Camera Labs

[Cam-I-Am]

So Gordon.... about this phpBB thing......

The standard phpBB-2 forum doesn't have a function that I would like it to have. The 'View posts since last visit' option does exactly that. It doesn't matter that this last time you may not have read up on all the postings you are interested in so those won't get listed again then the next time. The only alternative is then to browse the individual sub-forums.

A couple of weeks back I did an upgrade to phpBB-3 (3.0.2) on a local test installation of phpBB-2 and this new version has an option to 'View active topics' with which you can get a chronological list of all threads posted in during the last day/week/etc. This offers a more convenient way to catch up on the forum activity.

The new phpBB-3 has lots of other improvements of course and I was wondering whether we could expect an upgrade of the CL forum too any time soon. The upgrade process is very simple and safe. A wizard-style procedure installs phpBB-3 in a separate directory and then lets you import the phpBB-2 database so you don't change anything to the old installation. You just create a completely new one with its own copy of the database and you end up with two separate but fully functioning versions of your forum. You then have to tweak the appearance and a few settings and that's basically it apart of course from any mods that have been applied to the old forum which have not become part of version 3 . If you have a local test-copy of the CL forum you could do a trial run on that one so you have done it once before. Then you can do the same on the live version of the forum. I use Wampserver for this.

Will we be seeing an upgraded Camera Labs forum in the not too distant future? Or do you perhaps have other plans like switching to vBulletin or whatever?

Ben

P.S.

I have made a note over the last month of the exact times (radio controlled clock) I received the message:

PhpBB Critical Error
Could not connect to the database

Since you have to wait a moment anyway I thought why not make a note of them. Maybe it can help with finding the cause. The times are not exactly around the same time every day

26-09-2008 14:17 UTC
01-10-2008 10:23 UTC
01-10-2008 10:31 UTC
06-10-2008 12:15-12:18 UTC This time it lasted a bit long so I made a note of the end time too. I tried several times in between. So the forum was unreachable for about three minutes.
07-10-2008 11:54 UTC
07-10-2008 12:45 UTC
07-10-2008 17:43 UTC
10-10-2008 21:03 UTC
13-10-2008 21:54 UTC
24-10-2008 18:52 UTC

[Gordon Laing]

Hi Ben, how big was the database which you migrated, and is the process reversible if it goes wrong?

As an enthusiast, I'm always tempted to upgrade software and hardware, but when it's a mission critical application which affects many people, I'm understandably more cautious. I've done several minor phpbb upgrades in the past which have gone wrong and required at least a day's downtime to roll back. That's unnacceptable both for forum members and my own schedule. It's extremely frustrating to waste a day to only get back to where you started.

We also have a number of mods running to minimise spam postings, and I don't know if they'll work on the new version.

So I'm reluctant to perform any upgrades to the forum software unless there's something really wrong with the current one, or unless there's genuinely compelling benefits to the new one.

As for the critical error, that's simply our backup process. If you want to backup a database, you need to lock it first, and when you lock the forum database, phpbb reports a critical error. Once the backup is complete and the databse unlocked, the error goes away. We perform a backup daily and sometimes at other points, hence the regular - but hopefully short - downtime.

I hope that explains it,

Gordon

PS - thanks for the times you've made notes of - I'll contact the hosting company and see if we can schedule the backups for the same time slot. I presume that would be preferrable?

[Cam-I-Am]

The database size of that test installation is trivial. But the point is that the new version will not affect the old one. It will become a duplicate version side by side with the old one. So there's nothing to roll back. The old forum is still there. Once everything works all you need to do is rename the directories so the new version will be used or change the appropriate links to the forum. But once the new one is used the old forum's database will be static of course. If you would want to go back you'd have to synchronise the old database with the new one or accept the loss of the changes made since the switch. Of course it must be possible to do such a synchronisation but I'd have to find out how to do that too.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that once the old database is imported into the new one the search indexes will have to be created for that new database. So that may take some time depending on the size and the available processing power.

But if I would run CL I would have a complete copy of the site and forum on a local computer at home or place of work for testing purposes and as an extra backup. If you don't have that I'd recommend it. I simply have Wampserver (which contains Apache, PHP and MySQL) plus PERL installed and running on an old computer upstairs which is on 24/7 anyway. I access that computer through the Remote Desktop function of WinXP Pro from downstairs. You can then run most web applications. I have several installed for testing purposes and they all work just as they would on the server of a hosting provider. I can even put them live for all the world to see if I'd want to. Running from that computer in my home. Hosting providers don't do anything different. I can access the application over my local network or, if I put them online, over the external internet. On such a local version that is not used by anyone else you can do as much testing as needed. (I have even several web applications running from a USB-stick with XAMPP. You really need very little to do that. Most people have no idea how low the hardware requirements are for this. Running a modern game requires MUCH more.) If you mess such a local copy up you just restore everything again from the backups you make. And if you have everything working as it should there you only have to repeat the procedure with the real site or upload the relevant parts of the local version to the hosting provider's server.

But I don't know of course how many mods you run and whether you'd still need them in v3 or that their functionality perhaps is already built in in v3.

You could just create a new empty phpBB forum on your local computer so you can just have a look around the new version. You can have that running on Wampserver within half an hour if you are a bit familiar with the matter.

Ben
_________________
When in doubt..... Press the shutter.

[Cam-I-Am]

Hi Gordon.

I was wondering whether your plans for (not) upgrading to phpBB3 have changed over the last year. The fact that support for phpBB2 has ended per January 1st 2009 means that due to lack of security updates this forum may become more and more vulnerable. It might be best policy not to wait till something really nasty happens security-wise before deciding to upgrade. As I described above the process is fairly painless and you'll end up with a duplicate forum with which you can experiment before making any final decisions.

As far as your worries about adequate anti-spam mods is concerned I'd expect that, since you're obviously not alone in these concerns, the currently available mods for phpBB3 together with the advice mentioned here should offer sufficient options to deal with the spam-mafia.

What are currently your thoughts on the matter?

Ben
_________________
When in doubt..... Press the shutter.

[Gordon Laing]

It's still under consideration. I'm a one-man operation here and currently working seven days a week producing reviews, so it's hard to find time to perform an upgrade to the forum when it's not strictly urgent, and again would require some research on anti-spam mods.

I'd like to do it, but then I'd also like to produce more workshops, along with countless other things on the site! I also have an interview with Chase Jarvis which needs editing. It's all about priorities and managing time. I do hope to take a look at it in the run-up to Christmas, or during the New Year.