Hi Anthony, the plugin description states…
The ability to run a “dry run” to see how many fields will be updated
…with clarification that the Pro version allows you to view exact changes…
Time-saving features available in the Pro version:
- View exactly what changed during a search/replace
It sounds like you were able to complete the dry run and view the results including how many fields would be updated in each table. You were not able to view the exact changes because that is a Pro feature.
Did your experience not match up with what is described in the plugin readme?
Hi Kevin, I will admit that I didn’t read the section on the Pro features as I wasn’t interested in purchasing a plugin just for a few simple text replacements. With that said, it still doesn’t change the fact that only showing that there’s going to be XX number of changes made to a table, is virtually useless without being able to see what those changes actually are. You’ve mentioned that you made heavy use of Interconnect’s free db script. This script shows you a preview of the changes being made, which means you’ve kept that functionality from the free plugin, just so that you can try to get people to pay to get that functionality back. As far as I can see, this plugin offers less functionality than Interconnect’s script so I’m not sure why you’d use it, instead of Interconnect’s script. The only benefit I can see is that it’s slightly easy to setup (installing a plugin Vs uploading a script). If you’re not technically minded enough to upload a script though, then you probably shouldn’t be running a search/replace on a whole Table or worse, a complete DB. Add in the functionality to be able to preview your changes from a dry run, and this would be a great, and useful free plugin.
I agree with Anthony Hortin.
Without knowing in advance the exact text that your plugin has identified to be replaced across my entire site, there is no way on God’s green Earth I’m paying for the pro version.
Kevin, instead of HIDING the exact text that’s going to be replaced (which—in my opinion—is a horrible business decision that limits your conversions to Pro), you should simply put a % cap on the number of replacements that will be performed with the free version. In other words, show people all matches that can be replaced, but let them know that only a random selection of 25% (for example) of the matches will be replaced using the free version. And once the user replaces a certain keyword/phrase, that exact keyword/phrase can’t be replaced again without upgrading to Pro.
