Forum outage and update

[firestorm_al]

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the forum outage for the last three days. The forum software was getting seriously out of date so I thought I would update it to the next main revision (phpBB3.1). I have done this successfully on other forums without any issues and thought this would be the same hence why I didn't make any announcement before hand.

However, things didn't quite go as planned. All the mods that have been done on the site software over the years it has been running meant that the database didn't react well to the upgrade process. I have been pulling my hair out for the last three days trying to get us back up and running manually cleaning up the database. On a board of this size with over 380,000 posts then I'm sure you can appreciate that this was quite a time consuming task so I hope the outage didn't effect people too much.

I'm pretty sure that the forum has now successfully been converted to 3.1.10 so am going to re-enable it and let everyone loose on it again. Hopefully it won't break.

I notice that the developers have now released version phpBB3.2 but I think I will not attempt moving from 3.1 for a wile.

Cheers for now,

Al.

[firestorm_al]

The template used has a fixed maximum width which suits me but might not be to everyone's taste. If you want to use the full width of your browser window then go into your user control panel --> Board Preferences --> Edit Display Options then select "yes" on the "Use maximum width" option.

max_width.PNG (34.17 KiB) Viewed 62294 times

[fabiostar]

ah ha we are alive again. happy days

[firestorm_al]

The other advantage of the updated forum and template is that it renders well when using a phone without using tapatalk. However, I have installed the tapatalk plugin for those who already use it.

Al.

[TheGingerBeardMan]

Good to have the forum back up and running again.

I had a funny feeling that the MODS had faffed about with the newer version, which was released from phpBB on the 7th Jan 2017, and that's when the VTR forum went down (from the phpBB website: ''the official launch for phpBB 3.2.0 would be on January 7, 2017. phpBB 3.2 introduces major changes and new functionality. Among the new features are a completely revised installer including CLI (Command-Line Interface) support, a new BBCode system that adds more power to quotes and supports emojis'')

Well done Al for persevering with it, and getting it back on track. I was pacing the floor, tapping me fingers and wearing a hole in the carpet. Having withdrawls and starting to get the shakes.

I had nothing to do for the past 2 days (being retired), and so overdosed on porn and I'm surprised I can even type this, as my eyes are now all out of focus, and me wrists have taken a hammering over the past few days.

Can I suggest that we get back the ''words'' for the EDIT, DELETE and QUOTE icons, as my eyes are not too good for determining the tiny icons. Oh, and why is the VTR logo at the top confined to 2 inches on the left? Lots of wasted space in the middle now. (and no comment as to the waste of space writing this comment! )

Yoinks and away!

GBM.

[TheGingerBeardMan]

Looking through the posts, with the new version, it seems there are a LOT of missing posts.

I see some later posts (after the 3rd Jan 2017) are missing from people who had replied after this point.

The Birthday announcements.....the Bargain bin (where Mac posted ALDI bargains on the 6th....the Thread Hijack...The Workshop...the Pimp you Ride etc tec. Almost ALL topics have lost posts made before the crash..... How's that possible! ?

[macdee]

Al don't let this happen again
I had to talk to the wife for three days
Not good

[Wicky]

Well done - go on install 3.2, you know you want to

Also have YouTube videos embedding been fixed?

[youtube][/youtube]


Seems not :-(

[firestorm_al]

Looking through the posts, with the new version, it seems there are a LOT of missing posts.

I see some later posts (after the 3rd Jan 2017) are missing from people who had replied after this point.

The Birthday announcements.....the Bargain bin (where Mac posted ALDI bargains on the 6th....the Thread Hijack...The Workshop...the Pimp you Ride etc tec. Almost ALL topics have lost posts made before the crash..... How's that possible! ?

I had to restore the site drop a backup I made on the morning of the 5th. I can only apologise for the loss of the posts made after that. On most other sites I would have got away with it but this site is so active the loss of a couple of days posts is a big loss. Sorry.

Al.

[firestorm_al]

Well done - go on install 3.2, you know you want to

Also have YouTube videos embedding been fixed?

[youtube][/youtube]


Seems not :-(

That video is playing in the forum when using my phone to view it so I'm not sure what you mean?

Al.

[Wicky]

Odd - not working on my mac in either Safari, Firefox or Chrome




Seems problematic

https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... &t=2383086

[VTRDark]

Well done - go on install 3.2, you know you want to

+1

html 5 media player is what is needed. Flash wont be around for much longer and is unsafe. Adobe would say exactly the same too.

Thank you Al for all you hard work and persisting with it. Well done mate I'm sure there are added security benefits to to the update. Some nice little GUI tweaks too. As for the logo/banner...why not keep it that size and lets have a little vtr.org members banner design competition without vtr1000.org text and keep the title (h1) as it should be in text format. It could do with an update and get rid of the Blue and use the Grey graduated colour in the background. Better still make use of an Alpha channel so there is transparency. Might as well make use of the default template as it's less to update/change with future updates.

[lloydie]

Thank you for the bloody finger tip I now have and thank you for taking the time to do this

[hallie]

Good work Al. I can stop talking to the missus again now...

[MacV2]

Woohooo were back !

I was getting bad humour withdrawal symptoms...The plepbs on farcebarf just don't appreciate my stunning sense of humor...


Two Badgers walk in to a road...