NOTAM: VATUSA Forum Upgrades

NOTAM: VATUSA Forum Upgrades
« on: May 11, 2015, 09:38:38 PM »
This week finishes the last bit of code changes and begins the testing phase for the new authentication system and forums.  VATUSA will soon be getting new forum software.  Some things to know:

- Posts will be converted, but may or may not be associated with your CID when you login.  What does this mean?  You may not be able to edit posts you wrote once the conversion happens and they may not be counted in your post count.  I will do my best to convert this, but my focus is on making sure we don't lose posts in the conversion.
- Members will be created as they login to the new forum.  Your account will use SSO, and when you login for the first time, your account will be created, proper permissions assigned and other information retrieved from CERT via SSO.  The way the forum now has users is broken up in such a way that it is highly inefficient to try and convert and there are a number of people who are no longer members that shouldn't be in our user table anymore.  Additionally, there are a number of users who aren't part of the division as full members that CERT does not allow us to get information about except by SSO.
- After conversion, you will not be able to send private messages to a user via the forums until after they login.
- The forums will not allow you to change your password.  Its integration with SSO requires you to login via VATSIM.

This is the first phase of the new site roll out.  Once I schedule the conversion time, I will add a news post to inform users of the forum downtime while the conversion happens.  I expect less than an hour downtime while I convert the data to the new forum software, but need to shutdown the forum so data isn't lost.

Colin Schoen

  • Members
  • 126
    • View Profile
NOTAM: VATUSA Forum Upgrades
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2015, 02:02:14 PM »
What forum software are you converting to?
Colin Schoen
VATSIM Membership Manager
VATSIM Senior Network Supervisor

NOTAM: VATUSA Forum Upgrades
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2015, 05:17:10 PM »
Quote from: Colin Schoen
What forum software are you converting to?

A very modified version of SMF.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2015, 05:25:21 PM by Daniel Hawton »

Colin Schoen

  • Members
  • 126
    • View Profile
NOTAM: VATUSA Forum Upgrades
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2015, 02:09:12 AM »
Quote from: Daniel Hawton
A very modified version of SMF.

Fantastic. I'm a contributor and team member of that project. Glad to see you using the software.  

Not sure if you are building it off of 2.0 or 2.1, but 2.1 is coming soon.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2015, 02:10:44 AM by Colin Schoen »
Colin Schoen
VATSIM Membership Manager
VATSIM Senior Network Supervisor

NOTAM: VATUSA Forum Upgrades
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2015, 05:29:08 AM »
Quote from: Colin Schoen
Fantastic. I'm a contributor and team member of that project. Glad to see you using the software.  

Not sure if you are building it off of 2.0 or 2.1, but 2.1 is coming soon.

I'm using 2.0 right now until 2.1 is released and I have a chance to test it for stability and security.  Then I'll port my modifications over to it, test it, then port it over to production.  I stuck with SMF because I have integrated a number of websites with it and enjoy the API much more than the others I've tried.  SMF isn't as well known, but she's a gem to those who know of it.