My 4.x products can be put into one of two categories:

1. Theme tweaks (“Enhanced …”)
2. Pages database sets (“Super…”)

Category 1 seems to become almost impossible with 5.x, as theme templates only allow functional injections, not the replacements of template code I used before. 

Category 2 might still be possible. I haven’t had a chance to look into the ACP of 5.x. But IPS just announced the new Page Builder for 5.x, which offers a native functionality similar to what I offered with my bestsellers like SuperGrid and SuperBlocks. Sure, my products come with tons of additional options and visual improvements for various use cases – those are nice to have, but I am not sure they will be significant enough to justify the development and support of dedicated template products. And the closing of the Marketplace will reduce chances for sales even more. 

So, what do you think? Will those native feature be good enough for you? Which of my products do you hope to see continued and why? I am still happy and willing to explore a continuation of some of my products for 5.x, but looking at the status quo, there is a good chance that it might not be viable. 

My IPS license for opentype.space still runs until early 2025. If I need to close shop, it would probably happen at this time, but also not earlier. Until then, I am happy to explore if a new chapter is still possible. 

Hello,

Insofar as :

1. the sale of physical products is a vital part of our non-profit association's income 
2. the design of our site is based almost entirely on your SuperGrid product
3. I found the way Invision treated their customers when they made their arbitrary choices for their V5 was detestable
4. I have neither the time nor the financial resources to pay someone or spend hours migrating a functional V4 site to a potentially broken V5 site, with a breakdown in service during the migration.

I won’t migrate my Community to Invision V5 and stay under V4.

I would bet on 2 – if things will happen as it looks now. So far, everything in the IC5-ACP looks as if nothing has happened with Pages except for the Page Builder. They must still have something in development. All other templates (category, article...) still look as bad as under IC4. Or I haven't understood it yet.

Hi,

although more up-to-date, the IPB environment is aesthetically very crude, I would say far from what we can see on the more well-known sites, I don't know, starting with Youtube or X.
This is why I believe that an updated and very refined version of SuperGrid will be on my shopping list as soon as it is available.
Currently my site is literally based on your plugins, so I hope you will be able to dedicate time and resources to IPB 5.0 as well.
Otherwise I might rethink my upgrade policy and stick to 4.x as much as possible

Edited July 13, 20241 yr by Mauro Maratta

IPS Community becomes unwieldly when you have more than a handful of forums, blogs, galleries, clubs and Pages. Being able to allow users to browse through these offerings in a visually appealing and easily discoverable fashion would truly elevate the platform. Version 5 so far doesn't seem to improve on this problem so I would "really" welcome an updated version of SuperDirectory.

I would probably repurchase other "Super" products but would want to see a proposed product description (based on any limitations you encounter on v5) prior to saying yay or nay.

 

We are a non-profit organization that provides parenting classes/groups to Chicago parents.  Our site uses your SuperGrid and SuperDirectory templates with several Pages Databases.  We really need your new versions that will work for Invision 5.0!

Even if the new 5.x version provides a way for users, through a lot of work, to create a similar look and feel that your templates provide, I would prefer to simply pay for your plugin option(s) rather than have to figure it all out myself.

I would like to still use SuperGrid and SuperBlocks.

Hi, I use your SuperGrid plugin. Do you plan to modify it so it works with ICV5?

I currently do not plan to have any product upgrades ready for the 5.0 release. My products solved specific design issues in the 4.x product line, a lot of which IPS has now resolved in 5.x. For all my template products, I suggest to switch to IPS’ new native layout options. They are pretty powerful and versatile, both for blocks and Pages database views. I honestly believe they will be the better choice for most users of my 4.x template products (including myself). 

I plan on updating this site to a 5.x beta soon and use it for testing purposes. And I will have to learn the new design framework anyway before I upgrade my own communities in 2025. Only after that will I be able to tell if I still have something meaningful to contribute to the IPS framework. Could still be product upgrades, could be completely new products only, could be educational content made available here. And of course it needs to be financially viable. If this site can’t earn more than IPS’ yearly subscription fee, it might be better to close it down. 

 

Fair enough. However, one of the main reasons I used your super grid templates was to make my website look different from everyone else's using the default IPS page layout. Maybe that's the same for others who used your template. Your Supergrid template still looks more professional than the new IPS layout, especially the article and listing displays. Hopefully, you will reconsider and release the ICv5 version. 

Already upgraded over the weekend. 🥳

The new stock IPS templates work nicely, but I also already see parts of it that I would like to change/improve. I think that’s the best way forward: not bringing my 4.x templates over just for the sake of bringing them over, rather identifying issues and limitations with the 5.x templates and addressing them for new 5.x templates. Feel free to report improvements you would like to see regarding the 5.x templates here.

Thanks for updating your templates to v5. I’m looking forward to purchasing the new templates, you could also list them on https://www.invisioneer.org so others know they’re available, when available. Your colour scheme on your v5 websites looks nice.

Yes, please update your SuperGrid and SuperDirectory templates! We use them for about a dozen databases on our site. They look much better than the Invision basic templates. It gives our site a better look than other Invision sites.

20 hours ago, npnchicago said:

They look much better than the Invision basic templates.

Have you tried the 5.x templates yet?

3 hours ago, opentype said:

Have you tried the 5.x templates yet?

No, we have not upgraded our dev site to 5.0 yet.

We like the ability to customize directory pages using the Supergrid plug-in options.

I watched the short Invision video about the “Pages Database Layout Options”. The display options are limited. We need the options for your SuperDirectory and SuperGrid plugins, such as “Image Aspect Ratio”, “Thumbnail For listing”, “Turn image into Link”, “Remove Byline”, “Remove Avatar”, “Use Hero Image”, etc.

I would gladly pay an annual fee to keep the plugins. I pay renewal fees for plugins, such as “BIM Quick Search”.

The page width for articles in IC5 is too large (wide) on desktop. A narrower version would be better for reading (on desktop). Do you have an idea to reach that @opentype?

Sure. Should be no problem.

Hi There

Long time user & appreciator of your IPS4 improvements.

Do you have any news on updated/new improvements for IC5?

7 hours ago, Madhouse said:

Do you have any news on updated/new improvements for IC5?

I plan on working on it starting in April.

Just adding my two cents:

I would really like Pages Supergrid brought to IPS5. All our articles are formatted to feature the main picture in the aspect ratio of SuperGrid supports. The IPS version is a different aspect ratio, cuts off as much as half the picture, and I really don't want to have to go through 6,700 articles to adjust the header image. We really like Supergrid because it gives the article a Magazine-like feel.

Another thing I liked from Super Reviews that wasn't in SuperGrid was the ability to embed a small gallery.

I purchased Super Reviews but was never able to successfully impliment it because my reviews and my articles are in the same database, but I would purchase both again if I could.

7 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Just adding my two cents:

I would really like Pages Supergrid brought to IPS5. All our articles are formatted to feature the main picture in the aspect ratio of SuperGrid supports. The IPS version is a different aspect ratio, cuts off as much as half the picture, and I really don't want to have to go through 6,700 articles to adjust the header image. We really like Supergrid because it gives the article a Magazine-like feel.

Another thing I liked from Super Reviews that wasn't in SuperGrid was the ability to embed a small gallery.

I purchased Super Reviews but was never able to successfully impliment it because my reviews and my articles are in the same database, but I would purchase both again if I could.

I've been playing around with my V5 Dev site and I decided to come back here and say that I'll buy SuperBlocks too.

By the way: there is always the option to hire me for custom templates. Building the design around a specific Pages database usually works best, compared to a generic solutions with tons of app settings to hopefully match various use cases.

2 minutes ago, opentype said:

By the way: there is always the option to hire me for custom templates. Building the design around a specific Pages database usually works best, compared to a generic solutions with tons of app settings to hopefully match various use cases.

If that's what it ends up taking to get me into V5, but I'm really just looking for page and block templates of approximately similar layout to the plug-ins I mentioned that you built in V4. I'm perfectly willing to pay for annual maintenance/support on them as well, as I would assume there will be changes coming down the line for V5 that the templates will need updates for.