PLEASE READ - Empty Closets Upgrade, Sunday 1st June

[Paul_UK]

On Sunday 1st June, starting at 9:00 GMT (10:00 UK time) I will be upgrading the forum software here, as detailed below. The upgrade will take approximately 2.5 hours, during which time the forum will be closed. The chatroom will probably also not work.

IMPORTANT - part of the upgrade involves transferring all the photos and blog entries from the current blog/gallery system into a new one. This has been tested thoroughly and all private or hidden photos and blog entries remained hidden in the new system. However THIS CANNOT BE GUARANTEED. If you have any hidden or private content in your galleries or blogs, you may want to remove it for now and add it again after the update, to avoid any embarrassment in the unlikely event of a problem.

The main change is replacing the current blog and gallery system with a new one that is better integrated into the main forum software. In the new system, galleries are called albums. Transferring all the information across from the old system is where most of the work has been.

There are some other nice changes like automatic resizing of gallery and attachment images, an account self-delete feature that works properly (unlike the old one) and nested quotes being limited to 5 deep.

Martin has prepared some information with screenshots which show how the new features work etc. He will add them to this thread shortly.

[Martin]

Welcome to EC!

These guides are designed to help new members who have joined us and to returning members who will have noticed differences from the forum update.

The design of the forum has not changed. The forum order has remained the same and there are no plans currently for that to change.


http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/1.jpg
This is the top of the forum. The older members may now recognise that there are additional options and that your name contains a link in the 'Welcome' box. Clicking on each option will take you to a new page.


My Settings:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/2-2.jpg

That is all you need to know about your account settings!

[Martin]

Blogs:
The blog feature has had significant changes to it. The options for a blog is now at the top of the forum and is the second option in the forum bar (next to My Settings and FAQ). Clicking on this takes you to the following page:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/3.jpg
For those of you who were around for the old blog system will realise just how much this feature has changed now. This page now has multiple features that allow you to navigate around it.
Blog Statistics: These show the current statistics the forum has for the Blog feature.
Options: Allows you to access your blog, post a new entry, view a random entry, view an RSS feed or access the Blog Control Panel.
Find Blog Entries: Use keywords to search for a specific blog or topics of interest.
Archive: Shows a list of blog entries that were submitted on each day.
Featured Blog Entry: An entry is chosen at random and featured at the top of the page. This changes every 10 minutes.
Recent Comments: View entries that have recently been commented on by a member.
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/4.jpg
An interesting feature is the option to change the display settings. You can choose to view blog entries based on:

How recent they are.
Single entries being voted as the best by other members.
Blog sections being voted as the best by other members.


If you go to your Blog Control Panel (either by clicking the word 'Blog' in My Settings or by clicking Blog Control Panel in the options table on the Blog page) you will be able to edit settings and set what you want to be default. The Control Panel page looks like this:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/14.jpg

[Martin]

Profiles:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/5.jpg
This is the new layout for new profiles. It contains lots of features that allow you to interact with members and get to know them better.
The mini statistics table shows you information such as Date of Birth, Join Date, Total Posts and Blog Entries. You can access more statistics by clicking on the statistics tab.
The friends section displays 6 of your friends at random. If you have below 6 it will always display those friends but not in a particular order.
The albums section allows members to access photos you have uploaded into public albums. By clicking on this you are taken to all the photos displayed in that album. All album photos are displayed like this:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/6.jpg
Please note: Any threads uploaded that are larger than 850x850 pixels will automatically be resized. Any existing photos larger than this are because they were uploaded before the site upgrade.
Photo comments from the old site are still visible and are displayed like this:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/7.jpg
If you wish to add a new comment to a photo then you must go to the photo you wish to comment on and type your message into the 'Post Comment' box.

When you visit the profile there is a tab at the bottom that allows you to access different information.
The first tab displays visitor comments:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/8.jpg
These allow you to post comments on a persons profile to say you have visited etc. They are visible to everybody so do not mistake them for private messages.

The second tab displays information 'About Me':
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/9.jpg

The third tab is the statistics option:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/10.jpg

The fourth tab displays all your forum friends:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/11.jpg
Please note only 10 are displayed per page.

The fifth tab is the 'Contact Me' tab:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/12.jpg

The sixth and final tab is the Blogs tab:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/13.jpg

That is all you need to know for navigating around profiles!

[Martin]

Notifications:

Sometimes when you sign in you may notice that a 'Your Notifications' link has appeared under your name.
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/15.jpg

If you click this option then a little drop down menu displays what these notifications are:
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/EmptyClosets/16.jpg
When you click on one of the notifications (such as Unread Private Messages) you will then be forwarded to the relevant page.

[Alexander]

looks cool ^_^

I can't wait :D

[Alex]

Interesting... no more homepage bugs :D

[LOVEjames]

Pretttyyyy.

[Paul_UK]

....no more homepage bugs :D

Yep!

And much easier upgrading of the vBulletin software when they bring out a new one. I upgraded the test site from 3.7.0 to 3.7.1 yesterday with no problems at all. With the current homepage system upgrading without breaking the homepage is impossible.

It's a one-off big change that should make things better for all of us.

[Blitzkrieg]

Looks like its going to be great :)

[EthanS]

oo nicee looks good :)

[Paul_UK]

I have just sent an email to all active members about this (1 or more posts and visited the site in the last month, and 10 or more posts and visited in the last 3 months).

[CrimsonThunder]

Self delete feature doesn't sound like a good thing to me. However a username changer would be a good thing.

[Brett]

OMG! Everythings gonna be all shiny and new! XD
I can't wait to see it!

[Austin]

I've seen this on another forum using vBulletin also... its the upgraded version :p its alright =O

[moonlight]

looking forward to the new changes.

[davo-man]

I disagree, CrimsonThunder, about being able to change your name yourself. If we had a username changer, it could get mighty confusing if a user was to change their username every couple of days or so. I prsonally think that having a changeable title, signature and avatar is enough space to update different things

[Paul_UK]

I disagree, CrimsonThunder, about being able to change your name yourself. If we had a username changer, it could get mighty confusing if a user was to change their username every couple of days or so. I prsonally think that having a changeable title, signature and avatar is enough space to update different things

I agree with Dave. We don't want people changing their usernames too often as it causes confusion. The current system of contacting me or asking in Ask The Mods works well and allows us to deal with the name change as appropriate (for example in a few cases finding and renaming quoted posts) which an automated system would not do. It also allows us to deny excessive changes. I do probably about one a week on average which is not a big deal.

We already have a self-delete feature but it does not work properly. Members have a legal right to have their details removed from any website, and a self-delete system allows them to do so easily themselves. It also allows for very quick deletion in an emergency. However you do have to go through a few steps including copying and pasting a code, so it can't be done accidentally. I think about 30-40 people have used or attempted to use the existing self-delete facility, so we don't have loads of members using it.

Anyway let's not get side-tracked on that one aspect too much.

[Paul_UK]

Another point which I forgot to mention before is blog categories. A few members have set up different categories for their blog entries. Although the new system also supports categories, your existing categories will NOT be transferred. All blog entries will be uncategorised. So you will need to set up categories again in the new system, if you want to use them.

The way categories work in the new system is too different to the old system to allow reliable and straightforward transferring. Also in the new system a blog entry can be put in one category, in more than one category, or in none at all, whereas with the current system it has to be in one and only one category. So many of us will probably want to reorganise them a bit anyway.

[Zak]

Cool, thats tommarow...and Martin, that soo is a bellybutton. No more buggies! lol :p

[Martin]

Cool, thats tommarow...and Martin, that soo is a bellybutton. No more buggies! lol :p

It's not my belly button. That looks like it's on my hip, but it's the door behind me. It does not even look like a belly button, and it is definetly not in the correct place. :p

[Paul_UK]

Cool, thats tommarow...
Yes, starting just under 13 hours from now. :)

[Paul_UK]

This work will start in 30 minutes

[Paul_UK]

Sorry!!!! That took a bit longer than expected, mainly due to the internet connection speed from the UK to the USA.

Everything is done and should be working OK, but please post here if you find any problems or have any questions.


What has been migrated:
Homepage descriptions (shortened to 200 characters, see post #31 below)
Galleries (albums in new system, hidden and visible status maintained)
Photos in galleries
Photo comments
Blog entries (hidden and visible status maintained)
Buddies
Gallery photo image links in forum posts
Gallery photo links blog entries
Members tab and front page updated to work with new system

What has NOT been migrated:
Blog categories
Homepage customisations (backgrounds, colour schemes etc)
Photo ratings
Homepage ratings

[Martin]

Well doneski Paul. :D

[Micah]

Woot for Paul :)

[Bromptonrocks]

ermm..Join date shows twice?? on the left...

but great work anyway..

[TriBi]

Methinks there was a LOT of hard work that went into that little hiatus...

Well done Paul!

[Paul_UK]

ermm..Join date shows twice?? on the left...

but great work anyway..

Fixed, thanks! :thumbsup:

Methinks there was a LOT of hard work that went into that little hiatus...

Yes, lots of work over the last 3 weeks or so working, out the process and writing all the data conversion scripts etc, then doing test runs on a test server to make sure the process worked. The biggest part of the job was working out the process and writing the scripts to move everything from the old blogs and galleries to the new ones.

Today was basically uploading stuff, following my process (an 8 page document), running the scripts etc. It all went to plan, apart from taking a bit longer than anticipated.

[davo-man]

Good on you, it's all looking fantastic :)

[Paul_UK]

If your biography (the bit of text about you on the homepage) in the old system was longer than 200 characters you will find it has become shortened to 200 characters now. I have set the maximum to 500 characters, so you can edit it in "My Settings", "Edit Your Details" if necessary.

Blogs and photos are not available to people who have not registered (they will get an error message). That will stop search engines etc spidering them and casual visitors looking at them.

[Starlight]

Oh this is so cool :D

Thanks for all the hard work Paul :)

I've already started customizing my homepage >..<

[Paul_UK]

Zak has posted the first blog on the new system already!

Who is going to be the first to upload a photo to their album?

[Zak]

I ahve...oh yah! me!

[Zak]

I uploaded the first picture too! :p i think

[Martin]

Nope, Jay the attention whore beat you for first photo upload. :p

[Starlight]

I take offence to that Martin :p

[Paul_UK]

As requested by Louise, the thread start date is now shown on thread lists (under the thread title, by the username)

[Starlight]

Was in chat, and went to look at someone's profile and was greeted by this:

Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing or mismatched.

If this occurred unexpectedly, please inform the administrator and describe the action you performed before you received this error.

[Paul_UK]

I have found an add-on which improves the integration of flashchat with vBulletin and seems to fix that problem. I am going to install it now, so there may be problems with the chatroom for the next few minutes.

[Paul_UK]

I have found an add-on which improves the integration of flashchat with vBulletin and seems to fix that problem. I am going to install it now, so there may be problems with the chatroom for the next few minutes.

Installed and seems to be working! :)

[Martin]

Hmm, well my chat is completely dead now. :p I keep clicking the Chat Room option at the top and it just opens a white blank page. :confused:

Edit: Same for the one on the blue bar.

Edit 2: Admincp also gives a blank page.

[Paul_UK]

Hmmmm, OK, give me 5 mins...

[Martin]

Perfectio now. Thankies. ^_^

[Paul_UK]

Fixed. :)

Why is PICO such a crap editor....?

[Zak]

Gosh Darn You jay! :p

[Paul_UK]

A couple of people have asked about this....

You can see your own private albums on your homepage, as can the forum mods and admins, but other members can't.

[Grof142007]

i like the blog entries on the side

[Paul_UK]

Hopefully in a future vBulletin update they will add an option to show the title of the latest blog entry rather than just the total.

[Bader]

I love how ec is always upgrading.