A lot of interfaces are actually a lot wider than they used to be. The
file manager or user manager for example used to be limited by the
footprint that side nav took up. Now they span the full width.

There's also a lot fewer things jammed onto one page (see systems & settings).

While I certainly understand that changing an interface means some
re-training, I think you may find that it's not as hard as you're
projecting to find things.

As countless others have said, when you actually show this to a client
with a smile on your face - they "get it" pretty quickly. So far the
people I've seen concerned haven't actually trained someone yet, they
just "know it's going to suck".. Well with that attitude..what
wouldn't?.. ;)

last, but of course not least, I would suggest not offering free
training to your clients in the middle of night for an upgrade they
ran without consulting you. No one expects that when a new version of
windows comes out the people you paid to setup your office network
will come back and retrain you for free. Charge for your time, it is
valuable.

best wishes

Franz Maruna
CEO - concrete5.org
http://about.me/frz

Franz, thanks for responding :) I am off the ledge and I am finding some very slick parts of the new interface that I really like. Although I still do like having that left nav column always available.

I would really recommend working the search bar and the favorites(the little star icon) into your workflow with the dashboard. I've been doing that the last few days and it's feeling a lot better.

The old one was more hierarchy based system and the new one is more search/shortcut based. Or at least from how I'm starting to use it.

Did you know you can hit tab and instantly be typing in intelligent search? Also hittin enter loads whatever is highlighted there

Best wishes
Pecked out on an iPhone

So far I am really disappointed with the concrete5 upgrade and the impact on my "legacy" site and the choices of themes that are compatible. I'm hoping to hear that there is just something I missed :-)

I created a concrete5 website (my first) pro bono last May for a musician who has been battling cancer and needed (and deserved) a helping hand. (BoiseQueen.com) It was my first experience with concrete5, tried on the recommendation of a non-technical user who said it was relatively straight forward and who was willing to donate the HostGator hosting services. Since this is all pro bono I have been limiting my efforts to the "free" themes and add-ons. The manageable learning curve led me to select concrete5.

Since then with a relatively good experience with concrete5 and hostGator I purchased a HostGator account to support multiple websites.

Last weekend I discovered the new version of concrete and that BoiseQueen.com fails to install more recent add-ons like the PayPal Donation box, which he could certainly use. I was surprised at the lack of concrete5 compatibility. I also don't see any clear info on what it might take to migrate an existing site based on concrete5 to the new update.

Late last year I tried to install another update to concrete5 and it failed. HostGator is, rightfully, only the host site so they aren't a source of information or do they wish to do much in terms of supporting concrete5 issues.

I recently have started creating several new websites on my new account on which I was able to install the updated release of concrete. However, the changes to and challenges with using the new concrete5 have me concerned. It seems most if not all of the "free" themes and add-ons are flagged as having problems and not being compatible with this new version. What is the migration path here. I really don't like being sent on a forced march to using themes and add-ons that must be purchased. Some of the products are well worth the cost, but on the surface this looks like classic "bait and switch." I would like to have some choice in the matter as I did with the previous version.

I can't imagine seeing this kind of lack of backward compatibility in the modern era of technology! I certainly hope I am just "missing something" and that I don't have to abandon concrete5, but I have put my development on hold for the moment and am reviewing the alternatives.

Any help appreciated!

Wayne

Thanks for reaching out with your questions.

Yes, with redesigning the interface from the bottom up, it's likely to
impact the ecosystem of add-ons and themes pretty dramatically.
Certainly this is true with operating systems. When mac released osX -
all sorts of things that worked in os9 took quite a while (if ever)
before they properly worked again. 5.5 does represent a pretty major
set of changes, so that comparison to os9 vs osX is probably pretty
accurate.

There's no "bait and switch" plan going on here, it's simply the fact
that someone who volunteered their time 3 years ago to make a free
theme may not be that interested in dropping everything they're doing
to update it to work with our new interface improvements today. In the
same vein, the core team also has to eat - so while all of our own
add-ons (Free and commercial alike) have been updated, I'm certainly
not in a position to pay my staff to convert work from 3rd party
developers. You're not hosting with us, you're using free
add-ons/themes. While I certainly understand your frustration I'm sure
you'd agree we never promised everything to everyone for nothing.

There is a very simple answer to this problem however. Don't upgrade.



best wishes

Franz Maruna
CEO - concrete5.org
http://about.me/frz

One thing I have noticed is that whilst most Addons claim to be incompatible with 5.5.x so far I have found problems with only 1 that did not match the style and this was not a game breaker for me.

If you find that the free addons will not install try a manual install and see how they look, (backup first) 9/10 times they will work as they did before.

And if they don't there are some of here who may be willing to help update or create a new version of these blocks.