SBS website update March 2022

Cool, I'll probably go with more natural urls for everything then. The conversion is still coming along, still working hard at it. I was able to get the entirety of the forums converted, which is a cool big step. I have to tweak it to get those url hashes working properly (that might take some effort...) but after that, the next major hurdle is converting pages and comments. If I can get those properly converted, we'll have most of the important data out of the way, but still only about half the conversion done. And then of course, after conversion, I still have to write an entire website to display the data. We'll get there eventually

As usual, had to get sidetracked for many hours trying to implement additional functionality in the new system to handle the old system. I guess that still counts as progress, but I haven't made any on conversion today because of that. I guess that's my progress report for now: spent many many hours implementing systems that are only tangentially related to sbs.

I hope these progress reports aren't bothersome. Just want to keep people in the loop. I got the code together to convert all the submissions (programs and resources) without error, including gathering all the images and such. That's a huge step, as I now have all the most important data converted. Even if I were to stop now, we'd have most of what everyone wants, so the rest is just nice to have (like polls, private messages, etc). I'm feeling a lot more confident about the conversion!

It's nice to see that there are some people out there that still care for this site. In any case, I wish you the best of luck in the conversion of the site. I can't wait to see it finished!

It's nice to see that there are some people out there that still care for this site. In any case, I wish you the best of luck in the conversion of the site. I can't wait to see it finished!

Aw thank you! Just remember it'll actually be worse; we'll lose features until we need them (and I have time), and I want to focus on features that we need for SB, such as allowing submissions for PTC, SB3, and SB4 and letting you filter by those systems.

I've finished writing all the conversion code, and the database is able to be converted without crashing. There are still lots of conversion errors I have to sift through, but I've started a new stage in development, which is exciting for me. I feel a lot better now that all the data is at least ABLE to be translated. It's getting there! (note: you're still not going to notice any changes, as the conversion is only duplicating the database for me to work with, not changing anything here) Edit: conversion errors seem to be fixed (at least all the major ones), I think I'm finally able to start writing a frontend. Oh man this might actually get done

Nice

ong

I've been working on the frontend, it's going very slowly because I decided to use Rust and I'm not very good at it. I've mostly just been reading documentation, but today I actually have most of what I need (internally) working. If I can keep up the pace, we'll really have the new frontend before the end of the year. But I don't want to say it'll definitely be before then, since I could just... disappear for another couple months.

ah dw, better "slow and steady" instead of trying hard to push it out before a deadline of a kind. You'll sure get the hang of Rust quickly, I bet.

I know it's not much and it's definitely a boring style, but I'm going for something that's easy to maintain rather than flashy. The only thing you can do right now is login and logout, but that's pretty important since it's using SBS credentials in the new system. I replaced the top "tabs" layout with just basic links in the bar itself, and they get highlighted when you're on that page, which is kinda cool. I think I'm going to stick with this basic style, with less 'design noise' than what we have now. Definitely going with function over form, especially for the first release. Just wanted to update anyone here, I'm actually working on it! It's not just a layout, there's actual code and api stuff there! It's still a long ways away but I'm having fun and I'm really looking forward to finishing it.

I know it's not much and it's definitely a boring style, but I'm going for something that's easy to maintain rather than flashy. The only thing you can do right now is login and logout, but that's pretty important since it's using SBS credentials in the new system. I replaced the top "tabs" layout with just basic links in the bar itself, and they get highlighted when you're on that page, which is kinda cool. I think I'm going to stick with this basic style, with less 'design noise' than what we have now. Definitely going with function over form, especially for the first release. Just wanted to update anyone here, I'm actually working on it! It's not just a layout, there's actual code and api stuff there! It's still a long ways away but I'm having fun and I'm really looking forward to finishing it.

The GUI doesn't look very demanding. It feels like it resembles the original style of the current GUI we have. Well done!

Yeah, not-demanding is definitely something I'm going for. If it's not demanding on the browser, chances are it's not demanding on me either! So, now's a good time to talk about a few changes. You'll finally be able to change your username and email yourself: (the blacked-out email is part of the frontend; it's spoiler text) However, remember that everyone's passwords will be expired in the new system. Because of the way the backend works, you can actually just use the temporary token sent to your email to generate a session that lasts for a year, which I figure will be useful for people who never remember their password anyway. However, if you DO want to re-establish your password, you'll unfortunately have to send a SECOND temporary email token, which you can see explained in the screenshot. For safety, the email tokens are set for one time use only, and again for safety, updating sensitive info requires your current password. So, if your password is expired, you won't be able to use it to set a new password. It's a bit of a conundrum, and I know this solution isn't optimal, but I'm nervous about creating a more complicated system for something so sensitive. Email tokens (which again are short-lived, 1 time use passwords sent to your email) can be used anywhere that a password can be used, and since THAT system is already in place and heavily tested, I figured it's better not to change it. The only time it'll matter is when your password is expired, and I don't plan on expiring the passwords after this first round.

OK, it took way too long, but I have an image browser set up and you can change your avatar. This means userhome is mostly done; I'm not planning on restoring badges for the first release and your user 'page' will come later (because it's finally a 'wall' where you can have comments). This means I can finally start working on the forums. This part may take a long time, because I have to get bbcode and all that working, not to mention all the different link formats and all that. Also remember that I'm trying to make this use as little javascript as possible, so the first release will feel particularly "oldschool". I think forums will honestly take me a couple weeks...

step 1 of forums. there's still like.... 5-7 steps left? this is a lot of work

It's coming together! This is just part 2 of... idk how many for creating the forums. At this point I really only have the category list and the thread list, and I know that seems like nothing but it's really taking a long time. It'll get done!

All right, there's no bbcode rendering but I have posts rendering. Here it is on "desktop": And this is a different thread on mobile: I know I should've waited until bbcode was there, but wanted to see if anyone had comments or input on the styling or layout. It's mostly the same but I just want to make sure.

I'm nearly done with forum display, which means just posting new threads and comments are left. Hopefully that's not too bad. Look, we have bbcode! And syntax highlighting!

I'm temporarily-ish disabling the redirect from https://smilebasicsource.com to https://old.smilebasicsource.com. I'm working on stuff

Oh right and I have user pages and bios and all that all set up. And forums are done even if they're only readonly right now. I want to get page browsing set up and fix the way errors look, and then I'm going to push a temporary copy of the new website to https://smilebasicsource.com. Changes you make on there may get reset randomly as I push updates, and nothing you do there will stick around, as I'm going to do one final conversion before shutting down THIS version of oldsbs. I'm doing this "run a copy" thing in case anybody wants to preview the new site and make suggestions or comments. It's ok if nobody does, but I want to give people time to do so anyway. I'll let you know when this happens so you can check it out.