February 2021 work summary

February was a busy month. Here’s a summary of my activity last month for various clients:

• Updated a board from phpBB from version 3.3.2 to 3.3.3. No extensions needed updating. No new Italian language pack needed to be installed either.
• Upgraded a board from phpBB 3.0.12 to 3.3.3. Installed and configured Tapatalk and Cleantalk extensions, tested Tapatalk. Installed Absolution style, but created a custom style based on it. Placed ad at top, reused logo image and added a number of custom items to the navigation menu. Changed text in the footer to show in black otherwise it couldn’t be seen. Added some FontAwesome icons for use on the navigation bar. Later, I fixed a navigation bar issue, as menu items only showed when logged in.
• Fixed a variety of invalid HTML issues by fixing templates. Then I fixed an issue brought up by the Google Search console on the breadcrumb list with a value for ID being required, testing on a Google tool site. Later in the month, I updated a different board from phpBB 3.3.1 to 3.3.3. In this job, I updated the AllanStyle-SUBSILVER style and made changes to the custom style to fix the same Google breadcrumb issue. I updated the Google Analytics extension to version 1.0.6 so G key could be entered, and my Digests extension from version 3.3.2 to 3.3.4.
• Originally I planned to convert a client’s phpBB 2 board, but he bought the book and did it himself. He was kind enough to send a donation, however.
• Upgraded board from phpBB 3.0.12 to 3.3.3. I installed the Elegance Green style, then created custom style to inherit from it to which I applied style tweaks. I tried to make the style look similar, mostly in colors, to the old board. Read/unread icons have a red image (in part) that I couldn’t fix because I couldn’t get Artodia’s colorizer to upload a 3.3.0 archive and fix that. I fixed colors where possible. I set a new logo provided by client, placed on left instead of center. I enabled reCAPTCHA V3 and disabled the contact form. Changed PHP to 7.4. No issues during upgrade. Pushed margins most of the way across page similar to the old look.
• Updated board with a prosilver style from phpBB 3.3.0 to 3.3.3. Then I updated Cleantalk from 5.7.2 to 5.7.3 and Tapatalk from 2.1.7 to 2.1.8. I change captcha from reCaptcha V2 to V3. I added back code to show the logo to stylesheet.css.
• Updated a board from phpBB 3.3.1 to 3.3.3. Updated the Multi-design style from version 1.0.5 to 1.1.5, which is built for phpBB 3.3. I added one line in stylesheet.css for the style to hide the logo, like before. I also uploaded ads.txt to web root as requested to support Google Adsense and upgraded the PiWigo gallery software and PiWigo extension by simply clicking on two links.
• Installed Magic OGP links: thumbnails and descriptions extension to a board. I added permissions for registered users to allow them to thank posters on forums where they were missing.
• Upgrade a board from phpBB 3.0.4 to 3.3.3. Since reverting to PHP 5 was not an option, I had to make changes to database manually, fixing issues with styles and templates tables. There was one phpbb_config table row problem that occurred running the upgrade program. I spent a lot of time getting the styling to reflect the red wine color. I also installed the pages extension and converted two static pages to it, moving code to BBCode. I configured reCAPTCHA V3 and disabled the contact form.
• Errors came up on a board, likely due to Hostgator changing PHP default to 7.4. His style does not appear to be available for phpBB 3.3 so I updated him from phpBB 3.2.1 to 3.2.11. I tried to change PHP to 7.2 but it doesn’t stick, at least ACP shows 7.0 is being used. I had to upgrade the Media Embed extension to get it to come up. If PHP and style issue can be resolved, I will credit this toward an upgrade to phpBB 3.3.
• Installed phpBB on a forums subdomain on Siteground hosting. Installed phpBB 3.3.3 and the proflat style. Inherited proflat style to create a custom style. Installed reCaptcha V3 and disabled the contact form. Tested email, set it up similar to how I have it set up on my Siteground hosting. I set up a couple of dozen forums inside a number of categories per outline provided. I spent a long time getting the styling right. Incorporated provided logo. Also, sold client a PDF of my book.
• Changed changed to a different class of GoDaddy hosting and there installed phpBB with the hosts’s auto installer. But what he really wanted to do was move the old board, which was also at an earlier version of phpBB. So I cad to load database, upload the install folder and upgrade the phpBB instance from phpBB 3.2.0 to 3.3.3. I also installed the newest version of American English language pack. I applied logo changes to stylesheet.css and uploaded logo again.
• My client had used up his file and database quota, causing errors. I tried clearing Trash in file manager but that didn’t work. I suggested working with web host directly, which did work when they upped his quotas.
• Upgraded a board from phpBB 3.2.0 to 3.3.3. I used the standard prosilver style with custom logo. Bluehost hosting was flaky — could not change the PHP version or access file manager. It took a while to get access to figure out what was needed. Used FTP to do all the upgrade work. I changed reCaptcha from V2 checkbox to V3. I reapplied the logo but suppressed site title and description. Installed Contact Admin extension.
• In my long term work for a client moving from phpBB 3.0 to 3.3, I finally made some progress on getting a custom OAuth authentication to work. Mainly, I discovered an extension that did something similar and tried to tailor that. The handshake with the OAuth server is not quite there yet, but it’s getting close. Also made some styling changes to reflect changes to the company’s styling made since this effort began nearly a year ago.
• I upgraded a board from phpBB 3.2.8 to 3.3.3. There was an error after the upgrade clicking on the ACP General tab. Due to a bug in phpBB, phpBB failed to get size of database, due to a hyphen in the database name. This is a known bug so I applied the patch. It should show up as a fix in phpBB 3.3.4. I upgraded the Milk style and its extension. I updated the external links in new windows extension. I asked the client to check if avatar resize and post image upload extensions were still working correctly, as no upgrade was available for either extension. Both still work correctly.