Songcrafters will be unavailable for perhaps a few hours tonight while I install a major upgrade which I've been working on for over a month to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. It has a new cleaner look, easier navigation, and upgraded forum software which includes, among other things, a new WYSIWYG message editor (similar to this (https://www.sceditor.com/)).
Please note that the forum URLs are changing from songcrafters.org/community to songcrafters.org/forum. So some of your old bookmarks won't work. Also, the portal page at https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php will no longer exist. Instead, we'll be using the new portal page at https://songcrafters.org/ (https://songcrafters.org/). This page has actually been active since November 8th, so you've probably already seen it. It doesn't yet have all of the features of the old portal page but it will eventually.
I'll put the site into Maintenance Mode at about 1:00 am UTC/GMT tonight. I'll try to update the new portal page at https://songcrafters.org/ (https://songcrafters.org/) occasionally to give an indication of my progress.
Although it's been over a month in the making, there are still lots of minor things for me to fix in the coming weeks and months. So don't be surprised if you find a few minor quirks such as old, seldom-used BBcode tags that no longer work. Also, a modern up-to-date browser is a necessity with the new site. It works well with Firefox 57 (Quantum) and Chrome, and should work with the current releases of most other browsers. But don't expect it to work with Internet Explorer or other ancient browsers. It won't.
I hope everyone likes the new site.
Thanks 64G!
I've been looking forward to this. I really appreciate all the stuff you do for is here. This is a massive change and fitting for out 10th anniversary.
Some of the jukeboxes aren't working. It's fairly easy to fix but I need some sleep. I've been up almost 22 hours.
There may be some other minor issues too but the site should be usable. I'll continue tweaking it and fixing things after I've had some sleep.
Enjoy the new site!
cheers 64, will flag up any issues as i come across them.
Thanks for all the work!
Wow! It's looking fantastic!
Yes, it looks great, congrats!
Alfredo
Looking good, 64G! I admit I hadn't updated my bookmark, but that's sorted now.
Thanks for the fine work
Tim
We do appreciate the massive behind the scene effort 64...
Thx
Mike
Man, was I surprised when the shiny new sports car loaded up instead of the trusty sedan I was used to. I like it.
Thanks 64 for all your work. I am missing "On This Day" though.
Click on menu and you will find it in jukeboxes.
Is it normal that in the "Who's Online" tab, even if I'm online (...of course...) my name doesn't appear? Before it wasn't so...
Alfredo
Quote from: 64Guitars on December 01, 2017, 06:36:04 AMSome of the jukeboxes aren't working. It's fairly easy to fix but I need some sleep. I've been up almost 22 hours.
There may be some other minor issues too but the site should be usable. I'll continue tweaking it and fixing things after I've had some sleep.
Looks good. Did you reach the point when you were thinking "I wished I never started this?" :-) Sounds like a beast of an upgrade - all seems to run fine - looks okay on Blackberry browser and on Safari OSX. Will report any niggles :-) Get some sleep!
B
Good Job 64 ! Site looks grest !
Pete
Quote from: alfstone on December 02, 2017, 05:16:14 AMIs it normal that in the "Who's Online" tab, even if I'm online (...of course...) my name doesn't appear? Before it wasn't so...
No, that's not normal. Are you sure your name's not there? My name appears when I'm online. And I just tested with my non-admin account (Joe99) and that worked too.
(https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=27519.0;attach=187785)
The current Who's Online page is just the standard one that comes with the SMF forum software. On the old site, our Who's Online page was customised to group the items by Members, Guests, and Spiders. I'll eventually be applying those customisations to the new site too.
Notice the "Show - Everyone" drop-down list in the picture above. If you click on it, you'll see choices for "Everyone", "Members Only", and "Guests Only". You didn't have it set to "Guests Only", did you? That's the only reason I can think of that your name wouldn't appear when you're logged in.
Thank you 64, another great job on the upgrade and for the first time in weeks I listened to a post all the way through on my desktop, an iMac running Safari. Strangely enough the iPad will not play all the way through running Safari but I can live with that. At last I can comment on songs listened to in entirety. Regards Willie
Hey, 64, thanks for your answer.
YES. I can see my name in the page you quoted:
https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php
but NO, I can NOT see it in the home page:
https://songcrafters.org/
Bye
Alfredo
That's weird. I see you and I see myself, both as an admin and as a regular user.
(https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=27519.0;attach=187786)
I've had a look at the code, Alfredo. The only time it should not list an online member is when they've unchecked the profile option "Show others my online status". But I had a look at your profile and you have that option checked, so that can't be the reason.
Just to clarify, "online" means logged in to Songcrafters. If you're not logged in, then you're considered a guest and your name won't be listed. But I'm sure you know that already.
Is anyone else experiencing this problem?
I'm afraid I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the new site. I feel like I've lost a friend. 64 you know how much I appreciate and respect you for all you do here but I've lost all my favorite aspects of the site. I loved being able to see all the members icons, the top posters, all the banners and the most recent comments. I found a comfort in the old home page and ease of use that this format doesn't give me. The new page doesn't emphasise our festivals or our community the way the old one did.
I hate complaining about this knowing all the work you put into it and I'm sure I'll come around but that's just my take. Sorry for being a fuddy duddy.
Rock on!
Quote from: 64Guitars on December 02, 2017, 01:34:36 PMI've had a look at the code, Alfredo. The only time it should not list an online member is when they've unchecked the profile option "Show others my online status". But I had a look at your profile and you have that option checked, so that can't be the reason.
Just to clarify, "online" means logged in to Songcrafters. If you're not logged in, then you're considered a guest and your name won't be listed. But I'm sure you know that already.
Is anyone else experiencing this problem?
Funny...now I can see my name on the homepage too, so I don't know how (of course I didn't change anything in my profile), but it seems that the problem is solved...
Alfredo
Quote from: Hook on December 02, 2017, 02:21:53 PMI'm afraid I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the new site. I feel like I've lost a friend. 64 you know how much I appreciate and respect you for all you do here but I've lost all my favorite aspects of the site. I loved being able to see all the members icons, the top posters, all the banners and the most recent comments. I found a comfort in the old home page and ease of use that this format doesn't give me. The new page doesn't emphasise our festivals or our community the way the old one did.
I hate complaining about this knowing all the work you put into it and I'm sure I'll come around but that's just my take. Sorry for being a fuddy duddy.
Rock on!
Sorry that you're having trouble, Hook. It's early days yet, so please allow some time to get used to things. Also, I'll be making many improvements in the coming weeks and months, so you might start to like the new format a lot more after new stuff is added.
I've tried to keep the SMF forum separate from things that I've written, like the jukeboxes, for example. It gives the site a cleaner look and it should make it easier to update the SMF forum software in the future. You can still access all of the custom Songcrafters stuff by clicking the hamburger menu at the top-right of each page. I know this takes a bit of getting used to. I'm still getting used to it myself. But, in time, I'm sure it will become second nature for most of us.
Quote from: Hook on December 02, 2017, 02:21:53 PMI've lost all my favorite aspects of the site. I loved being able to see all the members icons
Which member icons are you referring to and on which page?
Quote from: Hook on December 02, 2017, 02:21:53 PM, the top posters,
I assume you're referring to the portal page (https://songcrafters.org). On the old site, the portal page was created by an add-on called Simple Portal (http://www.simpleportal.net/). I'm very much a DIY sort of programmer, so I decided to ditch Simple Portal and create my own portal page. There was nothing on the old Simple Portal page that I can't create myself on our new portal page. I just haven't made it my priority till now because it was more important to get the forum and jukeboxes working properly. But in the coming days, weeks and months, I'll be adding lots of goodies to the portal page, including many of the features that were on the old portal page, such as the Top Posters.
One thing I didn't like about Simple Portal is that it was tied into the forum. So its URL was http://songcrafters/
community and clicking Home took you to the portal page. A portal is meant to be the entry point to a site, so the URL should be https://songcrafters.org as it is now and clicking Home in the forum should take you to the
forum's home page as it does now, not the portal as it did in the old site. Having said that, I realise that the portal page is visited frequently, so I'm considering adding a Portal button or link at the top of the forum to make it easier and quicker to get back to the portal. Until then, just click the hamburger menu and select Portal which is the very first item in the menu.
Quote from: Hook on December 02, 2017, 02:21:53 PM, all the banners
I assume you mean the graphic buttons at the top of each page for festivals, METs, Latest Songs, On This Day, etc. Again, I've tried to keep these things separate from the forum, so they're now accessed from the hamburger menu. Actually, I'm very pleased with the way this turned out. Instead of having to hunt through menus and sub-menus for the festival or jukebox you want, you just open the hamburger menu and select the
type of jukebox from the five choices; Festivals, Jukeboxes (Latest Songs, On This Day, etc.), METs, mini-fests, and Beatles albums. After the selected jukebox loads, you can very easily switch between all of the other jukeboxes of the same type without having to go back to the hamburger menu. For example, the Festivals jukebox lists the years from 2009 till now along the left side. Click any year and you'll get a list of all the festivals for that year grouped by type (Originals or Covers). Click any of the buttons in that list to load the desired jukebox. I find this very convenient for browsing through all of the festivals. And the Jukeboxes, METs, mini-fests, and Beatles albums have similar navigation lists/buttons along the left side. Eventually, I hope to add a row of buttons for the five jukebox types right in the jukeboxes. Then I'll only need one button in the hamburger menu for "Jukeboxes" because, once the jukebox loads, you'll be able to easily navigate to any other festival, jukebox, MET, mini-fest, or Beatles album from right in the jukebox.
Quote from: Hook on December 02, 2017, 02:21:53 PMand the most recent comments.
I'm not sure where exactly you're referring to. I already have the recent posts on the portal page. In fact, I've improved it by putting the song posts into a separate list. The old portal page included song posts in the Recent Posts, of which there were 10 in total. Now we have the 10 most recent song posts as well as the 10 most recent non-song posts.
Also, you can select "Recent Posts" from the hamburger menu to easily browse through
all of the most recent posts, sorted from newest to oldest. I prefer this to the lists on the portal page (new and old) because it shows the whole message, not just the subject, and it's not limited to 10 posts. It doesn't currently include the mp3 player (maybe in the future) but you can simply click on the message subject to go to the actual topic and play the song there.
Quote from: Hook on December 02, 2017, 02:21:53 PMI found a comfort in the old home page and ease of use that this format doesn't give me. The new page doesn't emphasise our festivals or our community the way the old one did.
The portal page has banners for the two current festivals, the same as the old portal did. In time, I'm sure I'll find ways to emphasise our festivals and community through the portal, the hamburger menu, and perhaps other new pages. But I'd rather not change the forum pages too much.
Hang in there Hook. In time, I'm sure you'll come to love the new site even more than the old one, and you'll become very comfortable with it. And I'm always willing to listen to any ideas that people have for improving the site and making it easier to navigate.
It's the old portal page that I'm missing and I now have found the new one. The icons were the ones on the old portal page. I liked seeing the icons of the top posters on the right and the admin on the left. I do like the way you separated the recent posts, very cool. I also do like the hamburger menus ease of use. I think I just don't handle change well. Im sure I'll get used to it soon. I plan on enjoying my coffee and some tunes in the morning. Thanks for all your hard work sir.
Rock on!
I also want Home to be the portal...I will get through this!
Quote from: Hook on December 02, 2017, 06:41:22 PMI also want Home to be the portal...I will get through this!
I had a better idea. I've made the big yellow "Songcrafters.org" at the top-left of the page into a link to, um, songcrafters.org (the portal). Kinda makes sense, doesn't it? :)
I've also improved the hamburger menu. Now you only have to move the mouse pointer over it to open it. When you move the mouse pointer out of the menu box, it closes. Not sure how these changes will affect users of mobile devices that don't have a mouse. Of course, if you click a button in the menu, you won't have to worry about closing the menu because it's going to load a new page anyway.
I've also added the hamburger menu and the forum menu to the portal page to provide better integration between the portal and the forum.
I hope this helps.
Probably not helpful, but on the portal I see myself just fine.
Cheers 64 looking good, I have not been on for 2 days as I kept getting site not available try later, as I was clicking on my fav button which must have been to the old site.
Thanks again..
Alex
Congratulation to administrators for the brand new verse of songcrafters
Just a small objection the suppretion of the horizontal lines between the messages makes that it is less easily readable ... :o
Quote from: Willie on December 02, 2017, 10:54:39 AMThank you 64, another great job on the upgrade and for the first time in weeks I listened to a post all the way through on my desktop, an iMac running Safari. Strangely enough the iPad will not play all the way through running Safari but I can live with that. At last I can comment on songs listened to in entirety. Regards Willie
Yip - the new site does behave itself much, much better. Probably the driver for the upgrade. Super job 64G, u da man!
B
Quote from: 64Guitars on December 02, 2017, 07:43:39 PMQuote from: Hook on December 02, 2017, 06:41:22 PMI also want Home to be the portal...I will get through this!
I had a better idea. I've made the big yellow "Songcrafters.org" at the top-left of the page into a link to, um, songcrafters.org (the portal). Kinda makes sense, doesn't it
That's awesome brother, you do rock!
I'm finding my way around here alright this morning. I still miss the top posters, I'm close to knocking launched off the list.
Just was looking at the Portal and saw the top posters...look out launched I'm coming for your spot!
64 you have done a terrific job with the new facelift, it looks nice and tidy. Navigation will become second nature to us as we explore the new terrain. I appreciate all your hard work and send out a big THANK YOU for all you do. This must have been some task. I'm looking forward to the upgrades you mentioned in the coming weeks.
Mach
Quote from: my idol is Jahia on December 03, 2017, 01:01:06 AMCongratulation to administrators for the brand new verse of songcrafters
Just a small objection the suppretion of the horizontal lines between the messages makes that it is less easily readable ... :o
I assume you mean in the message lists?
(https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=27519.0;attach=187790)
The lines are actually still there but they were white, so they were nearly impossible to see on the light-coloured background. I've made them dark brown now which looks much better. Thanks for pointing out this oversight.
(https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=27519.0;attach=187791)
Quote from: Hook on December 03, 2017, 06:55:33 AMJust was looking at the Portal and saw the top posters...
Now expanded to include the top 15 posters instead of the former 6. And I've added the avatars.
Quotelook out launched I'm coming for your spot!
Watch out for Groundy and Redler. :)
The only small niggle I have is the Latest songs Jukebox was only one click away as it was on the old home page. This was nearly always my first stop when visiting to hear new tunes. Now its a couple of clicks away, which I am sure I will get used to, but just thought i would mention it. But apart from that... I think it all looks cool, much cleaner and simpler. I also like the fact there are more latest posts now on the home page, when you combine recent posts (forum posts) and recent song posts. So a lot of activity right in front of you.
Quote from: Hook on December 03, 2017, 06:55:33 AMJust was looking at the Portal and saw the top posters...look out launched I'm coming for your spot!
I can't believe flash harry is in the top posters, slacker that he is.
One thing I've noticed is when you click on things from the menu, top boards, drop downs, fest banners, etc. it takes you to that topic in the same tab on Firefox. If you click on topics in the Portal page (recent post on the right) it opens a new tab. Maybe it just works in that fashion. Not a biggie, just an observation.
Mach
Quote from: Mike_S on December 03, 2017, 11:25:52 AMThe only small niggle I have is the Latest songs Jukebox was only one click away as it was on the old home page. This was nearly always my first stop when visiting to hear new tunes. Now its a couple of clicks away, which I am sure I will get used to, but just thought i would mention it.
Actually, it's still only one click since I changed the hamburger menu last night so that it opens when you move the mouse pointer over it - no clicking required. And when you select Jukeboxes from the menu, it defaults to the Latest Songs jukebox. So other jukeboxes require an extra click, but not the Latest Songs. Just point to the hamburger menu, click on Jukeboxes and you're there.
Ah, you are right, sorry it is very easy...
thx 64
Quote from: Mach on December 03, 2017, 11:56:29 AMOne thing I've noticed is when you click on things from the menu, top boards, drop downs, fest banners, etc. it takes you to that topic in the same tab on Firefox. If you click on topics in the Portal page (recent post on the right) it opens a new tab. Maybe it just works in that fashion. Not a biggie, just an observation.
I like to keep the portal open so I can keep coming back to it easily. So having the links open in a new tab is convenient. However, most web browsers offer shortcuts for opening links in a new tab. In Firefox, for example, you can right-click on a link and select "Open Link in New Tab" from the context menu. You can also hold down the Ctrl key while left-clicking on a link to open it in a new tab (while staying on the current tab), or hold Ctrl and Shift while left-clicking to open it in a new tab and move to that tab. Given that these browser shortcuts are available, perhaps I should make all of our links open in the same tab. You can always use a shortcut to override that behaviour, but there's no shortcut to force a link to open in the same tab when the page wants to open it in a new tab.
Scared the heck out of me when my usual link did not work! Glad to see the site is going from strength to strength as I plan to make a lot more use of the new facilities here once I retire on Feb 28th next year.
Well done 64G, keep up the good work!!
Quote from: alfstone on December 02, 2017, 05:16:14 AMIs it normal that in the "Who's Online" tab, even if I'm online (...of course...) my name doesn't appear? Before it wasn't so...
This just happened to me too. Forcing a page refresh (Ctrl-F5 in Firefox) fixed it. For other browsers, see this page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bypass_your_cache).
Hey, 64, how do you insert a YouTube video in a message? I don't see the YouTube icon, before it was there...
Alfredo
Quote from: alfstone on December 04, 2017, 03:00:13 PMHey, 64, how do you insert a YouTube video in a message? I don't see the YouTube icon, before it was there...
Adding buttons above the message editor for YouTube, Vimeo, Lyrics, Song Info, etc. is one of the things on my To Do list. Until I get around to doing that, you can just type the BBcode tags in manually. For YouTube, the tags are [youtube][/youtube]. Then paste your link between the tags.
The other tags that don't yet have buttons are:
| [nobbc] | [/nobbc] | |
| [song] | [/song] | (song info box) |
| [lyrics] | [/lyrics] | |
| [boobs] | [/boobs] | (for not-safe-for-workplace images) |
| [singlemp3] | [/singlemp3] | |
| [soundcloud] | [/soundcloud] | |
I've not yet implemented the BBcode for SoundClick, Vimeo, and Daily Motion so I didn't include those tags in the table above because they won't work yet.
Thanks. It works, I've just editied my last message, containing a YouTube video.
Alfredo
I didn't notice this post earlier and I have tried to click the old bookmark every day.
Thanks 64, you've done amazing job! It's sure has been big effort! I take my hat off - the new look looks really fine!
Quote from: Oldrottenhead on December 03, 2017, 11:34:01 AMQuote from: Hook on December 03, 2017, 06:55:33 AMJust was looking at the Portal and saw the top posters...look out launched I'm coming for your spot!
I can't believe flash harry is in the top posters, slacker that he is.
I'm Slack Harry...
This looks good, well done 64 guitars. Thank you for all you do for us.
ok... so i'm a month late in posting this but hey, it's the thought that counts. I lurk often, just don't log in.
I love the new site. 64, you are nothing short of genius in my book.... and putting this new site together is just the tip of the iceburg of your tech skills and knowledge. Color me always impressed! %)!
I haven't been around for ages, good to see this community is still thriving!
nice work on the upgrade!
I'll have to make a point of stopping in here regularly again.
Happy Trails :D