APUG's next version and migration to a new system, possibly in June/July.

[Ken Nadvornick]

If you're worried you're going to wake up to this:

Please don't. We're heading to a far more streamlined system.. less old clunky code, old bugs, convoluted menus, glitches that have annoyed some for years. It will be de-cluttered, smooth and easy to use. It almost looks identical in most ways, it will definitely feel familiar. It's xenforo but quite modified to suit our needs and aesthetic. I'll also have a low bandwidth option as well.

APUG is on the left, DPUG is on the right...

:w00t:

Ken

 

[Wayne]

I'll also have a low bandwidth option as well.

awesome

 

[pentaxuser]

I have for the first time in over 11 years a problem opening one thread. It is just the one thread. It has been suggested that this may be one of the "current APUG bugs". This may be the case, I don't know.

If that is the case then when will the new APUG arrive? I'll at least be able to know when the "bug will be killed"

For everyone's information and to save wasting their time, I have cleared my browser cache to no avail

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[Sean]

Hi All,

A quick update. In the next 7-10 days we're looking to do a full test import of the current APUG into our new system. We'll then spend a few weeks (hopefully less) doing some final testing/tweaks and then plan for the final migration. During this process the current APUG remains running as if nothing has happened. I will likely be calling on some of our regulars to preview the development site, make suggestions and find some bugs.

Getting close!
Thanks,
Sean

 

[TheToadMen]

Hi All,

A quick update. In the next 7-10 days we're looking to do a full test import of the current APUG into our new system. We'll then spend a few weeks (hopefully less) doing some final testing/tweaks and then plan for the final migration. During this process the current APUG remains running as if nothing has happened. I will likely be calling on some of our regulars to preview the development site, make suggestions and find some bugs.

Getting close!
Thanks,
Sean

I'm happy to help testing as a user.
Bert from Holland

 

[Sean]

*update, we are now booked in for a test migration to our new system Oct 1-3rd. If all goes well then the real migration will only be a week or two max after that. The current site will remain functional during the test migration. I'm looking forward to posting some new screenshots soon after, as well as getting a few members to kick the tires on the dev environment.

 

[RobC]

*update, we are now booked in for a test migration to our new system Sept 1-3rd. If all goes well then the real migration will only be a week or two max after that. The current site will remain functional during the test migration. I'm looking forward to posting some new screenshots soon after, as well as getting a few members to kick the tires on the dev environment.

Next year then:confused:

 

[Sean]

oops typo, it's next week sorry..

 

[Sean]

Hi All,

Today we are working on some huge data imports into the development environment. I don't anticipate any major performance issues. If you notice anything it shouldn't be an issue for too long. Thanks!

 

[Sean]

Hi All,

We're making some good progress. There was definite success with most import data but a lot of work remains. It is nice to finally get some real data into our development environment, really helps you see what needs more work. The main thing is that I am now 100% confident we can move to this new architecture. The new system from a back end/end user stand point is truly FANTASTIC, so I'm looking forward to migrating but we shouldn't rush things. Here are a few new screenshots of our current data in the development environment. Keep in mind there may be formatting issues or other things requiring some tweaks. As you can see, we've done a lot of work on this new system to ensure the site is familiar to the previous system (this will continue to be refined). So what's next? I'm identifying any import issues from this first test run. We have other areas of the site to import as well and test. Realistically the full test import may not be 100% for 2-3 weeks or so (mainly due to availability of my contractors fluctuates a lot). I'm hoping to have some of you testing the dev environment in a week or so. Good news is once the dev environment is 100% we can easily apply that to the final production import and flip the switch. Thanks for all the support and patience, it will be worth it!

 

[Sirius Glass]

:w00t:

 

[TheToadMen]

Looking great!!

 

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

Sean: could you share a screenshot of the navigation buttons at the bottom/top of an open thread? I am concerned that they are easy to click on an iPad or an iPhone, the current ones for going to the next page are rather hard to click, as they are between two other buttons, and small. I can see the navigation buttons at the bottom of a forum thread listing, and they seem better, just wanting to make sure thread navigation is also easier than at present.

On another note, I wonder what thread subscription/following options the new system has. It would be good to maintain the existing ones, and perhaps add, if available, "mail me when a new post appears but only once until I have read this thread" if that is an option. I would also like to see an option that opens the thread at the next unread post, whichever page that may be, without having to open the thread and then having to click the "go to unread" button if possible.

I am looking forward to testing out the new editor, too.

Fingers crossed for the migration.

 

[Sean]

Sean: could you share a screenshot of the navigation buttons at the bottom/top of an open thread? I am concerned that they are easy to click on an iPad or an iPhone, the current ones for going to the next page are rather hard to click.

We'll have some new style options for tablets and phones that should resolve this

On another note, I wonder what thread subscription/following options the new system has. It would be good to maintain the existing ones, and perhaps add, if available, "mail me when a new post appears but only once until I have read this thread" if that is an option.

Haven't dug that deep into it yet, there are certainly more options for following content and it's easy enough for us to add custom options as well.

I would also like to see an option that opens the thread at the next unread post, whichever page that may be, without having to open the thread and then having to click the "go to unread" button if possible.

If that isn't already an option we could add it..

I am looking forward to testing out the new editor, too.

The new editor is very nice and can be customized as well to add a variety of additional functions. Thanks for the feedback

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Sean,

I loved the fonts , my eyes are detoriating and now everything are easier to read and fonts are less nervous , more peaceful. I will resubscribe in few months when the credit card reaches to me and remit some redesigning cost to you also.

Thank you.

 

[bdial]

Rafal; Another forum I follow went to Xenforo a couple of months ago. Navigation is easy with my iPhone, if that helps.

From a user perspective the Xenforo migration went pretty well over there, though I don't think that site (advrider.com) had all the customizations to vbulletin that APUG does. There were no user-noticable hiccups that I saw.

I really like the Xenforo UI, you can subscribe to forums as well as threads, and it alerts you when there are updates to stuff you've subscribed to (the "alerts" link in the upper right of some of Sean's screenshots). I don't use the "read new posts" model there, so I don't know how well that works, but I am sure it's = or better than what we have currently. It also alerts you when you've been quoted in a thread, or when someone "likes" one of your posts. When I'm in APUG it feels similar to going back a few OS versions in comparison.

I'm really looking forward to this evolution of APUG, I am sure it will be great.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

Looks darn good to me.

 

[MattKing]

Please make the "go to first unread post" link on the thread index page really easy to click on on a tablet or phone.

 

[Sean]

Rafal; Another forum I follow went to Xenforo a couple of months ago. Navigation is easy with my iPhone, if that helps.

From a user perspective the Xenforo migration went pretty well over there, though I don't think that site (advrider.com) had all the customizations to vbulletin that APUG does. There were no user-noticable hiccups that I saw.

I really like the Xenforo UI, you can subscribe to forums as well as threads, and it alerts you when there are updates to stuff you've subscribed to (the "alerts" link in the upper right of some of Sean's screenshots). I don't use the "read new posts" model there, so I don't know how well that works, but I am sure it's = or better than what we have currently. It also alerts you when you've been quoted in a thread, or when someone "likes" one of your posts. When I'm in APUG it feels similar to going back a few OS versions in comparison.

I'm really looking forward to this evolution of APUG, I am sure it will be great.

Great to hear. Also, we can pretty much change anything we need. If something becomes an issue with UI we're not stuck with that, we can modify the code to suit us.

 

[Sean]

Please make the "go to first unread post" link on the thread index page really easy to click on on a tablet or phone.

That should be ok

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Any chance that the new system might support member uploads of non-image files that would subsequently be available to other members or visitors as regular downloads? Perhaps as part of the Articles section? Presuming, of course, that there will still be an Articles section.

Ken

 

[Sean]

Any chance that the new system might support member uploads of non-image files that would subsequently be available to other members or visitors as regular downloads? Perhaps as part of the Articles section? Presuming, of course, that there will still be an Articles section.

Ken

Definitely. The articles will be merged into a "Resources" section which can contain articles, wiki, files, etc.

Sorry for lack of updates on the progress it's been a bit difficult lining up the right people to do this migration. It's been a 1 step forward two steps back situation for a while. Things got put on the back burner while I got swamped with day to day (I am juggling a couple ventures other than APUG). I'll be ramping up our migration again this coming week though and hopefully find the right people to roll it out asap. I definitely want this all done by early Dec. Thanks!

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Definitely. The articles will be merged into a "Resources" section which can contain articles, wiki, files, etc.

That will work perfectly. Thanks for the info.



Ken

 

[Sean]

Hi All,

Just an update. I was slowing development for a bit waiting on a few more point releases of our new software. The dev environment went to their 1.5 version which was a fairly new build. We've upgraded from 1.5 to 1.5.1, 1.5.2 and now 1.5.3 has been released. This puts the new version of the software well within production level for us. I've had a few hiccups with freelance coders and finding a way to get the gallery imported. I might have to migrate our current gallery to a system called "photopost". So our current vbgallery-->photopost-->new gallery system. Photopost has an importer for vbgallery and our new gallery system has an importer for photopost. I plan to install photopost this week and see how that goes. Once that's done the site migration will be fairly straight forward. I've also found a new migration coder that should suit us better than the guy I was using for tests. This is taking far longer than I expected but my goal is to get this rolled out before the New Year. Thanks!

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Thanks for the update, Sean.

Sent from my D6653 using Tapatalk