43 replies to this topic

[Bonaparte]

Very soon the admins will start a major forum upgrade moving us to the latest version of the Invision forum software. We are kinda forced to upgrade because our current version has reached 'end of life', which means we can't get any support from this moment onwards.

The previous time we did such a major upgrade we prepared everything for 6 months in the background. By the time we were ready Invision already released a new forum version, so we are not going to do it like that again. Instead we'll upgrade the board and get us going with one default forum skin. Once we have one skin ready we'll fix all the other skins over time. So that means you'll see a pretty uncustomized board immediately after the upgrade until we get one skin ready.

During the upgrade the forum will be closed as we need to 'freeze' our database.

Current target is to do the upgrade this Wednesday, starting 9am (CET).

[badboytje88]

How long will the forum be closed or are you not able to predict this at this time?

[Bonaparte]

badboytje88, on 01 October 2012 - 01:59 PM, said:

How long will the forum be closed or are you not able to predict this at this time?

Normal case: 3h
Worst case: 2 days (in this case we encountered major issues and need Invision support to convert the forum and database)

[Alasdair Ryan]

Will there be any noticeable changes to Eurobricks once everything is up and running again?
I hope everything is straight forward.I don't think I can wait 2 days.

[Bonaparte]

Alasdair Ryan, on 01 October 2012 - 02:12 PM, said:

Will there be any noticeable changes to Eurobricks once everything is up and running again?

Initially there will be many noticeable changes. Once we have one forum skin again customized you'll find much less changes (but for some time we'll only have 1 skin, so no different ones per theme forum). Next we'll rebuild all the theme forum skins.

So yes, you'll feel this, but it should be pretty painless  

The permanent changes will be the differences between Invision v3.0.5 and v3.3.4. One of them is the removal of topic descriptions.

[Darkdragon]

Bonaparte, on 01 October 2012 - 02:17 PM, said:

The permanent changes will be the differences between Invision v3.0.5 and v3.3.4. One of them is the removal of topic descriptions.

I wonder why they did that. Hope the rest of the changes are more on the good-news side of things.

[Masked Builder]

Well you've got to do what you've got to do.

Bonaparte, on 01 October 2012 - 02:17 PM, said:

The permanent changes will be the differences between Invision v3.0.5 and v3.3.4. One of them is the removal of topic descriptions.

Nuts, I like those.

[Bonaparte]

DarkDragon, on 01 October 2012 - 03:11 PM, said:

Hope the rest of the changes are more on the good-news side of things.

I hope (and expect) there will be a lot of goodies in the new version as well. It's several years newer than our current one. If you like you can find out here.

[JopieK]

Good luck guys, you might need a lot of coffee so be prepared!




You might want to build some of these :)

[Alasdair Ryan]

Bonaparte, on 01 October 2012 - 02:17 PM, said:

One of them is the removal of topic descriptions.

DarkDragon, on 01 October 2012 - 03:11 PM, said:

I wonder why they did that.

I would of thought that the topic descriptions could be enabled/disabled at the admins choice?



This photo sums up quite alot I think.......

Edited by Alasdair Ryan, 01 October 2012 - 03:53 PM.

[legolijntje]

Bonaparte, on 01 October 2012 - 02:17 PM, said:

The permanent changes will be the differences between Invision v3.0.5 and v3.3.4. One of them is the removal of topic descriptions.

But what happens to the current topic descriptions?

[Shadows]

DarkDragon, on 01 October 2012 - 03:11 PM, said:

Hope the rest of the changes are more on the good-news side of things.

Visually, I think it will be, to a point. The new look is much cleaner, almost like they're trying to impersonate a blog.

I still can't tell if it's going to be a headache to skin or not, but it's definitely going to be different.

Here is what it will look like, before tweaking.

legolijntje, on 01 October 2012 - 04:32 PM, said:

But what happens to the current topic descriptions?

I would assume the conversion will eat them, which is kind of annoying. I can't find any modification to continue to use them, but I'm looking.

[Brickdoctor]

Well, that's certainly exciting, though I too am not too happy about the loss of topic descriptions. Hopefully you'll find a way to add those back in, because there are instances such as in the RA and in set news topics where we put information in there for quick reference. (teachers grading and last date updated, respectively, in those cases)

Shadows, on 01 October 2012 - 04:56 PM, said:

Here is what it will look like, before tweaking.

Are you keeping that sidebar? Maybe it's just because I'm used to the current layout, but that sidebar makes it seem cramped to me, not cleaner.

Good luck, Admins, and thanks for doing this for us.

[legolijntje]

Shadows, on 01 October 2012 - 04:56 PM, said:

I would assume the conversion will eat them, which is kind of annoying. I can't find any modification to continue to use them, but I'm looking.

Isn't this useful? It supports Invision 3.3.x
I don't think so, because it was the first Google hit, but still, but I had too moments that I overlooked the first hit  



EDIT: I just found another good advantage in the new version; a mobile theme. It would even be better if the mods can make a nice mobile theme for it  

Edited by legolijntje, 01 October 2012 - 05:35 PM.

[Shadows]

Brickdoctor, on 01 October 2012 - 05:03 PM, said:

WAre you keeping that sidebar? Maybe it's just because I'm used to the current layout, but that sidebar makes it seem cramped to me, not cleaner.

That sidebar only happens on the main index, which isn't particularly cluttered anyway, it doesn't appear anywhere else. As such, I don't mind it.

It really does come down to losing the descriptions as the biggest negative, aside from the amount of work involved in the process, but at this point not doing it would eventually put us at a serious disadvantage for support and general performance, so like always, we'll adjust and do as much with it as we possibly can.

legolijntje, on 01 October 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

Isn't this useful? It supports Invision 3.3.x
I don't think so, because it was the first Google hit, but still, but I had too moments that I overlooked the first hit  

Probably won't apply, but I'll look into it, thanks!

legolijntje, on 01 October 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

EDIT: I just found another good advantage in the new version; a mobile theme. It would even be better if the mods can make a nice mobile theme for it  

That shouldn't be a problem, eventually.

[snefroe]

thanks for all the brilliant work on this, guys! hope everything goes smoothly

[Walter]

Best of luck! Here's hoping everything goes smoothly.  

[Brickdoctor]

legolijntje, on 01 October 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

EDIT: I just found another good advantage in the new version; a mobile theme. It would even be better if the mods can make a nice mobile theme for it  

We used to have one, but I think it caused too many problems. (it was disabled at the same time as the skin theme switcher, if I remember correctly) Hopefully this one won't have those problems; though I personally prefer the full version even on mobile, there are times when I want a mobile version that'll load faster.

Shadows, on 01 October 2012 - 06:02 PM, said:

That sidebar only happens on the main index, which isn't particularly cluttered anyway, it doesn't appear anywhere else. As such, I don't mind it.

I feel stupid now. I didn't look to see if it was present on the other pages.

[Darkdragon]

Shadows, on 01 October 2012 - 04:56 PM, said:

Here is what it will look like, before tweaking.

I like it, so Web2.0y. There are some nice features added in the new version. Hmm, speaking of new features...I need to go check a thread about a something.

[SNIPE]

Where can I get the current technic forum skin/backround and new skin that will be put up, is it just an image file?

[legolijntje]

SNIPE, on 01 October 2012 - 07:10 PM, said:

Where can I get the current technic forum skin/backround and new skin that will be put up, is it just an image file?

Here, here and here are the base images used for the theme

[SNIPE]

legolijntje, on 01 October 2012 - 07:14 PM, said:

Here, here and here are the base images used for the theme

Thanks.

[Modulex Guy]

3 hours to two days without EB!?!?!? why... WHY... WHY!!!!!!!
What am I do do?!?!!?

[img]http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/73e1583561284941eebd82ac7d591d7d/http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff466/n8biangel/invader-zim-gir.gif[/img]

Just kidding.    Good luck with the upgrade, I'm looking forward to a new layout and hopefully it will be a flawless transition to the new software.

[just2good]

I'm not to fond of the new look, but that's the same way I initially thought of this one back when it changed (in 2010?), which I have grown to love. Since I've already forgot how the one before this looked, I guess I'll record something in memory of this version.
Oh, and (if all goes wrong) two days without Eurobricks? I'll miss my daily post and I'll go crazy!

Edited by just2good, 01 October 2012 - 08:54 PM.

[JimButcher]

Seems like just just a while ago that we last updated. And I completely forgot what the old board looked like.   Oh well, it's got to happen. Thanks to the staff for the hard work. I hope you guys can find a way to get something similar to the topic descriptions, at least.

Hope everything goes smoothly.