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● New Theme w/ some site changes

Tue Apr 27, 2021 9:19 pm
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There is life outside of the game.
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Hello everyone. Well, depending on how long you have been coming here, you probably have noticed that your site has looked the same for the past 6+ years now. Well, last year, I had purchased a new theme, (Lonestars Black Magic theme), and over the past couple of weeks, I have been modifying it to make it ours. With that said, I am hoping to have the theme mad public within the next couple of weeks.

Along with the theme changes, there will be aspects of the website that will be getting worked on at the same time to improve the overall speed of the site. I am hoping a new module that Lonestar is working on to replace one of my older modules will be done, so I can have that on this site with the rest of the changes. While doing this works on my site here, I was also able to do some additional responsive work to the theme on files of the forums that weren't done.

For most of you that know me, I am not a theme developer, but, this theme I have been working on is coming out pretty damn good, especially that I really don't use images, but CSS tricks to create the illusion of images. When released, if anyone finds any bugs or has suggestions, SPEAK UP, I love hearing criticism, that's how I make it better.

When I do any new updates from here on out, I will post them here since the theme is now live for everyone.

Recent Changes:
  • At a glance put back into the theme with some fixes to get it back close to what it was.
  • Fixed Roster title, wrong font was being used.
  • At a Glance options, I added in a feature that will make the title flicker and be bold when there is a new post that YOU have not read. Original system used icon images, this is just going to flicker, may change this in the future, this is just a trial to see if people like it.
  • Quick Reply added back into the theme.
  • Update to the navigation. Made it stick to the top when you scroll down. Adjusted some things for mobile. Still have one more thing to fix, but still trying to figure it out.
  • Added a popup type login now to the top social icon "login" button. See in the image below:
    Expand
  • Fixed a spacing issue with the YouTube videos displaying large gaps under the video:
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  • Toggle system added to change the theme between Red, Green, and Blue. It saves to local storage instead of a cookie. One theme, just some variables within the CSS being changed.


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Sun May 02, 2021 12:44 pm
NOOB!!!
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Reputation: 106.4
Hi, Corpse.
Been a while since we spoke and noticed you had gone dark for a while.  Glad to see you back on.

I too have been working with Lonestars BlackMagic.  Great job.  Made a lot of my clients who use phones happy.

So, now to the reason I'm here. (If I should be taking to Lonestar just say so and I'll head back there)


  1. I ran into this during the 2.0.9f update required for the new theme.  After completing the update, the "backtothetop" button no longer works.  On some themes(SimpleBlack2) it will move a single line up and on other themes it has no effect at all.  It shows up on all of them, but just doesn't take you back to the top when you press it. (Worked fine before the 9f update)
  2. I can't get my LM-BlackMagic to use the entire screen like you have here no matter how hard I try.  Now, I think there are a lot of settings that are hard-coded that will probably be in the next release that may make this easier. But, how do I get the theme to use the entire screen width? One difference is that I use both side panels and you are only using the left panel.  Don't know if that is a problem or not.
  3. Periodically(I haven't nailed down exactly what triggers it) the page will take forever to load.  If I'm lucky I can sometimes catch it and see in debug that its loading the same code over and over again.  I think its jscript but I'm not sure and I can't remember right now any of the lines of code to help determine where this may be happening.  So, just wondering if you've heard anything like this mentioned.
  4. (and this one probably is for Lonestart but I'm shotting it out to you anyway) If I use the Unanswered Posts link, the resulting page shows an ALT text of No New Posts and a broken icon link for img src="themes/LM-BlackMagic/forums/images/board/folder.png" width="19" height="18" alt="No new posts" title="No new posts". I went to investigate and after checking my LM-BlackMagis.zip file noticed that there is no themes/LM-BlackMagic/forums/images/board folder that came with the installation of the theme.  Did I miss something or did it just not make it into the file?


Don't mean to dump on you with all this.  I really am excited about the direction you guys are headed.

BTW: If you need to look for yourself,
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and your username is coRpSE.

So, this is not criticism, but if it helps you make it better, consider it so...

Thanks,
Jeff
Sun May 02, 2021 7:59 pm
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There is life outside of the game.
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  1. I ran into this during the 2.0.9f update required for the new theme.  After completing the update, the "backtothetop" button no longer works.  On some themes(SimpleBlack2) it will move a single line up and on other themes it has no effect at all.  It shows up on all of them, but just doesn't take you back to the top when you press it. (Worked fine before the 9f update)
  2. I can't get my LM-BlackMagic to use the entire screen like you have here no matter how hard I try.  Now, I think there are a lot of settings that are hard-coded that will probably be in the next release that may make this easier. But, how do I get the theme to use the entire screen width? One difference is that I use both side panels and you are only using the left panel.  Don't know if that is a problem or not.
  3. Periodically(I haven't nailed down exactly what triggers it) the page will take forever to load.  If I'm lucky I can sometimes catch it and see in debug that its loading the same code over and over again.  I think its jscript but I'm not sure and I can't remember right now any of the lines of code to help determine where this may be happening.  So, just wondering if you've heard anything like this mentioned.
  4. (and this one probably is for Lonestart but I'm shotting it out to you anyway) If I use the Unanswered Posts link, the resulting page shows an ALT text of No New Posts and a broken icon link for img src="themes/LM-BlackMagic/forums/images/board/folder.png" width="19" height="18" alt="No new posts" title="No new posts". I went to investigate and after checking my LM-BlackMagis.zip file noticed that there is no themes/LM-BlackMagic/forums/images/board folder that came with the installation of the theme.  Did I miss something or did it just not make it into the file?


Okay, I will go through this as much as I can.
The LM_BlackMagic theme is a fixed width theme, that is hard coded to be like it is. For the past 2 weeks, I have been rewriting the version on my site to make it different from everyone else that is running that theme. I also have been going through and updating files that were not made responsive like the user profile section, forums search, forum groups, ect... I have been giving the files to Lonstar to make what ever adjustments that is needed then he can repack them into a theme update.

Also, you mentioned the missing icons, this is known. I personally went in and re-coded the core edits, not the theme edits, to now use fontawsome icons instead of images. Using your example, I would go in and find where it was looking for:

Code: [ Select all ]

<img src="themes/LM-BlackMagic/forums/images/board/folder.png" width="19" height="18" alt="No new posts" title="No new posts">

and replace it with html code I would get from the fontawsome website for the icon I want to use.
Basically, I would find an icon like
Found here:
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and using the code provided:
I would replace the image code with:

Code: [ Select all ]

<i class="far fa-folder" title="No new posts"></i>

You can see I just copied the HTML code from that and replaced the image, but I also put the title to it.

Okay, now onto your question about the to-top script, I am not seeing any errors, so I don't know about that. I will let Lonestar know about this post, and he may have a few different idea's.

Now, for the Slow page loading. That could be anything. Is it happening with all themes, or just certain themes?
I noticed that your site is running 370 DB queries on each page load. I am sure that could lessen by making some of those blocks cache the information, so it doesn't need to call 370 DB queries each time the page loads. Likewise, I am running into the same issue on my site. I have it down to 100 DB queries ATM, but I want to get that as minimum as I can.


 
Mon May 03, 2021 3:16 am
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Don't get much, huh?
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In order to figure out what is causing the conflict with the "Back to Top" script, I will require and temp FTP and Admin login, The admin login is for me to be able to disable the blocks on the homepage until I find the block causing the conflict, and make the necessary change to fix the script.

As for the slow page load times, Using the network tab in the developer console, I can see that your Event calendar mod, take a nearly a full 2 seconds to load, this is one of the main causes of slow loading, Like coRpSE says, It could also be the amount of database connections you are making on the homepage as well, 352 queries is a very large amount for a landing page, This items need to be cached, especially the data that is not updated very often.

Also the screen size checker mod you are using, is causing quite a lot of screen load lag, I am not sure what you are using to find the screensize, but what ever it is, I would disable it to save on load times.


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Mon May 03, 2021 6:43 am
NOOB!!!
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Reputation: 106.4
Thank you both for the input.

Will work on the issues you mention over the next several days.

Lonestar, thanks for your offer to look into the button.  I'll PM you on your site as soon as I get you an ID setup.


 
Tue May 04, 2021 8:21 pm
NOOB!!!
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Reputation: 106.4
[quote="coRpSE";p="7412"]
— Trowbie wrote

Now, for the Slow page loading. That could be anything. Is it happening with all themes, or just certain themes?
I noticed that your site is running 370 DB queries on each page load. I am sure that could lessen by making some of those blocks cache the information, so it doesn't need to call 370 DB queries each time the page loads. Likewise, I am running into the same issue on my site. I have it down to 100 DB queries ATM, but I want to get that as minimum as I can.


Thanks for the idea of caching the pages.  I've been able to halve the number of DB calls on the main page as well as given me some ideas for other places deeper in the site.  Great tip!

I did a fair amount of digging today an I came up completely blank on the btt issue.  I found the javascript that handles that and compared it to the one that was there before 209f and the only differences were in the comments.  The actual code is exactly the same.
If I use the BlackMagic theme with the btt set to true(disable evo button), the icon changes but absolutely nothing happens when you click it.  If I set it to false(use the evo button) then the old button icon comes back but when I press it the page moves towards the top just one line.  Doesn't matter which theme I use, they all behave the same so it's not a BlackMagic issue its a 209f issue.  Still stumped on that.  I think LoneStar has been in looking at it.  I'll keep digging as well and let you know if I come across anything.

Appreciate the info on the missing folder.  At least it wasn't something I missed when I downloaded the theme.  That's mostly cosmetic and is on a page which isn't visited too often.  I'll keep your tips for when I get time to dig into it. (Or, when the next update comes out.)


 
Tue May 04, 2021 8:34 pm
NOOB!!!
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Reputation: 106.4
— Lonestar wrote
As for the slow page load times, Using the network tab in the developer console, I can see that your Event calendar mod, take a nearly a full 2 seconds to load, this is one of the main causes of slow loading,

Thanks.  My whole race scheduling system is ingrained in that calendar software so I may be stuck with that.  Been running it for years.  However, I will look into it and see if there are some opportunities for improvement.  It runs outside the nuke environment and the calendar is just an iframe display from it.

— Lonestar wrote
Like coRpSE says, It could also be the amount of database connections you are making on the homepage as well, 352 queries is a very large amount for a landing page, This items need to be cached, especially the data that is not updated very often.

See my response to coRpSE above. Big change in those windows loading since cacheing them.

— Lonestar wrote
Also the screen size checker mod you are using, is causing quite a lot of screen load lag, I am not sure what you are using to find the screensize, but what ever it is, I would disable it to save on load times.

I've disabled it on initial page load.  Client can still request if they need to.  It's a simple call back to the site with the screen sizes in the session response.  However, the need for it has changed since 209f.  The changes in 209f have made the screen more responsive and I can now adjust my coding to let html size the data as opposed to me doing it.  
Thanks.

Oh, and BTW: I came across your Easter Egg.  Nice job.  That should be in one of the default theme windows when you first install BlackMagic.  Clever.   lachen


 
Tue May 04, 2021 9:46 pm
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There is life outside of the game.
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Oh, and BTW: I came across your Easter Egg.  Nice job.  That should be in one of the default theme windows when you first install BlackMagic.  Clever.   lachen


Which one?

Also, I still think it's either a corrupt file, or something that wasn't uploaded. I uploaded 2.0.9F on several websites including this one, updating them from 2.0.9D to E to F and have not run into that issue.

It could be even a conflict somewhere with something else that is installed. The way I would go about trying to find the fix, is I would do these steps,
  1. First, I would find all the CSS and js files for the to-top and re-upload them. Heck, I probably just re-upload the includes folder, (of course keeping a backup first). Now, if that didn't work, I would proceed to...

  2. Disabling all blocks on the left since I know that those are the only ones active on the home page and the forums, and it's not working on both. If it works then, reactivate each block one by one till it doesn't, then you know where your issue is. If it still doesn't work...

  3. Go through and disable all custom mods that were installed and check, if it works, reactivate one by one until it stops working, then you know where the issue lies.


Since this issue seems to be plaguing your site, I believe it could be something you missed when updating. When you updated your site, what was your site previously on? Were you running 2.0.9E, or F? Did you upload all the site files, or did you just do the E to F update? There is just so many variables to be able to say, "this is the problem", especially since your the first to have this issue as far as I know.


 
Wed May 05, 2021 8:34 am
NOOB!!!
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Thanks, coRpSE. (LoneStar, too).  Appreciate you taking the time to look.
At least you've confirmed it's isolated to my site.  It worked on 209e and failed after the 209f update.  I have a test environment (experiencing the same problem) so I'll restore that back to 209e, make sure it works, then do the 209f upgrade again.  When I figure it out, I'll let you know.

-- Edited -- -- Removed Easter Egg --


 
Wed May 05, 2021 11:42 am
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There is life outside of the game.
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Ah, okay. Yeah, those Easter Egg's came with E I believe. It was the same patch we released the ReCaptcha and removed the old captcha system.


 
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