SCHEDULED DOWNTIME # FSP 4 ?

Hey FSP members,

Things are moving

We are planning some down time (45mins-2hours max) at the end of the week for some improvements.
(Date and time will be updated)

We will use this maintenance window to:

-roll out updates on the web server (OS/Apache/Php/MySQL)
-update joomla core+extensions
-upgrade our forum engine Kunena ( Site to its latest version.
-change the template/rework on the modules etc)

I am working on an offline clone of FSP at the moment and things look promising.

Retrospectively I am not a big fan of how the latest update (FSP 3.0) ended up looking/feeling.
Ok,it implemented good concepts (Ads,simplification, new visuals), but still, it failed on too many points (mobile template anyone? Styling and CSS fails...).

Time for a change :woohoo:

Let's improve our platform and make it easier for all of us to use.
As usual YOUR feedback matters, I received tonight an email from
Mailchimp and their motto is: Listen Hard, Change Fast... I like the idea
and think that's how any company on-line or not should operate.

Let's listen to what is broken on the site and improve it, after all we all are FSP !

To recap: Use this thread to report any bugs/annoyance/wish for the new update of YOUR website

(also any web designers around? we need you! wink wink)

great stuff,

issues can be loggin in, this seems to be hit and miss.
classifieds, has a few random errors, pages dont load, or you cant post etc.....
The main home page is good but way to cluttered, i like the old main page more, simple is some times best.

ps i can do basic web design stuff using dream weaver... but i dont right scripts etc, way above my head lol, if it helps.....

ill post more as they come to me....

clicked on my profile to edit and i get the screen of death.... if i try back in a bit it will work, its bugs like this that are keeping people away.....

should say im using internet explorer on this laptop, but allso get the same issues and more when using chrome...

Florian
'user profile' goes to a blank page here
'login' working fine.
Not running Privoxy at present regarding the Sale section but will re-try that after your upgrade.
Using OpenSuse 12.1 (i586) and Firefox Ver 20.0

Mik

i've noticed that on occasions, the site is extremely slow - far slower than one should reasonably expect. It got to the point last week where I simply gave up trying to access anything and gave up. Will the proposed changes affect this or is it simply a consequence of the host/server?

Hello,

Thank you for the feedback.

yes the updates will hopefully get rid of the slowdowns and the new forum version is said to be faster.

I will also fix the user profile crash it's just a wrong SEF url error.

I think the ads will still be blocked by privoxy due to the fact that the component uses "ads" internally and that triggers the blocking.

I will move the cluter from the main page to a "News" page and simply keep the latest ads and forum posts + intro text.

The new template is sweet and should handle tablets/phones easily. I am working on customising it.
I will post some pics when I am happy with the result for your consideration. Our new template is Elastica from Joomlart ( www.joomlart.com/demo/#ja_elastica ) but without all the modules everywhere ;)

The update "should" happen at the end of next week, depending on how busy I am at work (last week was crazy).

Keep the bugs coming I will try to address them all.

cheers

great stuff...

Hang on in there :woohoo: won't be long now

It is getting pretty slick, still, the template work and re-think of layout took me a while (damn, need to work more on joomla/css and php or I am just getting oldish ) and work has been fullon too.
I will post some screencaps tomorrow, but I still want to get a floating menu natively (simple css) so we can scroll down and keep a menu everywhere.

Next step is tweaking that menu (icons, integrated login module/status) and work on the relevance of the submenus...that's where you come into play:

-based on the existing menu structure, what do you like/hate/wish was here?

The stability issues have been addressed (AFAIK) but nothing beats a good on live experiment to see if it is fixed.

I am also re-considering the Blogs sections? I think a blogs sub-forum could actually be better and offer more flexibility.

The PM system is quite good in my opinion, but again any input is welcomed.

Downloads... I really have to get the user upload back online, to keep this section up to date etc...

Plans, the 3d models provided by K-M-Sound-System are working nicely. Still a lot of new plans have been published and tested, I will update this section with the obvious new beasts, but will also ask for your submission etc..should be easy on a forum

Ok that's it for now, so to recap screencaps tomorrow and your ideas.

some progress but no screencap yet:

1) got the floating menu changes done, and it's sweet, I really want to tweak it as much as possible before going live. It would end up being what we used on the right side of fsp 2.0 (Site's menu + Contextual User Menu).Should be nice.

2) I wonder about the color scheme...I am quite bored of our blueish/grey. Maybe I will just refresh it. Some work in progress ( mudcu.be/sphere/ with a Four Tone harmony)

3)Responsive templates (as good on desktop 1920*1080 as on phones/tablets) require some tweaking to work. I went with elastica from Joomlart but I feel I should keep hunting for the perfect template or framework (gantry and T3)..still looking.

4)The upload button doesn't work ! lol, I should report this one :evil: that will teach me of updating some extensions without testing everything afterward . I think I broke it last week with some joomla updates and libraries changes.(I will look into it and am quite confident that the Kunena's update + plus new template will fix that).

So next week I will keep working on it and let you know how it all goes in pictures (damn Imgur! bring back fsp uploads!!

Have a great weekend - uk members: time to clean the shed and do some work, bbq style


(also where is the preview button for posts in progress?)

Ok, I have completed my local upgrade, it is ready for the roll-out.

I will do that this afternoon (GMT), expected downtime of around an hour.

I have not finished everything yet, but at least all the security and bugs should be sorted for now.

As usual use this thread to report anything that failed.