Site update and short term developments

Hi all,

It's been a crazy start of the year for the site, with the site going down and the template, undergoing a number of changes, and the slew of bug reports filling up my Inbox, so I have come to a position that I need to do some major work to the site.

So below I've outlined what will be happening to the site over the next 6-8 weeks.

• The base CMS (Content Management System) will be upgraded from the current Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.2, this is to keep the site up to date.
• The site template MIGHT remains the same - this is depending on how much I can reduce the server workload, if the changes I'm planning on making reduces the load enough, then we might go back to a previous template or we might keep the one that we are on, or we might go for something new, it's all in flux.
• The library software will be changing - at the moment we are using flexicontent as the software that runs the library, over the last year, it's become somewhat bloated, almost doubling in the last year in file size, it was useful for the site at the start, but it's not working as well as we need it to be, you can't for example add tags via the front end, that needs to be done by an admin from the back end and that's not very helpful. So I'm moving the library to K2, no, not the mountain, but a new CCK (Content Construction Kit), it's more powerful than Flexicontent but a lot less resource hungry, this should help the site become faster and offer better features.
• If the server load goes down enough the tag cloud and the image gallery might return to the front page as well.

So how am i going to achieve this?

I'm working on my home server and currently working on constructing the skeleton of the site, the nest part is to populate it with the current data, (forum posts, stories, Images, PM's and other data) if all goes well I'll then stress test the site and if there is a reduction in the server load I'll propose a date for the site to be closed for 4 hours and the new site implemented.

This development will help the site be faster, more productive and less buggy. If anyone has any ideas for the site, or maybe wants to contribute something, please let me know.

Thanks to all who have stuck though this time i know it's not easy but without you this site would not be what it is.

Fats

fats wrote: The library software will be changing - at the moment we are using flexicontent as the software that runs the library, over the last year, it's become somewhat bloated, almost doubling in the last year in file size, it was useful for the site at the start, but it's not working as well as we need it to be, you can't for example add tags via the front end, that needs to be done by an admin from the back end and that's not very helpful. So I'm moving the library to K2, no, not the mountain, but a new CCK (Content Construction Kit), it's more powerful than Flexicontent but a lot less resource hungry, this should help the site become faster and offer better features.

Until the Tags issue can be fixed, I would like to ask to all the authors and readers to PM me the missing tags from the stories, so that they can be properly uploaded.

Quick update, the template will be changed, i can shave 2% of server load by changing the theme, so i'll preview the new theme at the end of the month.

Fats

Ok, with more analysis of the new setup I can now say that Tag cloud and the random image gallery will be returning to the front page, also the slideshow will also return, what will be dumped is Wordpress for the FP blog, that will now be handled by K2 natively. More updates will follow soon.

Fats

fats wrote: Ok, with more analysis of the new setup I can now say that Tag cloud and the random image gallery will be returning to the front page, also the slideshow will also return, what will be dumped is Wordpress for the FP blog, that will now be handled by K2 natively. More updates will follow soon.

Fats

Nice to hear. I hope that the shift won't create any compatibility problems with the forum or other parts of the site.

Hi all,

The redevelopment is going well, I've met all my targets for the first stage, I'm now working on the second stage and I'm on to having the redeveloped site up and running at the end of march. I've been looking at the theme of the site and I have settled on this one demo.gavick.com/free/meetgavern/ it's a nice theme that works very well on a tablet and Smartphones. The link will show you a demo of what the site will look like, it has none of the content from this site, but will show you the menu and other features of the site.

Do look at the K2 section as that is one area that will show you how the stories and blog will look like also the cobalt section as that might be what the image galleries will look like.

Fats

fats wrote: Hi all,

The redevelopment is going well, I've met all my targets for the first stage, I'm now working on the second stage and I'm on to having the redeveloped site up and running at the end of march. I've been looking at the theme of the site and I have settled on this one demo.gavick.com/free/meetgavern/ it's a nice theme that works very well on a tablet and Smartphones. The link will show you a demo of what the site will look like, it has none of the content from this site, but will show you the menu and other features of the site.

Do look at the K2 section as that is one area that will show you how the stories and blog will look like also the cobalt section as that might be what the image galleries will look like.

Fats

The link goes to the homepage of the template site, are you sure there's a separate section for the developers.

OK, a little update.

The new site will be delayed by a month i'm now working on an end of April deadline for the new site, this is caused by issues with transferring data from some of the current systems to the new site.

I'll try at the meeting to post some screenshots of the new site (the bits that work) at the town hall meeting next week.

sorry for the delays.

Fats