PC Pals Forum

Forum Information & Policies => Forum News & Announcements => Topic started by: Simon on June 29, 2011, 22:05

Title: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 29, 2011, 22:05
You will probably have noticed a different look to PC Pals.  This is due to the forum software being upgraded to the latest version, SMF 2.0.

We also thought we'd take the opportunity to give the forum a lick of paint, which we hope you will like.

Whilst we believe everything to be ship shape, and running as it should, please let us know if you find any errors or anomalies while you are browsing the forums, and we will do out best to rectify them.

The forum works in much the same way as before, but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

My thanks to Sam for his expertise in getting the new board up and running with minimum downtime.

We hope you enjoy the new PC Pals!  :thumb:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 29, 2011, 22:38
Further to the above, you may need to refresh the PC Pals cookie, if stored in your browser, should you experience logging in problems, and you may wish to reconfigure your Profile, as there are some additional features, such as the WYSIWYG editor.
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: davy51 on June 30, 2011, 02:11
Wow a big change
i thought I was in the wrong place at first :laugh:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 06:17
Hopefully it will still have that same unique pcpals feel.  :crazy:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Rodders on June 30, 2011, 11:02
Phew!  I've only just been able to log in (both here and next door), after clearing my cache.  This is likely to come as a relief to Simon especially, as he's been receiving enquiring texts from some weirdo with a number he didn't recognise.   ;)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 11:16
;D
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 11:30
I didn't think that should be neccessary. Oh well.
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: GillE on June 30, 2011, 11:32
Can anyone tell me where PC-Pals has gone, please?  Oh, hang on... is that Sam I see putting away his Marigolds and Mr Sheen?


 ;)


Very stylish, guys  :thumb: .
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 11:38
Ta! We thought it was about time we had a clean up.
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Rodders on June 30, 2011, 11:56
Any danger of a Newsletter then?   :o:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 12:16
Yes, look out for a newsletter this evening.  We just wanted to make sure everything was working first!  ;)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: GillE on June 30, 2011, 12:18
On a day when so many people are on strike, PC-Pals is looking to make sure everything is working.  Typical!


 :laugh:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 12:21
:lol2:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Rodders on June 30, 2011, 12:29
Yes, look out for a newsletter this evening.  We just wanted to make sure everything was working first!  ;)

Ermm...  the "Show unread posts" facility isn't working properly for me (Firefox 5.0).  Also, some posts display BBCode verbatim, rather than render it.  Here's an example (http://www.pc-pals.com/smf/index.php/topic,35243.msg248488.html#msg248488).
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 12:42
the later is a result of the new WYSIWYG editor - not much we can do about that without allowing other tags.

The previous, I'm unsure about..  I haven't looked at the site with Firefox 5 - but that shouldn't be browser dependent I didn't think. I'll have a look.
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Rodders on June 30, 2011, 12:45
I've a sneaking feeling that it's possibly to do with the way the 'Unread Posts' page is now being cached.  I may be wrong, why should today be any different?
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 12:47
I think its all done in the database, so should be browser independent. But I'll take a look.
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on June 30, 2011, 14:39
like every change on any site it takes time to adjust to it.

so far all I can say i'm not keen on is the new/no new posts icons.they are a bit 'samey' bar the colour which may be awkward to distinguish to some people


and maybe the header bars are a bit too dark on the blue
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 14:43
you mean the header bit that say PC PALS and has the messages and time?
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on June 30, 2011, 14:45
yeah those and each individual topic header
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 14:54
I personally like the stark contrast. I'm sure me other half wouldn't agree though... but we'll take a look at it. All suggestions are welcome, even if we do just ignore them  :P
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 15:13
Unfortunately, we can't adjust the theme to every individual taste.  If we make the menu bars lighter, some people won't like that either.  It does also take a while to get used to changes. 

The new posts icons can be changed, though.  What would you suggest, Rod?  They would obviously have to fit in with the colour scheme, so banana yellow would be out of the question!  ;D
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Rodders on June 30, 2011, 15:20
...so banana yellow would be out of the question!

Philistine.   >:(
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 15:24
;D
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 15:39
What I'll do is make the 'new' icon more of a green colour, like on the old board, yes?
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 15:43
I like that idea. Though the banana....
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on June 30, 2011, 18:06
or like a closed-envelope-never-been-seen-yet type icon, compared to something that has been seen  :dunno:


some thing along those lines.  old/new etc.

I dont know.not very imaginative me  ;D




or just  have the words  'new posts'   'no new posts'   :D :D :D
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: chorleydave on June 30, 2011, 18:57
Phew!  For a moment, I thought something was wrong with my monitor.


Nice work!   :)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 19:03
Thanks Dave!  :)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 19:06
Baz, I'll look at those later.  :)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on June 30, 2011, 19:24
no rush Simon

as you say it takes a while to get used to changes and im sure we've had this before
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on June 30, 2011, 19:27
what I have just noticed though is the spell check doesnt work.

Am getting the underlined mistakes but right click on the word just brings up the right click normal context menu, in Firefox,  and the spell check button does not check any thing or have any words available or so it seems
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 19:28
yeah, took them quite some convincing of me that we needed to change... I'm pleased with our results though.

Though you'll be happy to know we avoid the "sheep" theme that Clive wanted. But only just as I think Rik was considering it.....  :devil:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 19:29
what I have just noticed though is the spell check doesnt work.

Am getting the underlined mistakes but right click on the word just brings up the right click normal context menu, in Firefox,  and the spell check button does not check any thing or have any words available or so it seems

hmm - same thing for me. I'd assumed it was my firefox - its been a bit weird as of late. Maybe its the new editor - I'll investigate.
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on June 30, 2011, 19:32
sheep !!!!!!!!!!!!!


 :o :o   that would have been  BAAAAAD  :scoot:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on June 30, 2011, 19:33
ive just tried the right click in another forum Sam and it works.I thought the same as you maybe a FF thing but not so
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on June 30, 2011, 19:36
I like the little drop downs in the top menu/tabs
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 19:36
but another forum running smf 2?
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on June 30, 2011, 19:39
good point  and no its not still 1.1.14


drag their heels next door they do  :o:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 19:45
I thought that's where you might have gone :-)

They have a trickier situation with their upgrades, from what I can tell. We have a code base that we have kept clean and documentaed.
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on June 30, 2011, 20:02
Baz - the spell check works in Firefox if you disable the WYSIWYG editor - you can set this in your profile settings.

It works fine in Chrome in either mode.
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Clive on June 30, 2011, 22:57
It doesn't work in chrome for me.   :bawl:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 23:21
I've tried to disable the WYSIWYG editor, but it seems to have had no effect.  I'm not sure what we should be seeing instead.  :dunno:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: davy51 on June 30, 2011, 23:55
it works fine for me in ff 3.6

Swiftfox 3.6

SWare iron 11.0

Chrome 11

Looks great
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on June 30, 2011, 23:57
We're getting there!  :)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: GillE on July 01, 2011, 00:10
Urrrggghhhh!  Yucky turquoise for new posts!  And where have the smileys gone?  Just wait until Sam sees, what you've been up to. (I'd temper that last sentence with a smiley, but they've vanished, along with all the other formatting buttons).

Hang on - now I've gone to 'preview', they're back.  Oh, I'm going to have a glass of something alcoholic..... you guys are driving me to drink!
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on July 01, 2011, 00:15
We're still testing!  :aarrgh:

Sam will fix it tomorrow.  ;D
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on July 01, 2011, 00:33
Urrrggghhhh!  Yucky turquoise for new posts!  And where have the smileys gone?  Just wait until Sam sees, what you've been up to. (I'd temper that last sentence with a smiley, but they've vanished, along with all the other formatting buttons).

More Urrrggghhhh?  Or less Urrrggghhhh? 
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: GillE on July 01, 2011, 02:04
Much less Urrrggghhhh :) .  In fact, it's more of a mellow Mmmmmmm.  Thanks, Simon - I hope everyone else likes it too.
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on July 01, 2011, 07:02
If not, we'll tell them to pop round and see you, Gill.  ;D
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on July 01, 2011, 07:16
I wonder what I missed out on.
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on July 01, 2011, 07:22
Just the new post icons, Sam.  The green I ended up with was slightly lurid.  We can rethink these anytime.  :)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on July 01, 2011, 07:51
ok  :laugh:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Delgado on July 01, 2011, 09:33
I havent been on the Forum for a couple of days or more; been busy. What a surprise I had today! I dont normally agree with change on anything; bit of a stick in the mud, but I must say I love the new look. Everything all shiny and modern-yes "LOVE IT"

Thanks for the work Sam and all who helped.

 :cheers:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on July 01, 2011, 09:43
ta - everyone has just gotta enjoy it and keep the posts a flowing now  :crazy:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on July 01, 2011, 11:18
Thanks DG!  :thumb:  We've still one or two things to iron out, but all is looking well.  :)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on July 01, 2011, 14:53
how do you add an attachment again  :blush:
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: sam on July 01, 2011, 15:30
Not sure I can tell you off my head and I'm on my phone and possibly the busiest bus in Brum - I'm sure someone else will be along soon
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on July 01, 2011, 21:05
how do you add an attachment again  :blush:

Hit Reply, then under the posting text box, click Attachments and other options, then browse to the file you want to attach.

Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on July 01, 2011, 22:11
Hit Reply, then under the posting text box, click Attachments and other options, then browse to the file you want to attach.

I already looked at that Simon and all I see when clicking Attachments is tick boxes for Return to this topic and Dont use smileys.


and I guess you cant do it with the Quick Reply function?
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on July 01, 2011, 22:28
You can only post attachments in the General and Tech boards, not in this one, Baz.  Was there something specific?
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Baz on July 02, 2011, 08:19
ah right that'll explain it then.

it was just a pic of my profile settings after Sam (I think) mentioned how to change something,the spell check prob.i looked and have 2 identical entries for something to do with WYSIWYG
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on July 02, 2011, 09:20
Yes, I think we all did, but I've now reinstalled the mod, so that may be rectified, but I haven't checked yet.  There was three at one point!  ;D
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on July 02, 2011, 10:16
... and then there were three... again!   ::)

The mod that puts the smilies in the Quick Reply box does seem a little buggy, particularly in the Chrome browser.  I  have tested it myself using Chrome, and have started a thread here:

http://www.pc-pals.com/smf/index.php/topic,35279

I have discovered that the mod is being 'adopted' by SMF themselves (currently, it's one written by an independent mod writer), and will hopefully appear by default in future forum upgrades, at which point, it should work correctly on all browsers (:x:), but until then, all we can do is use the functionality available, and work around the bits that don't quite do as we'd like them to. 

Alternatively, we can uninstall the mod, but then we would lose the smilies from the Quick Reply box.

So, I guess, the question is, should it stay, or should it go?
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Clive on July 02, 2011, 13:44
I think smilies are more important than the url box.   :)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Den on July 03, 2011, 10:14
If I use chrome and click on the last post of a topic down the right hand side of the forum it takes me to the reply not the topic.  :)x
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: mistybear on August 09, 2011, 13:29
Holy cr*p, I thought I'd clicked on the wrong bookmark.... :stars:

That'll teach me for going missing for awhile.  ;)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: Simon on August 09, 2011, 13:30
We waited until the coast was clear...   :devil: ;)
Title: Re: Forum Upgrade
Post by: mistybear on August 11, 2011, 13:18
Oh, you'll never know when I'll just pop up....   neither will I for for that matter. ;D