NikonGear'23
The NikonGear Office => Site Issues => Topic started by: Birna Rørslett on November 01, 2023, 13:57:11
-
hi all,
it's about time to collect -- and investigate -- various problems that might remain after the move to the new server.
Concomitantly with the move, I did a major database upgrade to ensure the DB was brought up to the same version as our forum software, which is SMF 2.0.19. The main reason why the gallery feature ceased to work on the old server was the DB got out of sync with the forum software updates. While testing the new server, I got the gallery working correctly, but alas only for a restricted time before the cyber gremlins introduced themselves and crashed the forum. I spent an entire day chasing after them through thousands of lines of PHP code until I declared being defeated :(. Thus I had to make a new, clean install *without* gallery, then move the DB over. This means the DB tables showing the gallery entries still are present, but there is no gallery installed to provide us the information.
I already have noticed, from the error logs, that some users have a failed post notification. Probably this occurs because the inner workings of our SMF use outdated information from the DB. If you encounter this issue and had notification working properly before, please set up notification gain.
Any other problem? please post in this thread.
-
Since the move, I've posted comments on some threads and images, started a thread with images and looked for a thread using the search function. I haven't encountered any problem so far.
Again, I appreciate your efforts for the move!
-
Notification works -- just tested.
However, for those using that feature in the "old" forum, you have to unnotify in your Profile first!! do that and just to be on the safe side, log out, then in again and click the notification checkbox (in your profile under Notifications). The reason is of course that unless you do this reset, the forum software uses the old paths and they are now changed. Thus the admin error logs fills up instead with messages about rejected notifications :)
-
Gallery is back. See the separate thread.
We haven't recoved the old site's niceties of showing user names in colour by their groups. Our esteemed Test Boffin, Andrea, worked out the neccessary modifications in the code for these changes, but that was done for the old server with old forum software. For the new server, I had to do a clean install to a newer version, thus the old modifications were lost. She is no longer active on NG, caring for our 'sister' site https://ultravioletphotography.com instead, but left detailed notes of the changes taken. If I'm daring enough I'll try to incorporate these later. Just have to brush up my somewhat rusty command of PHP :(
-
The familiar yellow 'favicon' is back .... You might need to purge the browser's cache for nikongear.net, then log in again for this to happen though.
I improved the redirection post for anyone using the old URL too. Thus expect visitors to trickle back :)
-
It is possible to get the error message 'Session verification failed Please log out again'. However there might not be any logout option available.
The solution is to use the browser's back arrow which brings back the prior page. Log out, then log in again.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
-
All colours showing member groups and member/supporter status are back :)
Hopefully, no additional gremlins saw their opportunity to creep in concomitantly with the updates.
-
There is a small bug in member's Profile. The option to set 'My Gallery' exists, but will end up with the wrong URL. The reason is I kept the old orginal folder structure for the gallery files and attchments.
I might move over the structure if nothing untoward happens with our Gallery. However, this has medium-to-low priority at present.
-
It looks like old links in other fora (no longer available to be edited) to to posts in our forum are still broken as seen from my location, for instance this one that I posted a year ago in the CN forum:
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/842147-powering-a-nikon-d5500-from-12-v-or-actually-135-v/?p=12165982 (https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/842147-powering-a-nikon-d5500-from-12-v-or-actually-135-v/?p=12165982)
Broken link:
https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=8114.msg133653#msg133653 (https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=8114.msg133653#msg133653)
1. Is this still expected to occur, and I assume this is a temporary situation?
It is possible that Alaska DNS servers are slow to update, however the link points to the old main URL "https://nikongear.net..." which is what I assume the name server would know about and also part of what a currently valid corrected link would look like:
https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=8114.msg133653#msg133653 (https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=8114.msg133653#msg133653)
2. Also important, when a new link is posted in a forum like this last one, if/when the old type of links become active again, will a newly posted last version of the link (with .../revival23/...) still be valid?
Links to posts within our own forum also appears broken at the moment as seen from my location, like in this post:
https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=1867.msg177575#msg177575 (https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=1867.msg177575#msg177575)
Broken link in post:
https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=1992.msg177426#msg177426 (https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=1992.msg177426#msg177426)
Edit: the URLs of internal NG links are redacted. We have returned to using the old base URL, i.e. nikongear/revival
-
I'm aware of the situation, and as soon as we are certain all functionality is OK, I might change back to /revival.
However it was necessary to start in a different folder as I had to do a clean fresh install of the site software.
The problem with internal redirections is of course the danger of circular references, so we are on a risky ride.
-
As a temporary fix, let me know the broken internal links and I'll rewrite these. Just did that with the ones you mentioned.
-
Thanks Birna for fixing those links. Others can be found by doing a search for 'https://nikongear.net/revival/' from the home page.
A problem is of course those links from fora external to Nikongear, which we have no control over as the fora typically do not allow editing of old posts. However if reverting to revival will finally happen it should not be a problem (for long).
My second question was if new links that include https://nikongear.net/revival23/ would still work if our site reverts back to https://nikongear.net/revival/ . If not, it would perhaps be a good idea to hold out posting such links from external fora until things stabilize here.
-
Well, links go stale all over the internet all the time. On our side it is easy to fix this, though. At least the external links aren't dead, just incorrect.
Reverting to /revival will necessitate a thorough update of our database to replace the URL references contained there. It is doable I'd guess however a major undertaking. Any SQL script writers, please step forward.
-
Any SQL script writers, please step forward.
Which database tech is in use for the backend storage?
I might help, but currently on vacation, I have to wait a week.
-
Just managed to send an email to Birna
,and it works again
-
Now we are back to 'revival -- no more broken external links :)
We, that is, yours truly, have to recast the editred internal links once more .... oh, the joy of web site upgrading????
-
Thanks Birna, just noticed.
If on just type in https://nikongear.net/ there is still a redirect message, but it points to revival. :)
-
I know, there is a circularity there I am chasing by its tails :)
Do note I had to reset the default theme again to 'core', will try to get the yellow/grey back.
-
I'm working to get our old Themes back as well. At present they malfunction probably due to PHP errors. Will also put the Gallery back.
If there are internal 404 errors, try to fix them by replacing /revival23 with /revival in the URL.
Just asking for patience. I'm walking on a tight line here.
-
Hi Birna. I am able to use my iPhone but not my Mac laptop and/or desktop. When I use the address Nikongear/net/revival23/index.php I get directed to a page citing HTTP code: 404 Not Found that ultimately leads to an instruction to enter the unified Nikongear site by clicking a link. This leads me to a dead page informing me that NG has moved to a new server. Is there a link that takes me to the active site that I am currently only able now to use on my iPhone? Thanks, Tom
-
As could be predicted, there are stale caches all around at present.
On your computer, try first clearing cookie *and* site data form nikonger.net in your browser.
Then, try login in using the following URL:
https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?action=login
That ought to work.
Sorry for any inconvenience, but moving web sites can have side effects :(
-
OK, Gallery is now back!!!
No more broken external links.
Enjoy NG'23 !!
-
And We got the yellow back :)
-
Just warming up to tomorrow's pleasure of picking up my Zf :)
-
Still can’t login via pc. The message that Birna looks for 5 volunteers seems very fixed
-
That means your browser loads stale links from its cache :) Time for an autumn cache cleaning ....
Did you try the direct login URL?
nikongear.net/revival/index.php?action=login
should blast you directly into NG.
-
Very strange that cache ;) i tried the direct login as well.
and it happens in Firefox, Chrome and Edge. Perhaps the cache is running on a different level on the PC... Mobile browsers work perfectly by the way.
-
OK, you need at least for a transitional period to provide "first-aid" to your browser(s).
Have you tried the alternate URL nikongear.com? NB: do not add http or https, i.e just enter nikongear.com and follow the redirection link shown.
If you are on Windows, purge the DNS cache as well: ipconfig /flushDNS
-
.
-
OK, you need at least for a transitional period to provide "first-aid" to your browser(s).
Have you tried the alternate URL nikongear.com? NB: do not add http or https, i.e just enter nikongear.com and follow the redirection link shown.
If you are on Windows, purge the DNS cache as well: ipconfig /flushDNS
unfortunately it doesn’t work.
-
Oh well, that means there is upstream caching by intermediaries.
Can you ping the site? The IP should be 213.165.231.87. nslookup should return 'vps96824.inmotionhosting.com'. Then do a tracert to see what the end point is. It should be nikongear.* (.net/.com/.org; all are equivalent as the root domain, but only .net will work as the forum foundation).
As a last resort, update your HOSTS file with the following entry
213.165.231.87 nikongear.net www.nikongear.net
Notepad or similar editor can be used. This file is usually found at c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and you need to run the update in a command window with administrative privilege. If there is no HOSTS file you must create it, but do note it should not have any file extension, just 'HOSTS'.
-
Thanks Birna, indeed, it were the HOSTS files of the PC's which were entered with the hard (old) IP address (December 2019). Now it works :)
-
These systems do have an invincible logic. Which is sometimes fallible given humans defined it :)
Good on you. Try commenting out the entry in the hosts file by adding # in front and see whether the computer still resolves the correct IP.
-
I followed your instructions as outlined in reply 20, but no luck. I have read your exchanges with John Geerts but it’s been quite a while since I pinged a site and am not sure what actually goes in the address field and what the follow-up should be. Your response to him is unclear to me. As evidenced by this reply, I still can communicate via my iPhone, which is not optimal but it is all I’ve got. It seems the answer is not simple (at least for me and my limited capacity for such things). Thanks for trying!
-
If you are on Windows: open a command window (Start > Run > cmd , hit <enter>, then type in at the command prompt as follows ping nikongear.net <enter>. The response should be some lines with arcane messages containing the IP address 213.165.231.87. If you get a different answer, then that is the culprit and cause of your issues.
Like this;
-
Unfortunately, I have Apple computers. After I take a few restorative breathes, I’ll do an internet search and see what I can find.
-
From a 'net search,
"Mac or Apple: Press the Command key and the A key at the same time. Open the Utilities folder. Open the Terminal app. Type "ping" followed by the destination — either an IP address or a domain name, then press Enter."
Terminate with Control + C.
Linux users do likewise in a terminal window.
-
These systems do have an invincible logic. Which is sometimes fallible given humans defined it :)
Good on you. Try commenting out the entry in the hosts file by adding # in front and see whether the computer still resolves the correct IP.
That works too. Fully connected now ;)
-
From a 'net search,
"Mac or Apple: Press the Command key and the A key at the same time. Open the Utilities folder. Open the Terminal app. Type "ping" followed by the destination — either an IP address or a domain name, then press Enter."
Terminate with Control + C.
Linux users do likewise in a terminal window.
Thanks Birna!