Far as I can tell, all posts/threads have been transferred from old YaBB 2.1 directory.

Any problems with missing or can't-read/access posts/threads?

I know about Pleo's thread with Magoo, but any others?

Definitely problems transferring the *bigger* files. Most were small .. 3-to-8 KB. But some were ~100 kb. Had to transferred separately. FTP client (server) choked. Kept spitting them out when I'd try to up 50 files at a time.

Do the math. 50 files/transfer. How many transfers to reach 25,000? Ansr: a *lot*. (My FTP client caught on fire.)

Thought my archiving prgm (Winzip) was locked up after I tried to execute the tarball (1.2 gig). Was getting ready to terminate. When all these files start extracting. Then, after extracting for a *long* time I ran out of disk space (on my laptop) right at the end. Had to burn files and delete to make room for the 32K posts. That's what took so much time.

Gonna work on transferring member's accounts now. Only 500 of them missing. Small potatoes compared to 25K missing posts. Takes forever just to *extract* 35K files from the back-up tarball I downloaded (1.2 gigs compressed). Currently extracting members/ and /boards.

I saw many ugly threads at the YaBB forum when I was researching the upgrade .. so I knew it could easily go south.

Some of the problem files/threads:

1144131251.txt
1131831389.txt
1117736753.txt
1116434248.txt

Another source of problems is two versions of same user_name, with one having a Capital letter (which Linux/Unix allows and recognizes). e.g. Mongo vs mongo. Sometimes they're two different names, and sometimes they're the same. Depends what program you ask. Trouble.

My host says our CPU usage has decreased, but we are still using too much *memory* to be moved off the "stabilization" server. (Where all badboy-sites are banished.)

I am now forwarding the old YaBB 1.4 forum, which we were using as an archive, and cuz search engines knew it better than the new forum (this one). So that should kill a lot of CPU usage, no longer having to service those (archived) posts.

4160 threads and 32,580 posts. Does that sound right? I shouda looked before starting the upgrade.

Update .. completed restoring member accounts. Each member acct has between 2 and 6 files. Lotsa file transfers, and acct rebuilds.

Any problems?

Rad wrote on Jan 22^nd, 2008 at 9:36pm:

Any problems?

Not thus far, looks like your hard work has paid off and things seem fine from here; works great in the feed reader and on the google homepage. Nicely done!

Thanks Nigel.

Rad


Quote:

Any problems with missing or can't-read/access posts/threads?

The *law of unintended consequences*!!!!


Quote:

I am now forwarding the old YaBB 1.4 forum, which we were using as an archive, and cuz search engines knew it better than the new forum (this one). So that should kill a lot of CPU usage, no longer having to service those (archived) posts.

Looking back, probably should have retained the same sub-directory structure back when it was v1.4 and you upgraded to v2.1--should not have created that new *yabb2* directory--should have kept it as it was and just did the upgrade to the program files in place!!!!

Reason--now that you are forwarding from the v1.4 address to the v2.x address, all the old links in the threads prior to your upgrade to v2.x are now *dead* links!!!  You get forwarded to the main screen of the *new* forum, and not to the actual referenced thread!

If you had left the directory structure as it was, and upgraded over the old program files, the search engines would still have found the same active links as before--and now this upgrade would also have the same directory linkage--note for future consideration--don't make a new directory for a new version of the forum software when/if upgrading!

The old and new forums (v1.4 vs 2.x) use different URL structures. It was not possible to get Y2.x to imitate Y1.4 URL structure (which included the board_name).

All Y1.4 posts/threads have been imported to this forum.

It is not difficult to tweak a Y1.4 link to point to the same thread in Y2.x. See here:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1174945931

Y2.x URL structures are much cleaner, and I read there was a reason for the change, altho, I can't recall why right now .. cuz I have no brain left. =)

I am trying to minimize my impact on server resources, as Lunarpages wants me to upgrade to VPS acct (for $40/month).

.. which we may have to do in the end.

Rad

I stand corrected!  I thought there was just a sub-directory name change, but I see now that the way the board references and calls for a thread in the v2.x is a different structure, as you mentioned, than for the v1.4 software!

Here's an example of an old v1.4 style link:


Quote:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1089728699;start=0#0

and here's the new style:


Quote:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1089728699;start=0#0

The differences are here:

Old style:  /YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;

New style:  /YaBB.pl?


I wonder...that's a pretty radical change--everyone using the v1.4 would be hit by that same issue of loosing their ability to reference all their old links unless they kept their old board active like you did.  Didn't the YaBB folks create some sort of a conversion program (tool) to update all the old style links to the new style?  Seems like they would not want to leave everyone in that bind of incompatible links in old posts after the upgrade!

Seems like a *search and replace* function that can look inside each thread file could accomplish that conversion!?  But, I'm not smart enough to know what the problems with such a tool might be!

Nigel Bree


Quote:

looks like your hard work has paid off and things seem fine from here; works great in the feed reader and on the google homepage. Nicely done!

The *RSS* link at the top of the *Home* page for the forum appears only if using the *Forum default* template--did you set the RSS feed from that template?  

Can you change to other templates once that's set up, and still maintain the feed?  

Can the RSS feed be set up from other templates that do not show that button at the top of the *Home* page?

RSS feeds are based on a url that points to an XML view of the forum data.  It should be completly independant of any theme you see when you view the actual forum page.  Once you've found the link, it should work no matter what theme you use.  Finding the link might be the hard part for people using the default theme.

I am not yet feed-savvy, tho I have "Learn XML" on my list.

The links inside quotes are hard to read. I recall that problem with the last set up of Y2.1.

I'd like to change the color of links to something like "#0066FF" or "#6699FF", which are dark blue. Should work okay both in the standard forum or the quotes.

Now that I know CSS magic. I can also code a link to change inside quotes.

Each "style" has its own *.html file, so it might be that the RSS feed wasn't coded into the blk_gry3d template.

The forum uses a number of templates, html and css files to display the end-result page. Exactly how all these work together is a mystery to me.

But we can always copy-n-paste the RSS code from the default style into the others. That's easy.

NightOwl wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2008 at 9:14am:

The *RSS* link at the top of the *Home* page for the forum appears only if using the *Forum default* template--did you set the RSS feed from that template?

I used the blk_gry3d template; although the RSS isn't a regular link on the page itself, it's also embedded as a link rel="Alternate" element in the page header and that's universal. It means that RSS-aware browsers and search engines (Google do indexing of RSS feeds in "Google Blog Search") can snag feeds as a universal feature.

In FireFox, for instance, if a page advertises a feed this way the standard RSS icon appears in the browser address bar. For this forum the RSS feed itself isn't styled, but if you want to make it more browser-aware a good thing to do is separately style the RSS XML using an <?xml-stylesheet> processing instruction, so things that scrape the text can do that and browsers can render it in a more fancy way.

If there are mutiple kinds of feeds for advanced users you can have them advertised with multiple link rel="Alternate" elements and most browsers will turn their RSS feed button into a menu.

I am now tweaking board styles. Since reading books on xhtml/css, i actually know what i'm doing when looking into those files. kinda cool.

your thots?

1. changed color of LINKS in main forum area from orange-ish to dark blue (#0099FF). I can pretty change *anything* .. with my new skillz. =)

http://radified.com/index2.html


Rad wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2008 at 12:17am:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1174945931

Okay, update. I figured out how to make the color of the link in a quote a DARKER shade of blue (independent of the regular (non-quoted) link. Can everybody see it good now?

I can see the non-quoted blue link pretty good. Bright-enough blue, but not too bright.

2. increased width of main board ("container") to 96% (from 90). we were wasting too much space on the side margins.

3. changed the gfx from "blk_gry3d' to those of a *different* mod (blk_gry3d uses "default" gfx .. as it has no special gfx of its own) .. different style called "black". You can check out this style in your preferences. I didn't like it quite as much (after a while) as this one .. tho I *do* like their gfx (better than "YaBB default" gfx, which blk_gry3d uses.

You can notice these new "black" style gfx most clearly right above the PostReply box.

4. lowered max allowable post size from "9999"to "6666" characters, which is still pretty big. I think default = 5500. This will make big posts smaller. I was have having trouble transferring larger posts (~100KB*.txt files). Ppl can always break up their large posts into 2 parts (or 3...).

THIS post, for example, uses slightly more than ~1,650 characters.

Not sure if this is related, but when reading a post, there doesn't seem to be any way to return to the threads of that board.  Only way to go back "up a level" is to go to "home".

I'm pretty sure it was there yesterday, so maybe some change today caused this. ??

Good stuff. Incidentally, the old blk_gry3d template doesn't show the forum-level navigation hierarchy when you view a post (it lists the moderators in a "navbar" div but doesn't actually show what forum the post is in, which it used to). No big deal, though.

Oops.  Now I see it again, the title line "Radified Community Forums > Radified ... "

Must have been an optical illusion.  sorry.

P.S. It would be nice if that title line were also displayed at the BOTTOM of a long list of replies.  That way you don't have to manually scroll up to the top just to "return".

John. wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2008 at 5:04pm:

Must have been an optical illusion.  sorry.

No, it definitely wasn't there in some templates (I was looking at the page source). Rad's probably just quick at fixing it!

It is definitely missing from the "blkgry_3d_large" template.  However, this template isn't black and grey anymore, but white/blue/black scheme.

I finally figured out how to lighten the color of the text where it says:

"Reply, Add Poll, Notify of replies, Add to My Favorites, Send Topic, Print, Mark as Unread"

I made it a light-gray (used to be hard-to-see black). And I got rid of bold text.

Ppl were having trouble seeing that in Y2.1

5. Changed the color of the font you're reaing right now .. from eyeball-searing white (#FFFFFF) to light-gray (#DDDDDD). Makes the text easier to read, no? Less harsh on the eyes.

6. changed the hover color of links inside quotes from white (which was hard to see on light-colored background) to black. Kept the underline on hover.

7. Added a link to the home page at the bottom of every page,including a affiliate link toLunarpages. (I get $60 if somebody signs up with Lunarpages using my ID "Radboy".)

All these mods, by the way, only affect the default blk_gry3d stylesheet + HTML template. I don't know if they affect NightOwl's *_medium styles.

I'm thinking of making the color of the yellow-orange main link here less yellow and more orange. Have to see how it would look on these backgrounds.

8. Okay, what do you think of these orange links? Seems to blend a little better than the less-subtle yellowish-orange we had b4.

9. Changed color of links to Moderators from dull "teal" to a shade of green sampled off the 5 light-green moderator stars. See Magoo's post here:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1201037955/8#8

Maybe I'll wander over to BoardMod and see what cool mods they have available for YaBB v2.2.

http://www.boardmod.org/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=newsy22

What about the Quick-Quote mod:

http://www.boardmod.org/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=newsy22;action=display;num=11970029732

Or the Quick Reply box?

http://www.boardmod.org/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=newsy22;action=display;num=1197002973

Sound like something we might like?

It's all looking really attractive, Rad. To be honest the other mods don't seem like a big improvement compared to just what we've already got with this upgrade. I mostly use 1920x1200 screens and it's all looking great to me.

The forum-nav when viewing an individual post in blk_gry3d is definitely still missing in action; in the "Forum Default" template it's a little table just above a <script> tag, itself just about the "Navigation Bar" commented section that contains the mod list.

In the blk_gry3d template though, where it should be underneath the "seperator" (sic) div and the same script tag and "Navigation Bar" section it's missing. Mostly it's not a problem since I just use browser back button, it's more noticeable after replying. :-)

Otherwise though, it's a nice upgrade all around.

Rad,  now I figured it out:

If you are NOT logged in, the bottom navigation bar is missing.  Not sure what template that uses, but it is gone.

Here's a new (related) quirk:

1. If you are on the home page and click on one of the 4 boards, the top and bottom navigation bar IS THERE.

2. However, if you are on the home page and click on one of the "last post" links (one for each board), then the page that displays does NOT have the top or bottom navigation bar.

okay, i'll look into that stuff this weekend.

Rad


Quote:

okay, i'll look into that stuff this weekend.

Do you think we should start separate threads for each issue--I'm afraid when there are multiple tweaks or issues buried in a single thread that some of them eventually get lost--what do you think?

Rad


Quote:

I finally figured out how to lighten the color of the text where it says: "Reply, Add Poll, Notify of replies, Add to My Favorites, Send Topic, Print, Mark as Unread" I made it a light-gray (used to be hard-to-see black). And I got rid of bold text. Ppl were having trouble seeing that in Y2.1

That is much more readable!  But....


Quote:

All these mods, by the way, only affect the default blk_gry3d stylesheet + HTML template. I don't know if they affect NightOwl's *_medium styles.

Apparently it does not--what file(s) are you modifying?--it must be specific to a give template!

Here's a screen shot of the message page when using the *blk_gry3d-medium_font* template:

---

First, I restored the "breadcrumbs" to the bottom of the thread posts. Long story, but I used a Y2.2 template with blk_gry3d, which is Y2.1 based. Returned to Y2.1 *.template and breadcrumbs magically re-appeared (at bottom of each page).

Trying to get breadcrumbs to top of page, but more research req'd there.

Breadcrumbs are:

Radified Community Forums › Radified Community Non-Technical Discussion Board › General Discussion Board

John, can you see where we are with new breadcrumbs, since I tweaked, and where we are still lacking?

NightOwl,

all these changes are made to theb blk_gry3d.css file.

You could try copying the entire contents and pasting into your CSS file.

Make a back-up first, in case it breaks your design .. tho it should work fine.

Then, just tweak your sizes from there.

Quote:

Do you think we should start separate threads for each issue--I'm afraid when there are multiple tweaks or issues buried in a single thread that some of them eventually get lost--what do you think?

You mean, when multiple issues develop in a single thread? I refer to that as "hijacking a thread".

That is personal call/preference.

We have a "split" button.

Personally, I lean in the "organic" direction .. allowing things to develop on their own .. avoiding too much "structure" .. after working for years in the nuclear industry, where everything is very structured .. but it is easy to see how threads dedicated to a single topic can get more focused attention .. yes.

So I probably wouldn't, but can see how it would be a good thing if you did. =)

Hi.

Quick note on MODS.

Seems YaBB v2.2 was not ready for prime time when it was released back on Nov 8th .. but this was (exactly) 2 years from the release of Y2.1, so that's why they wanted to release it on Nov 8th. (See the '2' theme? > Y2.2 at 2 years)

Anyway, that's why I waited 2 1/2 months. I read lotsa horror stories about the upgrade. And I also included all the PATCHES released up to Jan 21st. Most of the files contained in Y2.2 have been tweaked since the official release. So I have almost kinda/sorta Y2.2.1

Eventually, YaBB will release an official Y2.2.1, with all bug fixes. Nobody will give an ETA, tho.

That will be the *real* release that Y2.2 shoulda been.

Until then, I'm reluctant to install many mods. Cuz any mods installed prior to official Y2.2.1 may not work with new code, and I'll have to massage the mods into the upgrade. (Have to first unistall all mods, then upgrade with new files, then re-install all mods).

So, just a note on mods. Until official Y2.2.1, I'm hesitant to install mods.

Rad wrote on Jan 24^th, 2008 at 10:16pm:

First, I restored the "breadcrumbs" to the bottom of the thread posts. Long story, but I used a Y2.2 template with blk_gry3d, which is Y2.1 based. Returned to Y2.1 *.template and breadcrumbs magically re-appeared (at bottom of each page). Trying to get breadcrumbs to top of page, but more research req'd there. Breadcrumbs are: Radified Community Forums › Radified Community Non-Technical Discussion Board › General Discussion Board John, can you see where we are with new breadcrumbs, since I tweaked, and where we are still lacking?

Thanks again for everything.  When you are NOT logged in, I saw the breadcrumbs (navigation).  However, when opening a thread, the breadcrumb displays at the bottom of the long page/thread, but NOT at the top.  It displays both top and bottom when looking at a board.

I'll have to look more when logged in depending upon the template.  I'm assuming all the changes are only being made to blk_gry3d.  

(Currently I am using blk_gry3d-med_font because it displays slightly larger.  I understand that all your changes don't apply to all templates.  Honestly I don't see how you or any administrator could possibly tweak all of them.  So many thanks again for your and NightOwl efforts at updating.  What a chore!)

Well, I think NightOwl can copy-n-paste my tweaked style sheet into HIS style, and then update the font size, and any other tweaks he prefers.

You should know that I *did* bump up the size of the display font in the blk_gry3d. Tho I guess NightOwl's is even bigger. My eyes are not great, but I can see text on the std template fine.

FYI, I'm trying to tweak the template to allow both top + bottom breadcrumbs in posts:

http://www.yabbforum.com/community/YaBB.pl?num=1201231485

blk_gry3d is a Y2.1 template .. tho they work with Y2.2, yet I'd imagine there are *some* diffs. I returned to Y2.1 Display.template. The Advertising mod which I use modifies this file.

I was trying to use a Y2.2 Display.template with blk_gry3d. Templates seem to come as a package deal .. containing 6 different files. including *.HTML and *.css.

I don't think there's a diff between the blk_gry3d display.template and the default used in Y2.1

The mod is not configured to modify Display.template file except ones used for default Y2.1 and Y2.2 (not blk_gry3d) .. so I have to use either default Y2.1, Y2.2 or manually edit the one for blk_gry3d.

We now have breadcrumbs back at the TOP of each post/thread page (and also on the bottom) ..in the blk_gry3d template.

[edit]Nevermind. Long story. Breadcrumbs just at the top.[/edit]

Rad

How did you do that?!  What file required the modifications?

The *blk_gry3d-large_font* also has the the *crumbs* at the top and bottom--and I did not have to re-do the css or templates using your *blk_gry3d* as a baseline.

I figured I'd have to re-do them every time you tweaked that *blk_gry3d* basic template, but apparently not--cool!

Thank you for fixing that feature--I used (and now use) it a lot!

Rad

Are you still tweaking the *crumbs*?  They look great in the individual threads at the top and bottom with the *Moderators* on a separate line underneath.

But, on the Board index page, you now have the *crumbs* listed twice--and the *Moderators* are on the same line as the *crumbs* until the line warps to the next line of text--that needs fixin'--and making it like what's in the individual thread is a *cleaner* look--i.e. separate line for *Moderators* below the *crumbs* line.

Oops.

I followed instructions here:

http://www.yabbforum.com/community/YaBB.pl?num=1201546540

Think I know how to fix. Lemme try.

Rad

Just noticed--you must be tweaking--but lost the bottom *crumbs* again on the thread page!

Rad

And, *Moderators* gone from top on thread index page plus no bottom *crumbs* or *Moderators* on that index page!

Rad

And, now there appears to be a new element at the top of the index page--a box showing the board name and the description--I don't remember that being there before--maybe I had just ignored it in the past--can't remember!

I had to replace the Y2.1 templates with Y2.2 templates (*.template files).

The current config is default for Y2.2.

I don't think we need moderators listed, as mods will still be mods whether listed or not.

And on the YaBB forum itself, where they use the default, there are no breadcrumbs listed at the bottom, which is normal.

It would be nice to have them also listed at bottom, but not necessary. Top-of-the-page navigation is more standard.

Any other anomalies?

Quote:

And, now there appears to be a new element at the top of the index page--a box showing the board name and the description--I don't remember that being there before--maybe I had just ignored it in the past--can't remember!

Yeah, I noticed that. Must be part of Y2.2 default template.

I like it. As an overview. How 'bout you?

Rad


Quote:

I don't think we need moderators listed, as mods will still be mods whether listed or not. And on the YaBB forum itself, where they use the default, there are no breadcrumbs listed at the bottom, which is normal.

Moderators--no big deal--never click on those anyway!

But the *crumbs* at both top and bottom are handy feature--used that all the time when I got to the bottom of the long page of posts--didn't have to scroll back up to the top.

The *default* forum template has navigation *Buttons* at the bottom so you can return one level to the board index or to the main forum page--I don't see that on your template!

okay. i will check.

it's prolly gonna be something in *.html file (blk_gry3d.html), cuz everything else (allother files) are default Y2.2

Okay, I added to the bottom of every page:

1. "Breadcrumbs" [Radified Community Forums › Radified Community Technical Discussion Boards (Hardware + Software-related) › Non-Ghost Related Technical Discussion Board › Thread_Name]
2. "Forum Jump" navigation [drop down menu aligned-right]
3. "Go Back" navigation [<Home <<Board .. aligned-left]

The associated code was added to the blk_gry3d.html file, so they're added to *every* page.

I removed the BOLD text style from the breadcrumbs, as that seemed like too much.

Also changed breadcrumbs text from white to gray (#CCCCCC) and made it slightly smaller (from 13px to 12px).

I'm getting experience blending Y2.2 templates with Y2.1 designs. Beginning to think it's easier to style my own design beginning with Y2.2 default templates.

That should be it. Anything else?

I also tried to change the "Remaining characters" number on the Post/Reply page from (hard-to-see) black to white .. and I can *do* that .. but not without changing OTHER black text to white .. for things we want to remain black. Not a big deal, but at least I tried.

Rad


Quote:

Also changed breadcrumbs text from white to gray (#CCCCCC) and made it slightly smaller (from 13px to 12px).

*White*?!  I thought the *crumbs* where previously the orange color like all the other text that are clickable links, like selecting a given board or a individual thread on the board index page--in most areas *white* text is informational, and the orange text is a clickable link--seems more consistent to make the *crumbs* match other clickable links--I can zero in on the line faster--otherwise the *white* just looks like other informational text!

Just a thought!


Quote:

I also tried to change the "Remaining characters" number on the Post/Reply page from (hard-to-see) black to white .. and I can *do* that .. but not without changing OTHER black text to white .. for things we want to remain black. Not a big deal, but at least I tried.

Just curious--where else does that font color change--I only see additional black font in the reply box and drop down menu listings--is that where that font color also is changed?

Black text in subject bar (light backgrnd) in PostReply window. White text there looks bad.

Yeah,breadcrumbs were bold/white.

White too harsh, bold too big, breadcrumbs wrapped to2nd line.