Forum Software Migration

   #1  
Uwe

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As discussed in a previous thread, we've been looking at migrating this forum to different software (XenForo) that is being actively maintained and enhanced, and has more features.

Now we're almost ready to do that. In fact, it's scheduled for this coming Monday, September 7th, which is a holiday here in the USA. This migration will inevitably involve some down-time for the forum. Hopefully it will not be more than a few hours.

If anyone is interested in a preview of the new software, you can see it here. The database there is a 'snapshot' of the current vBulletin software taken a couple of weeks ago. Your existing login credentials should work there. You can post there, but please be aware: Anything you post there before we make the final cut-over will disappear when we do make the final change-over on Monday. In addition, we aren't quite finished implementing all the goodies; some of them will have to wait until after the cut-over.

Let us know what you think of the new stuff, but please do that here, not in the new forum. Again, anything do now in the new forum now will be lost Monday.

-Uwe-
 
   #2  
Jack@European_Parts

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Yay I got some trophies........ :p

Certainly much brighter and sharp.....

I like it...

Phone nav is nice to but do we have option to go desktop version on phone too?
 
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Santos

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The forum migration seems to be pretty much done. Existing avatars will need to be reuploaded due to cropping/scaling between software version. Please let me know if you run into any issues.
 
   #8  
DV52

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Uwe: kudos once again to crack-team at RT for the platform migration -job well done!!!

Minor question, please: - is there are list of available commands on the new platform (other than those that appear on the top line of the post entry screen-of course)? I'd like to fully explore the features in the new forum generally, - but as an example, I think that "noparse" no longer works on the new platform for suppressing tag commands in user posts - but I could be wrong. I suspect that there might be an alternative way of doing this.

Don
 
   #9  
Uwe

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DV52 said:
Minor question, please: - is there are list of available commands on the new platform (other than those that appear on the top line of the post entry screen-of course)?
Click to expand...
It's all very much standard BBCode. Except NOPARSE (which wasn't really a standard) has been replaced by PLAIN.

Some of the other new features:
  • You can save a draft of a message you're composing on one device and come back to that thread using another device and your draft will be there.
  • PMs have been replaced by Conversations. These are basically private threads, and it should be possible to have more than two participants.
  • Selective quoting: Select/highlight part of a message you wish to quote. You should get a balloon with "Reply" in it. Click on it to generate a reply to just that portion.
  • Better alerts/notifications. You can elect to be notified when someone quotes something you wrote, or mentions you with an '@' in front of your username, although this latter thing doesn't seem to be working at the moment.
  • Much better embedded media support.
  • Much better search capabilities.
  • Much more extensive use of AJAX (I think that's what it is; I'm not really up-to-speed on current interweb/browser things). But this means much more can be accomplished without complete page refreshes.
  • But the biggest thing is that XF is being maintained, enhanced, and patched continuously, while vB4 (the version we were using) had been deprecated for some time now, and a transition to something newer was overdue and inevitable.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things..:o

-Uwe-
 
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   #12  
Uwe

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NZDubNurd said:
You forgot how to spell "migration" in the thread title. Does that count??? :D
Click to expand...
Fixed. It's funny how I never notice my own typos. :o

-Uwe-
 
   #15  
D

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New format looks nice, very clear and the 2FA is great to see

(all the links I followed in a web search gave me the following oops message though so I guess you haven't finished the redirection yet)

Best regards
Derek

Code: 
Oops! We ran into some problems.
The requested page could not be found.
 
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   #16  
Uwe

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Derek said:
(all the links I followed in a web search gave me the following oops message though so I guess you haven't finished the redirection yet)
Code: 
Oops! We ran into some problems.
The requested page could not be found.
Click to expand...
Yes, we know that's a problem. I believe web-search links would sort themselves out when the crawler bots re-index the new software. However, we have lots of broken links on our own site and within the forum itself, for example on this page. Getting those sorts of links to redirect properly without having to manually fix them all is a high priority.

-Uwe-
 
   #17  
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Agree, it's such a pain when a software change breaks the urls.
 
   #18  
Uwe

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I think @Santos just fixed the broken link issue. :thumbs:

Please let us know if y'all concur or find any more issues with that.

-Uwe-
 
   #19  
Mike@Gendan

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Uwe said:
Yes, we know that's a problem. I believe web-search links would sort themselves out when the crawler bots re-index the new software. However, we have lots of broken links on our own site and within the forum itself, for example on this page. Getting those sorts of links to redirect properly without having to manually fix them all is a high priority.

-Uwe-
Click to expand...
You could theoretically use an htaccess mod_rewrite.

You should be able to search for
forums.ross-tech.com/showthread.php?[numeric value]
...and rewrite to
forums.ross-tech.com/index.php?threads/[numeric value]


Edit - Looks like @Santos already fixed it!
 
   #20  
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The weblinks I searched for earlier are working fine now :)
 
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