Author Topic: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017 (Read 285,125 times)

mouser · « **Reply #125 on:** October 25, 2017, 03:32 AM »

And here is what the new dcmembers site will be like, with a standardized way to give more dc member users their own website area for hosting their software:
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=44288.msg413709#msg413709

ewemoa · « **Reply #126 on:** October 27, 2017, 12:09 AM »

Looks nice

I hope the maintenance angle works out

mouser · « **Reply #127 on:** October 27, 2017, 12:14 AM »

Quote

I hope the maintenance angle works out

one thing for sure it can't be worse than it is now

mouser · « **Reply #128 on:** October 28, 2017, 07:17 PM »

For beta testers of the cms site -- I have attempted to put in redirects for all of the old urls to map to the new ones.. Let me know if you find any old urls that dont go to the right place on the new site!

ewemoa · « **Reply #129 on:** October 28, 2017, 11:21 PM »

Was trying to use "open link in new tab" functionality in a browser for submenu items (of the menu along the top). Noticed that when the pointer moved to the context menu (and hence off of the submenu), that the menu containing the submenu disappears. Subsequently, choosing "open link in new tab" seems to work, but felt slightly disoriented.

Does this explanation make sense?

ewemoa · « **Reply #130 on:** October 28, 2017, 11:26 PM »

Nice effect with the result of clicking on "Read more..." for "May we recommend...".

It's true that some (2?) of the lines at the bottom are faded to indicate there might be more, but perhaps it'd be nicer to see the "Read more..." text without having to hover first.

How does that seem?

mouser · « **Reply #131 on:** October 28, 2017, 11:28 PM »

Quote

It's true that some (2?) of the lines at the bottom are faded to indicate there might be more, but perhaps it'd be nicer to see the "Read more..." text without having to hover first.
How does that seem?

Yes that would be better.. I had a hard enough time getting it to work as well as it does but I will try to improve it..

mouser · « **Reply #132 on:** October 28, 2017, 11:29 PM »

Quote

Was trying to use "open link in new tab" functionality in a browser for submenu items (of the menu along the top). Noticed that when the pointer moved to the context menu (and hence off of the submenu), that the menu containing the submenu disappears. Subsequently, choosing "open link in new tab" seems to work, but felt slightly disoriented.
Does this explanation make sense?

yes.. maybe we can try to improve the menu system before we go live.

mouser · « **Reply #133 on:** October 28, 2017, 11:30 PM »

Btw I had pretty good luck with this free website spider/sitemap maker to get a list of all donationcoder urls to check for redirects:
https://wonderwebware.com/sitemap-generator

mouser · « **Reply #134 on:** October 29, 2017, 02:27 AM »

So here's a question.. The plan plan is/was to physically move servers when the new cms was ready, allowing us to start with a nice clean install of the new site, without any of the old files.

And we are definitely going to move to a new clean managed server. So the original plan is to install the new cms on the new server, test it there in private, and then shift the domain to the new server.

But since the new cms is just about ready, I wonder if there would be a benefit to putting the new joomla-based cms in place on the current server (moving the old files temporarily out of the way) until we are ready to move physical servers.
It would have the advantage of being easier to undo if we run into trouble, and perhaps reduce the number of things that can go simultaneously wrong..

Are there drawbacks/dangers that I am not considering?

Ath · « **Reply #135 on:** October 29, 2017, 10:00 AM »

Quote from: mouser on October 29, 2017, 02:27 AM

Are there drawbacks/dangers that I am not considering?

The way I've replaced servers was in 2 similar ways:
1) Build the new server on a different url, copying/converting the data as much as possible, then stop the original server(service), copy/convert the last differences, and bring up the new server on the original url. Reverting is as easy as stopping the new server and re-enabling the old.
2) Build the new server off-line on the same version of the software, then stop the original server, copy all data to the new server, start the new server and get it running, stop it when all is fine, then upgrade to the latest version of software, bring the new server it back on-line (mostly to major-upgrade the OS and application 'big bang'). reverting is again a stop and restart-the-old action.
Both require DNS changes, but setting the ttl to 5 minutes for a couple of hours before starting the procedures makes that a no-brainer.

These methods are closely similar, and the choice depends mostly on the application and OS involved (Even Linux 'upgrades' are sometimes done better by a re-install), and it will also test your installation and maintenance -documentation and -procedures (it was usually a 3-man operation when we did that, and everyone is/should be replaceable..., hence testing the docs and procs

)

Tuxman · « **Reply #136 on:** October 29, 2017, 01:43 PM »

Hmm,

I got a notification that I am invited to test the beta, but there are no obvious login data for .htpasswd.

mouser · « **Reply #137 on:** October 29, 2017, 05:28 PM »

Check your forum messages.

Tuxman · « **Reply #138 on:** October 29, 2017, 05:30 PM »

Thanks!

mouser · « **Reply #139 on:** November 04, 2017, 04:14 AM »

For beta testers of the cms site -- I'd appreciate any ideas on revamping the home page. Let me know if you have any ideas or better yet mock-ups.

ewemoa · « **Reply #140 on:** November 05, 2017, 07:46 AM »

I presume you are referring to the top page.

I don't have a specific design in mind, but one idea that came up was whether it might be possible to get the top page to be simple and sparse enough to fit on a single screen (i.e. no scrolling necessary). Sorry to not have any mock-ups.

mouser · « **Reply #141 on:** November 05, 2017, 07:48 AM »

Yeah I mean the top home page of the site..

Some have said it would be good if it were a more dynamic page -- like to show the most recent blog items on it. But then the alternative idea is to keep it super simple as it is now.
But as it is now, the new cms home page is even more minimalist than the current donationcoder.com homepage, which at least has a 3 images on it corresponding to 3 sections..

ewemoa · « **Reply #142 on:** November 05, 2017, 08:07 AM »

I don't suppose having one or more varying parts be visible without having to scroll is doable? The "May we recommend" portion is not visible here unless I scroll all the way down -- it's just a guess but perhaps not that many random visitors would scroll down to find that portion and it seems a shame as IMHO the recommendations from DC are one of its (varied) appealing points.

mouser · « **Reply #143 on:** November 05, 2017, 08:14 AM »

Those bottom sidebar elements are intended to be optional and never very important, so I don't think it's important if they are not noticed.

mouser · « **Reply #144 on:** November 08, 2017, 05:07 PM »

One of the improvements to the new cms site is that it should look pretty responsive on small screens (mobile devices) now, with the sidebars hiding and the top nav bar menu collapsing.

ewemoa · « **Reply #145 on:** November 10, 2017, 08:18 AM »

Sounds promising

mouser · « **Reply #146 on:** November 10, 2017, 12:13 PM »

What looks better for the sidebar of "Latest Forum Posts" (generated from rss) that are shown on some of the new dc cms pages?
(These are items that are always taken from the board section related to the page you are on so they are useful information).

Style 1:
[attachthumb]

tomos · « **Reply #147 on:** November 10, 2017, 12:22 PM »

Quote from: mouser on November 10, 2017, 12:13 PM

What looks better for the sidebar of "Latest Forum Posts" (generated from rss) that are shown on some of the new dc cms pages?

style #2 jumps out more:
I miss pirate Cody though ;-)

mouser · « **Reply #148 on:** November 10, 2017, 12:38 PM »

Oh he's still there.. lots of different versions of cody will be found at the top of the sidebars on different pages.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #149 on:** November 10, 2017, 07:27 PM »

My preference is Style 2 (but preferably with "Latest News" a few points larger).