PHOTODUDE.COM

Well, since yours came out looking so good, I figured I would give it a try. At least this time, when the database got corrupted, I’d have someone to blame. Well, I must have had some custom stuff that didn’t translate well, because there is a small amount of weirdness that I’ll have to correct when I have some time, but the database is still running strong, albeit nearly empty. Shock of all shocks.

So far it looks great, but what I’m really looking for is a blog that can generate a large amount of original content. I probably need to ask Phattboi.

The main thing I noticed is something that’s afflicted everyone who hasn’t updated in a while … the date format. They changed it, and now use strftime, so if you convert to that in your default article form, you should be fine.

What other weirdness do you see … that isn’t a result of user input?

Thanks for the link. Should be easy. The only other thing I noticed was that when go to comments, none of my graphics or links show up. Probably because when I set it up (long time ago) I altered a template file that was overwritten. I can bang away at that. The worst for me when I do upgrades (on blogs I used to use) is always database corruption, and that didn’t happen here, so I’m in a state of shock.

No templates should be overwritten by an upgrade, they are in the database, and unless you do a fresh install with a clean database, you never see the default templates.

So it is likely something within the template named “archive” that no longer works or is somehow done differently now. If you want to send it to me, I’d bet a quick peek would figure it out.

Okay, I sent it over. You’ll have to bear with me, it’s been quite a while since I monkeyed with textpattern. When I was in the tab_pages section, I noticed an “archive” link on the right with a button next to it marked X. Normally when I see a button with a big ugly X on it, I leave it alone, kind of like if you see a downed power line with a couple of wires sticking out (that are saying, “cmon touch us”) and that’s what I did this time. So I just clicked the archive link and sent it to you.

Smart man. Clicking the big ugly X would bring up a dialog box … “are you sure you want to delete the template, ‘archive’?” Nooooooo!

Looking over what you e-mailed, it’s clear to me that the problem is that your head is empty. Er, rather, the division with the id “head.” I sent back your template with some comments on what to insert, er, in your head.

Thanks. Aside from what looks easy with the date/time link, two problems remain. Textpattern is looking for my head graphic in /archive/36 (32, etc.) rather than http://www.elburro.net/myheadgraphicfile.jpg. And clicking on comments spreads the page all over the browser window.

What I’m guessing, since the archive link was foreign to me, is that I’ve got a kludge in there somewhere to pull up head graphics, etc. That may be causing all this weirdness. The archive template probably didn’t get overwritten, but something else did. I’ll look at it later when I’m not supposed to be working (heh). If I find and remove the kludge, the archive code will probably work.

But the database, she still lookin’ good.

I sent you another e-mail, but this sounds like a matter of hard coding the image source, and checking an admin setting for the CSS. You’re durn close…

And finished, thanks. TP is still the Mercedes of blogware. My main priorities in a blog: it’s hard to post spam, it doesn’t have easy exploits and it doesn’t kill your db when you upgrade. That would be TP. I’m still needing some of that original content, though, preferable added 2 – 3 times per week if any coders are listening.

At long last the comment display can be changed through a form rather than by hacking a file. Some of your comment issues might be due to this new functionality. This ability didn’t exist in the previous ‘Deanload’ version. I’m glad to see that you have at last made the plunge Reid, there are some nice touches in the new version that make using it a joy. I also wondered if you spotted contextile, if you guys are Firefox users, you’ll love it.

rturner, you say: “When I was in the tab_pages section…”

Did you install a language? You shouldn’t be seeing that tab_.

Al, he loaned me his login, and I got the lang file working. I had a bit of trouble with it on my site at first, too. It doesn’t always seem to “take” on first attempt.

And Adrian, contextile looks pretty cool, but to me, one of the cool things about Textile is that it’s so simple to type it out, rather than highlight and right click. Some obviously love it, though.

Yeah, that language thing threw me for a loop at first too. I couldn’t figure out what was going on and even uploaded the directory several times before I finally figured it out. That could stand to be a little clearer in the docs.

I agree about Textile. As I see it the biggest advantage to Textile is that after a bit of use it becomes second nature. In all honesty I can add a couple of asterisks much faster than navigating a contextual menu (that is, if I even remember I installed the thing).