Author Topic: BIG CHANGES COMING FOR THE NEW YEAR (Read 22609 times)

Mysterious Benefactor · « **on:** December 30, 2011, 06:37:21 PM »

The new year is going to bring with it a whole new version of SMF, the forum's system. We've mentioned a few times that we're still using SMF 1.1 but that SMF 2.0 has been released. Well, the time is finally coming when we're going to upgrade. And hopefully, if our host cooperates and we don't experience any downtime at that time, I'm planning to do the upgrade in the wee hours of January 1st.

I did a test upgrade with a copy of the forum on my own computer, and things went very smoothly. But that doesn't necessarily translate on the real forum because our host has slightly different server and MySQL software. However, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there won't be any problems.

Once the upgrade is complete, you'll notice several changes, including drop-down choices for many of the buttons in the main menu. But all of those types of changes are designed to make navigation of the forum easier.

Another change will be that the forum will have a new theme. The look will resemble the Midnight Storm Theme that we'd been using for the past few years, but there will be differences here and there - and you'll see that once it gets put in place and as I continue to tweak it once it's in place. For example, one of the planned changes will be random backgrounds rather than the static background we have been using of late featuring various characters from the original and '91 shows...

MagnusTrask · « **Reply #1 on:** December 30, 2011, 07:05:36 PM »

"Upgrades" usually make it harder for someone using "accessibility options" (for people with eye problems) to read or post. I hope that doesn't happen here. They often involve features requiring more memory than my computer has too, especially if movement is involved.

Mysterious Benefactor · « **Reply #2 on:** December 30, 2011, 07:19:37 PM »

I don't think there should be any problems for you, Magnus. And there won't be any movement involved like things requiring Flash player, so there won't be anything requiring more memory.

Annie · « **Reply #3 on:** December 31, 2011, 02:10:51 AM »

Hi MB can't wait to see the changes you always do such a great job !
Love Anne

Gothick · « **Reply #4 on:** December 31, 2011, 02:46:47 AM »

Just a line to thank you, MB, for dealing with all this.

I am at the point now where I have a knee-jerk reaction to "oh, ANOTHER upgrade???" particularly since some developers seem to roll them out every two to three months now.

You're a gem! Happy New Year!

G.

Mysterious Benefactor · « **Reply #5 on:** December 31, 2011, 05:46:41 PM »

The jump from SMF 1.1 to 2.0 is actually a major upgrade. The majority of changes won't be noticeable because they're internal. However, things like the drop-down windows in the main menu and how different areas of the forum look/are organized, particularly places like members' profiles, will definitely be noticeable. But I'm sure we'll all get used to everything before too long.

The forum's Help section will definitely be our friend.

barnabasjr · « **Reply #6 on:** December 31, 2011, 07:06:22 PM »

MB, it's been much too long since I've thanked you for your many efforts. Best wishes for success with the upgrade, and the happiest of new year wishes to you.

Gothick nailed it, you are a gem! Thank you!

barnabasjr · « **Reply #7 on:** January 01, 2012, 12:58:38 PM »

Wow! Looking good, can't wait to explore!

Mysterious Benefactor · « **Reply #8 on:** January 01, 2012, 01:05:19 PM »

Well, this isn't the way the forum will look - this theme is temporary while I continue to tweak the new theme. However, many features are available in this temporary theme, so it won't hurt for anyone to look around.

Mysterious Benefactor · « **Reply #9 on:** January 01, 2012, 02:40:53 PM »

This new version of Midnight Storm is by no means complete - but it is at a point where at least it can debut. You'll notice a couple of spots where red shows up where it shouldn't be, and there's a light gray background in a few spots that makes things hard to read. Also, there are a few things that I think I'd like to see darker and a few others I'd like to see lighter. But all that will be be fixed after I get some sleep.

Also, the current random backgrounds are simply in place so that the random background feature will have something to work with until I have the chance to make the actual backgrounds. And currently there's a no background setting, so that's why the background will be blank from time to time until I change that.

And fear not, the various slideshows will return. But I need to rewrite the PHP routines to display them because the old routines worked with SMF 1.1 but not with SMF 2.0.

And finally, the spoiler feature will also return...

But for now, I'm off to take a nap.

Gothick · « **Reply #10 on:** January 01, 2012, 04:42:16 PM »

Thanks again MB for all your hard work. The difference, at least visually, is really quite dramatic, so I can only guess at how extreme the stuff YOU have to deal with must be.

Thanks for reassuring us that the current look is a placeholder, and please do take whatever time you need to get it all done to your satisfaction.

Best wishes,

Gothick

MagnusTrask · « **Reply #11 on:** January 01, 2012, 06:44:38 PM »

Something strange for those with Accessibility Options on... the text is all squeezed into a narrow column on the right side, and everyone's profile information in each post is expanded to take up 2/3 of the screen! So far I doubt this will be a problem. A positive in all this seems to be that all the text seems to be all visible at once now, without moving back and forth across the screen...

Mysterious Benefactor · « **Reply #12 on:** January 01, 2012, 09:18:47 PM »

As you've no doubt noticed, there have been a few more cosmetic changes (to places like the MessageIndex page for the boards (the topic titles and other info should be easier to read) and the Recent Posts listing (no more light gray background

)). Plenty more to come. But one thing that I did want to point out is that you may have noticed that when you're posting a message and/or sending a PM, the textarea for typing no longer has a scroll bar. And the reason for that is that SMF, in their infinite wisdom, has removed scrolling in favor of a re-sizable textarea. If what you're typing starts to disappear, simply grab the bottom of the window and pull it down.

Cousin_Barnabas · « **Reply #13 on:** January 01, 2012, 10:47:52 PM »

Wow, MB! Looks great! Thanks so much for all of your hard work!

Mysterious Benefactor · « **Reply #14 on:** January 02, 2012, 01:50:24 AM »

A few more cosmetic changes have been made - but the big change is that we have a spoiler feature again. It's different than our previous spoiler feature in SMF 1.1, though the way to read spoilers is pretty much self explanatory.

The button to look for in the BBC Code icons is this:

And it's also possible to make a custom title for the spoiler. For example, coding a spoiler like this:

Code: [Select]

[spoiler=Example spoiler]spoiler text goes here.[/spoiler]
will look like this:

[spoiler=Example spoiler]spoiler text goes here.[/spoiler]

Truthfully, I don't really know why/when it would be necessary to use a custom title for a spoiler. But hey, whoever wrote the mod probably figured it might simply be a fun thing to include.

Also, the background of the Help section is no longer light gray, so the links to the various sections are now easy to see and click on should the need to do so arise.

News: