I’ve started work on the tsn.7 style and theme for the new forums, and I must say, it’s lookin’ pretty sweet. Once I get a working set going, I’ll redo the splash page to give a bit of a preview and then load it up to the forum index. Continue reading
Welcome to the next version of the-spot.net: tsn.7
There are a few things you should note before getting started – like, the fact that I put this up within 3 hours, and can only test the logins that I have…which worked.
Now, if you find something that doesn’t work properly, let me know – post a message on the site, and if you can’t post it on the site, then send me an IM or something.
Yes, you heard it right, there is a new version of the-spot.net being put up as you read this.
The folks over at www.phpbb.com have released version 3.0.0 of their forum software, and it has all the functions and features that we used in tsnX built-in to it, and everything works right out of the box. So I have gone through and done the conversion of the database, and am in the processing of setting up the permissions and fixing up the forum structure to make get most of it back to the way it was, and some of it optimized and combined for fewer forums.
I’ll have another follow-up post about what’s different that I changed during the conversion, and there will be a forum for things that changed because of the upgrade for everyone to post in.
The only drawback for now is that there is no My Spot page until I get it written again.
I’ve come to the point where I have nothing else to do with my time, but sit here and work on long-standing projects. So with that time, I have done a little bit of tweaking on the-spot.net. I’ve fixed a couple things on the MySpot page, for one…
- It no longer redirects you to the forum index if there are no new posts since you last visit…instead it lets you stay on the MySpot page, so you can go about you business checking the other features of the site.
- At the top of the window, where it says “the-spot.net :: MySpot” it now says “MySpot (35)” or some other number in parenthesis to denote how many new topics have been posted to since you last checked the MySpot page. I tried to incorporate it into the header, but it did not work because I was not willing to have every page load run a search for new posts. That feature will come later with some ajax that I am going to integrate into the site…so that it loads stuff in the background, not affecting your ability to load the page.
- I put the Jumpbox (which you can select your forum, and click go, from a drop down menu) and put it inside the New Posts table, to consolidate that part of the site. It didn’t deserve its own box.
- I fixed the mini-calendar on the MySpot page to show the correct date, once the time reaches past 6pm. It was running the regular GMT – 0 intead of the GMT-6 like we’re in, for the most part. I haven’t figured out how to fix the big calendar though…still looking into that.
Also, a couple days ago, I made some other changes…
- I brought back the Photobook stream at the bottom of the MySpot page. I’m debating whether or not to just go with the flickr setup or run both, or just do the Photobook. flickr is easier to use, but Photobook is ours.
- I moved the tsn Network table to the other side, in preparation for the return of the User Pic on the MySpot page on the left column.
- I’m also looking into a personalized page for people to use…where they would see their private messages, draft-posts, watched topics, their online buddies, new posts, photostream, and other things.
the future plans are all contingent on what I can think of and figure out the code for. These improvements that have already happened were simply because I’ve either already had the code, and just plugged it in, or I had a burst of thought and figured out the cause of the problem so I could fix it.
Sorry I don’t update this thing much…there hasn’t been a whole lot of stuff going on behind the scenes of tsn – I’ve been looking into other services and websites and technologies for the past 7 months.
I am just now starting to get back into the swing of things for tsn.
After working on some graphics for tsnlocal.net, and creating background for the [[Oracle]] server and my computer, I’ve begun work on the next theme for tsnX: tsnX-dark. This one is a bit tricky because there is a combination of dark and light going on the same page that will require a different set of coding for the template to keep everything visible.
I’ve also been sparked to start working on some more stuff by a simple task they gave me at work – create a webpage, without using Frontpage and stuff, to display a server-is-down message in plain html. So I did it, all in Notepad++, and was actually pretty impressed that I could write a whole page using CSS and html from nothing, without using a WYSIWYG editor – I guess it’s still true that I know how to do it, it’s just easier for design purposes that I use an editor….even though I still do the hard coding by hand.
Anyway, I’ve begun work on tsnX-dark, and am still working on tsnlocal.net and the [[Oracle]] server, to give it its own DNS server capabilities. If I am able to do that, then if [wizard] and I end up in the same house with faster internet, I’ll be able to host all my website from my own computers, instead of having to host them commercially.
I’m also going to restart the daunting task of creating the MySpot page…there is already one out there, but it’s just a simple New Posts search page…I have to get some other code in there and a new design on it to finish it up. I’m also going to make the server and user status on the tsnlocal page into an Auto-refreshing portion of the page via AJAX. Then I’m revamping thepizzy.net homepage to reflect the tsnX design and update the information that has apparently not been touched since tsn went down earlier this year.
It just takes the proper motivation and desire to work on this stuff – because if you’re not totally into the job, then the product is going to suck if you finish it. So look for changes.