January was a nice and profitable month. I kept busy! I haven’t collected for all the work I did in January yet, but it should amount to more than $4500 when it all comes in. I should add in case that you want to get into a similar business that this was far from typical. Close to $2700 will be from my major commercial client.
For that client, I did a number of tasks. One I actually finished was a new version of a custom extension I wrote, that allows moderators or administrators to broadcast their learning page. When enabled, the link shows up under their profile information on the view topic page.
I also improved another custom extension that tells moderators and administrators if a poster has an orders with the company in their profile information on the view topic page.
I also figured out a way to change the new topic icons on the index and view forum page for the client.
My main focus was to figure out why in a customized search page I created the unread posts icon are not showing. The logic is quite complex because of the way the phpBB Group implemented this logic. I think I have the main issue puzzled out and am waiting permission to try it.
For other clients in January:
- Converted a board from phpBB 2.0.20 to 3.3.9. I had to solve a number of issues during the conversion. A configuration variable was missing but attachment tables existed but the interface that were not in the ACP. I had to manually create an attachment_count column in 3 tables to get the convertor to work. There were some errors but quickly were overwritten so I couldn’t read them. Created a custom style to change the logo and match a custom footer message, otherwise a standard prosilver style was shown. I turned off contact page, created reCaptcha V3 countermeasure and added a home link. Later I moved files and database from old hosting to new hosting.
- Upgraded board from phpBB 3.2.11 to 3.3.9. Replaced the logo and installed the American English language pack. I changed the spambot countermeasure to reCaptcha V3 and disabled the contact page as it was apparently the root of an emailing issue. I had to delete in the database the Google Plus profile field to avoid a profile page error. Fixing the issue of outgoing emails not getting received took over an hour plus a long conversation with a great GoDaddy tech. Basically automated replies to spam emails caused outgoing emails to be blocked. It took some time to get the mailbox unblocked. I set up a SSL redirect rule for the forum subdomain. I suggested the main domain be turned into a WordPress site with an integrated shopping cart. I installed and set up the Custom Registration Agreement extension, and disabled the Board Rules extension. Later, changed some language strings in ucp.php (3 total) to add text the way the client wanted, set up a redirect rule for the main domain to the forum subdomain and did a test registration.
- A client paid for an hour of time for tutoring which didn’t happen as one participant did not show up. He paid for my time and a week later we were able to do the tutoring online using a shared screen.
- Updated a board from phpBB 3.3.8 to 3.3.9. There was a concern that emails were going out sometimes with http instead of https in the links. Changed the redirection rule to a wildcard rule, tested it, and expect that will solve the problem. Complaint that in some cases only some emails in a batch were being received. Email package size was 100. I changed it to 20. Hope these work. I updated the American English language pack and reinstalled the board logo on a prosilver style.
- Updated two boards on two domains from phpBB 3.3.3 to 3.3.9 for a commercial client. I updated the parent AllanStyle-SUBSILVER styles on both domains. Updated Advertisement management, Digests and Cleantalk extensions to latest versions on both domains. Updated Smartfeed extension to latest version on one domain. I changed a Cleantalk setting so it could check the contact page for spam. I set reCaptcha V3 on first domain, tried on second one but it failed with a HTTP 504 error so reverted to reCaptcha V2. Registration emails are not being received. Both domains are on email blacklists, so I provided guidance on getting off them. Later, there was an issue with registering users getting an error on registration. Something was trying to put more than 255 characters in the config_value column in the phpbb_config table. Changed column to allow up to 510 characters. Worked, but it’s something of a hack. Reported the bug to Cleantalk and suggested a solution. They have subsequently put out a new version of the extension.
- I completed a long project I began in October 2022. It involved converting board from phpBB 2.0.22 to 3.3.8 and the rehosting it on a new server and subdomain. About half a million posts. Work was time consuming and tedious for various reasons including the servers were unmanaged and the client did not have a lot of the skills needed to manage it. Lots of coordination and communication issues. The work on upgrading and rehosting the board was relatively straightforward. The main problem was other content on the domain, about 3000 articles that needed to be moved. A developer had written some programs to display these articles but multiple PHP error occurred with the move to PHP 7 as part of the conversion. These were also many gigabytes of files and images that had to be moved too with this content. Ultimately determined the articles were in a database, and to keep the content would mean installing WordPress and having a WordPress developer write a program in PHP using the WordPress API to grab the content, image, etc. and put them into WordPress pages. As for the content on the main domain, it was a custom job by some long gone developer. As it needs to be transitioned to WordPress I recommended he connect with my friend John who could do the work faster and better. I had technical issues that slowed getting a SSL certificate installed. Installed a Damaio style and applied the logo. I converted based on phpBB 3.3.8 being current, but 3.3.9 was later released so I updated phpBB to version 3.3.9.
- Updated a board from phpBB 3.3.8 to 3.3.9. All extensions were up to date. Reapplied fix to go to portal page rather than the index page by default to .htaccess file. Note: the portal extension was template file for the extension that was affected.
