Author Topic: The new CMS is now LIVE! - Please report any bugs/issues here. (Read 162,569 times)

KynloStephen66515 · « **on:** January 16, 2018, 06:57 PM »

Please report any bugs, issues, missing pages, spelling mistakes etc etc in this thread so we can keep track and go fix

Also...what do you all think of the new site?

~Stephen

Ath · « **Reply #1 on:** January 16, 2018, 07:47 PM »

No bugs found so far, but even on the old, slow laptop I'm on now, the site is blazingly fast. Wow!

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 16, 2018, 07:49 PM »

Quote from: Ath on January 16, 2018, 07:47 PM

No bugs found so far, but even on the old, slow laptop I'm on now, the site is blazingly fast. Wow!

Yeah, the new server and member server are both REALLY nice spec! Should make the whole experience (and downloads, etc) a LOT faster even when there are a huge amount of people online

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 16, 2018, 08:03 PM »

Quote from: Ath on January 16, 2018, 08:00 PM

Do we have a new favicon? In my memory it was more blueish, but now it's more green/yellowish. I think I (still) like it

The ssl 'lock' on my Firefox is 'complaining' that some parts of the site aren't secure, like images (browser UI talks Dutch to me, so I'm sort of translating on the fly), some configuration issue? I seem to remember that after the last server move there was something similar, and mouser fixed it pretty quick, AFAIR.

Yeah, the favicon is new

As for the SSL, it's a known issue - it's on the list of important things to fix

Ath · « **Reply #4 on:** January 16, 2018, 08:11 PM »

I updated the other post, 'cause I found that the ssl issue is caused by some of the smileys: http :// www .donationcoder.com/forum/esmileys/gen3/3Smileys/greenclp.gif (spaces inserted by me)

Deozaan · « **Reply #5 on:** January 16, 2018, 09:17 PM »

I don't like the new favicon. It makes my eyes bleed.

Other than that, the site looks great. Strange red color scheme, though. . .

mouser · « **Reply #6 on:** January 16, 2018, 09:31 PM »

i will be back to the old fave icon -- this one was really just so we could easily see when we were on new vs old server.

What red color scheme?

mouser · « **Reply #7 on:** January 16, 2018, 09:53 PM »

I want to say a HUGE thanks to Stephen for all his help testing, his encouragement, his help building cms pages, and the list goes on. He was a constant optimistic voice of encouragement during the times when I was bitching and moaning and regretting the whole project. And a huge thanks to PhilB, who runs his own hosting company(lchost.uk) for providing server space for literally years while I slowly tested the new server setup.

It turned out to be a huge amount of work to move over to a CMS system -- there was always one more thing to fix and do, and that seemed to go for months on end. It's actually been something like 5 years since I said we were going to move to a new cms system.. And at least a year of seriously working on it. The decision to move physical servers at the same time made some things easier, and some things harder, but it was an important step in getting us the cleanest, most easily maintainable setup.

It is such a relief to have moved to a setup that is easier to maintain and keep updated and secure. I expect there will still be some hiccups as we get things sorted out -- and some redirects from old pages that we will have overlooked and need to add in the coming days. But overall the move seems to have gone pretty well so far.

Most of the changes to the site you can't see -- they are behind the scenes in the way the back end of the site is handled. Lots of things that were kludged together (submission forms, license key payment stuff) in the past have been rewritten and will hopefully make things simpler and less error prone. The license key and donation system has been revamped and should be less confusing and less effort for everyone.

And I haven't said anything here about the new member server which is up and running and has some dc members working hard to polish up their pages.

I'll have a lot more to say about the new hosting company, the backend cms and the choices made -- why and where we go from here -- in the very near future.

One of the things that has really held back the current site in terms of writing new content and updating content on the website, was just how ridiculously hard it was to do (the pages were all hand-written static html pages, from 2005). Now that we can actually update the website more easily I hope we can embark on a course of adding real content to the pages on a regular basis. We can talk about such plans soon.

But most of all, everything we've put in place is in keeping with the basic strategy of creating something that can last indefinitely without major intervention and operating costs and overhead. So I hope we will be able to keep on keeping on for the next decade.

Stay tuned for lots more info about the new server and cms setup in the weeks to come. And thanks everyone for your patience! And do please let us know about issues you find on the new site -- there are bound to be some.

wysiwyg125 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 16, 2018, 10:27 PM »

Congrats mouser and everyone, looking good!

One bug I found: clicking the "DonationCoder.com" image header on the top left of forum pages gives a 404

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 16, 2018, 10:29 PM »

Quote from: wysiwyg125 on January 16, 2018, 10:27 PM

Congrats mouser and everyone, looking good!

One bug I found: clicking the "DonationCoder.com" image header on the top left of forum pages gives a 404

Good find - mouser is on the case now

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 16, 2018, 10:32 PM »

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's fixed

wysiwyg125 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 16, 2018, 10:51 PM »

Quote from: Stephen66515 on January 16, 2018, 10:32 PM

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's fixed

Confirmed here, working now

Another one: the Paypal button at top right also 404s. I think it's because it points to http://www.donationcoder.com/Donate instead of http://www.donationcoder.com/donate (lowercase)

tomos · « **Reply #12 on:** January 16, 2018, 10:54 PM »

Congrats, and thanks to you both !!

rgdot · « **Reply #13 on:** January 16, 2018, 10:56 PM »

Thanks, congrats.

Not sure I would 'hide' the link to the blog under Editorials but that's just an opinion of course.

mouser · « **Reply #14 on:** January 16, 2018, 10:57 PM »

Quote

Another one: the Paypal button at top right also 404s. I think it's because it points to http://www.donationcoder.com/Donate instead of http://www.donationcoder.com/donate (lowercase)

Thanks very much, initial redirect fix is in. Still have to change some forum references.

mouser · « **Reply #15 on:** January 16, 2018, 10:57 PM »

Quote

Not sure I would 'hide' the link to the blog under Editorials but that's just an opinion of course.

Agreed.. if we can get it more regular it should be moved to top-level status. The menu arrangement is subject to change.

mouser · « **Reply #16 on:** January 17, 2018, 01:37 AM »

How does the site feel?

cranioscopical · « **Reply #17 on:** January 17, 2018, 02:30 AM »

Buttery smooth

Searching for something in the forums (e.g. in 'Entire forum' each of 3 tries seeking 'donation' or 'Photoshop' or 'mouser') turned up only one page of 30 references, but very quickly

Deozaan · « **Reply #18 on:** January 17, 2018, 02:54 AM »

Quote from: mouser on January 16, 2018, 09:31 PM

What red color scheme?

Heh heh... It was a joke.

Maybe this will make it more obvious:

Quote from: Deozaan on January 16, 2018, 09:17 PM

It makes my eyes bleed.

Strange red color scheme, though. . .

mouser · « **Reply #19 on:** January 17, 2018, 02:54 AM »

Quote

turned up only one page of 30 references,

well that's a bug.. ill see what i can do.

mouser · « **Reply #20 on:** January 17, 2018, 05:44 AM »

Quote

turned up only one page of 30 references

should be fixed now -- you should see up to 1000 results.

TIP: The indexed search which runs by default, is fast but doesn't always do the best job of sorting results. This is especially true if you search for something that returns thousands of hits.
If you can't find what you're looking for follow the instructions at the top of the results page for how to do a more thorough search.

mouser · « **Reply #21 on:** January 17, 2018, 05:54 AM »

Oh yeah, guess what -- you know those 4am daily "the server is down for maintenance" backup messages. They are no gone the way of the dodo

tomos · « **Reply #22 on:** January 17, 2018, 07:41 AM »

Quote from: mouser on January 17, 2018, 05:54 AM

Oh yeah, guess what -- you know those 4am daily "the server is down for maintenance" backup messages. They are no gone the way of the dodo

The "nightly backup"
@ ~11am here ;-) so I'm glad they gone

rgdot · « **Reply #23 on:** January 17, 2018, 02:34 PM »

The real question is if Cody is happy with the new server

mouser · « **Reply #24 on:** January 17, 2018, 02:56 PM »

See the homepage, he looks pretty happy and so does his creature