Extraneous code in Reports

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
Why are we seeing code like this
onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
in our reports recently?
 
Beats me, just edit it out when you are posting.

There have been no changes or upgrades made to the forum software, so I'm at a loss. A quick Google finds other sites running this forum software experiencing the same issue. The bottom line is that it's something in the PHP code and I'm not a coder, just a coding hack.

The fact of the matter, though, is that the fork of the forum software that FTO is running has been deprecated, and support ended on 1/1/17 (ironically, about the same time this problem first appeared). The software has been entirely rewritten and the board needs to be migrated to the new version. However, that's no small task, and furthermore any posts made to the old board once I start the process will be lost in the new version one it's up and running. It could take time to complete successfully and the board will be down while this is taking place, so that's one more reason I don't want to do it during the ski season. It's a project that I'll take on in early summer.

In the meantime, just edit it out if it's bugging you.
 
admin":2qdrj6y2 said:
In the meantime, just edit it out if it's bugging you.
No problem with that

admin":2qdrj6y2 said:
any posts made to the old board once I start the process will be lost in the new version one it's up and running.
The optimistic interpretation of the above is that posts should not be made during the time period (weeks?) that admin is updating the software, but that all posts prior to the software update will remain as before.

The pessimistic interpretation that archives would be lost post conversion is a BIG problem. I once asked if it was necessary to archive my old reports and I was assured that it was not. I ran a few test cases to determine I could do it. It is possible but very time consuming where pictures are involved, and I estimate I have on the order of 800 reports that I would need to back up.

NOW I know why you think I called you at 4:30AM, but that was a butt dial. :lol:

Given the meager amount of current activity on the FTO Forums, the archives are its greatest value. We had a close call the last time the software was "refreshed," so it's obvious why I'm alarmed this time with vastly more material needing potential backup. My hat is off to Patrick; he was prescient about backing up his stuff while I was not.
 
Tony Crocker":736rc383 said:
admin":736rc383 said:
any posts made to the old board once I start the process will be lost in the new version one it's up and running.
That's a BIG problem.

Please re-read that sentence. Once I start the migration, and until the migration is finished, any posts made in the intervening period will be lost. I have two choices during that period: risk losing a post or two, or close the forums completely until the migration is complete. That's just one reason why I'm waiting until the off-season.

Tony Crocker":736rc383 said:
NOW I know why you think I called you at 4:30AM, but that was a butt dial.

I've still got a headache from the lack of sleep that caused.

Tony Crocker":736rc383 said:
I would appreciate a LOT of advance notice to start working on those 800 back-ups,which is not something I can be doing in-season either.

You have no reason for concern, for the forum's entire filesystem and database will be backed up (again) immediately prior to the migration, such that it may be easily restored if any part of the process fails.

The biggest headache I potentially face is that some time ago I integrated the user databases between the forums and the main site. The databases were modified by a plug-in intended to do just that, but the form of that plug-in that I used doesn't work with the database structure of the forum software's new version. There's a different, paid plug-in available from the same developer that does work with the new forum software, but I have to have some extensive conversations with that developer regarding how to safely un-do the user integration before I migrate to the new forum software -- one more reason to wait for the off-season.

And BTW, if you use the URL BBcode to create links instead of simply pasting the link, it doesn't generate any extraneous code.
 
I realized there were two interpretations to the system revision and edited my post accordingly. Our posts crossed and admin responded to my first extremely alarmed version.

I would recommending freezing the Forum (making it read-only) during the conversion. The Forum home page should be CONSPICUOUSLY marked to inform readers what's happening.

We understand the amount of work involved maintaining FTO. But readers would understand better if they were informed when hiatuses, construction projects were going on, along with the occasional progress update.
 
Tony Crocker":j1fd8nyz said:
I would recommending freezing the Forum (making it read-only) during the conversion. The Forum home page should be CONSPICUOUSLY marked to inform readers what's happening

That's probably not possible. The more likely scenario is that forum visitors would be greeted with a static maintenance page on the main forum home, and links to individual forum topics or posts would go 404 as the migration was taking place.

Tony Crocker":j1fd8nyz said:
We understand the amount of work involved maintaining FTO. But readers would understand better if they were informed when hiatuses, construction projects were going on, along with the occasional progress update.

The fact of the matter is that this summer's project is on a "need to know" basis and no one here needed to know at this time. I only brought it up to explain why I'm not going to drive myself nuts trying to figure out what's adding that code to URLs pasted to forum posts.
 
admin":7vxgpqu3 said:
The fact of the matter is that this summer's project is on a "need to know" basis and no one here needed to know at this time. I only brought it up to explain why I'm not going to drive myself nuts trying to figure out what's adding that code to URLs pasted to forum posts.
Fair enough for the rest of this season. Once the project is imminent readers need to be in the loop. The static maintenance page should explain what's happening including an estimate when the new version will be up and running. Most people will not come back to a broken webpage with no description of why it's broken and for how long.

And while we're asking questions, the last Forum conversion of archives was not clean at all. Paragraphing was removed and picture links were broken. If I have to reload pictures or reset picture links for 800 reports, I might as well archive them as it will take about the same amount of time.
 
Here's an example of how an archived report looked after the last conversion:
Come Skiing and Riding with First Tracks!! Online!

Postby Admin » Wed Dec 11, 2002 9:10 pm
OK, I know this doesn't really belong in this section, but hey ... I'm the moderator! <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/wink.gif"> <BR> <BR><CENTER><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/ads/webadverts/ads.pl?banner=burkeday2003;time=1039670384" TARGET="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1768.gif" ALT="Click here for more info about the First Annual First Tracks!! Online Ski Day at Burke Mountain!"></A></CENTER> <BR> <BR>We're happy to announce the <B><FONT COLOR="ff0000">First Annual First Tracks!! Online Ski Day</FONT></B>, scheduled for Sunday, January 12 at Burke Mountain, Vermont. Ski, Ride, and Party with your fellow First Tracks!! Online readers for less than $20! <BR> <BR>Print a coupon from First Tracks!! Online, and get a half-price lift ticket for only $19.50. Sample gourmet and specialty coffee from <A HREF="http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com" TARGET="_blank">Green Mountain Coffee Roasters</A>, then kick back with an ale from <A HREF="http://www.ottercreekbrewing.com" TARGET="_blank">Otter Creek Brewing</A> in the resort's Bear's Den Lounge après-ski for a blowout party, featuring exciting prizes and giveaways from event sponsors Green Mountain Coffee, Otter Creek Brewing Company, and <A HREF="http://www.baileysandburke.com" TARGET="_blank">Bailey's & Burke</A>. <BR> <BR>How else can you ski and party for less than $20? Burke is a straight three-hour shot along Interstate highways from both Boston, MA and Hartford, CT, and just over 2 hours from Montréal. Don't miss this chance to share great snow with great people, and finally put a face to that email address! <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/ads/webadverts/ads.pl?banner=burkeday2003;time=1039670384" TARGET="_blank">Click here for more information</A>!

How do we know this won't happen this time?
 
Tony Crocker":2mgkkd34 said:
Here's an example of how an archived report looked after the last conversion:
Come Skiing and Riding with First Tracks!! Online!

Postby Admin » Wed Dec 11, 2002 9:10 pm
OK, I know this doesn't really belong in this section, but hey ... I'm the moderator! <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/wink.gif"> <BR> <BR><CENTER><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/ads/webadverts/ads.pl?banner=burkeday2003;time=1039670384" TARGET="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1768.gif" ALT="Click here for more info about the First Annual First Tracks!! Online Ski Day at Burke Mountain!"></A></CENTER> <BR> <BR>We're happy to announce the <B><FONT COLOR="ff0000">First Annual First Tracks!! Online Ski Day</FONT></B>, scheduled for Sunday, January 12 at Burke Mountain, Vermont. Ski, Ride, and Party with your fellow First Tracks!! Online readers for less than $20! <BR> <BR>Print a coupon from First Tracks!! Online, and get a half-price lift ticket for only $19.50. Sample gourmet and specialty coffee from <A HREF="http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com" TARGET="_blank">Green Mountain Coffee Roasters</A>, then kick back with an ale from <A HREF="http://www.ottercreekbrewing.com" TARGET="_blank">Otter Creek Brewing</A> in the resort's Bear's Den Lounge après-ski for a blowout party, featuring exciting prizes and giveaways from event sponsors Green Mountain Coffee, Otter Creek Brewing Company, and <A HREF="http://www.baileysandburke.com" TARGET="_blank">Bailey's & Burke</A>. <BR> <BR>How else can you ski and party for less than $20? Burke is a straight three-hour shot along Interstate highways from both Boston, MA and Hartford, CT, and just over 2 hours from Montréal. Don't miss this chance to share great snow with great people, and finally put a face to that email address! <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/ads/webadverts/ads.pl?banner=burkeday2003;time=1039670384" TARGET="_blank">Click here for more information</A>!

How do we know this won't happen this time?

We don't. You'd better hole up in your bomb shelter now, and bring a year's supply of dried food rations along. It's Armageddon!
 
Trump.jpg

UNFAIR!
 
Definitely not Armageddon... but definitely a rather bad result if that happens.

I even now often refer folks to some of my 8-10 year old TR's for examples of certain pics/angles of some terrain or good /bad level of snow conditions (eg even today pointed a 20 something to some of my old Tucker mtn pics on Copper TR's from 2008/2009). I frequently don't take the same pic/angle of pics that I've done in the past since I already have a good record of that (and still would on my own hard drives at home which misses some of the point of social posting though).

I do understand the huge amount of time Admin puts into this "little" FTO side gig, so I won't complain too loudly. It does seem that the forums especially are frequently hitting a dead branch of forum software somehow with poor conversion tools being provided by the dev's. Weird situation.


Admin":1xt9wfuu said:
Tony Crocker":1xt9wfuu said:
Here's an example of how an archived report looked after the last conversion:
Come Skiing and Riding with First Tracks!! Online!

Postby Admin » Wed Dec 11, 2002 9:10 pm
OK, I know this doesn't really belong in this section, but hey ... I'm the moderator! <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/wink.gif"> <BR> <BR><CENTER><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/ads/webadverts/ads.pl?banner=burkeday2003;time=1039670384" TARGET="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1768.gif" ALT="Click here for more info about the First Annual First Tracks!! Online Ski Day at Burke Mountain!"></A></CENTER> <BR> <BR>We're happy to announce the <B><FONT COLOR="ff0000">First Annual First Tracks!! Online Ski Day</FONT></B>, scheduled for Sunday, January 12 at Burke Mountain, Vermont. Ski, Ride, and Party with your fellow First Tracks!! Online readers for less than $20! <BR> <BR>Print a coupon from First Tracks!! Online, and get a half-price lift ticket for only $19.50. Sample gourmet and specialty coffee from <A HREF="http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com" TARGET="_blank">Green Mountain Coffee Roasters</A>, then kick back with an ale from <A HREF="http://www.ottercreekbrewing.com" TARGET="_blank">Otter Creek Brewing</A> in the resort's Bear's Den Lounge après-ski for a blowout party, featuring exciting prizes and giveaways from event sponsors Green Mountain Coffee, Otter Creek Brewing Company, and <A HREF="http://www.baileysandburke.com" TARGET="_blank">Bailey's & Burke</A>. <BR> <BR>How else can you ski and party for less than $20? Burke is a straight three-hour shot along Interstate highways from both Boston, MA and Hartford, CT, and just over 2 hours from Montréal. Don't miss this chance to share great snow with great people, and finally put a face to that email address! <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/ads/webadverts/ads.pl?banner=burkeday2003;time=1039670384" TARGET="_blank">Click here for more information</A>!

How do we know this won't happen this time?

We don't. You'd better hole up in your bomb shelter now, and bring a year's supply of dried food rations along. It's Armageddon!
 
EMSC":h11meddw said:
Definitely not Armageddon... but definitely a rather bad result if that happens.

My cavalier attitude with Mr. Crocker is borne of the fact that I've discussed this with him many, many times before already. What happened in the past was a forum software that was no longer supported became corrupted. I had no choice but to move to something different altogether, write my own migration script and hope for the best. What resulted was the best I could do.

This is an entirely different situation. We're merely moving from one fork of phpBB to another. Both the filesystem and the database are backed up regularly and stored for safe keeping, and that will also be done at the time that the migration is begun. If it fails, you merely restore the backed up filesystem and database. No risk whatsoever.

EMSC":h11meddw said:
It does seem that the forums especially are frequently hitting a dead branch of forum software somehow with poor conversion tools being provided by the dev's. Weird situation.

Part of that is the slow demise of user forums in general, as they have been supplanted in recent years by social media. People just don't use website forums the way that they used to.
 
So which is it?
admin":22luu23b said:
You have no reason for concern
or
admin":22luu23b said:
Tony Crocker":22luu23b said:
How do we know this won't happen this time?
We don't. You'd better hole up ......
which means the archives will become unreadable crap with no pictures displayed?

I have a constructive suggestion. Find out how much it would cost to hire a programmer to convert the archives with zero degradation if you don't think you can do it efficiently or at all.

As ESMC notes, it is often useful to refer to an old TR to illustrate something later. To the extent this occurs in social media or another forum it drives some traffic to FTO. But not if the link in question is broken or unreadable.
 
Tony Crocker":22klbnvh said:
So which is it?
admin":22klbnvh said:
You have no reason for concern
or
admin":22klbnvh said:
Tony Crocker":22klbnvh said:
How do we know this won't happen this time?
We don't. You'd better hole up ......
which means the archives will become unreadable crap with no pictures displayed?

After my comments above, are you seriously asking me that?
 
Actually, I'm curious how frequently the "archives" (not really archives - just older posts) are accessed and how many by unique visitors.
 
Marc_C":2k2p21iq said:
Actually, I'm curious how frequently the "archives" (not really archives - just older posts) are accessed and how many by unique visitors.

Almost never.
 
admin":3oefw41n said:
After my comments above, are you seriously asking me that?
Yes, after 3 different answers:
1) No problem, which by the way I was assured when I asked this question the first time a few years ago.
2) You have no idea so it might happen again
3) This conversion is different from the last one so it might not be as bad

admin":3oefw41n said:
MarcC":3oefw41n said:
Actually, I'm curious how frequently the "archives" (not really archives - just older posts) are accessed and how many by unique visitors.
Almost never.
Which perhaps explains the lack of interest in resolving this issue.

And no answer to my inquiry about hiring a programmer. As the most aggrieved party here, I'm willing to consider chipping in on that if the price is reasonable.

And while we're at it, I initiated this thread and as it progressed the Forum software update emerged as clearly more important than the extraneous code that can be easily deleted. The thread title should reflect that.
 
Tony Crocker":25fro22j said:
admin":25fro22j said:
After my comments above, are you seriously asking me that?
Yes, after 3 different answers:
1) No problem, which by the way I was assured when I asked this question the first time a few years ago.
2) You have no idea so it might happen again
3) This conversion is different from the last one so it might not be as bad

So, understanding scarcasm is not your strong suit?

Tony Crocker":25fro22j said:
And no answer to my inquiry about hiring a programmer.

I delicately sidestepped providing you a direct answer to save you from what I was thinking, but as understanding "delicate" apparently isn't your strong suit either, I'll be unequivocal:
No, I'm not hiring a programmer just to make Tony Crocker happy.

Tony Crocker":25fro22j said:
And while we're at it, I initiated this thread and as it progressed the Forum software update emerged as clearly more important than the extraneous code that can be easily deleted. The thread title should reflect that.

Nor do you seem to understand who the big cheese is around here, for after I've changed it you've changed it back no fewer than six times. What we have here is a failure to communicate: I'm communicatin', and you're not listenin'.

Finally, as you've been told countless times before, this sort of conversation should be taken backchannel.
 
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