Muse, BC, e-commerce, inContext editing, subscriptions and UI v3

[viciruthless]

I created a site in Muse and planned to add e-commerce related modules in BC. Got the Muse site published to BC. Even managed to get get the domain name attached properly. Spent 3-ish hours digging through help topics and doing various web searches trying to figure out why couldn't do anything useful (my only option was "Manage Site" - I assumed, having watched a number of tutorials, that all the user friendly stuff I was after was being hidden for some unknown reason). Eventually stumbled across the answer - new interface. Turns out the "answer" wasn't at all helpful at all and I was stuck with these new incredibly non-user friendly controls (when compared to the old interface)... So now what?

I see the modules list, I see where I can add a catalog, but I can't find where I can set up the catalog to begin with. Obviously I can't add anything I haven't set up properly. It's worth noting that I currently have a free account. I think this came with my Muse subscription, but I also had a free thing going with BC before I downloaded Muse, so I have no real idea what my account status would be now. Anyway, I need to know the following:

1) Can I even create an e-commerce website using the Muse website I've created without paying? (Yes, I know you can set up a trial one through BC using the pre-built templtes. No, I'm not interested in doing that - I want to use the Muse layouts I've created)

2) If I must pay - where do I go to do so?

3) Regardless of payment issues, how in the world do I set up a catalog for my products?

4) Is it possible to set up modules using the inContext editor?

And most importantly...

4) Whose name do I curse for changing the interface and making this whole process needlessly difficult & frustrating?

Cheers!

-v-

[viciruthless]

Update to item 2)

I *have* located the Buying Guide ( http://www.adobe.com/products/business-catalyst/buying-guide-subscriptions.html ). My guess is that I must upgrade to the webCommerce option to make all of this possible. That's okay by me... Any guesses where I'd have to go to actually give Adobe my money??? There doesn't seem to be any way to actually pay for the upgrade in service, just information about what it includes and what price it would be if you could theoretically purchase it.

-v-

[Brad Lawryk]

True, there is no upgrade path for the Free Cloud sites at this time.

You need to start the site from your partner portal in order to set the plans the you want. However having said that you won't be able to add eCommerce with Muse yet. Muse just isn't at that point.

You would need to create your site in Muse if you like and then move to Dreamweaver to add further functionality. This would indeed break compatibility with Muse though.