Topic: Moving the forum and wiki

I am in the process of migrating the forum and wiki to their new, permanent homes (safe from the February shut-down); this post will help explain the process and how it will affect you, our users.

The Forum

  • Status
    I currently have the new forum up and running on the new server already, with the latest PunBB software.  I've also successfully run a test migration of the data from this server to the new one, so it looks like we're about ready for the transition after some further testing to make sure everything works the way it should.

  • Impact
    Short Version
    The forum will be unavailable for a day or so to keep people from making posts while I export everything. Then the new forum will "magically" appear at the same address you know and love (forum.chumby.com) once I've completed the transition, though it may take a few days for this to happen if your ISP caches DNS records.  All info will be transferred, and will still be the same on the new forum!
    Long/Technical Version
    When I begin the transition, the forum will be put into "maintenance mode" to prevent new stuff from getting posted while I export the old data -- this will completely disable the forum, with only a brief message at the top of the page indicating that it's in maintenance mode.  Once I do this, the old forum will remain in maintenance mode until the server is shut down!  As soon as I complete the data transition though, we will be switching the DNS to point to the new server, and once your ISP's DNS registers the change, you will see the new forum in place of the old one.  The data transfer includes posts, user accounts, and pretty much everything else, so nothing should get lost and you won't need to create new accounts or change your passwords or anything.

  • Schedule
    Testing will happen over the next few days;
    The old (current) forum will become unavailable some time toward the end of next week (Feb 6 - Feb 10);
    The new forum will be officially brought online the same day the old one is put into maintenance mode; however, it may take a few days for the new forum to show up for you, depending on how long your ISP caches records.

The Wiki

  • Status
    I currently have the wiki in maintenance mode; in contrast to the forums, this only disables the editing/creating of pages so all the data is still accessible.  I've backed up all the wiki data and settings as well, so the information is ready for transfer; however, I still need to set up the wiki on the new server, so the wiki's transition is actually behind the forum's.

  • Impact
    Currently no one can edit or create pages on the wiki (although no one's done so in almost a year).  The wiki will remain this way until the new wiki "magically" replaces the old one (also at the same address, wiki.chumby.com), at which point it will be editable again.

  • Schedule
    I'm hoping to have the wiki software installed on the new server by Sunday (Feb 3);
    The data transition will occur within a day or so (thus, by Feb 4);
    I intend to upgrade the wiki software to the latest version, which should only take a few minutes, and will occur the same day as the data transition (so also by Feb 4);
    Some testing will need to be done, but not as much as the forums, I expect to be done with testing by Feb 8;
    The new wiki will be officially brought online once testing is complete; however, it may take a few days for the new wiki to show up for you, depending on how long your ISP caches records.

If you have any questions about the upgrade process and how it will affect you, please don't hesitate to ask in this thread smile

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

If you need moderators for either I'd be happy to help, I handle this kind of thing at $day_job. I don't know the PunBB software specifically other than as a user here, but I don't foresee any problems learning how to handle it.

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

Thanks for the great work in keeping things moving forward!  I hope to help contribute by editing some wiki pages on the new server for some cleanup of pages, project ideas, source code, etc.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

4 (edited by peteyboy 2013-02-08 13:56:54)

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

Awesome! No time for love, Docktor Jones!

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

Anyway to get Tapatalk support in the new forum?  smile

http://www.tapatalk.com/

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

AFAIK PunBB doesn't support tapatalk, so it's not likely to happen.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

The updates are running a little behind schedule, but if you're reading this, the forum migration has completed!  Next up, the wiki!

Welcome to the new forum!

As for Tapatalk, I may look into figuring out how to integrate it, but don't hold your breath... it would be a from-scratch effort, and my time isn't limitless wink

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

Doktor Jones,

I noticed a difference between the old and new forums.

When selecting "new posts" I get a list of posts since my last visit, but they are no longer bold for the unread and unbold once read.


Sorry I haven't been testing recently. Tax time is eating up all my "free" time. Three sets of tax returns and two CPAs can keep a person busy.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

also the font is weird and spacing different

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

Weird how?

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

Some minor cosmetic changes have taken place as a result of the upgrade to the latest version of the forum software; this may account for some of the differences.

msharp42, can you explain "weird"?

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

All ok here, reading upside down though. wink

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

Hmmm, I'm not sure I can do a whole lot about it (especially since it appears to be fine for most other people)... what browser are you using?  Also, could you possibly post a screenshot so I can see what's going on?

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

The new forum looks fine to me. Fonts look exactly the same. The only visible difference is the hue of the blue color. I've checked on WinXP with both Firefox 17 ESR and IE8. Also checked with my Blackberry tablet, two different browsers, with fine results.

Wish I knew more about Windows (Server?) 2012 so I could contribute some thoughts on ms42's font problems. I'm pretty sure the Oxygen.css style has been around for a while, was used in the previous version of the forum. The current css font calls for "font-family:Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif," pretty standard, so I don't know what browser would have trouble with that.

If others have display problems, it might help to view other punbb forums to see if the same things happen there. Here's a forum using the new version of punbb-

http://punbb.informer.com/forums/

Here's an (inactive/archive?) forum using an older version of punbb, looks like our old forum-

http://www.capemaytimes.com/forums/index.php

I like several subtle variations in the new forum, like text-typing boxes and highlighting showing a distinctive tan color when active.

I think the search feature now gives better, more specific results.

RE tapatalk, I don't see the need for it. Current format displays well on all my devices. Plus, it's a proprietary app designed to run on proprietary-based devices, getting further away from our open-source hopes. According to the site, one big benefit is that you can upload photos directly from your device to the forum, which I don't think this forum needs. I think this should be way on the back burner. Maybe this tapatalk discussion should be moved to "the future" where you've posted your poll on it,

http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=8568

I think we'd better keep this topic for "testing and feedback" which is a real priority now.

Re: Moving the forum and wiki

Doktor Jones wrote:

Hmmm, I'm not sure I can do a whole lot about it (especially since it appears to be fine for most other people)...

Looks great in Chromium and Firefox to me. And I have only one eye!

Brian, #1 Joan Jett Fan