The Energon Pub

Current Primary Goals:

[1] Build Official Seibertron Store

[2] Create S.T.A.R.S. environment

[3] Continue debugging (but man is the code and server looking really good, I've never seen it run this well before ... load average as of this post is currently 0.52 / 0.66 / 0.90)

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Going to try to start keeping track of stuff I've been working on.

Today, I changed the prefix of a half dozen or so core database tables that are integral to the sightings section. The "store locations" related database tables all used the prefix "store". This conflicted with building out the upcoming Seibertron.com store. After renaming each table, I updated the code where those tables were referenced to fix the errors. I've putting this off for a few years so it's finally addressed. Another hurdle overcome to building the store.

Two nights ago, I cleaned up our database functions and put some additional error checking in our core database functions for better error handling. I also removed a couple of database functions which were mostly used in Heavy Metal War that were being misused in that code (not the fault of any programmer, just times have changed and code has improved).

Also addressed some issues with the CSS style files in our admin section and fixed a problem with the "RESULTS" message that displays the error or success message after an action is peformed (such as saving a form).

I've also been making minor updates to our admin section to fix styling issues separate from the ones above, most of which came to light after integrating our dashboard with all of the changes that I made last year to the front end.

Fixed a bug a few days ago that was overriding the relative file path due to further phpBB integration into the core files of Seibertron.com. It was a weird bug that popped up in the weirdest of places such as the admin news section (which prevented the sidebar from updating with new Transmissions) and places in HMW and in the toys section. The sidebar error was what allowed me to put all 3 issues together to finally figure out the root of the problem and come up with a solution.

Fixed an error on Sunday related to the podcast admin section for ScottyP, which came out of the integration of our admin section into the rest of the core site's file system.

Last week, I resolved various issues with HMW. I fixed the Battle Beasts Gambling page (though this still needs a proper refresh more than what I accomplished last week) and also modernized the character upgrade page. Fixed some logic issues with weapons buying and selling page.

Completed renaming old sightings tables related to "stores" (i.e. retail locations) that didn't have the proper prefix to clear the way for the Seibertron Store. That felt good resolving something that has been bothering me for a long time that I originally built 22 years ago. Yay!

This is awesome with ~5,000 people on the website right now. I've been managing the servers for Seibertron.com for 24 years and I've just never seen this site operate this well before. I have solved so many problems with the site, its code, database and servers over the past year that I am really seeing the fruits of my labor.

load average: 0.80, 0.75, 0.80

This makes me happy.

Just applied some server updates that required the server to be rebooted. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Just resolved an issue where the session was being duplicated because of the script that generates the "forum" session to be used elsewhere on Seibertron.com. Weird bug that was on me. Who knows how long it's been there for but now it's been removed, that will be less overhead on the web server and the database.

Spent today working on mockups of the new Seibertron Store.

Also resolved a weird issue the Silver Wind discovered where a spam bot had spoofed legit bot accounts (which had incorrect user types/permissions) in order to post spam in the caption contest. The lengths at which bots go to creatively hack websites never ceases to amaze (and frustrate) me.

Forgot to post about yesterday ... not that any of you care, but I spent about 2 or 3 hours resolving an issue I discovered with the Google Adsense ads which was making 3 calls to Google for the header ad when it only needed to make one (it was doing it once per page for each different device size: mobile, tablet and full), most notably in the header. I updated the function and code that displays the Google Ads to resolve the issue.

Last night, I resolved 2 separate issues related to Google Adsense ... both issues pertained to subdomain issues (the primary issue was dealing with junk subdomains that spam bots were trying to access, and this was impacting our Adsense performance significantly).

Today, I continued work on one of the issues that I didn't feel were resolved using best practices. I'm handling the junk subdomains differently than how I left it last night and am satisfied with the resolution I came up with.

Since I was already working on subdomain issues, I setup https://search.seibertron.com which redirects to our Google Search page.

On April 25th, I continued work on the new Seibertron Store, mostly work on the overall template.

Last night, I continued working on the template in my IDE but got sidetracked with the Adsense problem.

I am terrible about keeping a log. Can't remember where I left off ...

This past month I restored functionality to my admin code generator that automatically generates admin pages necessary for managing areas of the site. I needed to get that to work again in order to work on new features for the site and to make it easier to edit or update existing admin sections.

I took a break from working on the Seibertron Store in order to work on this new Trivia game section instead. For some reason, I felt like the Trivia game section was a little less intense and would be easier to work out bugs in the modified code generator and provide some additional content / features on Seibertron.com prior to working on the Seibertron Store.

I currently have the dashboards built (but with flow issues and/or minor bugs) for these Trivia types: matching groups, unscramble, true/false, multiple choice and multiple select. The Trivia game is highest priority feature right now and then I'll get back to working on the store.