Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.

forum software upgrade

I'm thinking about upgrading the software that runs this site - not only for the chat, but so I can install modules that enhance the forum administration features, which are dreadful. I really want to be able to split and merge threads.

On the other hand, I don't want to break what's already here. For example, the themes in this forum I wrote myself, and I don't know if the format breaks with an upgrade. I'm looking into all this.

I also need to do this at a time when people aren't logged in because the forum will break for a while. It won't be today because I have social plans.

Can't get chatbox to load today (1/7/09)

Working in Explorer (I usually work in firefox, but it's not on my laptop).

Chatbox page seems to be stock in "chat loading ... please wait" mode.

I've been able to load it earlier today on this same laptop. Any idea what I should do? 

 

The Hero's Code:

Show up. Pay Attention. Speak the Truth. Let Go of the Outcome.

Never Mind. It's working now. n/t

The Hero's Code:

Show up. Pay Attention. Speak the Truth. Let Go of the Outcome.

text centering is fixed in the rich text editor (TinyMCE)

There was a problem in the configuration that prevented centering (sorry for driving you crazy with this, Moving!). It's fixed now. 

This is below.

All should be centered.

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chatbox hangs fixed

Last night I found what I'm 95% sure was the cause of the periodic chatbox hangs ("Chat loading, Please wait...). It shouldn't happen anymore.

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chatbox timeout-disconnects fixed

If you were in the chatbox and not typing, you could get disconnected. I looked into this, and it seems to have been a settings problem. I think it's fixed now. If not, let me know.

confirmed fixed - no more chatbox disconnects

The chatbox disconnect problem is fixed.

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Pro

*Hearty pat on the back* Thanks Pro! Wonderful work!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson

sorry I broke the chatbox last night

It's a good lesson for why I should go to bed instead of trying to program all night. I thought I was uploading changes to the development area, but I uploaded test files here by accident. All is well again now. Sorry.

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CHATBOX IS NOW FULLY FUNCTIONAL

All the bad problems with the chatbox are fixed now. You can see who's chatting in the sidebar (if you refresh), the scrolling problem in IE7 is fixed, and the rooms are created automatically now. Phew!

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last remaining bug - chatbox sidebar problem

The last remaining bug in the chatbox is the lack of sidebar info about when someone is in the chatroom already. I think this may be a bug in phpfreechat itself, versus the Drupal module integrating it. I wrote to the author of phpfreechat and he answered, so I'm hoping he will look at this. I can debug the Drupal integration module, but not his code, which is veyr complicated.

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okay - you can see who's chatting now in the left sidebar

I fixed this in a cludgy way, but it works. It's not easy to get the node at the point in the program where the boxes are created, and I don't feel like writing the code right now so I just hardcoded it. And it works!

Maybe some other time I'll make it work properly. For now, I'm done.

Couple points on how it works... You only can see this if you're a registered member of the forum.

If you see someone listed in the "who's chatting" box but not in the "who's chatting in check-in", then they're in some other room (channel) - might be meeting, or might be a private room.

You have to refresh the page to see updated block content. Unlike the previous chat we had, this one doesn't auto refresh (yet).

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last tweaks to chat sidebar

I took away the separate block for the check-in room, and left just the one that lists everyone in a chat. I also took away the box that has the last few messages.

The room is found programmatically now (not hardcoded), but that's invisible to you.

It still doesn't automatically update. Just as you have to refresh the page to see new comments, you have to refresh to see if someone has entered the chat.

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have the chat to pop up in a separate window?

I'm thinking of having the chat pop up in a separate window. This has two virtues:

 - It allows you to surf the site and chat simultaneously, and (more important)

- It gets around that bad scrollbar bug in IE 7 (scrolling starts jumping around when the window is filled.

Not today, though. I've spent enough time on this today - need to do other things.

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chat jumping bug is fixed (no more scrolling weirdness)

Instead of making the chat a popup, I edited the theme to use css for positioning instead of tables. That fixed the jumping bug - but it will also make the site look veryu strange unless you clear you browser's cache and do a hard refresh (delete temporary files in IE or private data in Firefox, and press Ctrl+F5).

Now the only chatbox bug left (really bad bug) is the lack of sidebar block info (you can't tell when people are in the check-in or meeting chat without entering the chatroom).

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LOOKS FUNNY? CLEAR YOUR CACHE!!!!

I just made a change to the site theme that corrects the "jumping" bug in the chatbox. But the site will look very strange now unless you clear your browser's cache - delete temporary files in IE, or clear private data in Firefox. Then do a hard refresh (Ctrl+F5).

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Wow!

Pro, this places looks GREAT! :-D I still need to catch up on the posts here, but I just wanted to thank you for all the work you're putting into this! Will post again once I'm up to speed :-) :*

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action - Walter Anderson

thanks, Edge

Welcome back!

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may have found the chatbox bug

I'm pretty sure I found the chatbox bug that prevents values from being saved (so many things don't work). Drupal is famous for changing their API drastically between versions and breaking code. The bug is legacy code from v4.7 that wasn't properly updated for v5.x.

I'm too tired to attempt to fix it tonight, but it's definitely a significant error that accounts for why data isn't being saved. I'll do the conversion to 5.x in the morning.

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chatbox room names now automated

That chabox rooms should automatically appear now when you enter the chat. Sorry to the people I kicked out of the box just now so I could update it.

I still haven't figured out why the boxes don't display. I was hoping the database fix would solve this problem, too, but it hasn't.

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formatting issue

not hi prio:

it looks like the formatting is removing paragraphs. I'm going to hit nl at the end of this line.

this should be in the next paragraph, and it looks that way in the edit box. and if i disable rich-text i can see the </p><p> but when i preview or post, there's just an &nbsp; the paragraph has been removed.

But then if i edit again, the paragraph is back. so drupal didnt forget it's there, it's just having trouble presenting it in the forum view. (or something.)

 

something is very mixed up

It's worse than that. Something is very screwed up.

I have other things to do right now - a plumber is on his way. I'll fix this, but I can't right now. Sorry!

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oh wait - did I fix it?

I made one change, and now it seems to work. That was a paragraph.

Gotta get dressed before the plumber gets here!!!!

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testing <p>

testing p1

now p2.

looks fixed!  pro you're a genius!  tx 

 

if I can fix the chat...

...then I'll be a genius.

I've been spending all my free time on that d*mn chat!! The person who wrote the module for Drupal integration has vanished, and the module is full of bugs.

I guess we can live with it not creating the default rooms, but I can't stand that the blocks don't work so you can't see if anyone is in the room unless you launch the chat. Other things don't work, either.

I've written to the author of the module (no answer), filed numerous bug reports (no answer), written to the author of phpfreechat (no answer), and written to someone who contributed a piece to the module (short answer - he won't help).

The only way this will get fixed is if I learn how Drupal modules are created, study the code, and find the bugs myself - which I'm in the process of doing. I'm not sure Drupal is worth all this time, but it drives me crazy.

I rationalize that it will be a good thing to know Drupal well enough to use it in advanced ways. I originally installed it here because I wanted to use it somewhere else and this was a way to learn it. The code is convoluted and there is a steep learning curve.

Many others have filed bug reports about this module. If I fix it, I'll be a hero. Maybe I'm doing it for glory. :)

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forum sw

i assume that the content organization features you like in drupal still outweigh the forum issues? Because i know that vBulletin and phpbb are very popular. I'm sure other are also popular. I can't say i personally have ever fallen in love with a particular forum sw.

I still remember the days of "email lists" which then acquired archives, then the ability to "reply" (or post) to the archive directly. I still like the feature of being able to post from email. Neither vBulletin nor phpbb have that to my knowledge.

Are you aware of any that do? Because i have to set up a forum elsewhere which will have computer noobies on it, and i thot for them a wholly email interface would be easiest.

would google groups do what you want?

People can either email or post directly, and can choose to receive messages by email or by reading the group website.

 (Just to clarify: this is a suggestion for clement, not for pa.org)

I am not changing forum software - FINAL ANSWER

You guys just keep asking me to work and work and work - or you will go to another site. At this point I have to say, if you don't like the software I'm running here, go to another site.

Please don't mention this again.

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Sorry pro, I think the site is awesome!

My suggestion really was intended just for clement's project...sorry if it seemed at all pushy. I think the software here works great. And I really appreciate all the work you've been putting in recently to make it even better!

We're happy with the forum software, Pro!

Clem and Kromer were talking about a project that clem is working on, not this site . . .

I for one love the site and plan to use it daily forever.

Jo

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey

thanks, Jo

Were you the one who said you'd managed Web sites and knew how it felt to have people take your community somewhere else? It's not that nice.

Also, for some reason, many of the members lately keep making programming demands on me - constantly requesting this or that feature. Hey - I'm working for free here. :(

Okay, I'll stop complaining. I'd just be ever-so-grateful if people would STOP making site software "suggestions" and/or threatening to take the PA community away from this site.

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was considering google groups

Yes, i saw recently that google groups had that. I would like it to be hosted at our organization's domain. Is there "google groups for you domain" as there is for gmail? Still it might not be too bad to have it hosted at google.

we need more than just a forum

We need a content management system here, not just a forum.

This version of Drupal is adequate because I now have a plug-in that lets me manage comments (move them to the right place, etc.).

The biggest issue is that I don't want to lose three years of content. I could install SMF here (that's the best forum software) - there is a Drupal integration that I've tried out and it works - but it's not worth it. I want the archive. What we have here now is fine.

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paragraphs

I just noticed the same thing when I created the day thread starter. I had to edit the HTML manually. I'll take a look at the tinymce settings. Maybe I changed something by accident.

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search problem

when i tried search today i got: "You are not authorized to access this page."

not hi prio.

chatbox invitation - movingalong? clement?

I'm experimenting with some chatbox commands I didn't know were there, and I "invited" movingalong and clement (who seem to be online now). Did you receive anything?

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chat invite--vpn/firewall issues

i didnt see the invitation, but that's probably my end.
 
(HEY!  you fixed the double newline thing.  Cool!)

 

Lately the box has loaded, and i can type one or 2 lines, but then i nav away and come back and type and i get:
 
   You must be connected to send a message
 
Then i reload the page and can type again.  so i think i'm getting disconnected.  

 
 

um no...

I was just in my email account and there wasn't anything there.  If that's what you mean.

 

 If there was a pop-up here on the site, I didn't get it. 

 

 OOOH all the rich text MCE options are back!  Thanks!

 

P.S. I've got to log off now and go to work.  I'll come back and play tonight.

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chat vpn firewall

pro, i'm not chatting because my mode is to basically stay logged into work (via vpn) on this one laptop all day. my work has a very active firewall (which i'm sure you could figure out from logs). So the chat doesnt work in my env. It just say "chat loading, please wait..." forever. I just tried again. Same thing happened to stepchat. They're both java--maybe that has something to do with it.

Never mind.  It worked this time!

I always use just check-in

 

chat blocked at work

All chat programs and messaging programs are blocked by my company's security - I'm not sure how they do it. It seems like they block a lot of sites based on keywords and/or bandwidth. I don't think it's really a firewall thing, it seems to be more programmatically restricted.

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey

"chat loading, please wait"

(As a sidenote, I'm feeling very pleased because I used the "comment mover" plug-in to move your message. Inability to move messages is one of the things that has driven me craziest about Drupal. I'm so happy I can do this now!)

 Anyway, I don't know why a firewall or vpn would prevent chatting, but I'm not a firewall expert. I just know the basics. Usually it's a port issue, but there's nothing special about the port of this chat, and many sites use JavaScript.

I've been doing all my experiments on a test site so as not to break this one. If you can't get into the chat, something is wrong so please let me know.

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SMILEYS ARE FIXED

Smileys are back. The database table didn't update correctly. I did it manually. :-)

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tinymce (rich text editor) enabled by default

The problem with enabling tinymce by default turns out to be another IE7 problem - doesn't happen with Vista, but does happen with XP SP2.

The solution (I read) is to update the version of JQuery that the forum uses. I just did that and reset the default. Don't know if it worked, though.

If I can't set it for you, you can change it yourself in your profile. You just have to expand the tinymce section and you'll see the setting.

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disappearing blocks?!?!

I shall go mad!! I made two new blocks visible in the sidebars - or tried to. One was visible for about a second, and now won't show up no matter what. The other (chatbox) won't show up at all. Augh!!

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one block found, others buggy (found source of chat problem)

You notice the empty chat boxes on the right panel? They're empty because of a bug in phpfreechat. I think it's the same bug that causes the title and channels not to be loaded.

In investigating, I discovered that phpfreechat is not saving its data in the Drupal database table, which is why it doesn't correct create blocks, set the default title, or initialize default channels. I posted reports of the bug to the developers. I hope they answer.

On the plus side, I learned how to make the join commands links, so now you just have to click - don't have to type.

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POST-UPGRADE CLEAN-UP (readme, please)

There are bound to be some weirdnesses with a major site upgrade like this one. Eventually I'll work out all the glitches. Here's what's on my list so far:

- How come the chat box doesn't automatically create the channels it's supposed to create?

- How come the new version of tinymce (rich text editor) is not the default for everyone as I set it to be?

- How come tinymce makes a double space when I hit Enter (I hate that).

- I haven't yet installed the extra smileys - forgot about that.

- I want to figure out how the two thread starters got crossed (Sunday and Mandain's hello). I think it may have been from playing with a new plug-in ("comment_mover") that I didn't know how to use. In other words, I may have done it myself by accident. I'm hoping that's it - way better option than database corruption.

For now, I'm oh so happy that the site is up and running. Please continue to let me know about any oddities you notice.

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tinymce double space

> - How come tinymce makes a double space when I hit Enter (I hate that).

Well, i noticed that when i hit return, it puts in <p></p> which has margin or padding or spacing above the paragraph.

also, when you hit return-return, you get in addition a <p>&nbsp;</p> which is a newline plus a space.

I am used to one return means <br /> and two returns means end of paragraph. I dont know how to make this happen, but i am hoping that this detail helps you figure this out.

 

Shift-Enter for single space

Apparently Shift-Enter together will give you single space (trying it now)...
Yup - it works. But it's annoying.

There are many complaints about the double spacing. Perhaps it's fixable, but I have many other things to fix first.

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chatbox scrolling and default channels

When the chatbox fills with text, there's a scrolling problem in IE7. I'm using Mozilla now and it doesn't happen.

 I also just discovered why the default channels aren't being opened. They aren't saved in the database. The phpfreechat table is empty.

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scrolling problem in chatbox

In IE7 (but not Firefox), when the chatbox fills with text the scrolling starts jumping up so you can't read the most recent messages.

 I read on the phpfreechat forum that this is due to a bug in IE7 with JavaScript that occurs when the chatbox is embedded in a table (as it is with Drupal). So I don't think I can fix this. You always can use Firefox, which is a free download and a very nice browser.

How many people are having this problem?

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Thanks, pro, for all your hard work!

Thank you, pro, so much for all your hard work on this site and its many recent improvements (to an already excellent site)! Even though I do not post as much as I need to (for myself, to be more accountable), it is so good to know this community is here and understands my procrastination problem (unlike others who do not have our problem, and say, or think, "just do it"! - If we could "just do it" - without this online support and extra effort (and a lot of prayer for me, and some of you, too), we would have done it a long time ago, right?!

Also, a [dumb] question about the chatbox - where do I type in "/join ...." to enter each chatbox? When I open the chat box by clicking on Chatbox up above, it shows a box for "my chat", but nothing else, and I don't see where I could type the magic words to enter the check in chatbox.

Thanks!

rec