Another Site Update - pretty big one

So far so good this morning.  The testsite and main site have been upgraded to the newest forum software for this older operating system and all is well.    

I did an upgrade bridge they have for the downloads system last night on the test site and it's working good.  It seems the downloads system we have now will work on the new operating system as of Jan 2023 and since its the best I don't mind waiting.  I'm going for the download system update bridge here on the main site next so if anything seems weird over the next hour or so, you'll now what's up lol.   

 

All is good, downloads update is in, checked out and done.  Now it's time for a root beer and a good cigar lol.  

Once the new stuff is all in I plan on finishing up a lot of the manuals in the download section during the cold weather in my nice, warm, work on the site spot...    

I've been catching up on property work during the warm months, so now it's time to catch up on all the indoor work, and overdue new ideas I've had for the site.   Time to do something else I've been wanting to do around here for awhile so it's off to the testsite to try it out. 
 

I've been working on a nicer menu on and off for years and this was a good time with all the coding and such filling up my brain right now... 

I've got the beginning of something that I may try to do here on the main site tomorrow.  It's nowhere near the fanciness that I want but at least it's a good start and it works, I will make it fancier later of course...  It will get the main menu bar down to just 2 items (Home and Mega Menu) while at the same time being able to see everything and go anywhere on the site with 1 click all in 1 place without clogging up a page.  What can be added to, and seen in it, is infinite so it should be a nice addition.  There's not a ton of peeps posting, most call me, but the peeps running thru the site in the site stats are still a steady 15K - 25K or more per day.  It baffles my mind sometimes lol, but at least it will make it easier for all those peeps to find what they're looking for.  

Pay no attention to the bluish stuff on the center to left of the screenshot, it's just part of what I'm using to make the new menu stuff.   

Working on the new Mega Menu today inbetween real work.. 

The new Mega Menu is in on the main site and working great.  I really really like it a lot.    It needs a little more styling and maybe a few more items but at least it's in and working.  I'm not going wild with a lot of the styling and personal tweaks because I think it will be a waste of time to have to get back into it after the new operating system, forum, shout box, etc updates are in.  A lot of things will change after that but for now I'm just trying to get things to look decent and at least work with, or be ready to update to the new systems.

In case some are wondering the new Mega Menu can not be seen on smaller devices like phones + small tablets yet.

I made a post on the shout box forum an hour or so ago and told the developer what was up.  I've worked with him before and he's a big help.  He's in the UK so nothing much will happen there until tomorrow (they are 5 hours ahead of me).  The other module or plugin peeps either it wasn't a big problem to fix myself, or in the case of a few they're not help much at all...

So for now all is good.  All is backed up again and the testsite has been cloned from the main site again.  Now I can play over there some more later.  For the rest of the night I'm gonna take a break, relax and go to bed a little early to catch up on some sleep.  
  



 

Rock that Hard drive

The developer at the shoutbox site already sent me an updated file to put in the backend code to fix the smilys.  Even with all the time difference, all fixed in less than a day, now that's some awesome service. 

After many hours last weekend I found a part of the problem with the new upgrade failing... 

It seems that an update from over a year ago didn't install some folders and files correctly.  These never caused a problem before because they were put in there soley for this new upgrade, and were never needed until now.  The pre-upgrade tool made for this didn't catch it either, and said the database, folder, and file system structure was correct...   Now I can see one of the problems why so many peeps are having a problem with this upgrade.  I'm going to try it again on another test site I made late last week just for this upgrade.  The new additional test site is hidden so no one will be able to be on it.  I'm wondering also if the upgrade may fail at another point if anyone is on it creating cache, and causing files to be open, used, or modified while the upgrade is being done.  I'm taking all the precautions I can before I go crazy...     

The original upgrade failed consistently at 7% and crashed the administration area on the backend of the test site where a lot of things are done.  Since the folder and file structure has been fixed as of yesterday afternoon, and a lot of older unused modules and plugins removed, I plan on trying again later today to see what happens.   
 

What I did last weekend fixed it to where the upgrade went through, I've been playing with it for a few hours now.  There are also a ton of new features and it is lightning fast.  It has changed a lot, but should be easy to get used to and much easier to use once I get the hang of something new.  It's sorta like newer versions of Windows as it grew, there were just a few things moved around and new features to use.  I remember using Windows 3.1 where we had to make batch files and get into DOS codes to make one click things work, Windows 95 did that for you just by doing a right click on the mouse. 

The only problem I can see is the main admin dashboard layout is wrong, other than that the admin area seems to work fine.  I think that something got left out of the upgrade I used as there were many, many Alpha and Beta versions before the 4.0 stable version, and what I upgraded to was 4.25 stable.  I think like the last problems I had something was put in somewhere that was left out, or done improperly in the code, again...  

Everything on the front of the site is working on the new test site as well other than the downloads section and forum, but they haven't had the new upgrades for the new system done on them yet either.  I need to stick to 1 thing at a time to prevent myself from going nuts lol... 

The new Administrator (back end) upgrade is absolutely awesome, and the front end (what you guys see) should be really nice as well once all is done. 
 

It's still a bit of a tedious journey but it's gonna be good in the end.  I worked on it until almost 11 last night, way past bedtime lol, but made a lot more discoveries.  A lot more progress was made in the way of what to do now, since the upgrade does at least go through now. 

I am combing through the backend and registry now on the main site to get rid of things that are very old, no longer used, and things that were installed by other modules years ago that are now incorporated into the new operating system, forum, other daily used modules, and no longer needed.  It will take a day or 2 but it will be some much needed cleaning, and make things easier to find and to do.  It will also make the size of the site GB wise smaller, faster, and more efficient.  I guess it's sorta like Spring cleaning.  I also learned from forums on other module maker developer sites that they say they are ready for the new system that actually are not.  One place has been holding up websites for 2 years that say they are compatible on the front, "somewhat" compatible on their forum, but actually are not compatible at all.  They even actually locked the updates post 3 months ago after almost 10 pages and 300 posts of web design peeps wanting updates they can't get that have unhappy customers...
 Some developers have also disappeared I guess and haven't had updates in 5 years.  It's very time consuming learning, but this is also good in the long run to know these things and rid the site of these peeps modules.

A few of those modules are on here.  The PM system peeps we used are one of those who aren't updating to the new system, neither are some of the template peeps, the store here (it is out of public view but still on here),  and a few other small ones that are no longer needed.  The forum peeps we use have already begun making a package to add a PM system to the forum instead of relying on someone else.  I can't blame some of them because it is very difficult and time consuming to have things totally redone to work with the new operating system, but at the same time I wish they could be more honest about it.  Good thing is I have good, honest, proven, and better things lined up that have been ready for this for a long time all sorted out.  The shout box, downloads, forum, and template peeps that I used to make all the fancy pages all over the site have been good to go for a long time.  Those are the main things so all is good.