Server software update

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm very likely going to give the update a go tonight after I get home from work. During the actual update the forum will be in maintenance mode. Once the update is done, it'll be back online, but some things might not work completely yet, since the new version will need to do the rebuilding/re-indexing of all the content. The forum will be usable during the rebuild/re-index, so reading and posting should be fine, you can at least get used to the new layout.

 

Once the update is done, we'll fi any remaining issues and handle any comments you might have. And once things are running stable we'll start working on the visuals and try to make a couple of different CSS themes. We're not going to do any major custom theme like we did with the current version, since that just causes too many upgrading issues as we've seen now :)

[kvp]

Here are some images of the posts you mention, they're pretty much the same as in the current forum.

Thank You!

 

Also imho the new default style looks good.

[Martijn Meerts]

The new default does look good yes, so it's likely we'll only add a custom logo initially, and add some CSS to simulate the current look a little bit, so lots of grey with some orange.

 

The idea with the new version is to only override some CSS rather than actually editing code in the html template files. This should make updating to new minor version much easier. I still need to experiment a bit with what's possible with just some CSS overrides, but the idea is to create a couple of colour themes based on some popular trains for example.

[ToniBabelony]

Still need to do that mascot I once sort of promised to do...

[Martijn Meerts]

Still need to do that mascot I once sort of promised to do...

 

We'll just make you moderator with access to the theming system ;)

[ToniBabelony]

We'll just make you moderator with access to the theming system ;)

Be careful that I won't make anything that will upset the wife and kids xD

[Martijn Meerts]

No problem, I don't have either of those :D

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, as you can see, the forum is now upgraded. Rebuilding and re-indexing is still ongoing, so not everything will work completely just yet. Also, the forum will be a bit slow while the rebuilding is going on, partially due to the extra load, and partially due to the cache having been invalidated.

There are a couple of things I still need to look at, such as the little badges under the usernames not showing, and emoticons/smileys not showing. I'll look into that as soon as possible.

For now, just get used to the new software, and feel free to pass along any issues you come across, as well as requests/fixes/etc.

 

[cteno4]

Great job martijn! Glad it worked this time!

thanks again for all the time and effort, it's much appreciated by all here!

cheers

jeff

[cteno4]

Yayyyyy now it looks like all the various forms of YouTube embeds now work automatically!

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

If nothing else, that was worth the months of trying to update the silly thing :D

 

[Martijn Meerts]

As everyone will have noticed, the forum has been painfully slow the past hours. Looking at the server processes, the web server software (apache) was using up 100% CPU time for some reason or the other. Restarting the service only fixed the issue for a couple of minutes before going right back up to 100% CPU time again. Even restarting the server did nothing to fix the issue.

 

I went ahead and updated apache to a fresh new version, and updated PHP to version 7. I also installed a caching engine that works well with the forum software from what I understood. For now, the forum is back to being reasonably fast again, and the CPU load is also back to normal. I'll continue monitoring the server, but if the forum slows down again tomorrow during the day, I won't be able to do anything about it until I get back home from work again.

 

I've also fixed the little team badges, as well as the emoticons. I'll likely be adding some more (and definitely better) emoticons soon as well.

 

Lastly, I've installed the tapatalk plugin, so for those who use tapatalk, please let me know if it works again for you.

 

Sorry for the forum being so slow today, I know it must have been really annoying :)

 

[cteno4]

 No worries Martin! Thanks for doing all this I know it's a horrible task. Good luck with all the little tweaks.

 

running well now

 

jeff

[Gordon Werner]

thank you for restoring my ability to post in this forum.

 

(new forum software is holding a grudge against me for some reason)

Edited September 8, 2017 by Gordon Werner