SDCFans - The Unofficial Fan Site For Silver Dollar City
Site Stuff => Announcements => Topic started by: shavethewhales on August 26, 2008, 08:00:45 PM
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Just a heads up - the site will be undergoing another revampment soon, though this won't be so much of a big deal as the last time. As we've discussed in the suggestions forum, this upgrade is all about cleaning up the site and fixing the numerous IE browser bugs. There'll be a new template, the user features will be laid out better and easier to use, and it will be much easier to see the important content on the home page. I'll also probably get around to changing a few forums styles as well, getting rid of the grass and adding some SDC stuff, as well as some more interaction with the main site.
So if you see the site suddenly stuck between two templates, don't worry. I'm going to wait till I have most of it done, but I'm itching bad enough to get this new template up that I may jump the gun and start adding it before it's all ready - just like the last 6 upgrades.
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^It'll be sad to see the grass go. :D So this upgrade is mostly just fixing what needs to be fixed from last time? It sounds like something we are in need of.
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Time to mow the grass!
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Let me add my appreciation that you keep this a lean-and-fast site. I see way too many forums that seem to think everyone has the latest-and-greatest hardware, and are running Windows and IE.
Hint for other administrators: if your site requires, or even "works best with" IE or Windows, your site is broken. Fatally broken. If you wrote it with FrontPage and host it on a Windows server, your future as an admin is fatally broken.
And if anyone is curious why this is an issue for me, it's because I use Firefox in a 9 year old Mac running 10.4. I have no problem on well-designed sites, but others are unusable.
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^Thanks, it's good to see that someone understands the value of Firefox.
Anyway, the new layout is now up. You'll probably have to refresh your browser several times or reset your cache file in order to get all the new images to display correctly.
There's still a LOT to do for this upgrade though. I've shut off the profiles and user features for now, but they'll be back soon better than ever. I've also started to work on cleaning a few things up - check out the new videos page for an example of how the news, galleries and events pages will soon be handled.
Let me know if you encounter any bugs. Everything should be perfect for IE7, Firefox, and Safari, but keep in mind that I've officially thrown out support for IE6.
Oh yeah - I know the banner is old; I'll change it out tonight.
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^Looks great Steve. Everything I've looked at so far is working great right now. The home page is so much easier to look at for information now.
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^^The main site looks and feels great, Steve! Navigating it is so smooth! :)
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There's actually one bug that I haven't been able to fix: if you click the 'All News' tab on the home page the latest forum posts are out of place. I'll get to it soon.
Aside from that, here's my checklist for this upgrade (so I don't forget anything):
- Add profiles to main site
- Revamp user features to be easier to use, more visible
- Add paging to events, galleries, news, and videos pages (see videos page for example)
- Sort events, galleries, news, and videos by park
- Add drop down navs, maybe a side tree navigation
- Add photo galleries for each individual ride
- Fix up ride and attractions bio pages, add more
- Make another attempt to have a color-coded calendar showing events and expected crowd levels
- Clean up the forums (mow the grass, add boxes to show latest headlines, photos, events)
As usual, I'm doing all of this at my own pace, so it will be a long time before it's all done.
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Hint for other administrators: if your site requires, or even "works best with" IE or Windows, your site is broken. Fatally broken. If you wrote it with FrontPage and host it on a Windows server, your future as an admin is fatally broken.
Yes. You should build it with both in mind (FF because it's a good browser, and IE because a majority of people still use it). It sometimes is difficult to make websites look good in both, but it's usually possible.
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I love the new main Site. It is so easy to find everything. Thanks for all the hard work you put into this site.
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Hmmm, it may be a while before the user features are back on in full... I pretty much need to completely re-do the way the site tracks users. The login/logout from the main site has never really worked right, and it should really be taken care of now before it gets to hard to go back and fix. Plus there are some more bugs that are popping up in Chrome and IE7 that I didn't know about.
Once it's all done though, the main site should be a lot more entertaining. Hopefully I can find a way to get more content flowing in, and maybe a few other people will volunteer to help post some news once in a while.
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Forget what I said in the last post for now. The user features are back up, but they're VERY clunky and probably still full of a few bugs. Still, if you have some photos or something you really want to add, it'll be awhile before I can totally re-vamp the system.
I also fixed the links in the news box, and the editorials are back up.
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For the past several days, I've had to log in twice to get on (whether on the main site or on the forums). Maybe this is why we haven't been seeing much activity lately - if folks don't try to log in twice they may not be getting on.
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I'm probably just going to take down the main site login - it's never worked right because of the way I tried to force it into the forums system rather than using the side scripts that were provided. As for the forums, I've noticed a few bugs popping up when you try to mark all messages as read just after signing in, so I'll probably have to download some new files to copy over the changes I made.
I'll try to get this taken care of pretty quick, but this of course means that all of the user features will disappear for an unknown amount of time. I really need to get on the ball with this - who knows how many users have been scared away by all the bugs on the main site. I'm just too lazy :-[
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On the main site several things are not working.
Shop is down all the way. It does nothing.
Videos has this error. Fatal error: Call to undefined function: ssi_recentposts() in /home/content/s/h/a/shavethewhales/html/videos.php on line 64....
Photo's has this error. Fatal error: Call to undefined function: ssi_recentposts() in /home/content/s/h/a/shavethewhales/html/gallery.php on line 171
Under SDC info the only one that works is SDC History
Under CC info the only thing that works is CC History
Contact does not function.
Not complaining but thought you needed to know.
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Crap! I must have overwritten something I didn't mean to last night. Nothing I can do about it at the moment - I'll have to get to it as soon as I can tonight.
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Just in case anyone was wondering what's going on right this moment - I haven't gotten much done because a bunch of stuff has come up, but I should have some time this weekend to fix the user features stuff, so everything can go back to normal (or even better). Then I can go on to the rest of the list. I'll probably hit up the forum upgrades next.
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I've been doing a bunch of work on the site today. Most of the user features are back up, though they still need some fine-tuning. I still haven't gotten around to rebuilding the profiles, but you can still use old one's for now and access the user features.
There's still a lot of problems with logging in and out from the main site though, so I'll have to do a lot more work there.
I've also started cleaning up the news and events pages.
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Hey guys - keep in mind that the main site still isn't really working properly right now, despite the fact that the login box and profiles are showing up again. I've been stuck trying to figure out why the logging in/out hasn't been working on the main site, and until I can get that totally fixed the site will be a little messed up as far as user functions go.
I hope to have this all wrapped up soon, but it's been a really tough problem to fix, and I can only work on it sporadically.
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I'm honestly about to switch forum software. Getting the main site integrated with these forums is looking impossible at this point, I've tried everything there is to try. None of the SSI functions work like they're supposed to, and adding extra SSI functions, sessions, and cookies isn't working either.
I might end up having to move a bunch of stuff around, so the site might go down for awhile.
Can you guys play with the log in box on the main site a little? Let me know when/if it works for you. Right now I can get it to work if I completely log off the forums (from the forums itself) then log on again, but for some reason this isn't always the case...
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^I can log in from the main site, but then it bumps me to the forums. When I click to go back to the main site I'm still logged in. However, if I try to log out from the main site it tells me an error verifying the url has occurred. It tells me this same error has occurred if I try to log out from anywhere in the forums. If I click on the "Home" tab in the forums, then try to log out, it will let me log out. That is the only time it will let me log out. This is using IE7.
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Can you guys play with the login box again? I think I might have fixed it, at least to some degree. Try logging off the forums completely, then going to the main site and logging in. It may still boot you back to the forums, but as long as it still shows you as logged in on the main site, I'll be satisfied.
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I just logged in on the main page. It took me directly to the Forums. When I went back to the main page it does not say anywhere that I am logged in.... I hope this info helps you.
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^^Definitely doing weird stuff to me. I logged in from the main site and it reloaded the main site but didn't show me as logged in. I then clicked to go to the forums and it said I was a guest; however, at the bottom of the page it showed me as one of the users that is logged in. So I clicked on my name and it took me to my profile. Then from my profile I clicked on "Home" and only then did it recognize me as logged in. I am using Firefox 3.0.1.
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Damn, I thought I had it. I'm going to try one last thing, and if it doesn't work I'll just have to back off for a while and plan out a way to totally rebuild the script that handles all the login stuff.
In the end I might just have to totally separate the logins for the forums and the main site, so you'll have to log in for both parts of the site, but that would be better than nothing.
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My last attempt didn't work. I'm giving up for now. We'll just have to go with a two-login system - there's just no way to get this forum to work with the main site.
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Alright, I'm about to get the ball rolling again.
This weekend I'll finally be making a trip to the park again - I'll have a full photo update complete with extensive construction coverage up by Sunday night.
Then, sometime early next week I'll re-launch the user features, as I think I have the integration problems nailed down. From there I'll try to get the new profiles hammered out as quickly as possible, although they may be a lost cause at this point. Then I'll be back to fixing up some styling around the site, further emphasizing the user features and cleaning up everything even more. Finally, I'll fix up the forums.
That'll be enough to really get the site on level ground again I think, which at this point is all I can hope for.
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OK guys, one more try. Can you guys please log out, log in again, and check the main site to see if you are logged in still? I think I've worked out a way to get it to work now. It's working for me anyway.
I'm not too sure how well this will work though - it won't remember you like the forums do, so you'll have to log in again every time you want to use something on the main site, but it's the best I can do. I mean, I've pretty much tried everything at this point. \
Oh yeah - if it's not working, try clearing out your cookies. I know that's really annoying, but again, it's the only way it will work.
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^I logged in to the forums then clicked on "Main Site" and it didn't recognize me as logged in. I then clicked to go to the forums and it showed me as a guest, but at the bottom of the page it showed me as one of the users that is logged in. So I clicked on my name and it took me to my profile. Then from my profile I clicked on "Home" and only then did it recognize me as logged in. Sorry this is such a pain, Steve!
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^I logged in to the forums then clicked on "Main Site" and it didn't recognize me as logged in. I then clicked to go to the forums and it showed me as a guest, but at the bottom of the page it showed me as one of the users that is logged in. So I clicked on my name and it took me to my profile. Then from my profile I clicked on "Home" and only then did it recognize me as logged in. Sorry this is such a pain, Steve!
Exact same thing I observed. Clicking "main site" from my profile still didn't show me as logged in. (Firefox 3.0.3, MacOS X 10.4.9)
I haven't followed this thread closely, so I'm curious... what is the purpose of being logged in from the front page or main site? I agree that it's valuable as the "face" of the site for new visitors, but I only come to the forums. The only time I visit the main site is if someone points out a new article to read. Otherwise, I enter here (with "forever" as my logged-in option):
http://sdcfans.com/forums/index.php?action=unread
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The purpose of being logged into the main site is to give you access to features such as personal photo galleries, videos, comments, reviews, and trip reports/editorials. Because I can't get to the park on a frequent basis, and because there isn't all the much news to report on SDC (though there's more going on then I've been able to report), I really don't think this site can go anywhere without all this. I want to get more content flowing through the site and make it an actual resource of some sort, not just another hokey fan site.
At this point though, I'm about ready to throw in the towel. We'll see what happens. Keep checking back over the next few days, hopefully I'll figure something out...
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^Just want to let you know that the main site login works for me in IE7, but not in Firefox 3.0.3.
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I can log in using IE 6.0 but still can not in Firefox 3.01
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How's this for madness: it works perfectly in IE6 & 7, not at all in Firefox or Safari, and sometimes in Chrome.
I don't know what to do at this point. I think I've about exhausted all my options. I'll have to seek out some help for this, but who knows if there's any way around this.
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GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
You know what it was? The main site tab on the forum wasn't relative, so each time someone clicked on it they were resent to the site, destroying their login session. That was it.
I spent 2 1/2 months going over and over my php trying to figure this out and all it was was one wrong link.
Well... it's fixed now. I'll have the profiles and user features back up by tonight. At least I can finally go back to working on the site again...
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YAY! I'm happy for you, Steve! I know this has been bugging you for a while.
Now you can get back to making this site what you want it to be! :)
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Most of the user features are back online, although they need to be cleaned up badly. I'll be working on them this week. News comments and attraction reviews will be back in the next couple of days. Also, the new profiles will be up soon.
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I just re-did the profiles, although they're not quite as glamorous as I had hoped. However, you can now view other people's profiles on the main site.
I'll have the comments and ride reviews fixed up and back online by tonight.
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Fixed some stuff on the home page today. Lots more to do...
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This might seem picky, but it bothers me a little that the time on the forums is off an hour since the time change. Can that be fixed?
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I think it's fixed now.
By the way, I've been really busy lately with work, hunting, and other things, so I haven't really been doing too much with the site. I'm trying to keep up with the news, but I'm just really sidetracked with a lot of things that are going on right now.
Anyway, once again I'm planning another upgrade package. This is kind of the way it is with personal projects/sites sometimes - it's just easier to re-do it all every so often rather than to go back and fix old code. I'm thinking a new, rustic yet clean and fresh layout with more emphasis on news and updates and an overhauled user feature system that's even cleaner and easier to use.
I've got a couple other sites to code before hand, so it may be about Christmas before I can show you guys anything, but feel free to provide input whenever. I'll set up a test site this time around so that we can all test the new site version before it's made final - so there won't be any long lasting bugs like the last time.
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^Sounds cool! :) And the test site is definitely a good idea.