2018/2019 and the Future of iMacros...
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 6:34 am
Yeah, sorry, I'm "clever" but I have a pretty messy/mixed-up Mind, so I might need to re-organize the Content of this (Blog) Post...
OK, hum, 2018:
Pfff, retrospectively not a very good yeah for iMacros: I think it started with iMacros for CR that went Commercial with v10.0.1 (now v10.0.5 in Jan 2019), with a clear "Separation" between the 'Free' and the 'PE' Versions ('PE' = Personal Edition).
Easy to qualify is that any Local File Access like using a DataSource or saving Data locally using the 'SAVEAS' Command required the pay 'FIO' Module (about 100 any Currency, last time I checked that part of the Site was pretty buggy, pity the Italian Lira does not exist anymore, otherwise, iMacros would still be nearly Gratis.., never saw any Update about that, so I guess, simply find some "cheap" Currency and for 100x CUR, iMacros 'PE' is yours...!).
'Free' also means that Scripts are limited to 50x Lines of Codes and when looping to 100x Loops. (Oh...!, and only 3x Vars: '!VAR[1-3]')
Well, all those Limitations are very easy to bypass for Techy Users, took me less than 2min on FF.
Then iMacros for FF followed, using the same Framework like iMacros for CR, which was a "real disaster", because iMacros for CR was always the "very-buggy little brother of iMacros for FF", and suddenly iMacros for CR became the "leading" way-to-the-future...!
During the Summer 2018, TechSup/Ipswitch launched some Beta-Testing Phase for iMacros for FF v10.0.2 (to adopt FF57+ and WebExtensions). The Intention was very good, first time ever iOpus/Ipswitch involved Users in some Beta-Phase before launching some Version...
My Opinion, but to be honest, it didn't go very well, maybe 3 Bugs were solved during that Beta-Phase, and after those 3 Bugs, some Version got released that still contained Dozens of Bugs (from some very "superficial" Testing), I lost the Count, with still 2 or 3 very "Blocking" for me, but which 6 months later (Jan 2019) is still the Official Version, didn't see any Update since...
Some User had posted about 1 year ago some interesting Video in this Thread when the first Commercial Version of iMacros for CR had been released...
2019, and the Future...!?
I'm a bit somber to be honest, the "Top" Versions to use "at this moment" (= Jan 2019) are iMB v11.5 maybe v12.0 and/or v12.5, and iMacros for FF v8.9.7 (+FF v55.0.3).
... => While current Version of iMacros for FF is now v10.0.2, in 'Free' + 'PE' Versions, which don't support '.js' Scripts anymore... And iMacros for CR has always been some kind of a joke for me... Yeah, perfect for 3x easy Click-Click-Click Script, but that's about it...
(v9.0.3 works also until FF56 but was always a bit of buggy joke...)
And for the Records, I'm probably the most Advanced User on the Forum and my FCI is:
iMacros for FF 8.8.2 + PM v26.3.3 (=FF47) + Win10_x64. ("PM" = Pale Moon) + occasionally iMacros for FF v8.9.7 + FF v55.0.3 + Win10_x64.)
My "Feeling" is that until about 2 years ago, iMacros was the absolute WINNER for Web-Automation (and AI), but I don't know, "they" completely screw it...! I predicted 10 years ago that 'Web-Automation' and 'AI' were the "Future", within 2 years at that time I thought, oops, took another 8 years, 'AI' is now completely "hot", I've been maintaining some Thread for several years about Enhancement Requests for iMacros (but not a single one got implemented I think...)
About "AI", I had some "private" Conversation with TechSup a few months ago (after the Beta-Phase for v10.0.2 for FF) where I already "ventilated" my Opinion(s), saying I've already been doing Auto-Morphing Macros (in pure '.iim') for at least 5 years and that iMacros Macros should by now be able to adapt by themselves to Sites/Pages changing their HTML Structure, just like my Macros are, this should be Standard Functionality in iMacros now, you record stg and if anything changes on the Page, the Macro should be able to adapt and modify the Script to adapt to the Changes on the Page... I've been doing that for 5 or 6 years already...!! (And using only pure '.iim' Macros.)
=> OK, I hope some Project Manager reads this, iMacros was the TOP-OF-THE-TOP for Web-Automation 2 years ago, is becoming a mini By-Product with the current v10.x Versions, I'm "lucky" I can still use v8.8.2 for FF for my Prod-Env and I have about 50,000 Lines of Code, (that I cannot convert in 1-2-3 min/hours) otherwise I would be moving to Kantu (sounds like the best Choice to me at this moment, I have the "Feeling"...) or any other Alternative... (or would even port my own Version of iMacros for the Browser I would choose...).
Pity to see that iMacros for FF which was for a very long time the "best" Flavour of iMacros (and still is with v8.9.7) is now such a "limited" little Brother compared to the other Versions for other Browsers, and I hope '.js' Scripts get supported again (even if I don't use that Functionality myself), but the 'EVENT' Mode also which is also not supported anymore in v10.0.x for FF...
Ipswitch apart from "moving" all Versions from Free Add-ons to Commercial Products (well, can't really blame them if they want to make some Money out of this (once) wonderful Piece of Software!) is actually not the only one to "blame" for this Evolution, Google Chrome with its (too) rapid Pace for new Releases is also a bit difficult to "follow", and Mozilla has stupidly been doing the same with Firefox and nearly each new Release breaking "stg" in the iMacros for FF Add-on (and many other Add-ons) + with then the "Killer Move" of adopting the WebExtensions Model which suddenly killed 1000's of "older" Add-ons...
(See this interesting Article + the Discussion in the Comments below the Article about Browser Development is also very interesting...)
My POST meant as a kind of a "Blog" and personal Opinion... => Comments/Feedback/Discussion welcome...
OK, hum, 2018:
Pfff, retrospectively not a very good yeah for iMacros: I think it started with iMacros for CR that went Commercial with v10.0.1 (now v10.0.5 in Jan 2019), with a clear "Separation" between the 'Free' and the 'PE' Versions ('PE' = Personal Edition).
Easy to qualify is that any Local File Access like using a DataSource or saving Data locally using the 'SAVEAS' Command required the pay 'FIO' Module (about 100 any Currency, last time I checked that part of the Site was pretty buggy, pity the Italian Lira does not exist anymore, otherwise, iMacros would still be nearly Gratis.., never saw any Update about that, so I guess, simply find some "cheap" Currency and for 100x CUR, iMacros 'PE' is yours...!).
'Free' also means that Scripts are limited to 50x Lines of Codes and when looping to 100x Loops. (Oh...!, and only 3x Vars: '!VAR[1-3]')
Well, all those Limitations are very easy to bypass for Techy Users, took me less than 2min on FF.
Then iMacros for FF followed, using the same Framework like iMacros for CR, which was a "real disaster", because iMacros for CR was always the "very-buggy little brother of iMacros for FF", and suddenly iMacros for CR became the "leading" way-to-the-future...!
During the Summer 2018, TechSup/Ipswitch launched some Beta-Testing Phase for iMacros for FF v10.0.2 (to adopt FF57+ and WebExtensions). The Intention was very good, first time ever iOpus/Ipswitch involved Users in some Beta-Phase before launching some Version...
My Opinion, but to be honest, it didn't go very well, maybe 3 Bugs were solved during that Beta-Phase, and after those 3 Bugs, some Version got released that still contained Dozens of Bugs (from some very "superficial" Testing), I lost the Count, with still 2 or 3 very "Blocking" for me, but which 6 months later (Jan 2019) is still the Official Version, didn't see any Update since...
Some User had posted about 1 year ago some interesting Video in this Thread when the first Commercial Version of iMacros for CR had been released...
2019, and the Future...!?
I'm a bit somber to be honest, the "Top" Versions to use "at this moment" (= Jan 2019) are iMB v11.5 maybe v12.0 and/or v12.5, and iMacros for FF v8.9.7 (+FF v55.0.3).
... => While current Version of iMacros for FF is now v10.0.2, in 'Free' + 'PE' Versions, which don't support '.js' Scripts anymore... And iMacros for CR has always been some kind of a joke for me... Yeah, perfect for 3x easy Click-Click-Click Script, but that's about it...
(v9.0.3 works also until FF56 but was always a bit of buggy joke...)
And for the Records, I'm probably the most Advanced User on the Forum and my FCI is:
iMacros for FF 8.8.2 + PM v26.3.3 (=FF47) + Win10_x64. ("PM" = Pale Moon) + occasionally iMacros for FF v8.9.7 + FF v55.0.3 + Win10_x64.)
My "Feeling" is that until about 2 years ago, iMacros was the absolute WINNER for Web-Automation (and AI), but I don't know, "they" completely screw it...! I predicted 10 years ago that 'Web-Automation' and 'AI' were the "Future", within 2 years at that time I thought, oops, took another 8 years, 'AI' is now completely "hot", I've been maintaining some Thread for several years about Enhancement Requests for iMacros (but not a single one got implemented I think...)
About "AI", I had some "private" Conversation with TechSup a few months ago (after the Beta-Phase for v10.0.2 for FF) where I already "ventilated" my Opinion(s), saying I've already been doing Auto-Morphing Macros (in pure '.iim') for at least 5 years and that iMacros Macros should by now be able to adapt by themselves to Sites/Pages changing their HTML Structure, just like my Macros are, this should be Standard Functionality in iMacros now, you record stg and if anything changes on the Page, the Macro should be able to adapt and modify the Script to adapt to the Changes on the Page... I've been doing that for 5 or 6 years already...!! (And using only pure '.iim' Macros.)
=> OK, I hope some Project Manager reads this, iMacros was the TOP-OF-THE-TOP for Web-Automation 2 years ago, is becoming a mini By-Product with the current v10.x Versions, I'm "lucky" I can still use v8.8.2 for FF for my Prod-Env and I have about 50,000 Lines of Code, (that I cannot convert in 1-2-3 min/hours) otherwise I would be moving to Kantu (sounds like the best Choice to me at this moment, I have the "Feeling"...) or any other Alternative... (or would even port my own Version of iMacros for the Browser I would choose...).
Pity to see that iMacros for FF which was for a very long time the "best" Flavour of iMacros (and still is with v8.9.7) is now such a "limited" little Brother compared to the other Versions for other Browsers, and I hope '.js' Scripts get supported again (even if I don't use that Functionality myself), but the 'EVENT' Mode also which is also not supported anymore in v10.0.x for FF...
Ipswitch apart from "moving" all Versions from Free Add-ons to Commercial Products (well, can't really blame them if they want to make some Money out of this (once) wonderful Piece of Software!) is actually not the only one to "blame" for this Evolution, Google Chrome with its (too) rapid Pace for new Releases is also a bit difficult to "follow", and Mozilla has stupidly been doing the same with Firefox and nearly each new Release breaking "stg" in the iMacros for FF Add-on (and many other Add-ons) + with then the "Killer Move" of adopting the WebExtensions Model which suddenly killed 1000's of "older" Add-ons...
(See this interesting Article + the Discussion in the Comments below the Article about Browser Development is also very interesting...)
My POST meant as a kind of a "Blog" and personal Opinion... => Comments/Feedback/Discussion welcome...