December 2014 :: Major forum upgrade

[Jools]

It was about this time in 2007 when I wrote an announcement thread called "The forum's dead, long live the forum!" in which we discussed a major forum upgrade. Those with a longer history on this site may even remember the introduction of the forum over 10 years ago in 2003 IIRC.

We use the forum software for its original purpose, but we've also extended it to provide the backbone engine for the site. It handles page layout, email messaging, user authentication and provides the glue, if you like, that holds the species database, the fishkeepers and the forum based community together. In the fish world at least, the approach it is unique.

The forum software is called phpBB and we are about to embark on an upgrade from version 3 to 3.1. On the face of it, this doesn't seem like a big deal (it didn't to me). However, I then looked into what the developers have done and it's a massive step up at all levels. Whether the casual user, moderator, admin or developer, there's a lot of new stuff.

While a change of this magnitude might be a pain to some, it is necessary to keep current from a security perspective as well as avail ourselves of new features. As I've mentioned before, social media integration and decent access from tablets and smartphones are important things these days.

I have prepped as much as I can in so far as I've already upgraded http://www.zebrapleco.com and http://www.aquaticrepublic.com. Over the next few weeks, I will implement it here. I would expect the majority of things to work within hours of the upgrade but I suspect also there will be a few weeks worth of fixing specific things here and there. Please use this forum to report issue, as there might be a few on the go at the one time, probably best if in different threads.

Actual site downtime should be limited to a few hours, I will update on when that will be in the next post. As ever, happy to discuss!

Jools

[Jools]

Just running backups now, shouldn't be long until we go offline.

Jools

[Jools]

Well, here we go, see you on the other side...

Jools

[Jools]

Step one completed, the new forum software is now in place. Two remaining steps, (1) get it working with the rest of the site and (2) make it look and feel the same (things are currently looking a bit blue!).

Bug fixing as we go.....

Jools

[Jools]

Front page is up!

Jools

[KungFish]

Is there going to be a new design for the front page, or will it be close to what it was before?

[Jools]

Progress is slow at present because I've got to take a snapshot of the new site before I can work more on it (and it is not a small backup file). However, Tapatalk should be up and running within the next 45 minutes allowing unchanged forum access via that app.

For the majority of our users, priority will be getting the site nav up and running and then fixing the Planet specific stuff like CotM, Shane's World etc. The layout, look and feel should be pretty much as before but a touch more modern.

Jools

[Jools]

Is there going to be a new design for the front page, or will it be close to what it was before?

If I get it right, it should be similar, but a bit cleaner / modern.

Jools

[Jools]

A degree of layout has been restored. Going to get on to the navigation stuff after I eat.

Jools

[NCE12940]

Nice and clean looking.

[Brian2014]

OMG its shrank! top bar where is says plantcatfish, shanes world etc etc is fine, but the middle section is tiny with two big blue empty spaces down either side

[Brian2014]

Or is that the new look you are going for ?

[KungFish]

The font seems to be smaller on all the links. Lots of empty space.

[Jools]

It's days away from being finished folks - just getting the basics back up and running.

Jools

[krazyGeoff]

Looking good Jools,
I have created a bug for you, but since you are still working on the upgrade I will not go hard out, until you have more time to complete.

Cheers

Geoff

[dog321fish]

Posted in Bugs perhaps should have posted here, sorry

[Jools]

Posted in Bugs perhaps should have posted here, sorry

I don't care, what really matters is that you took the time, thanks! But posting in bugs is useful and I will go have a look at what the issue was.

Meanwhile...

Yay#1 Quickfind is now working.
Yay#2 Some of the menu nav styling is working.

Boo#1 The footer is a mess.
Boo#2 Several pages (specific to Planet) not working...

[Shovelnose]

Hey Jools,


Would you prefer we wait till the upgrade is done to report Bugs???

[jac]

Lot of work going on here!
Waiting patiently on the final result


Btw, smilies aren't working when I click on them, handmade are showing as you can see

[Jools]

Would you prefer we wait till the upgrade is done to report Bugs???

I would suggest giving it until tomorrow (Friday). I will have a good 6 hours today to address the worst of them or at least as many of them as I can do. I am trying to prioritise on the most important (layout or failure stopping content being readable), failure stopping use of a feature and finally layout/look feel.

I appreciate the input from everyone, while I know it's a pain it's a lot easier for me to get the upgrade "into the wild" and then fix things than set-up, maintain a test environment then do the upgrade twice (once test, once live). I'd got the majority of big issues fixed before I touched Planet - honest!



Jools

[Jools]

Oh, one other thing, if you're posting in the bugs forum (which is welcomed), could you start the title of your topic with "31:" or similar. Just so I know the issue is a new / upgrade issue.

I prefer one topic / bug, just so I can track what is completed / awaiting attention more readily.

Cheers,

Jools

[Jools]

Well, the top of the page is about fixed!

Jools

[Jools]

For now, the footer is done, so I am going to work through Geoff's list of bugs and then I think I will be able to get the admin functions online.

Cheers,

Jools

[2wheelsx2]

Thanks for doing this Jools. It was a shock since I've been off the forum for a week. I thought one of my favourite forums was broken! Luckily it's a change for the better.

[Brian2014]

ok not sure if this one has been mentioned search bar top right hand corner! when i type in it on the main home page there is no problem, but when i try to use it when i have opened a post to read it is tiny! i mean i would need a magnifying glass to read it if its even letters that are coming up. I know not a major problem, but thought i best mention it

[jac]

Wow, looks pretty cool already!! I like it

[Jools]

Wow, looks pretty cool already!! I like it

There is a lot to go, but, thanks. I think the font size is too small, but I will lose hours trying to fix that, so it is down the list. The forum search is not looking great (I think I will lose it as you can get to it from the quicklinks menu and from the overall navigation tabs). Next major fix are all the My cats / aquaria / blogs section as I found out (late) last night that due to a more secure way of doing it, the information sent from a webpage to the database won't save correctly at present.

I will attempt to get this done before I start my new job on the 15th of December (which is why I am doing this now, and quickly / taking shortcuts) and there is a small matter of a visit some viking pals in Copenhagen next week for a couple of days.

Jools

[krazyGeoff]

Holding down the ctrl key and scrolling the mouse increases the magnification, and therefore the font size on IE, so it can be worked around.
I really like the quick links, and notifications.
I also really like the way the search box sort of glows.....
And I think I am quite a fan of this "quick reply" box!

[bekateen]

I think the font size is too small, but I will lose hours trying to fix that, so it is down the list. The forum search is not looking great (I think I will lose it as you can get to it from the quicklinks menu and from the overall navigation tabs).

Jools, are you referring to the text size inside the search box that appears on the front page of the Forum (see photo)?

If so, then never mind this post because you're already planning on deleting this entire search box. If not, then when time permits, you might want to take a look at the font size inside the search box shown in the photo. That font is microscopic!

However, continuing on this thought, if you are going to remove that forum search box from the upper right area, would it be possible to simply delete it and then place on this forum front page the same code that you use for search boxes on the individual forum subtopics (see photo)?

Since the upper right search box appears to persist even when a person opens a specific forum subtopic, then the upper right search box indeed becomes redundant. However, it would be convenient to have a master search box visible on the Forum front page in the same way that it is present on the subtopic pages (this acts more like a quicksearch, rather than forcing the user to go to the Search page and deal with the more complex search page). An added benefit of this approach is that you already have the font size working in these subtopic search windows, so you wouldn't have to fix that code again.

... Just an idea.

Cheers, Eric

[CarpCharacin]

Do you plan to upgrade to phpbb 3.2 once it is released?