

    iHTML and the iHTML Merchant are both excellant products. If you are unable to make it work then perhaps the problem is with you? There are over 5,000 sites running iHTML Merchant quite happily. Yes bugs do sneak in at times, but they are generally fixed pretty quick. A lot of people are going to say "Open Source, Open Source!!" but I have yet to see _ANY_ Open Source or Closed Source product come anywhere near the features and capabilities of the iHTML Merchant. Regards, D. Disclaimer: I have been involved in the development of some of the iHTML Merchant

    1. Re:Help! I can't make it work!! by DeeKs · · Score: 1
      Damn!

      I hate it when I forget I'm posting to /. and have to put the HTML in or hit the "plain ol' text option"

      /me slaps himself with a large trout.

      D.

    2. Re:Help! I can't make it work!! by dhomick2000 · · Score: 1

      Right on! In fact, there are now well over 8000 stores using the iHTML Merchant and that number is quickly growing. The out-of-the-box features are unequivacle in any merchant product available. I dare anyone on this site to find a better product and I will gladly eat my left shoe!
      Now, add in the fact that it is developed using the easy to learn iHTML and customizations are a breeze. Can't handle them yourself, then there are plently of developers out there who can (http://www.homick.com)

      My final point lies with the fact that the merchant support team is unrivaled. Clients speak directly with the developers who know the products best. There is no calling a middle man to tell you: "I'll look into that". You deal with the guy who wrote the code.
      Oops, one more point. The loyal users of iHTML and the iHTML Merchant are always giving away hints and tips through Inline's mailing list. If you need help on a weekend and cant wait till Monday, post it to the list and you'll have responses within an hour.

      IMO, Inline's iHTML Merchant is the best on the market.

    3. Re:Help! I can't make it work!! by lalameme · · Score: 1

      what is with the advertisement... a language that is a cross between Basic and HTML sounds crap LAMP me some light

  7. Fells like ColdFusion and Forums by Tester · · Score: 1

    First, I have never used iHTML...

    But this feels like Allaire Forums, which was a forum application written with ColdFusion. Forums was full of bugs and basicly never supported. It was basicly a marketting attempt by Allaire to make derived products from CF, without any success. I think it was later abandoned.

    I have used CF, PHP, Perl, python, etc.. And I can tell you that CF really sucks. First, it is veyr expensive, not very reliable. It is also a disgusting language that favorises mixing the logic and the design. I would really advise using general purpose languages or PHP. I also really like Zope, their system is really nice, but I still have doubts about its ability to scale.

    1. Re:Fells like ColdFusion and Forums by DeeKs · · Score: 1

      iHTML Merchant and Allaire Forums can not be compared, there is and always has been support for iHTML Merchant:

      1. Free support from the Company themselves
      2. Paid support from the Company
      3. Mailing Lists with other users/developers who are more than willing to help.
      4. A Web board.

      CF and iHTML are similar products only in that they both web scripting languages other than that they are totally different:

      1. iHTML is reasonably priced.
      2. iHTML has fantastic support.
      3. iHTML is not bloatware.

      iHTML Merchant will never be abandoned, if people would take the time to download a demo and try it out they would see why.

      Regards,

      D.