Welcome back to the forum

[David]

Welcome back

Well, here we are; a new server, a new domain and a new forum (same old rambling content) :D .

Apologies for the longer-than-expected down-time (over-enthusiastic use of hyphen) but if a job is worth doing...

You're probably aware that I have not been happy with the old forum software for a while now and most of you have experienced problems (http://www.websitearchitecture.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=123) at one time or another. I had originally planned to move the forum content to a better home during the summer break but it became obvious that if I left it that long, I'd end up needing months to complete the work and ultimately, long-term psychiatric care.

As it is, the transfer was a Herculean task (no applause, please). If any of you ever see me so much as glance at a flat-file forum at any time in the future, just shoot me!

I now know far more than is healthy about the translation of flat-file forum data to mySQL database tables. If you're not good I may even tell you how it was done. All I will say is that I owe a great deal of thanks to that wonderful shareware text editor TextPad (http://www.textpad.com/). I've used it in the past to get myself out of such scrapes and I thoroughly recommend it as the best Notepad replacement on the planet - the macro functions just rock! (as a young person might say). Other major credits go to Microsoft Excel, especially the very wonderful "concatenate" function (which I'd never used before) and also to phpMyAdmin (http://www.phpmyadmin.net), without which, nothing would have been possible.

So, here we are using Invision Power Board. I did consider phpBB because I like to support open source software whenever possible but IPB is really impressive and currently free. I have been very impressed with IPB and I think you will be to when you get to know it. All the things you requested of the old forum are already available here. I won't go through a list of features here but they are extensive.

Just about everything is complete now but it turned out to be impossible to translate all of the post/message content automatically. I have now updated all recent posts (about half of the total) and am working backwards through them. Work should be complete some time in 2012 :huh: In the meantime you will find a link in all older posts that takes you back to the original raw message file, should you need to read it.

I have tried to be as methodical as possible in translating the forum but, inevitably with something so complex, there's always the possibility of "human error" creeping in. If you experience any problems or come across any anomalies or broken links, please do let me know so that I can correct them.

I haven't spent any time skinning the board; what you see is the default design. I may come to that in due course but right now, I need a very long lie down.

Enjoy...

Credits

http://www.websitearchitecture.net/forum/uploads/credits.gif

[francis]

Nice work! I thought that was probably what was going on, so hooray for me. TextPad is a fine piece of software - I've been using it for years at home - Dreamweaver is just too bulky for some jobs. Right, back to work...

[Tom]

Congratulations and sympathy to David. Having just spent the last 6 hours wallowing about in ESRI GIS forums, without success, trying to connect their latest version of the software to an Access database, you can appreciate that my sympathy is hearfelt. There are so many stories there of people spending all night on a problem only to discover at dawn that there is an easy fix or its a well-known bug due to be solved with the next service pack. This is not life as I would want to know it.

[francis]

Mmm, running a forum on an Access database is probably the main issue. Who made that decision?!

So, is this forum on a different host?

[David]

Originally posted by francis@Feb 14 2004, 12:59 PM
So, is this forum on a different host?
Yes it is. The old forum was hosted in Gloucester with Fasthosts. This forum is on a server in New York. I recently opened a new reseller hosting account with Clook (http://www.clook.net). They are based in Preston (UK) and have servers in London and New York. You can choose where your account is hosted when you sign up. It worked out cheaper to use a server in the States than one in Docklands. I doubt very much that we'll notice any difference in speed.

I'm now in the process of moving all my domains over to Clook so that I can close my account with Fasthosts. Since the Clook deal includes unlimited mySQL databases, full .htaccess control etc. on Red Hat Linux machines running Apache server, I'm not expecting to have to move again in a hurry.

[Tom]

No reason why anyone should be interested but I solved my problem. With ArcView you had to export a table from the database. With ArcGIS (the replacement for ArcView) you have to put in an OLE link to the database. Why didn't they think to mention this in the release notes? Internet mapping (http://www.esri.com/software/internetmaps/index.html) is developing rapidly and one day you may find yourself working with GIS. The ESRI site also has examples of internet mapping (http://www.esri.com/software/internetmaps/visit_sites.html) as provided by them and used by various websites.

Have you planned a links section for Bentley School? ESRI provide geography resources for learners of all ages. (http://www.esri.com/industries/k-12/roadmap.html)

[David]

Progress update

I've now updated all posts back to before Christmas, about two thirds of the total number of topics. Just 58 more topics to go!

Going back, systematically, through the forum postings is very interesting. I even came across a couple of posts I'd never seen before. With any luck, the tools available with the new forum software should make this sort of thing (missing posts) less likely. Have you had a chance to look at your "My Assistant"? It will show you "Today's active topics" amongst other things. The more I work with this board, the more I like it.

As a matter of interest, I came across this post (http://www.websitearchitecture.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=78) from James B with a number of requests for improvements to the forum. James, I am happy to report that all your requests have been met.

I would just like to point out that we take customer requests very seriously and always aim for complete satisfaction. Have a nice day.

:P

[Shushan]

David the choice of sky blue for the new forum is great.
Blue is supposed to be pleasing to the human eye :)

[David]

Thank you, but I can take no credit for the colour or design of this forum. What you see is pretty much what you get "out of the box".

It is rather pleasant and maybe I won't bother skinning it. The only thing I think could be improved is the colour of hyperlinks in the post text. They don't stand out enough for my liking.

[James]

Excellent work David - a great improvement, glad you took my feedback on board! ;)

I'm going to change my avatar - can I do it myself or should I mail it to you?

Thanks.

[David]

No, you can do it yourself. Click on My Controls (above) and then click Edit Avatar Settings from the menu. You can choose an avatar from the many in the gallery or you can upload your own directly from your PC or link from elsewhere on the web.

It may take a little while to get used to all the facilities on this board but it's safe to assume that you can do just about anything (well it won't make the tea for you but neither will Microsoft Office).

The board has a calendar on which Teaching Staff can post events, there's a private messaging system and a whole bunch of other stuff that we'll get to grips with over the next few months.

[francis]

Does the post time-stamp have a change facility? It's a bit confusing looking at 03:19pm - any chance of 24 clock?

[David]

I can change all board times over to 24 hour clock if you'd prefer it. Can't remember what we used on the old board, I'll just check...

Well, we used a 12 hour clock with leading zeros removed. I can do that too if you'd like. Basically, I can configure the time format to be whatever you (I) like. The Admin Panel allows me to use any PHP time/date formatting, so anything here (http://uk2.php.net/date) is possible. Personally, I liked the format we used on the old board. I'll try that first and see how we get on.

Oh, look - I can do lowercase "Ante meridiem" and "Post meridiem" too. What fun! This board is really the tops.

[francis]

That'll do for me. Thanks

[David]

Progress Update 2

All posts are now updated back to the end of November. Just 18 more topics to do and the translation will be complete.

I'm sooo glad I made the change when I did. The forum has been busier than ever over the last few days. If I'd left it any longer the job would have been near impossible.

So, after a few days usage, what do you reckon to the new board? Good choice?

[francis]

Yes, much better thanks - don't bother skinning it, it's nice as it is. Have you tried searching? It does a full text search and highlights the search term/s in the text. That's as nice as finding out at work today that MySQL allows searching between dates using BETWEEN and AND. Saved me sooo much time. Nifty JavaScript on the hyperlink inserting widget, too.

[David]

Yes, the search highlighting is really good. Also, you may notice that the whole posting/editing thing is much better. The cursor position placement of BBCode tags is a revelation after the last forum. For example, if you want to embolden a word or phrase, simply click'n'drag to select it and then click the "B" button - just like in Word!

You can also change font face, size and colour but go easy on those guys.

There are also a whole bunch of user configurable options - click on My Controls and take a look.

[David]

Progress Update 3

All topics and posts have now been updated :D

This is the end of the translation process; everything that was on the old board is now on this board. There is still some tidying up to do. A number of posts/topics refer specifically to the old forum (%20 bug for example). In time, I will remove these topics. I also need to amend the "How too..." topics to reflect the various functions on this board.

Thank you for your patience.

[Stuart]

Mmmm - nice! But do I have to use the Smilies?

Stuart