Site Upgrade coming

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  • twistsol
    Veteran Member
    • Dec 2002
    • 2893
    • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
    • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

    Site Upgrade coming

    Last April we performed an upgrade of vBulletin from version 3, which was downright old, to version 4 which was old, but still supported. The changes fromvBulletin 3 to 4 were significant behind the scenes and less so from an end user standpoint. We were able to keep the layout and functionality and much of the look and feel. Since the upgrade, there has been a lot of activity to get the infrastructure in place to support the upgrade to a fully modern version of vBulletin 5.

    When The previous versions were developed, nearly everyone had a reasonably large monitor and the industry assumed screens would keep getting bigger. The Developers were completely blindsided by tablets and phones with smaller or tiny screens. If you’ve been to our site using your phone or tablet without TapaTalk, it can be pretty painful. That is about to change. Development of vBulletin 4 has ended and support for it will be ending soon, so once again we'll be upgrading the site. There is no defined timeline for the upgrade at the moment, but a good guess would either be mid-December or mid-January. We’ll keep you all posted as work progresses.

    The main feature of the upgrade is a fully responsive design. This means that thesite will automatically adjust itself based on the size of the screen … within limits. You probably still won’t be able to use it on your watch. A side affect of this is that the look and feel is significantly different and will definitely take some getting used to. We’ll continue to support TapaTalk formobile users as well.


    A second major change is that all content is now in “channels”. Previously we had Blogs, Forums, and Articles, each as a separate object. These are all now channels and the content in each is managed the same way.

    We will also have both more and less control over the style of the site. Some layout options were retired, and some of the extensions we’ve used for layout are not available for VB5. Conversely, we have more granular control of fonts,sizes etc., and many new layout tools have been added.
    Last edited by twistsol; 10-25-2015, 05:46 PM.
    Chr's
    __________
    An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
    A moral man does it.
  • twistsol
    Veteran Member
    • Dec 2002
    • 2893
    • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
    • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

    #2
    The upgrade to vBulletin 5 is on hold for a bit. vBulletin had a security issue with the software from versions 5.1.0 up through 5.1.9. In fact their own site was down for a few days. In November they released a number of patches in two week timeframe and have released another version 5.1.10 as well. It seems that they have it cleared up but since we don't have a full time staff to deal with security issues should they arise, we are going to take a wait and see stance until others have had a chance to test the upgrade.
    Chr's
    __________
    An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
    A moral man does it.

    Comment

    • twistsol
      Veteran Member
      • Dec 2002
      • 2893
      • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
      • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

      #3
      Site upgrade call to action

      The site upgrade is back on track and has been mostly completed on the development site. From now until Sunday evening 2016-FEB-07, the development site will be open for all of you to take a look and poke around. Feel free to post, upload etc try things out and note down what works and what doesn't

      Please note the following while poking around.
      • Forum rules still apply on the development site.
      • Your userid and password should be the same as they are here unless you changed it after Tuesday
      • Note that anything you post there will be deleted
      • If you find issues or have questions, please post them here.
      • Comments and suggestions are helpful, don't be shy.
      • Try it out on a phone or tablet as the formats now dynamically change based on screen size
      • The server specs are lower for development so some things can be pokey.


      The SawdustZone development site can be found at http://www.sawdustzone.org
      Chr's
      __________
      An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
      A moral man does it.

      Comment

      • Bill in Buena Park
        Veteran Member
        • Nov 2007
        • 1865
        • Buena Park, CA
        • CM 21829

        #4
        Looks good to me! Thanks for your hard work
        Bill in Buena Park

        Comment

        • Black wallnut
          cycling to health
          • Jan 2003
          • 4715
          • Ellensburg, Wa, USA.
          • BT3k 1999

          #5
          Looks awesome on my iPhone!
          Donate to my Tour de Cure


          marK in WA and Ryobi Fanatic Association State President ©

          Head servant of the forum

          ©

          Comment

          • Cochese
            Veteran Member
            • Jun 2010
            • 1988

            #6
            Is it going to have the margins on desktop mode?
            I have a little blog about my shop

            Comment

            • twistsol
              Veteran Member
              • Dec 2002
              • 2893
              • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
              • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

              #7
              I'm not sure what the question is.

              There is always a 35 pixel margin on both sides of the content, and on the right side there are some widgets which lead to the margin below them being about 300 pixels. The content on the new site has a maximum width of 1200 pixels. I just increased it to 2500 in development but I only have my laptop with me so I can't really test it.

              The current site has a larger left margin because there are moderator controls there that most people don't see but still take up space. Those are gone in the new version and moved to a separate page.
              Chr's
              __________
              An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
              A moral man does it.

              Comment

              • Cochese
                Veteran Member
                • Jun 2010
                • 1988

                #8
                Yes, it looks much better now. I was particularly referring to inside threads, there was quite a bit of blank margin on the sides.

                If you're taking votes on the background, I think the crisp white of the site now is better than what reminds me of fancy resume paper.
                I have a little blog about my shop

                Comment

                • twistsol
                  Veteran Member
                  • Dec 2002
                  • 2893
                  • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
                  • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Cochese
                  If you're taking votes on the background, I think the crisp white of the site now is better than what reminds me of fancy resume paper.
                  So noted and I completely disagree.

                  Fortunately it is very easy to create a child style and change just the background to white while all other settings are inherited from the parent. I'll put some time into that tonight.
                  Chr's
                  __________
                  An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
                  A moral man does it.

                  Comment

                  • Cochese
                    Veteran Member
                    • Jun 2010
                    • 1988

                    #10
                    I'll take it. The off-color makes me think that f.lux has kicked in early.
                    I have a little blog about my shop

                    Comment

                    • twistsol
                      Veteran Member
                      • Dec 2002
                      • 2893
                      • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
                      • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

                      #11
                      I had a few minutes between meetings so created the style. Take a look now, you'll need to change your style to SawdustZone White
                      Chr's
                      __________
                      An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
                      A moral man does it.

                      Comment

                      • Cochese
                        Veteran Member
                        • Jun 2010
                        • 1988

                        #12
                        Awesome, thanks.
                        I have a little blog about my shop

                        Comment

                        • tfischer
                          Veteran Member
                          • Jul 2003
                          • 2343
                          • Plymouth (Minneapolis), MN, USA.
                          • BT3100

                          #13
                          Thanks for all your work keeping this site going.

                          I may be blind but where is the "new posts" link on the new site?

                          Comment

                          • twistsol
                            Veteran Member
                            • Dec 2002
                            • 2893
                            • Cottage Grove, MN, USA.
                            • Ridgid R4512, 2x ShopSmith Mark V 520, 1951 Shopsmith 10ER

                            #14
                            We might both be blind, I can't find it either ... this is why we test.
                            Chr's
                            __________
                            An ethical man knows the right thing to do.
                            A moral man does it.

                            Comment

                            • Stytooner
                              Roll Tide RIP Lee
                              • Dec 2002
                              • 4301
                              • Robertsdale, AL, USA.
                              • BT3100

                              #15
                              Excellent work on this. Looks great to me.
                              Lee

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