Major Forum Upgrade

[Pete Eeles]

Just to let members know that the forums are likely to be unavailable for a period on Monday 23rd January, due to an upgrade to the forum software we use and the associated photo gallery. The upgrade is required primarily for security updates, but will also see some changes in appearance, especially the photo gallery. Once the upgrade is completed I'll post a note explaining these differences since a few things have moved. I've spent a fair amount of time doing some local testing and most things are ok and no bugs that will prevent the upgrade.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Tony Moore]

Hi Pete,

May I register an enormous personal thank you for all the work you do to keep this marvellous site up and running. Long may it continue and all strength to your elbow. .

Tony M.

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Tony! All part of the service

I will be looking out for someone to help maintain and help enhance UKB moving forward; it's too valuable-a-resource to leave to one person.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

Just "bumping" this message to remind members that the forums will be down for some time (I estimate between 2 and 3 hours) on Monday.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

The upgrade has now completed! I'll describe the rationale for the upgrade, the changes, and the known bugs shortly. Right now, I need to get some breakfast (especially coffee); the upgrade took 5.5 hours which is much longer than I was expecting!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

As promised, some description of the upgrade:

Rationale
There are several reasons for the upgrade:
1. The current version of the bulletin board that UKB uses (phpBB) is no longer supported since I was waiting for item 2.
2. UKB relies on a 3rd-part "extension" for the photo gallery. This became available about 3 weeks ago and I've been testing ever since.
3. The new release contains security updates which I would always want to include.
4. The new release also contains new features - such as being able to upload multiple images as once (probably one of the most-requested items I've received!).

What's Changed
There are quite a few cosmetic changes and it's going to be best for you to just take a look (I'm new to the layout too). Suffice to say, all of the previous functionality (from a forums perspective) is still there.

The one item I need to now re-implement is the ability to upload videos. Nothing has been lost during the migration, but the previous code base does not work with the new forum.

What hasn't changed
To be honest, quite a lot! Most changes are "under the covers" and the integration with the rest of UKB (e.g. seeing forum posts and photo gallery images on the home page and species pages) was implemented and tested over the last couple of weeks.

Known issues
The current layout of the photo gallery goes awry with images incorrectly positioned. I've logged this as a bug and this will be fixed soon.

If you find any other problems or simply have a question, then please post in this thread. Thanks!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

Videos now back (see link in top right of forum pages).

Cheers,

- Pete

[Lee Hurrell]

Hi Pete

Thanks as ever for all the hard work. UKB has been an invaluable resource from before I was even a member and continues to be priceless.

The changes I have noticed so far; jump to page number, private messages link are really useful.

If there is now a function to upload more than one photo at a time, I will have caught up with my diary in no time!

Best wishes,

Lee

[Charles Nicol]

thanks for explaining about the changes Pete... i thought i had done something wrong
all the usual features i use are fine.

as the others said we are very grateful for the huge amount of work you put in to keep the site together

Charles

[JohnR]

Dear Sir Pete,

I'm missing the New Posts link, so instead of just clicking to see what I've missed I have to actually look at the dates of the posts.

I have the honour to remain,
Sir,
UKB's most humble and obedient servant.

PS it could just be me because I use ad blockers and a proxy server and I don't really know what I'm doing anyway

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Lee / Charles.

John - you're not the first to ask! Take a look at "Quick Links" in the top left of each page. It's all there

Cheers,

- Pete

[David M]

A very smooth upgrade, Pete. Well done.

Am I hallucinating or do images now take less time to upload?

[millerd]

I'll second that. Uploads seem much quicker, and the multiple file upload is a great feature.

Thanks, Pete!

Dave

[Pete Eeles]

Thx Dave x 2

I have implemented a better caching mechanism for pages and images, so the rendering times should be slightly improved.

Cheers,

- Pete