Forum script issues as of July 2024

[Şerban S.]

Forum script issues as of July 2024

Hi, everyone!

Since I had trouble since the beginning of this new story, I belive we can help solving them.

1. UTF-8 compliance.

As anyone can see, my name is Șerban Stănescu. The User Name, is "Șerban S."
Having more than 29 years of computer practice, it is highly unlikely for me to "forget" my login credentials.
Yet, i was unable to login!
It took me almost 150 minutes to find a solution to login. This is by all means, unacceptable.
Finally, i discovered that the PHP login script, expects instead of "Ș", the ASCII code (  &#350 ).
I don't know what about you, but I'm sure I'm not a computer, by all means. So, how was i supposed to guess what the hell the login script expected from me and what the error message meant?
Nevertheless, I was persistent enough to discover this.
So, if there is anyone in this situation, just search for the ASCII code of the character (LibreOffice, Special Characters, KeyDown) and replace it in the login window. Something like this:

"&#350"
Remember to end the tag with ";".
I omitted the semicolon because it is impossible to put the whole HTML TAG string without getting it replaced with the special character. Weird behavior, to say the least!

The same issue can be generated by the System Font(s), if it is an old ISO definition, such as "Courier New Western". All fonts have to be UTF-8 compliant.

2. Ranking icons.

As you can see, my ranking icons show as placeholders.
Since on my forum I replaced some default icons with others, I came across this.
First possible cause is the size of the image.
The standard size and file format, can be obtained from the "Star" icon, which shows correctly.
For any other file, whatever image would that be, it has to have the same format. If it's a .gif has to be converted to .png, and so on, depending on the default format. There should be a mention regarding supported formats and possibly, the size.
Same program that converts, can resize it to the size of the Star icon. So, say if this is "Star.ico" or maybe "Star.gif" and 16px, then all other ranking icons in the script directory, have to stick to this size and file format.
I'm pretty sure that only Jerry can fix that, since it is done at hosting level, using some FTP (FileZilla, for one) or maybe the web app of the hosting. Both work fine, i used both.
After fixing, a full backup is required. After this, in case of need, only the changed directories need (eventually) to be restored.

3. Forum Menu

Now, the Forum Menu, has links for "New Posts", "Today's Posts". Both return an empty string.
While for "Today's Posts" this might be true, for "New Posts", I highly doubt that, unless the time stamp or range is set to "0". If so, what's the use of this link?
I guess this can be solved at Admin level, since there has to be some time string to set the interval in the querry string of the Forum Settings.

[Valtam]

I got your emails. We're using new software now - there's bound to be some annoyances/changes during migration.
The important things are that the information (threads/posts) have been preserved so the knowledge has not been lost. The rest we will sort out over time. The entire project is also going through a growth spurt which is bringing some headaches of their own that I have to deal with. New Posts, Today's Posts shows your Thread, the only thread from today so it appears to be working just fine. Rank icons fixed (I hope).

[Valtam]

I would also suggest everyone go through their profile and update their information.

[Şerban S.]

I got your emails. We're using new software now - there's bound to be some annoyances/changes during migration. [...]

Thanks for replying!

As for the annoyances, there will be a ton of those. Just restoring the DBs, and it's enough headache. As for finding a match for the theme with some DB entries...

[...] Today's Posts [...]

Worked fine yesterday. Works fine today. So I guess it's OK.
"New Posts". Seems to work fine, also. i guess in a few days we'll know for sure.

[...] Rank icons fixed [...]

Yeah. Now they show OK. As I said, i had that issue some 2 or maybe more years ago and I figured it out.

Happpy coding! 

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I would also suggest everyone go through their profile and update their information.

I did it. Seemed obvious to me to do this in a new environment. I suppose I'l l have to check repeatedly. At least for the beginning.

One thing I've noticed. The signature says "only 255 characters" but throws an error message at about 230.
I tested a 245 chars string but it rejected the update. I don't find it critical, but it's good to know. (Afterall, we got Twitter sometime ago...)
I also suggest you check the post length. I had trouble with that. For whatever reason, the default is too short.
If someone needs to post a log excerpt and is somewhat long, might reject the posting. I got that on my forum before being ashamed by someone... Guess i was lucky!

[Valtam]

There may be some slow downs on the Forums and Hardware Database as we are approaching a stage where the web server will need to be upgraded. This is being closely monitored and will be carefully considered.