Ben
04-15-2023, 08:28 AM
Hey all, this thread will be for me to inform you all as to the status of repairs to the site. My first goal was to to repair the script errors that have been a plague for some time. The source of the errors was when our web server upgraded to more recent versions of PHP. This resulted in website software getting confused on a few fronts. I had a few options to take care of this.
1. Upgrade our software from version 4.2.2 to 4.2.5 - Any time software upgrades are done, there is a certain amount of troubleshooting required.
2. Major upgrade to 5.7.2. This is a brand new version of the software, which would have to be purchased. There would be some notable downtime involved as I would essentially have to rebuild things, and many of the custom mods installed would no longer function at all. There is also a newer version that needs PHP8 which is not yet available server side, so another upgrade would be required in the not too distant future.
3. Roll back to use an older version of PHP on the server that is compatible with our current website software. This option was only recently made available on the server, where previously we were given no choice but to use the most recent version of PHP.
For now I opted with option #3. As soon as I saw that I could now do this, I was thrilled. Super easy fix for a problem that has been vexing me for some time, short of a full overhaul. Things are looking and acting way better already! Please post any issues you encounter on this thread. I know the gallery is still ugly, but the script errors are now gone, and I can look into why the gallery isn't properly skinning. A good first step though. Eventually I would like to overhaul to version 5 software, but the timing is not good with the announcement of the new series, given the downtime that would be required. I'd also prefer to wait for the server to catch up on PHP versions before doing this upgrade, as I would rather do it all at once.
Thanks for your patience!
Ben
1. Upgrade our software from version 4.2.2 to 4.2.5 - Any time software upgrades are done, there is a certain amount of troubleshooting required.
2. Major upgrade to 5.7.2. This is a brand new version of the software, which would have to be purchased. There would be some notable downtime involved as I would essentially have to rebuild things, and many of the custom mods installed would no longer function at all. There is also a newer version that needs PHP8 which is not yet available server side, so another upgrade would be required in the not too distant future.
3. Roll back to use an older version of PHP on the server that is compatible with our current website software. This option was only recently made available on the server, where previously we were given no choice but to use the most recent version of PHP.
For now I opted with option #3. As soon as I saw that I could now do this, I was thrilled. Super easy fix for a problem that has been vexing me for some time, short of a full overhaul. Things are looking and acting way better already! Please post any issues you encounter on this thread. I know the gallery is still ugly, but the script errors are now gone, and I can look into why the gallery isn't properly skinning. A good first step though. Eventually I would like to overhaul to version 5 software, but the timing is not good with the announcement of the new series, given the downtime that would be required. I'd also prefer to wait for the server to catch up on PHP versions before doing this upgrade, as I would rather do it all at once.
Thanks for your patience!
Ben