Another Site Update - pretty big one

Today has been a very productive day to say the least...  

I found the main problem with some things not right on the upgrade and it was just as I thought, jumping too many versions is not a good thing, little things always seem to get left out by the developers causing a lot of us big headaches...         Did I say that before? 

I got the Main site here cleaned up this morning, it wasn't as bad as I thought.  After it looked all good I cloned it to the new testsite, again lol.      I did the install again to the first stable version and the main dashboard was all fixed.  However, none of the other links on the dashboard worked, they all had the same error...  I thought ok, here we go again but it's the same error on every page so a little code problem fix and they will all work.  I did a search on this error code and it seems it happened to everyone, it was so common that they made a video on it and what lines of code to fix.  At least it was an easy fix compared to everything else but I also thought why make a video when they should have just fixed in an update in the last Beta version, who really knows... 

Anyway, the new system is up, although it needs a lot of upgrades to the latest version, but at least it is the new system and it all works.  All the pages over there are working minus the new shoutbox, downloads, forum upgrades, and a few smaller things.  I'm going to back it up, then clone it to the old testsite so I have a good working new system sitting somewhere in case it crashes so bad I have to clone it again.  


It should go a lot faster now that the main thing is finally done. 

 

The new forum doesn't work perfectly unless it it uninstalled here keeping the database info (media, posts, and members), then reinstalled on the new system.  This is not an update or upgrade as they say, it's basically a new install then moving info back in.  I wish these peeps would call it what it is without having to dig for hours to see the truth...   [img]/media/kunena/emoticons/computer3 (2).gif[/img]

Anyway, I still have all the things I learned on how this all really gets done and can make things easier going forward.  I'll start over better armed after lunch... 
 

Almost forgot, you guys will see a few more changes around here like the categories being consolidated and such that I did this morning.   It will make it a lot easier doing some of the mods here on the system I'm more familiar with, and they will stick when moved to the new stuff.  That is mostly the goal for today, then cloning this site to both testsites to start over.  The 2 testsites are working out really nice with all the new stuff that won't work here.  Once something works on one then I can do it on the other as this one stays up.  It keeps the progress intact on one while I crash the other lol.   

Now that I know how the forum "upgrade" works, and having played with the new stuff a little already on the new testsite over the past few days, I have a little more of a vision of what the new place will work and look like.    

I also keep getting more ideas of what can be done on the new stuff as I learn the capabilities if these new systems.  One cool thing is I think I can add disability features to it on the front end (what you guys see).  I have talked to peeps over the years that have problems mostly seeing among other things.  The disability features allow each person to go monochrome, set colors, font size, link highlights, and other things so each person can see and read what they need here.  If that all fails it will even read posts and things aloud to you, pretty cool for a forum huh lol.  

Anyway, back to work I go...  

Well I just found something interesting...  It seems the forum problem on the testsites came from this main site when it was cloned at the start.  There was an update for the forum here a few months ago that messed up something on the forum backend here, then it was transferred to the testsites where the new stuff was being done... 

I have the debug mode on, and error reporting set to maximum on the testsites to help get this done so it easily showed up there, but when I looked at it here, the problem was here as well.  I found it by mistake when trying to change some things on the forum here before starting over and some of it was not working either.

I may turn on the debug mode and error reporting for a bit and see what shows up here before I go any further.  If you guys see some weird messages on the pages just ignore them, I'm just checking some things out.  
 

Looks like I found all the bugs and problems this time.  

I started from scratch this morning and cloned this main site to both testsites then backed them both up.  Next was getting everything ready to migrate to the new system, then putting the new operating system on one of them, then taking it to the latest version.  It worked just like it should with no problems and no errors.    Next up was to back up that site.

After that it was time to do the happy dance lol.     After that was to clone it to the other testsite, then back it up as well.

Now there are 2 perfectly working testsites with no errors that have the latest operating system on them, are backed up and ready for phase 2.  The new versions of things to be done now are the forum, downloads section, and shoutbox.  

I'm not getting to much more involved in something tonight because once I start and get on a roll, especially if something isn't quite right I have to stay up pretty late sometimes to remember what went wrong and how to fix it as I go.  I think I'll take an easy night, rest my eyes and brain a little, then go to bed early and catch up on a little more sleep.  
 

 

The forum went on the testsite with no problems other than moving the smileys over that I'll do tomorrow.  Main thing is all the data, users, categories and posts are intact.  There was a little setting up to do, and getting the main top bar and menus in, but everything is there and works like it should, all it needs now is some cool restyling to make it look like I want lol.  

Since all is good and I didn't blow anything up for a change, one testsite is getting cloned to the other right now, then backed up again. 

 

Playing with the shoutbox over there some today in-between other regular Monday duties.  Been talking to the developer in the UK on his forum and through email.  It works nice and looks nice, it just has a bug or 2 in it.  I use the pro version and he's on to what's going on and working on it.  It doesn't show unless someone is logged in, I have to upload or move the smileys from here I think, and needs some styling (of course lol)...     Other than that it's really nice, it even has a quote option now like the forum does and it works great. 

The hardest parts I think are over, sure is nice and giving my brain a much needed rest after last week. 

Changed the template here again, for the last time I think.  Main changes were colors on the front forum page, and the post pages, and a few other little things.  There was a little too much red that caused a little eye strain.  Everything red now are links, they are red and change to blue on hover or click.  They will take you where you want to go and are easier to tell with all of the other red gone.   

Changes were also made to the new Mega Menu, some color changes to make it easier to read, and tightening things up a bit.  Needs a few more little things but the hard part of that is done.  

The smiley drop for the shoutbox is also narrower now but automatically expands up or down depending on page location in relation to the shoutbox.  I'll see if I can widen it a little tomorrow.  The shoutbox is also ONLY on the main index page now, no other forum pages.

If things aren't acting right it's prob a cache issue again.  Solution to that is - Here  

Didn't do much today at the puter, my eyes needed a break from the monitor for awhile.  

The smiley box got covered a little when the banner + menu dropped down during scroll, so I made it wider and fixed the drop to downward, put in some code where I can vary the text size easily and made it bigger, and removed the descriptions on each section to shrink the main forum height a little.  I think everything is self explanatory with the sub sections showing.   They will get restyled on the new setup to be something that doesn't eat up so much real estate.  

I won't be doing a lot more styling here, just what works on the new systems.  So far the little changes here will all work on the new stuff. 
 

Geno wrote:

Didn't do much today at the puter, my eyes needed a break from the monitor for awhile.  

The smiley box got covered a little when the banner + menu dropped down during scroll, so I made it wider and fixed the drop to downward, put in some code where I can vary the text size easily and made it bigger, and removed the descriptions on each section to shrink the main forum height a little.  I think everything is self explanatory with the sub sections showing.   They will get restyled on the new setup to be something that doesn't eat up so much real estate.  

I won't be doing a lot more styling here, just what works on the new systems.  So far the little changes here will all work on the new stuff. 

 

Geno, is there any way that you would consider more "reactions" other than "thank you" ...?

I think other reactions such as "like" ... "excellent" ..."haha" ... and "thank you" would all be good to have.

I'm not interested in a "leaderboard" or forum status of any kind... as I think that introduces jealousy among other things... but just being able to have different reactions to member's posts would be a nice feature to have.

Thoughts?

Don