new server - beta testing [closed]

maccamob · Post by **maccamob** » 19 July 05 3:26 pm

The 'Import Caches' and 'Import Logs' wizards are broken at present. How high are they on the repair list?

ideology · Post by **ideology** » 23 July 05 1:21 am

thanks, these are not on the beta site at the moment, but we plan to get them on there. the main thing we are trying to get working at the moment is basic cache and swaggie functions. that way we can move all the sites to the new server. then we'll do the next level of stuff like the import wizards.

we would really appreciate any beta testing that people want to carry out. creating caches, logging them, etc. we would like to iron out as many bugs as possible before going live with it. thanks!

riblit · Post by **riblit** » 23 July 05 10:23 am

ideology wrote:
we would really appreciate any beta testing that people want to carry out. creating caches, logging them, etc. we would like to iron out as many bugs as possible before going live with it. thanks!

just 'cause you asked<br />
I tried logging a virtual find on a locationless and got the dreaded 'Access Error' message<br />
Access Error<br /><br />

Cannot access log. Please check whether you own the log.

riblit · Post by **riblit** » 23 July 05 10:27 am

But then I succesfully logged http://beta.geocaching.com.au/cache/ga0026

ideology · Post by **ideology** » 23 July 05 12:04 pm

thanks, we are working on it at the moment

ideology · Post by **ideology** » 25 July 05 8:50 am

we did a lot of work on the beta site over the weekend
we think the cache creation and logging are pretty robust

if you have a chance, can you please go to http://beta.geocaching.com.au and give it a test.
please try things like:
- creating a new cache
- logging it
- archiving the cache
- editing your log
- creating a moveable cache then creating a find with coordinates

things that aren't there yet:
- at this stage we have turned swaggies off just so that we can get over to the other server. the code is almost there but we think it's more important to get the user database back in sych. for example, in the last few weeks since the sites have been on different servers, we've had over 100 new people join and in another thread they are having problems logging in to log caches. we need to get back onto one server so they can do that. once we get on the new server, we expect to get swaggies going a few days after sorting out any teething difficulties
- we also haven't got all the stats fully implemented
- some of the advanced search options (the mates stuff and similar) don't work yet but it's not hard to get working. as we say, we have concentrated on the real basics of logging

why don't we just migrate over the exiting code? the reason is that we have changed the underlying data structures. this is because when we originally designed the site, it was mainly for statistics. since then we've added lots more functionality and the current way we stored data was incredible inefficient. so when moving to the new server we changed the back-end to allow more expansion in the future.

please let us know how it goes. if it all works well we can migrate over fairly quickly. but we need your help to make sure if doesn't all fall in a heap! thanks!

Damo. · Post by **Damo.** » 25 July 05 9:22 am

Seems to be working quite well.
Only thing that came up was putting in the coordinate both in creating a cache and logging the moveable cache. I cut and pasted coords from discoveraus and it didn't recognise the format. (eg. S34Ã‚Â°02.289' E151Ã‚Â°12.079' are 'invalid coordinates".) I replaced the degree symbol with a space to rectify. Looking at the 'hide a cache' default it has a space after the degree symbol so I guess it was looking for that. I supposed IRL one would be filling in the blanks so I don't think it's a big issue. Having separate boxes for degrees and minutes would stop it happening though.

With the Map links, the ones that require a specific program like WorldWind and come up with an error message if it's absent should maybe have a hotlink. Eg Requires WorldWind.

belken · Post by **belken** » 25 July 05 10:04 pm

I modified a cache listing ok
I posted a note ok

The nearby reccomended button on our cache Grass Tree Castle listed caches in all states. (Except Tasmania)

Damo. · Post by **Damo.** » 26 July 05 8:45 pm

Just noticed all the caches seemed to be coming through on the Google Earth network link and realised you must have put more data up on the Beta site. It's looking good!

Picture link is broken for icon on maintanance notes. eg http://beta.geocaching.com.au/cache/gckp9w for the last two posts. One archiving, the other enabling. Ditto on other lisitings.
Log on April 20th same cache. What was "Day 2 -" has been changed to "Day 2 ÃƒÂ¢Ã‚â‚¬Ã‚â€œ", as has the next hyphen. Weird!?

My test cache I listed yesterday has gone!

Search box is working kinda... Caches with names like "2000": "A Good Read". Still working on the postcode search I see.

Some of the links aren't doing anything but that's to be expected. eg. the find tab.

Listing a cache worked fine yesterday. Anything specific you want tested just ask!

Damo. · Post by **Damo.** » 26 July 05 9:31 pm

Listed another cache and did my best to break something without success.

Couple of thoughts:
In the listing screen can the State drop box default to the home state? No big deal but it wouldn't be something the majority of people would ever need to change.

Any chance of a preview screen? Easy enough to save, view and then edit but will an active cache on watchlists going through an edit/save/edit/save process trigger lots of notices?

It's very stable and quite useable. Nice work!

ideology · Post by **ideology** » 27 July 05 9:45 am

thanks damo
we've added some (pretty lame!) icons as you suggested
we'll put the preview screen and stuff on the list so we can focus all the nasty bugs that we expect will emerge!

Cached · Post by **Cached** » 27 July 05 10:49 am

I can't find the stats - are they there?

ideology · Post by **ideology** » 27 July 05 11:23 am

not yet, they are one of the list of things we de-scoped to get the new server working. we thought it was more important that the 100 or so new members who were on the forum but couldn't log caches were able to do so. once that is bedded down we'll get the stats working again. we have the basic engine working (see the homepage) so it's just a matter of hooking it up to the dates and states as we did before and it's probably #2 on the list after swaggies

Damo. · Post by **Damo.** » 28 July 05 9:19 am

No caches show up using the find tab. "No Caches Found"

My test cache ended up on a couple of people's watchlists though so I had to archive it.

ideology · Post by **ideology** » 28 July 05 10:10 am

oops sorry we've fixed the find tab
just as a matter of interested, does the drop-down menu work for you on the find tab?