- Created an updated version of rss.php originally written for phpBB 2 by some other developer that would work with phpBB 3.1. This allowed the client to seamlessly integrate recent topic titles into dynamic content areas on his other websites and elsewhere on the domain hosting the forum.
- Upgraded forum from 3.0.7-PL1 to 3.1.5. Had to change some table columns collation types to UTF-8 and install en_us language pack to complete upgrade. Reinstalled logo. I then spent two hours systematically finding all BLOB columns in his database and changing these to the reference implementation for MySQL, mostly VARCHAR and TEXT. I also went through all tables and looked for columns where the collation was not UTF8-BIN and changed it to this. This should address any future issues with inserts failing due to no default values for a column. Note: there were subsequent issues with default values. Went through all the tables comparing schemas with a reference and adding SQL to give default values to columns where they were missing. Also checked indexes and fixed a few when there were concerns about performance. Changed all tables to use the INNODB engine.
- Upgraded a forum to 3.1.5 from 3.0.12. Assisted with malware removal by removing two files identified by the SiteLock software ($15). Fixed an issue with getting into Administration Control Panel resulting in a HTTP 500 error. The problem was because the board start date was not formatted in the database as a Unix timestamp.
- Added 600GB to a volume on a Linux dedicated server that had ran out of quota.
- Digests cron was deleted resulting in no digests going out hourly. Made various attempts to create a new cron that successfully sent digests but nothing worked. Got it to work from my uptimerobot.com account. User then created their own account on uptimerobot.com. Created the monitor there and removed it from my monitor.
- Worked to add the look of AcidTech Green (a style for phpBB 3.0) to a client’s phpBB 3.1 forum. Decided on using a 3.1 DVGFX style, which is prosilver based. Reused the old logo, but it took a while to figure how to center it. Had to change HTML in overall_header. Integrated the menu from the web site main page into the forum. Adjusted some colors for forum titles, topic titles and post titles. Waiting on FTP permissions for the main site so I can replicate the new forum logo on other static web pages.
- Upgrade forum from 3.1.5 to 3.1.6.
- People could not log into forum. Mangled front end splash page contributed to problem. Created 3.1.3 instance in a /forum folder and attached it to his database. Updated links on splash page for contact page, member list and member login. Changed permissions so guests could see memberlist to replicate old functionality that did not work. Previous developer developed a 3.1 style that had many customizations on it, based on Artodia Elegance Black, but seems to be lost. Client is trying to recover it so I can replicate the changes to the style in the new /forum folder. Only 3.0 styles were found in the recently recovered website folder.
- Upgraded forum from 3.1.5 to 3.1.6. Still dealing with some registration issues of new members being treated as spam users. Need more info on that.
- Client upgraded board to 3.0.14 and users could not register. Version looked old. Upgraded him to 3.0.14 and reapplied Board Portal 2.0.2 and the abandoned Dicemod 8.8.8b and it came up and I could register.
- Work for September for an existing client. Worked to define requirements and find a developer for an extension that client would like developed. Participated in a Skype conference call with client to discuss various issues. Installed a larger 32×32 favicon at client’s request. Discussed viability of a phpBB access form with client. Upgraded forum from 3.1.5 to 3.1.6. Participated in discussion with client regarding concern about inability to drop files into phpBB. Discussed issue of potential bug with Topic Preview extension with client. Converted phpbb_config table to expand config_value column to varchar(8000) to address probable bug that occurred when a client added attachments to a post. That did not solve the problem so I did more debugging. The real problem was that an explicit SQL CAST statement was needed in phpBB for SQLServer. Created a patch to /phpbb/config/db.php to address phpBB bug and filed a bug report on phpbb.com.
