v3.0 status update

Ok, here is a thread to let you know what is up with v3.0

I'm putting a lot of error in the back-end because this is mainly what is changing, the front end should look pretty much the same (with, of course, some enhancements).

So far, I've been working on the administrative part, and last night I did some work on the forum system, which will basically be the same as this one, but built on stored procedures this time.

Basically, it took me 2 hours (if not more) just to do the "Forum Index" page that nobody never checks, + of course the data model for the forum, topic, messages & moderators.

One advantage to this system, all stats will be in real time, except the "Views", which can't be calculated. This means that your post count will discrease if I (or you) delete one of your messages, unlike the way it is now.. or it is when I decide to do a cleanup job.

Technically, this could slow things up, we'll have to see it "live" to be sure it's worth it, otherwise I'll stick with the prior "counter" approach..

Tonight, I should go over the topic list (ie thread) page.. this one will be easily enhanced because I'm using the datagrid control provided with Visual Studio.NET, which means it's easier to build this kind of page, and it's better done.. the big advantage of .NET reside in the fact that code and design are now 2 seperate entities, so this will ease my life so much for the maintenance after v3.0 will be released.

If that goes well, I'll do the actual topic page, and post page.. I doubt I'll do the polls tonight.

Once these are done, I'll go through the design phase, because so far it's the shitty black & white design with nothing it it. I'll keep it that way until it works good.

BTW, once the new forum interface will be done, I'd be very happy to have a few beta testers to help hunt bugs. Those nasty things always show up when you put the software in "production" mode, so I'm hoping it will be good when brough up.

Since I'm changing the data model, it should take a while to import all the datas in the site. I'm seriously thinking about restarting the user database because of all the crappy records in it, or I might just import those who logged on recently, I don't know...

Please note that this is not close to completion, I'll have to think about releasing it by bits, or waiting until it's finished to push it for your use.. going by "bits" would mean closing all sections on the current site that aren't done yet, which is difficult to do (can't really have both application on the same website unfortunatly)..

I'll keep you updated of the progress daily, starting next week, my wife is going back to school at night, which leaves me lots of free time, so since I really enjoy working on NewOrderOnline, I'm hoping to have v3.0 finished & ready by the end of the year...

Who knows, it might be faster than I think.. depends if I actually have time, and the fact that I don't necessairly like to "work" after a working day, since it's my day job too!

On second thoughts, the "counters" will stay, as it's a lot faster than the other query I did, although I did quite an optimisation job.

Good news, the forum index page is complete, although it will probably need a design rework to try to make it look-alike to the current one (example, all borders are boxy, not round, fonts are a little different), but feature-wise, it's completed.

I also did the thread list page, that one is enhanced by a new feature which you don't have on the current version... Sorting!

Yes, that's right.. you can sort the thread list by the fields available, so thread name, topic started, replies, views, and (default) last post in thread.. I'll only have to figure a way to bypass the use of color codes in the nickname, because this, of course, screws the sorting by topic starter...

I also implemented the new (yes again) menu system, which is Infragisitics' menus for those who are interested to know, I sure hope they are cross-browser compatible, because it's a very expensive component! If it's not working with everyone (or at least the majority of regular users), then we'll switch back to the current ones, but I have high hopes.

Next in line is the Thread page itself, and the post page.. the thread will take time because of the polling system, I will try to enhanced the post page a little, I think it needs it!

And next one after that is Ricardo's hell, the search engine :D

It should be a lot better now, with the way I'll build it, and for once, the damned page will fit with the colors of the system

So there is hope that the v3.0 posting system will be done by the end of this week-end, which would be a big step forward in the rebuilding. I'm testing it with a database backup of 3 days ago and it's much more faster (though local), so I have hope this will be worth it.

What next? the complete membership system with fanclub and then the news system.. afterwards I think we'll be ready to switch to v3.0, the rest can and will wait a little..

Of course, a test phase will be in place to make sure there aren't any ridiculous errors I didn't seen when doing my own tests.

And don't worry, I have all your requests, and I will try to make them!

Originally posted by Spotnick BTW, once the new forum interface will be done, I'd be very happy to have a few beta testers to help hunt bugs.

As a fellow IT professional, I am willing to be a beta tester and submit bug reports dilligently.

Thanks Ricardo, I'll let you know when it's ready for a testing, we'll test mostly the forum engine & the login/logout/registration/edit features, as the rest is not as important over here...

Little update, sorry folks, but I went outdoors today

Nevertheless, I did some work this morning, and I just started to work again, and I have plugged the poll module into the thread list, so basically, now everything in VIEW mode is working, but no action works...

Which means, next step is the post/edit/quote message and the poll VOTE feature.

Last piece of the puzzle is the search engine, this will take more time than the rest, because we all know it wasn't working quite as it should have..

And then I'm pretty confident the forum module will be ready, I need to check with the people who offered their help to revamp it if they can actually do it or not...

New Thread/Reply/Edit/Quote works

Only one left is the poll addition, this one won't be too long, but it has to be done.

There are many details that the current version has that must be transfered, and probably a few will miss by memory loss...!

The moderator functions will also be done probably tomorrow, I'm confident that the forum module will be finished by tomorrow, so within the next week, I'm gonna start the member module, which will be a pain too :D

After that, it's the discography module, this one will be very painful, trust me

Alright.. did a lot of fine tuning, didn't advance much.. little things such as scrolling to the right message after a post & everything, this takes time.

I added the much desired "Return to Top" button at the end of a thread :D

I'll work on the features before working on the design.. so far, everything works great!

Cheers...!

Yesterday I did mostly the logon screen & authentification through the site, and it seems to work just fine...

Night off tonight I guess ;)

Alright, a 3 days week-end, this should give me some work time, however it's a beautiful (but cold) day in Montréal.

Today I have finished the forum module, it seems to work like a charm, however, it's not been tested yet..

The search engine is working, but not completely, I have to add the multiple word search, and "search in message" & "display as message list"...

The problem I have, is that it's a lot too big to search in the messages.. it takes 1 minute to complete a search when searching through the text of 120000 messages, I might only allow to search by title & users.. which is still a good thing..

I have just completed the front page of v3.0, which is 100% similar to the current one, but with the new engine.

So because the main page links to the newsroom, I'll have to make the newsroom, which is what I'm aiming tonight if I have the time to do so.. the next step will be the registration/profile of a member, which is pretty basic, but still it's one thing that has to be done.

So so far we have:

• LogOn/LogOff
• Forum Module
• Front Page

And of course a lot of administrative stuff + all forum moderator functions...

It doesn't seem much, but let's see what's left:

• News Room
• Site News / What's New
• Upcoming Events
• Discography Module
• Today's History
• Tours & Concerts Module
• Live History
• Multimedia Module
• Member Module
• Articles
• Link
• Song Browser
• Publish Polls
• FAQ
• Stories
• Online Users

It seems a lot, but trust me, it's less than it seems, the forum module, with the member module, is the only data that allow DATA to be entered by the user.

The only other system that requires data input is the review module, which is already available for concerts, but will be available also for discography items, and the possible "I own this item" so you can have a list of your own collection online here.. but that's not done yet.

Other ideas I've add.. Link a thread with a news.. so you can react and see other people's reaction to this news.. (which exists on several news site), and I'm wondering if the review system should not be linked to the forum itself, but that might just increase the message database size.

One day I'll have to do something about the old messages.. it's nice to have the memories, but gosh, the database is 150 megs and growing.. no wonder why the site might be slow!

I've been working since a few day on the member registration/profile part of the site, and I must say I'm amazed by the new functionalities.

FINALLY, I have a system that allows me to resize the pictures people are sending AND create the thumbnail on the fly, so no more manual generation needed! that will be great...

And now upload any format you want, I'll convert it to JPEG... works like a charm :D

Coming soon to a NOOL near you!

Ok, now the profile edition & account options & upload picture is done, all that is missing is the avatar upload,which won't be too complicated because it's the same thing as the picture upload.

Through the years, I have learned some people want to delete their profile, this will be easier now.

I have done the upcoming events page, it's done and ready, I'll be aiming now to finish all the small pages. I also need to do the new member registration page...

One thing I did is, you can now change your own email.. except it will have to be validated by email if you wish to be able to logon again.. I am sick and tired of all those email change request :D

I believe that there will be tons less of emails in my inbox once v3.0 will be ready.. that's the goal too ;)

Originally posted by Floyd Anderson Hi Nic......when does the v3.0 go online (it seems 2 b, that I've read it somewhere, but I can't remember) ?......btw, do u have received the 'LWTUA 2003' cd-r from me, what do u think about it (any chance 2 take it 2 the songbrowser and 2 the bootleg discography) ?...Greetz, Floyd Anderson.chatmaster1@gmx.at

v3.0 should be online at the end of this month. At first it will look like a downgrade unless I have the time to work on the display until then, but it should be ready then. I'm trying to do all the functionnalities working, then we switch, then I'll be able to modify the database at my ease to make everything work fine...! (And to enhance the thing!!)

Yes I got your CD, listened to it in the car yesterday, either i don't remember the original, but it sounded amazing to me.. nice work, I need to listen to the original so I can be a judge, I don't remember it to be so good, so I need to check :D

Things added last night.

• Today's History page.. improved, you now have a calendar to change the date, so you can see any day in history at your will.. default being today.

• the "What's new" page.

• Song browser blue print, I changed the way it worked, because it sucked, now you have a menu on the right with the band names, then you click and have the full list in the right pane.. you'll be able to click those to get to the song page, which is not done yet, but should be the next step.

I'm seriously amazed by the possibilities this .net platform is giving to me, I'm able to do things in 10% of the time it used to take me, so it's really an improvement! Its only problem is that the computer running the development environment must be a monster, my good (now) old P4-1.5GHz has a little trouble with running the IDE for more than a few hour, it seems like I need memory, but this one is a little too expensive for now :( (damned RIMM memory)...

So basically, pages like the song information, FAQ, Links, Articles, MultiMedia shoudln't take too long to do. I have a good feeling with the "tours & concerts" section, with what I did with the song browser, it shouldn't be too long to do. The only part that will require a little work is the review system, which is pretty bad right now, but this will actually be used for all items in discography & concerts & other areas later, so it won't be wasted time. I don't think the discography will be much of a challenge (actually, the management part is the hell of the current system though, it's very complicated to enter a new item!), but maybe do all the database queries will be more likely the worst part of this.

What else? the fan club won't be much of a challenge, but here's a section that needs a major improvement.. due to the amount of people in it! the paging system will be very helpful on this one.

Don't give up on us yet