2003-08-31 : It has begun

[infoxicated]

WZ V3 in progress...

[xEik]

Remembers Infoxicated that he already has the code for 2097/XL tables. ;)

[Lance]

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interesting news.

any clues as to new features or looks? or is it better to keep it a mystery? :)
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[infoxicated]

Last time I let you in on it you had me running round in circles for a month, so no - I'm not telling you! :lol: :wink:

I've just about completed the basic template, but there is soooooooooooooo much work to be done on the rest of the code that I'm not making any promises on an ETA. Even the grand work that xEik done will need to be re-jigged somewhat, along with changes to the records system, log-in, plus changes to all of the content (ever).

The good news is that it's going very well so far - only two days work and the template is both standards compliant css / xhtml and identical in IE 6, Firebird & Opera.

Madden 2004 arrives in a couple of weeks. It WILL be done before that arrives! ;)

[xEik]

Madden 2004 arrives in a couple of weeks. It WILL be done before that arrives! ;)

I hope so. Or we'll have to find a way to delay Madden. :P :roll:

[infoxicated]

Oh, it's hardly a big obstacle... we're getting satellite TV installed tomorrow - that's the real show stopper! ;)

With NFL and the Extreme Sports channel on demand, I'll be foaming at the mouth up in the computer room until I get WZ3 finished! :lol:

[infoxicated]

Here's an update on the progress of the new site.

Most of the templates are done, and the stylesheet is just about there, although I'll probably tweak it right up to the end. I had a suggestion from xEik that we could have different themes for different era's of the game, but I think we'll just stick with a WipeoutZone theme. DR style is hard to do without looking like a rip-off... which it would be.

Over the last week I've basically not got much further with the templates and table code. The reason? That friendly little virus that tries to fix the blaster worm. Screwed up my system bad and ate memory to the extent that we couldn't have the computer on for more than half an hour without things crashing because memory was being eaten. Not a good environment to develop with, I can tell you.

Got rid of that at the weekend, I'm happy to say, so this week I've got my oar back in the water and things are moving forward again.

I am leaving the hardest bit for last, which is the new record system. This will affect lots of things, like record updating, member registration, stuff like that. But I want to make us as future proof as possible so it's less of a pain to take the next step when a Wipeout sequel is on the horizon. :)

[infoxicated]

Update
Page Template : completed
Records page : completed
Printable version : completed
Style Sheet : 90%

Log-in System : to do
My WipeoutZone page : to do
Time Entry page : to do

It looks like I may have to sacrifice W3C XHTML validation for the sake of the records page. :( There isn't a nice way of laying out the track selection form without nesting it in a table, and, to be perfectly honest, I'd rather it was usable than dumb it down in order to validate. Them's the breaks.

...tick....tick...tick...tick...

8)

[infoxicated]

This is taking an age, I know, but it is the first time I've really understood what I'm doing with the time table entry codes.

Not that I know German (all of the code comments are in German due to Carlo!) any better than I did three years ago, but I'm light years ahead with php and I can easily recognise what's on the screen in front of me (Like Tank from The Matrix, but with better working conditions).

I came to a bit of a decision at the weekend just to ditch most of Carlo's old code. Each time I overhaul the site I have to come up with more work arounds and it's just getting to the point where I do it now or it'll become the biggest, nastiest hive of nested code ever.

To this end, I don't think I'll have it finished by the weekend - I still have a shed-load-o-saurus to do with the time updater pages. Wanna see some grabs?

Screen One (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/images/wz3_screen1.jpg)
Screen Two (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/images/wz3_screen2.jpg)
Screen Three (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/images/wz3_screen3.jpg)
Screen Four (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/images/wz3_screen4.jpg)

Hopefully you get the idea, although the style sheet isn't finished yet and there are some bugs in IE which I'll have to work on.

If anyone has local web development set up (i.e. apache / mysql / phpmyAdmin) and they fancy helping out with converting the content then I'd gladly delegate that task so I can concentrate on the back-end work.

Anyhow, that's enough of a rest from it... better get back to work! :D

[Lance]

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uh oh. Opera SA is offering a job to web designers in their Oslo office. the job entails working on several of their sites including opera.com and my.opera.com. i wonder if a certain Opera browser fan [coff xEik coff] might get distracted from assisting on WZ by that prospect. not to mention [coff rob, jay, thrusty, nathan coff] others?

btw, Rob. the pics of WZ look pretty spiffy, and highly readable [good contrast without extreme tone values].

WIR is the standard reply on the Opera forums when someone asks when the next beta or final comes out. :)
When It's Ready
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[infoxicated]

Just a quick update for those who are still around to notice... ;)

I've signed up for a new server package, which I'm testing out at the moment - early indications were that it was very fast compared to the current set up, however it does seem expensive to add features later on.

I think the best way to launch the new site is when we switch to the new server - that way folk will know they are getting the correct version of the site, unlike previous moves (wow, there have been a few) when I had to post contrasting news stories on the homepage.

The site is actually in a state where I could make it live now - all the functionality is there, but for the record updating page... which sadly is the show stopper for the moment.

As Lance says - it'll be ready when it's ready :)

[Lance]

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[still keeping track]
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[infoxicated]

Quick round-up:

- New server package turned out to be less cost effective than first anticipated. Managed to get a refund and we're staying put for the time being.

- Current records page has been updated with new code to fix them. This is a stop gap measure until you all get your xmas present of the new site. ;)

- Please note that times for 2097 / XL are still broken - this *will* need to wait for the new version of the site, sorry.

[infoxicated]

New site now live, awaiting the flood of bugs you'll find! :D

Yes, I know about the forum banner image being out of style now, but it turns out that xEik has all the permissions on that directory! :oops: :lol:

Known Issues
There's a minor rendering bug in IE. The navigation column isn't drawn fully when you edit records - I'm tracking that one down, but decided it wasn't a show stopper as the nav column appears once you hover the mouse on it.

You can enter alphabetical characters in the time entry pages if you really want to - I'll get some error checking in there before the week is out, so try to avoid accidental character entry before then.

[xEik]

Do I need to remind you that you know my SFTP username and password? ;)
You mailed them to me. :lol:

The HTML code for the banner is in the the "overall_header.tpl" file. We can discuss the whole thing further via mail.

I'm curious to know on which server are we on now. A temporal one or a definitive one?

Although this belongs to another thread, I think the favicon file should be resized to 16x16, otherwise, it's the browser the one that resizes it and the result is worse.

If you parse the site in the W3C validators you'll find some easy to fix XHTML errors like a caps <H4> header or unclosed <img ... /> tags for the minipics and some unclosed
. I must say, though, that almost every one of these comes from older data that is pulled from the database.
Validating the CSS shows that the padding for ".subtext" lacks the ":" and there is a ":current" pseudoelemnt that isn't supposed to exist (well, at least I don't know it :P ).

All in all, you've made a great work: the site is lean and fast, as we all want it to be. Congrats! :D