Planned Maintainance And Downtime

Detomah · 16-03-2009, 12:16

Having patiently waited for the last few weeks for some of the software that Total Format uses to release their latest versions, so that we could perform some well needed maintainance, this morning we were informed that the bits we were waiting for, were finally made available, therefore that means we can now go ahead and perform the work we need to at this end.

We plan on doing this essential work over the course of Wednesday and possibly Thursday, depending on how smoothly the maintainance goes. This means that we need to put the site into maintainance mode as of around 8am on Wednesday morning and keep it there until the work is completed. This could be anything from 12 hours to 48 hours.

During this downtime, the forums software will be updated, various elements of the site and forum will be tweaked and optimised and some bits added and removed. More details about this will be posted once the site is live again, as this list is not quite set in stone and I don't know for definate which features will be completed during that time.

In the meantime... Over the next 48 hours, Total Format is getting more of the makeover done to it that has been an ongoing process for the last few weeks. If you take a look at this page: UK TV Guide - Total Format - TV Listings For Over 250 Channels you can get a peek of how TF will look once this work is completed. What this means however, is that page formatting and layouts are likely to become a little higgledy piggledy while the new templates are finalised and put in place.

Anyway, I apologise in advance for any disruptions that may be caused, hopefully Total Format will be a little slicker and smoother running by the end of the week.

Please note that the template work and appearance changes are going to commence pretty much immediately.

Detomah · 18-03-2009, 00:27

This is just a brief notice to say that TF will be taken offline early tomorrow evening rather than 8am as was stated. A few little bits and pieces need doing before the upgrades will be ready to install that mean I need a little longer to prepare.

Detomah · 18-03-2009, 20:46

Total Format will close down for maintainance in approximately 15 minutes. Please finish up anything your doing for the moment, so you don't lose your work.

The site will be down for between 24 and 48hrs, providing things go well, which they should do, as this is fairly standard proceedings, for a change.

Once the site goes down, the forum software will be updated to the latest version, together with a variety of essential backend work, security work and little bits like testing features and the likes.

Anyway, this is your 15 minutes closure advanced warning.

See you on the other side of the downtime.

Wish me luck...

Tom (Detomah)

Detomah · 21-03-2009, 08:56

During the course of this latest series of upgrades and maintenance work, I thought it would be an idea to write down for public curiosity some of the tasks I went through, so here is a list of work completed, together with some notes that went with it (for security reasons, not everything is listed).

List of tasks done and completed:

Made double backups of everything TF.
Downloaded the various latest software packs needed.
Checked everything already installed against proposed new stuff.
First to upgrade is forum software as that is most important, all went perfectly well.
Checked as many existing add-ons as I could think of to make sure everything still works at this point (I always find something not working later though)
VBseo software is next as it's integral to the sites links on Google and the likes. Major headache, it doesn't work at all, causes all kinds of problems and bugs and the likes, so after 12 hours of struggling to try and get it working, finally it is uninstalled and replaced by the old original working version, everything works again, thankfully. But that is still something that will need updating again at a later date...
Check everything I can think of for errors again, seeing as that last job went so completely sideways. Everything does appear to be back in working order, thank gawd.
Next to be updated is the Blog software. Really straight forward, as it's designed by Vbulletin and so is pretty seemless with the forum software. Settings and permissions to be checked near the end.
Next and longest task is next, go through all the individual little add-ons that TF has and update any that need updating, add new ones, remove old crappy ones and generally spend the next few hours doing this. This is what will decide whether TF is back open within 48hrs as stated or not. It is do-able.
Updated the shout box at the bottom of the page and added the tag cloud box down there too.
Added the throw egg at avatar effect.
Lots of backend work including admin menu organisation and the likes done.
Added special anti-leeching code, to stop leechers stealing TFs bandwidth by direct linking to TFs attachments.
Added a gallery for all the profile albums, so people can see pictures uploaded by others.
Updated the system behind the karma ratings. Fixed the negative karma image which wasn't showing correctly.
Added a new option to search for admins and supervisors, so that threads with no replies can be easily spotted, so people don't have ignored threads by accident.
Members List completely revamped, with new top bits added and rearranged. Gvies the list an actual purpose now. Old list can still be seen of course.
Added new post ranking system, that allows people to rank individual posts per user. This will just need people to use it for a bit for it to look and feel right, as it's a little bare on stats from a fresh install.
As previously requested by Laz and as promised, added location and country to postbit.
Automatic thread tagging has been applied. This isn't as good as human thread tagging though and only happens once per day, so people are still urged to get into a habit of tagging their threads when making them.
Added various new bits in the backend to help futureproof TF a little, as well as some other backend and admin type stuff.
Added award system back, after some serious rebuilding to make it work properly. Request awards works now, so members can request awards for others. Showcase added to members pages as well.
Two considerable security vulnerabilities discovered and fixed.
Some little tweaks and fixes applied to various bits of the site.
Fixed some major bugs in the critters feature. Still a couple of minor bugs which need fixing at some point though.
Fixed a couple of broken smilies.
Discovered a javascript error effecting several pages, which has now been fixed. Discovered another minor bug that is effecting the main frontpage of the site, noted to fix before putting site public again.
Updated some of the web spidering tools to the latest available versions, to help bring new visitors to TF.
Updated all necessary usergroup and permissions bit, always a nightmare and always in need of some tweaking afterwards too.
Double checked every single thing I could think of, to make sure it is in the best working order possible.

Anyway, suffice to say, there's been a heck of a lot done, most of which makes very little difference from the point of view of a member or visitor, but that needed to be done anyway.

More work will be going on over the next few days, but for now I wanted to get the site back live so the work so far could all get a thorough testing on a live site.

So, having checked and double checked everything I can think of several times, having gone through my list and made sure i've not missed anything I had in mind, I think we are almost ready to have the site live again.

I do still have a few more bits to deal with, but they can be done later:

Figure out what the problem is with that error showing on main page.
Update hangman templates.
Update 404 page templates.
Frontpage needs updating at some point over weekend, site can be live when that is done though.
Fix Art and Posters templates.
Add proper news page to the site, so that news can be seen on a seperate page from forums.

So.... Welcome back. Please post any bugs you find Total Format Forum

Also, as a way of helping me test out the new post ranking feature, please give this thread a + ranking.

Throwing items at avatars is done via the little green squidge in the post bit, down the bottom left of the post, next to the little yingyang karma icon.

Tomorrow will see most of that little list completed. But seeing as my fingers are numb and my RSI is starting to kick in. Methinks that is about it for now.

Please, PLEASE report bugs though if you find anyway, it's the only way to get em fixed.

P.S. Awards will be handed out where applicable over the next couple of days.

Detomah · 22-03-2009, 16:16

Just a brief update, as I fixed a couple of bits that I listed on the previous post...

The error on the frontpage has now been fixed.
The 404 page now uses the new template.
The hangman templates have now been updated.
A variety of little errors as pointed out to me by the error console on Firefox have been fixed, mainly cross browser compliancy.
The commands now work in the shoutbox.
The boing has been removed as it was stupidly server intensive.

A few other bits too. I'm still working on a variety of other stuff, especially the speed, as pointed out by Pura. It's very annoying that it's slowed down again after these upgrades. One of the new addons is not performing well and will have to be tweaked methinks, it's just a case of figuring out which one. I suspect it may be the shoutbox though, it's playing particularly nice at the moment.

Detomah · 22-03-2009, 18:16

And another bug fixed.

Spotted by Sash on the egg avatar feature, Pu was being mis-named, that has now been fixed together with a few other instances of Pu being called other things by mistake.

If anyone spots any errors, bugs or general observations of possible interest, such as Pura pointing out the messy location bits earlier today, please let me know by making a post about it.

I still need people going through the arcade and finding games that either don't work, are bugged, have exploits and stuff like that too, if anyone fances having a go at that one. Reporting of games being broken can be posted to a thread, but exploits would need to be PMed directly to me please.

Also, if anyone fancies writing some nice articles, please do so on the forum, then PM me a link. If it's worth using, i'll add it to the article section and give full credit to the writer. This can be any TF compatible subject.