Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 3:16 am

Ack, I hate it when this happens.

Darker: When I was updating the forums to use MySQL today, I used my LOCAL copies of the files: FORUM.ASP, DEFAULT.ASP, and CONFIG.ASP when I was editing. So, I overwrote several of your recent changes to the forum, including the sticky topics, the HTML in the Forum description field, etc.

I hope hope hope you have a local copy of these files with your changes. If so, go ahead and post them to the server or email them to me.

The only changes I really had to make were in CONFIG.ASP where I put the new SQL connection string and set the MySQL connection type. The other two files were just modified to notify users that the forums were down for a while.

I hate it when stuff like this happens.

The good news is that we are running on MySql now. The data transfer was mostly painless, although as always the DEFAULT values of the fields were not transferred, nor were all the indexes created. But I manually added the default values to the various tables and added the indexes that we had before.

So, hopefully except for the custom code you added, things are still basically working. (crossing my fingers)

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 7:44 pm

Got an email from Darker. He isn't sure that he still has the files either, but will check tonight.

We are considering using this as an opportunity to upgrade to the latest version of the Snitz forums. We are making a list of "mods" that we have made, like the Guru icon, etc. The new version of Snitz already seems to have a sticky topic feature, and has a few other features and bug fixes.

Anyway, stay tuned. Darker might be playing with the forum code this weekend.

GURU Joined: 24 Sep 2000 Posts: 1237 Location: USA

We're using "Snitz Forums 2000 Version 3.1 Beta 4c".

The new version is "Snitz Forums 2000 Version 3.4.03" Seems significant enough of a number change to warrant upgrading. Plus, I'd rather use the newest code.

I'll likely set it up on the same db, but in an alternate directory for testing before it goes live*. *Provided the db format hasn't changed wildly.

Oooo. After a little reading it *looks* like the upgrade path is automatic. Still, I'll need to make a backup of the MySQL db before I start, just in case something goes wrong. Where can I find it? Email might be a better response.

zMUD 6 Online Help: All the power you'll ever need.

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2003 9:46 pm

I sent the location of the db password via email. MySql is installed on the E: drive, so the database files are in E:/mysql/data as expected.

From the looks of it, the new version of Snitz already has the sticky post and the [url] in the description field for forums. So, the features that we lost are already implemented.

The other features that you have added are still in our existing forum code files, so you might just be able to copy/paste some of the existing code from our files into the new snitz files.

Good luck with it! I'll try to check the forums a couple of times when I'm gone this weekend.

GURU Joined: 24 Sep 2000 Posts: 1237 Location: USA

Ok, we're at a half-way point, I think.

New forums are up, but they're not public because they need to be tested - there's new features that we've not gotten used to yet.

The zMUD Guru icon doesn't show up there yet.
The restricted forums (like beta, guru, etc) aren't restricted properly yet.

Please take a look at www.zuggsoft.com/forum2003 and let us know here about any problems you find.

Because I have to leave to take my wife & daughter to an appointment, I'm leaving umm. Kjata in charge. Besides Zugg and Me he's the only one who can see the restricted forums. IF you want to see them and can't, post here so he can set it up.

Kjata, explore, I'm sure you'll find the right link. It only took me an hour. :P

I'll be back later to finish coding this.

zMUD 6 Online Help: All the power you'll ever need.

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2003 5:46 am

Darker, I think I at least figured out what happened to the server:

1) The MySQL server was processing your query/task
2) Telling MySql to Restart, just queued the request and didn't abort the task
3) IIS hung at this point
4) You told VNC to reboot the server
5) VNC sent the reboot request and then disconnected/disabled itself to prevent login during the shutdown
6) MySQL continued to hog the system, not allowing it to shut down.

So, we had this state where IIS was still down, MySQL was responding slowly, VNC was disabled, and the server wouldn't reboot.

I think that's what happened. Of course, once Superb manually rebooted the server, that reset everything.

So, I need to read the MySql admin book and figure out how to *properly* shutdown/restart MySql when there is a long query running in the background. There must be a way to do this without hanging the whole server like that.

I'll be here off and on tomorrow, so I'll check in to see how the new forums are going.

GURU Joined: 24 Sep 2000 Posts: 1237 Location: USA

The zMUD Guru icon shows up now.

"User Ranks" are in place, for users with over 1000 posts, but who aren't Gurus (Advanced User, Senior User)

I added a Polls Mod to the forum - its administered through the Admin

I reformatted the header quite a bit to match the current forum look

I added an Search Mod to add advanced options to the search page

It still needs forum permissions set up. To do that, I'm thinking about just leaving it the way it is, but making sure the beta and Dev forum applications work with the new permissions system. So if you want access, you have to agree to the app again. No big deal.

After that, I either have to re-upgrade the current live database, or just leave it as is and a few posts get lost. My feelings will depend on the difference in posts between the 2.

zMUD 6 Online Help: All the power you'll ever need.

GURU Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 4379 Location: USA

Good job on the forum Darker! The new version appears to be working nicely.