Fun, Fun, Fun!


Magic Music

Administrator
Playlist Author
Fun, Fun, Fun!

I am now three quarters of the way through the first of what will be three upgrades (yes, three!) happening in rapid succession during the next few weeks.

Some Background

For several months, I had been patiently waiting for the new version of the IP.Board Community Suite to go "golden release," and at the same time, I had been working behind-the-scenes with another programmer on a custom application to handle our Playlists.

Phase One

What I have in place now, phase one, is IP.Board 3.1.0 ( released on June 1), and the matching updates to Blogs, Chat, Downloads (inactive for now), and Gallery. I am still uploading thousands of files, still throwing hundreds of new switches 'on' and 'off,' and still making custom tweaks.

Playlists

We actually had to wait until 3.1.0 came out in order to make sure the Playlists application was going to work with it. It did not. Several changes had to be made. I am happy to report, though, that we now have the display mechanism online. Everything is working properly. Playlists will actually begin to show up very, very soon now. And, by that, I mean in a couple more days!

We are still working on a database entry system for the playlists. When completed, rather than having to format playlists manually, which is a very complex and time-consuming process, they will be "automagically" generated for us (to use Disneyese). Way cool, but still a month or two away.

New Features

Many exciting new features will begin to appear as soon as I get them properly configured. Many new features are already working. When I have time, I will create a forum post that covers some of the major changes, but in the mean time I suggest everyone visit their User Control Panel and see what's new "under the hood."

Make sure to look at 'Notification Options,' and set things up the way you want them before you start receiving all sorts of unexpected e-mails and/or PMs. There must be eleventy-seven settings there! [member=Horizons] is probably dancing a jig right now (as he loves his notifications)!

Phase Two

In another week or so, I will be going through much of this same process all over again in order to install a series of 3.1.1 maintenance releases. Many minor bugs will be patched. However, a few minor bugs will still remain. Such is the nature of the beast with sophisticated software such as this.

Should you ever encounter a problem with something, by the way, be sure to let me know via e-mail or PM, and I will try to get it taken care of as soon as possible.

The Right Choice

Thank goodness I carefully studied the roadmaps for both IP.Board and vBulletin before converting Magic Music over from the old YaBB/SMF freeware junk back in December of 2008. I definitely made the right decision when I opted to go with IP.Board! We are now running the best of the best!

Pity the website owners who are using vBulletin, as the new 4.0x software is nothing but a hideous bug-filled nightmare. If you notice, most of these websites have remained behind at 3.8x, and it's because they're scared to death to make the jump. Well, that, and they don't like the exorbitant new licensing fees. I still have a couple of websites running vBulletin, one is actually 4.0.3, but they will be changed over to IP.Board as soon as I get the chance.

As someone who has been involved in the business of selling, installing, maintaining, and/or managing BBSes, forums, and other online services (anyone remember CompuServe or GEnie?) for over 25 years now (long before Al Gore invented the Internet), it is a hoot for me to watch all of the vBulletin websites that are now turning into IP.Board installations.

I tip my hat to Matt Machem and the rest of the gang at Invision Power Services!

Phase Three

This one is going to be a nightmare (for me)! I don't even want to think about it right now!

But it's coming...
 

Horizons

Playlist Author
Excellent news! Now all I need is the option to turn the background from white to black and this site will rock!
 
Thanks for all the hard work you do to keep these fun features going on the site. It is often a thankless job, so I just wanted to say THANK YOU!!! :)
 

Club 33

Playlist Author
Sounds great Jay! Interesting also to get a peak into what you do when you're not recording Disney loops. :) Sounds like you've got everything very much under control and I can't wait to see it.
 

Magic Music

Administrator
Playlist Author
It looks like I am going to go ahead with Phase Two tonight. I guess it's a good thing I haven't been following the NBA Finals this year. I'm gonna be real busy! :angry:

By the way, if you see the 'Upgrade in Progress!" banner up above turn red, that means I'm doing something a little more dangerous, and it's possible you could start seeing fatal error messages, etc., instead of normal web pages.

There may also be times when I'll have to take the forums offline altogether. When I began Phase One, we were actually offline from 9:00 PM Thursday until 5:00 PM Friday. Of course, part of that was due to the fact that I was still on pain medication and wasn't fully alert. I don't anticipate having to be offline for that many hours this time around. But, hey, you never know what might happen. :)

We should be able to begin populating the Playlists section on Wednesday. However, as of right now, we have a bug in the forum software (not the Playlists app) that is preventing us from including enough images and/or BBCodes for a properly formatted playlist. And, in fact, that is why I'm going to have to go ahead with Phase Two right now. I'm going to get that bug patched right away.
 

wedroy1923

Moderator
Playlist Author
Good luck, Jay, and thanks again for your hard work on upgrading the software and keeping this discussion "on the air!"
 

Magic Music

Administrator
Playlist Author
I hit a couple of snags (SQL errors) during the upgrade process last night and had to put things on hold. I will be picking up right where I left off tonight.

As for right now, I'm off for my post-op visit... :)
 

eyore

DLRP explorer
Playlist Author
Sorry you hit a snag but the sign at the top of the page did say there be SQLs ahead :)
 

Magic Music

Administrator
Playlist Author
Sorry you hit a snag but the sign at the top of the page did say there be SQLs ahead :angry:
Yes, it sure did/does. When I first wrote the message, I actually had it written as "there be SQuaLls ahead," but I figured no one would get it but me. Sometimes I can be too clever for my own good. :)
 

Magic Music

Administrator
Playlist Author
I have added "Facebook Connect" to the Magic Music Forums. This allows guests to log in using their Facebook account, eliminating the need to go through the normal registration process.

Existing members can associate their Magic Music account with their Facebook account by editing their profile:

My Settings > Profile > Manage Facebook Connect

Among other things, this association allows members to pull their Facebook status into Magic Music, or to send their Magic Music status to Facebook.

A 'Like' button can now be found at the bottom of each topic. Now you can tell your Facebook friends that you "like" something here on the Magic Music Forums.

Magic Music now has its own Facebook page (artwork coming soon), too:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/MagicMusicnet/130522423633774

Stop by and say "Hello!" Once we're past 24 persons who say they "like" Magic Music, we should be able to register a proper URL. I think. All of this Facebook stuff is Greek to me! :cd:
 

eyore

DLRP explorer
Playlist Author
I have added "Facebook Connect" to the Magic Music Forums. This allows guests to log in using their Facebook account, eliminating the need to go through the normal registration process.

Existing members can associate their Magic Music account with their Facebook account by editing their profile:

My Settings > Profile > Manage Facebook Connect

Among other things, this association allows members to pull their Facebook status into Magic Music, or to send their Magic Music status to Facebook.

A 'Like' button can now be found at the bottom of each topic. Now you can tell your Facebook friends that you "like" something here on the Magic Music Forums.

Magic Music now has its own Facebook page (artwork coming soon), too:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/MagicMusicnet/130522423633774

Stop by and say "Hello!" Once we're past 24 persons who say they "like" Magic Music, we should be able to register a proper URL. I think. All of this Facebook stuff is Greek to me! :cd:

Come on then. I'm lonely there - only 23 more to go ( 1 person likes this) :cd:
Not that well up on Facebook either.
Noo fangled things.................
 

eyore

DLRP explorer
Playlist Author
My previous comments still seem to apply.
There are now just 7 people who have liked the page. :p
We need at least 24 people to click the "like" button don't we?
I'm presuming Disneyphiles and Facebook don't go together then :)
Miserable lot...................
 

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