Inliners International Forums General Discussion General Forum Information UBBthreads 7.7.5 Upgrade status report

Greetings . . .

I have been planning the upgrade of these forums for some time now. I opened a thread over at UBBCentral (regarding strategy)
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthr...tegy#Post265095
late last year.

The folks over there have suggested that the upgrade is a piece of cake. Decades of professional systems work leaves me skeptical – and ever cognizant of the old adage: everything is easy when you are not doing the work.

Based on recommendations in that thread, I have cloned the forums into a testing area. The cloning process had a few twists and turns and surprises - but the test site is now up and running. I have also deployed and run the recommended requirements test from the UBBwiki:
https://ubbwiki.com/archive/view/61/ubb-threads-system-requirements-test-20210801.html

The result is a laundry list of changes to some configuration settings prior to attempting the upgrade. I am working through those now.

I plan to test the upgrade this month on the clone. I will report with results – including a timeline for upgrading the live site and what sort of outage window (down time) we should expect.

Regards,
stock49

The last time it was upgraded didn't go to well either. Many of the issues we have now are a result of that upgrade. Many feel it was better before that. That was when Titen was the Administrator....he was pretty sharp as well but couldn't get it rectified. Beater can probably tell you some of the other issues that resulted from it.

You could also look through some of Titen's last posts before he left. There was a lot of discussion about the problems. It might give you a starting point....

The current forum is far better than the last one. I am with Stock49, we need to update. Hope this allows better use of pictures. This is what we need the most.
The only problem with the last upgrade is loss of old data we had. I believe prior to 2000.
Stock49, if you need anything, I am willing to help. Not that I am a programmer, but am a GOOD helper.

The first upgrade from UBB classic was more of a "migration". Each topic was loaded sequentially - post by post (from the old format to the new format). First post is from May of 2000:
https://www.inliners.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1

This upgrade will leave the posts in place the database.

The HAMB has a good forum software that allows you to directly add pics to a post from My Documents if that where they are stored, or from your Gallery on your phone. Just drag and drop and it's done.

It is interesting that this was all good enough until there was recent change in leadership and one of the things Al Jewell expressed interest in was making the BB work better. There was an add in the new 12 Port News on page 22 for "Help Wanted Web Design/Development " With an email address. I know Al has two people ready to help. I don't think there is a rush to do this now before other interested parties have time to respond.

As far as I am concerned the first priority should be save the old content. Second is to make picture posting easy. There are also other issues that need discussion.

TraditionalToolworks is one of those interested and feels that up dating to the newest software version of what we already have is the first step. I know he has been in contact with both Keith & Al. I don't know if this is what is motivating Keith now.

Thanks for the feedback Beater. Perspectives are good.

You need not worry about anyone rushing into an upgrade – it’s not my style. I am a fan of evolution – not revolution. And things have been evolving around here.

When I joined these forums in ’03 the policy was “photos are hosted elsewhere – period full stop”. Even after the upgrade to the current release of UBBthreads (7.5.8) we were told that the version of the software didn’t support photo hosting. Since gaining administrative control of these forums I have found otherwise. The software is capable of photo hosting; I have enabled those capabilities and documented how to exploit them.

Granted, the Forums experience today is not unlike my garage. It would be great to have a horizontal boring mill. I make do with a drill press.

The newest version of UBB will provide a much enhanced Gallery experience which will directly affect our Photo Library forum. In addition the File Manager has also been enhanced to make it much easier to quickly drag and drop photos onto a new Discussion Forum thread.

That said I will not be rushing an upgrade on the Live forums of this Club until the software can run in stable fashion on our installation. To your point – protecting the old content – and protecting access to the garage as it is.

Rest assured if things don’t go smoothly in the clone – we won’t be rushing any upgrades onto the live system.

As for the Want Ad you noticed in 12PN. It’s mine. I’ve been running it for the better part of a year:

Good to see this. Have I mentioned the software should be upgraded first and foremost?

Keith,That is a good explanation. Thank you. I had not noticed that add before, it shows I don't read every word of the 12 Port.

As you further educate me I get flashes into understanding of what WAS going on compared to what IS going on. I understand that the photos have to be hosted somewhere and that uses some kind of space that is not free. I too have been here long enough to remember that several free online hosting sites allowed us to put our pictures there and then easily post them here. I still have a lot of pictures on Picassa but can no longer post them and those that were posted are no longer viewable here.

I appreciate your efforts and your caution. One of my old favorite sites lost everything in an update several years ago. They used the same software we do. I hope the help you are hoping for shows up. Al has a friend, Kevin who is a member of our chapter, that wants to help. He has no history here and that worries me some. We have our meeting tomorrow. Is there ANYTHING you want me to tell them.

Keith, We talked about this at our meeting yesterday and I am very much hoping you can make this up date successfully! I truly feel we need to make the most of this system to protect our archived content and also keep some of the old familiar feeling.

I also hope others with the needed skill will step up and take some of the load from you in areas where you feel comfortable to hand of some of the lesser duties much like contributors to the 12 Port News. Wanda has some help.