TastyIgniter
TastyIgniter Sucks
Warning Stay Away From This Bad Website Program
What can I tell you? It is my job as a website developer to evaluate plugins, extensions and entire website building programs. I found one that might help me or you to build a website which already includes the features necessary for a restaurant to take and fulfill online orders as well as other functionality specific to a restaurant website. So, I thought that I should investigate this program to find out more.
The first problem that I found was that when I tried to install this program with Softaculous from Namecheap hosting that it seemed to install correctly but then when I went to use it I encountered problems. I went to the TastyIgniter forum and people seemed to think that installing it using Softaculous was a bad idea and that doing it from a command line was a better idea. Installing popular programs such as WordPress is never an issue with automatic installers but with this thing it is. In reading their message board I can tell you that I am not the only person to have encountered this problem.
So then I tried to install it using a command line and found that to be tricky. I could probably do it that way if I tried hard enough.
I did come up with a solution for installing this without using a command line by picking a Laravel Application on Cloudways hosting. It is similar to installing WordPress using their installation script and giving that installation script a database that is created in the backend of the hosting account. This method is in between the difficulty of a one click installer and doing it on the command line.
So, after being satisfied with the installation process in the event that I need to install it for several website clients I then proceed to learn how to use it.
The results of learning this program gave me a bad impression.
I found a bug in version 3.6.7 in which when you try to add an Option to a Menu Item and then add another Option immediately after the first that it gives an error such as this
Exception: A widget with class name 'formOptionsRecordEditorOptions' has notbeen bound to the controller
in /home/963753.cloudwaysapps.com/ymcyydjnbx/public_html/public/app/admin/classes/AdminController.php:470
I opened a bug report in their GitHub page and as of today 2023-04-12 they still have not responded to my bug report after three weeks. You can read it here.
https://github.com/TastyIgniter/TastyIgniter/issues/1031
This for one of the most basic and often used features of the program. They should have caught it before release but maybe they don't really test their stuff they just expect others to do the testing.
That is pretty bad but then I find this on one of their pages.
https://tastyigniter.com/premium-support
"One-time Bug Fix"
"A dedicated member of the Igniter Labs team can assist organizations who have a persistent bug on their website in investigating and resolving the issue. Starts at $120."
So that is an incentive for them not to fix bugs unless you pay them to do so. In any reasonable programming business they just fix bugs when they find them or when they are shown the bugs. This may encourage them to leave bugs in when they know that they exists until somebody pays them to fix the bugs. This seems unethical to me. If a bug appears I can't afford to wait weeks or months for the bug to be fixed. It could hurt my clients.
In WordPress atleast there is the rating system so that users of the plugins can score them for other users and builders to see. That does help some.
I can think of another problem which probably most people have not thought of. In WordPress if your developer vanishes and you don't have the login and password or your developer locks you out of your site demanding more money there is a way to get control back of your website. You can call the hosting company and then using the payment card on file change the login and password of the hosting account. Then using that you or your new developer can.
- Log into your hosting account
- Go into CPanel or some equivalent.
- Go into phpMyAdmin or some equivalent.
- Find the login and password for WordPress in the database
- Change the password in the database
- Use that new password to log into WordPress
Actually it's a little more involved than that but you can look it up.
With a program like TastyIgniter, the method for crawling in through a window from your backyard so to speak may not be documented. That is because there may be only hundreds of people instead of millions using it. I would recommend TastyIgniter if would pass my evaluation but it doesn't
I need to say something about the documentation. I have gone through some of it. They give a lot more to programmers than to users. Some if it is incomplete or missing. Some of it may be obsolete. It is terse and and not verbose. There are not examples to back up the terse documentation.
I found the inventory control feature to be absurd. I doubt if anybody is using it. It is obviously written by programmers who have never in their life owned, managed, or worked in a restaurant. It would only work for cans of soda, not complete meals with many ingredients.
They rely on the message board for help. Or you need to pay for help. The message board may or may not be useful. I have not tried the paid help.
They mention that there are several themes to try but in reality there is only one, the Orange theme. I looked in their extension store and did not see any other themes for sale or for giveway.
Another issue is the tiping feature. They don't tip in every country but in the United States they do. But the tips may go to the driver, or to the waiter or into a jar to be shared among staff. TastyIgniter implies that the tips go to the owner. What?!
I give this thing a one out of five smiley faces. Or one frowny face and no happy faces.
Nonetheless, I have created a guide to install and try TastyIgniter out for free so that you don't need to pay the programmers at TastyLabs anything to try this out. Please read the PDF file found below.
How to install TastyIgniter without using a Command Line
REINSTALLING TASTYIGNITER IF THE PREVIOUS ATTEMPT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL
TASTYIGNITER WEBSITE
TASTYIGNITER FORUM