Switching from ComicEasel

  • Hello there. I’m planning on migrating my project to the Webcomic plugin from Comic Easel. I see that there is an integration method for Comic Easel, so that’s good. But I have a few questions before we start.

    Is Webcomic being actively updated? The last commit was in March of 2021 and the last release was in 2018. Comic Easel seems to be abandoned and I didn’t want to commit work to another abandoned project.

    I don’t have a good conceptual understanding of how the comic and post data is stored with Comic Easel and what is involved when moving to a new webcomic plugin. Do we have to manually re-upload everything one page at a time? Is there an import tool that changes the database entries into webcomic’s format? What does the process actually look like? Any input would be appreciated.

    Thank you for your time.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • The conversion tool should convert all your existing comics automatically…but you’re right that the Webcomic plugin isn’t being actively maintained any better than Comic Easel is!

    I have one currently-updating comic site that runs on Webcomic, and another that runs on Comic Easel. Even when both plugins were up-to-date, my position was “I like Webcomic better, but not so much better that it’s worth the hassle and potentially-breaking-things of trying to convert a functional Comic Easel site.”

    That goes double now that the plugins don’t have active maintainers hanging around to advise on bug-fixes. If it was me, I wouldn’t risk it.

    Thread Starter devleowp

    (@devleowp)

    Thank you very much for that response.

    I hate to ask. But now that we’re in a state where either of these plugins could break with a WP update and we’d lose our projects, what do we do? Is there another alternative out there besides the larger webcomic hosts?

    Don’t worry, it’s not that dire!

    You’re more likely to see “small, annoying, but manageable glitches” than “the whole site stops being usable.” Even for years after this. These plugins have solid foundations, and WordPress itself is really stable and well-maintained.

    Set your site’s WordPress/PHP updates to manual instead of automatic, and get in the habit of making a backup before running new updates. That way, if anything absolutely critical breaks, you can restore from the backup.

    And follow other webcomic creators — I would say on Twitter, but that’s getting downright unusable. Check out Tumblr, Mastodon, and Discord. We talk to each other! Any time there’s a problem with a popular plugin, people will be giving each other the heads-up, and sharing tips about how to deal with it. As replacement webcomic plugins come along, you’ll hear the reviews, especially when people start raving about a great new one that’s worth switching for.

    Thread Starter devleowp

    (@devleowp)

    Thanks for all that. Definitely takes my blood pressure down a few points. I thought Comic Easel already was at that point, thanks to being abandoned for that long. Currently I’m taking backups every update, carefully testing each new WP version or OS update. I can’t help but clench, wondering if this will be the one that forces us off of self hosting.

    I do appreciate you weighing in that it it’s unlikely for everything to fall apart after one update. Can you recommend any Discord communities?

    “Being forced off of self-hosting completely” is also not a realistic risk, don’t even worry about that!

    Remember, the webcomic field is full of (a) complete nerds who (b) like making and sharing stuff for free. It’s only a couple of specific WordPress plugins that are getting out-of-date. There are other self-hosting tools available — and plenty more people with the skill to code new ones as necessary, and the community spirit to share them.

    Some open-membership Discords I like:

    The Webcomics Review: https://discord.gg/bvnSECAe

    Webcomics Garden: https://discord.gg/A2kcyCrk

    SpiderForest has a link on their page that should work, I’ll ask the mods to update it if not: https://www.spiderforest.com/hub/

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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