January 2017 :: Major forum upgrade

[Jools]

Our forum will go offline at 1300 GMT today so I can install phpBB 3.2. Although this is forum software, it also is at the backbone of the site in terms of the templating engine, security and much of the layout too. It also means we can upgrade to running on the php7 platform which is about 15% faster than current versions.

It's interesting to note we installed phpBB v2.0 in 2003 (IIRC), V3 came in 2007. So,we've been running it for nearly 15 years - a long time in internet terms.

Overview of the major new features here: https://www.phpbb.com/about/launch/

I will post here when we are back online, I would expect a fair amount of fine tuning the layout etc once I've got the upgrade done.

Cheers,

Jools

[Jools]

Well, we are back up. A lot of layout / tuning to do!

Jools

[bekateen]

Thanks as always for keeping this site up and modern.

I know you're in the early stages of tweaking the formatting, so this is no criticism whatsoever. But I want to share this photo, showing what I saw (using mobile phone) on the forum page just a few moments ago. I laughed with gusto trying to imagine what I was seeing.

Good luck, Jools.

Cheers, Eric

[Jools]

Hi Eric,

So the good news is that particular layout issue is fixed. Building a few behind the scenes things at present. Going to focus on layout tonight and tomorrow morning. I think once that time has past then it's time to start "snagging".

Jools

[bekateen]

[Colin Keightley]

Is my cats and my aquaria part of the upgrade too?

[Jools]

Yes, it is, every page on the site. I think my cats is broken, looking at that now...

Jools

[Colin Keightley]

Sorry thats kind of what I was getting at, one of those things that seems clear in your own head but if you read it back makes not a lot of sense.

Dont envy your huge task I run a club website using BB2 and has been since 2005 im being pushed to update the site but its been heavily modified so is a very daunting task.

What did you use to convert the forum database to BB3

[CarpCharacin]

I noticed a few issues. in 3.2, a lot of the image icons are replaced with Font Awesome including the editor icons, and those aren't showing up.

[CarpCharacin]

What did you use to convert the forum database to BB3

I'm pretty sure that there is a built in converter.

[Jools]

What did you use to convert the forum database to BB3

phpbb2 to phpbb3 requires you create a new instance; so it's something you can play with in a production environment without too much pain. However, that takes you to phpbb3.0. 9 years on, we're at 3.2, I think you need to do the 3.0 to 3.1 and then to 3.2 upgrades one after the other. Mods mostly won't work as you work through these, fewer and fewer do but then many features that you used to need mods for are now part of the core build. I'd say it was worth doing if for no other reason that security.

Hope that helps,

Jools

[Jools]

I noticed a few issues. in 3.2, a lot of the image icons are replaced with Font Awesome including the editor icons, and those aren't showing up.

Yup, they're fixed now. Overall page layout and colours need tweaks. I don't think uploading will work (it's been re-written in phpBB3.2 and I need to find out how). Let me know issues as you find them, we've got the core platform up and running now. That was a big one!

Jools

[lfinley58]

Hi Jools and all.

I have noted that all text on the site is of a smaller font size than it was before the upgrade (everywhere else I go is unchanged). Is this size change part of the upgrade?

Lee F.

[CarpCharacin]

When I click on the "My Blogs" link by your username, it just says this

Also, the font size seems kind of small.

[CarpCharacin]

I noticed another issue. You don't show up as an administrator on the team page Jools.

[bekateen]

Hi Jools, on AquaticRepublic, I tried to add a spawning report for Copella arnoldi, but received the following error:

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Class 'fileupload' not found in /home/webcat/aquaticrepublic.com/common/includes/my_blog_validate.php:38 Stack trace: #0 /home/webcat/aquaticrepublic.com/common/my_blog.php(238): require_once() #1 /home/webcat/aquaticrepublic.com/common/my_blog.php(101): arn_myblog_guts(NULL, 2760, 902, 0, 'validate', 'bekateen') #2 {main} thrown in /home/webcat/aquaticrepublic.com/common/includes/my_blog_validate.php on line 38

Cheers, eric

[Atmichaels]

Error when trying to "change species, keep data" from my cats:


Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Class 'fileupload' not found in /home/webcat/planetcatfish.com/common/my_fish.php:250 Stack trace: #0 /home/webcat/planetcatfish.com/common/my_fish.php(98): arn_my_fish_guts(45764, '6777', 'validate', 'change_species_...', 'Atmichaels', '') #1 {main} thrown in /home/webcat/planetcatfish.com/common/my_fish.php on line 250

[Silurus]

Images on the top left corner are partially obscuring the "quick links" menu:

Screen Shot 2017-02-07 at 8.48.57 PM.jpg (31 KiB) Viewed 29565 times

[flatfish]

Hi, I have been sent a my cats update reminder email to update a species that I only added yesterday. cheers

[Jools]

Hi, I have been sent a my cats update reminder email to update a species that I only added yesterday. cheers

Can you send me the email - I'll check out the details.

Cheers,

Jools

[Jools]

Images on the top left corner are partially obscuring the "quick links" menu:

Screen Shot 2017-02-07 at 8.48.57 PM.jpg

The text size (across all platforms) is now correct (and final, hopefully!). This means the hamburger / quick links bit should be reasonably easy to hit. I am planning to change the navigation tabs across the top of the screen, so when I do that I will finesse the Quick Links too if they are still a bit fiddly to click on.

Cheers,

Jools

[flatfish]

Hi Jools,

after your changes its working fine now.

cheers

Darren

[Koi-fantast]

Not really sure on where to write this but I give it a go. It doesnt work looking at book reviews on the page. Has that got to do with any upgrade?

[Jools]

Not really sure on where to write this but I give it a go. It doesnt work looking at book reviews on the page. Has that got to do with any upgrade?

It's not the upgrade, but the book review pages were not working. The erros (for my records) was:

Code: Select all

[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file /home/webcat/planetcatfish.com/books/books.php on line 11: require_once(../common/functions/display_article.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory

Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '../common/functions/display_article.php' (include_path='.:') in /home/webcat/planetcatfish.com/books/books.php on line 11

This is now fixed. Thanks for taking the time to report.

Cheers,

Jools