Forum Upgrade... coming soon!

[Ian]

I've been testing out the latest version of the forum software (XenForo), as version 2.1 is about to be released. It comes with support for mobile push notifications, as well as plenty of smaller under-the-hood features.

I upgraded w7forums.com already, as it's a less active site nowadays so it made for a good test. So far it seems to be running very smoothly, so I'll likely upgrade this forum fairly soon.

I wanted to post this heads up message in case anyone happens to visit the site for the hour or so that the upgrade will take (I'll do it at a quiet time). It's probably still a few days away until the upgrade, but I'll post more at the time.

 

[davehc]

I hope you haven't asked MS for help - lol

 

[Trouble]

Anything in-particular we should be watching out for to mark the occasion??

 

[Ian]

Anything in-particular we should be watching out for to mark the occasion??

There are a few features that could be useful - for example "push" notifications for new content, perhaps a better way to get updates than via e-mail for some. It also has lots of little improvements such as tables can be used in posts, "URL unfurling" (i.e. previews of any link posted: title, thumbnail, quote) and lots of other minor things.

The improvements are worthwhile, but not a "must" that made the upgrade happen - it's mainly that they are EOLing the v1 branch of the software at the end of the year, so it's a good time to move to v2 .

 

[Ian]

I'm going to perform this upgrade later on today, likely starting in around 45 mins (11:45am GMT). This will take the site offline for around 5-10 mins, followed by some style issues for another 30 mins (but the forum will still be operational). I'll post a little more once the upgrade is complete.

 

[Ian]

And we're back online . I'm still tweaking a few bits and bobs, but we're 95% there.

 

[Bif]

Well done Ian!...very spiffy!

 

[Trouble]

Still looking around. Seems I'm finding most things.

IS there a way to switch to a wide screen view??

 

[davehc]

Curious. I am on a couple of other forums which have changed to this. As on those, in IE, The Conversation and alerts buttons are hidden in the colours, but only in IE, and all the options in posts. I tried quite a number of things over the past weeks, without success.

 

[Trouble]

It is indeed weird, as I am also using IE and am not seeing what you are seeing.

 

[Ian]

IS there a way to switch to a wide screen view??

Not yet, but if it's useful, I can see if I can add this option .

 

[Ian]

Curious. I am on a couple of other forums which have changed to this. As on those, in IE, The Conversation and alerts buttons are hidden in the colours, but only in IE, and all the options in posts. I tried quite a number of things over the past weeks, without success.

View attachment 9752

I'll do some testing in IE and submit a bug report if I can replicate it @davehc .

edit: I'm posting this update from IE11 and all of the buttons are working ok for me - it works as expected. Are you running any plugins, etc...? Is the browser in compatibility mode?

 

[Trouble]

Not yet, but if it's useful, I can see if I can add this option .

Always have found that the wide option was more utilitarian.
Anything that uses as much screen real estate as possible just seems more efficient.
More text in less area means less scrolling up and or down when reading a thread.

 

[davehc]

I'll do some testing in IE and submit a bug report if I can replicate it @davehc .

edit: I'm posting this update from IE11 and all of the buttons are working ok for me - it works as expected. Are you running any plugins, etc...? Is the browser in compatibility mode?

No. Everything on default. I had a look on my Wine,s laptop - in its original State. Same problem. Must be something to do with Dell graphics, I’m thinking

 

[Ian]

Always have found that the wide option was more utilitarian.
Anything that uses as much screen real estate as possible just seems more efficient.
More text is less area means less scrolling up and or down when reading a thread.

Gimme a week or so and I'll see what I can do to add this back .

No. Everything on default. I had a look on my Wine,s laptop - in its original State. Same problem. Must be something to do with Dell graphics, I’m thinking

I'll see if I can find a cause for this. Is anyone else reading this in IE11 having problems with the editor?

 

[davehc]

Gimme a week or so and I'll see what I can do to add this back .



I'll see if I can find a cause for this. Is anyone else reading this in IE11 having problems with the editor?

Don't concern yourself too much, Ian. It is an interesting problem though. As I intimated earlier, obviously it is an interaction between the Forum script (Colours?) and the particular dell graphics (Intel) setup.
For interest, and for other curious readers, this is what I see in ANY other browser. I do note that the two missing items are only light graphics without text.

 

[Bighorn]

I get the same on IE11, Firefox, Edge, Vivaldi and Pale Moon.

Dell Vostro 1510 Notebook

 

[davehc]

I tried resetting to defaults, with no change. I then removed IE totally from the computer and reinstalled it. The result::

Maybe, when I feel bored, I'll slowly work through the settings and see if I can replicate the fault. But, whilst unlikely on two different model computers, it was a bad install.

 

[Bighorn]

Guess what? Now I'm not getting text to go with the icons on my name, mail, bell, lightning bolt and magnifying glass. I'd think it may be the forum changes doing it rather than the hardware on the computers doing it. This is on both Firefox 65 and latest Vivaldi 2.3.1440.41 (Stable channel) (32-bit) this morning:

 

[davehc]

Sorry, but I have to —- lol
But, to clarify, I didn’ t Get the tro ikons AS Well AS text. You Can see from my clip That, now, all is As it should be