www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

It's that time of the year when thoughts turn to updating UKB for the better. To be honest, I've been making changes (that have yet to hit the website) over the last couple of months, and that work is now complete. The website will be updated in early December, since we need to wait for the photo comp. to complete.

1. New photo and video albums.
UKB uses 3rd-party add-ons to the forums for photos and videos, which has really held back the ongoing development of the website, since I'm dependent on the authors of those add-ons to keep them up to date. Unfortunately, neither have been updated for over a year, bugs have not been fixed, and I can't even upgrade the forum itself, which increases the potential for security vulnerabilities to be exploited.

I've therefore decided to remove the photo albums (app.php/gallery) and video albums (app.php/video) from the forums ... and have created an equivalent mechanism that is part of the main website. No photos or videos will be lost in the process (in fact, they've already been copied over!). The reason I don't think this will be an issue is that we have a solid library of photos that are used on the species pages (ID charts, etc.), and updates to the images we use on the species pages is relatively-infrequent. The new mechanism will allow Vince (and other mods) to add new images to the relevant albums (in the new mechanism) without having to ask any member to upload their images to the photo album themselves I'll be meeting up with Vince to fine-tune things at some point, since he 'owns' this element of the website (and I've just spoken with him).

2. No more personal albums.
The downside (to members) is that we will no longer be able to support personal albums (app.php/gallery/users), and I'll be contacting those members that use this facility ahead of time so that they can move their images to some other hosting platform (e.g. Flickr, Photobucket etc.). Personal Diaries will remain as-is.

3. A responsive website.
Another significant enhancement is that the website will be 'responsive', in that it will scale down to support tablets, smartphones etc. This is still a work in progress, but is just about there.
4. More photos and improved content.
Of course, once the new mechanisms are in place, the focus will be on improving the content. In particular, now that the book I've been writing is out of the way, there are hundreds of images that I need to get onto UKB, and the species descriptions need updating

5. Look and feel
I've not changed the overall 'look and feel' of the website (although it would be very easy to now do this), since it is already perfect

6. What else?
So - while we're in this period of relative inactivity, unless you're Neil and hunting down Long-tailed Blues on a daily basis , I'd like to know what other enhancements you'd like to see ... ?

Cheers,

- Pete

Hi all,

For those that read these posts (!), the update will happen on Monday, so expect some weirdness while the update takes place. I'll repost here when it's completed. Onwards and upwards!
Cheers,

- Pete

Thank you, as ever, Pete, for all the incredible work you put into this site. This is what the internet was invented for.

Guy

Thanks Guy! A weekend of final testing, and writing a review of a certain book, awaits

Cheers,

- Pete

Hi Pete
There aren't many websites that have remained in my Favourites folder for the last 9 years, but UK Butterflies is there. And there is only one reason for this. Because it is brilliant. Thanks for all you do.
Best Wishes
Paul

Thanks Paul!

Cheers,

- Pete

Part 1 now complete
Blocked unwanted 'bots' and visitors from (primarily) China that were causing too many hits to the website.
Photos and video albums removed from the forums.
New-look 'responsive' UKB website uploaded (details as above, with new media albums that contain both photos and videos).

Part 2 being looked at now (upgrading the forums to the latest version)

Cheers,

- Pete

Part 2 now complete

The forums are now on the new and shiny version ... at least a version that I feel confident is the most secure.

I still need to do various types of testing, add the customisations to the forums (banner, link back to UKB etc.), but these will have to wait for now.

If you do find any glitches then please let me know (post in this thread). Thx.

Onwards and upwards!

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete,

Just had a quick look at the new layout - very impressed. The right amount of white space (to my eyes anyway ). Many websites are too cluttered in my opinion.

ATB
Peter

Pete Eeles wrote: ↑Mon Dec 09, 2019 10:36 am..Blocked unwanted 'bots' and visitors from (primarily) China that were causing too many hits to the website...

I wondered what was causing the recent spike in visitors. I think we had upwards of 400 in the wee small hours of one morning.

I like the new layout, Pete. It's easy on the eye and enhances the user experience.

Thanks for all the hard work you put in. It's fair to say this website of yours has been life changing for me even prior to these improvements. Here's hoping you get some well-earned relaxation time over the festive period.

Thx Peter, David

David M wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 12:33 pm I wondered what was causing the recent spike in visitors. I think we had upwards of 400 in the wee small hours of one morning.

A particular 'bot' that was indexing the entire website, as well as a huge amount of traffic from a range of IP addresses traced to China. Both are now blocked, and normal service has been restored

Cheers,

- Pete

Thank you Pete for all of your efforts.
I have been finding my way around the new look website, more easily today and was liking some of those changes.
I thought that the new look home page might be seen as more user friendly, particularly for people with smaller screens such as mobile phones or tablets, compared with the previous layout.

Happy Advent,

Website looks fresh, bright ,clean and crispy. I had forgotten you were making changes and this came as a bit of a surprise. A top job all round Pete.

Thanks Philip and Iain!

Cheers,

- Pete