...more recent posts
The 'build a template' option in /create (the script for creating new pages) was not working correctly. Specifically, it wouldn't work if you put anything in the style sheet box (which is pretty necessary if you are building a template.)
Should be working now.
Rewrote most of the /log script. This is what always happens. I can't really tell how to write something until I am able to use it. This presents a sort of chicken and egg problem that occasionally keeps me from writing anything at all. The thing to do is just plow ahead and try not to think that probably you will throw out your first design. Or if not completely throw out, at least seriously rework.
Anyway, now in /editpage you just turn logging on or off. On the /log page you will now see a pull down menu at the top which will be set to whatever style you have for that page (complete; without your hits; without any member hits.) You can change the style with this menu.
Also, and this was the bigger change internally, you can now see the /log of any page you have the ability to post to. The system will remember the style of log settings for each person seperately (so I could have /treehouse/log set for no member hits, and someone else could have that same log set to show the complete record.)
Possibly the red numbers (which denote new hits since you last checked that log) will be incorrect for your first look at the log under the new system. But it will correct itself on subsequent looks.
As might be expected, the /log script was not operating exactly right. I believe that it was O.K. if you had the logs completely on, but it definitely wasn't working right for either of the other two 'on' possibilities (logs (but not you) and logs (but not members).) It was recording the hits, but it wasn't displaying correctly in the new dratfink inspired 1/10 style where the 1 means 1 new hit since you last checked your logs out of a total 10 hits from the given referer.
Possibly it wasn't working with the complete log option either. I'm not sure.
In any case I'm pretty sure it's working correctly now.
Been playing around with the /log pages. Instead of just showing every hit, now it displays refering pages ranked by the frequency of referers (I know I keep spelling 'referer' wrong, but that's because it is misspelled in the W3C spec, and now everyone misspells it that way.) These totals are true for the time range specified at the top of the page (max 30 days, but they haven't been on that long.)
If you have turned the logs on (through /editpage) then the system is keeping track of every hit to your page. But now there are more options in /editpage for how you want these results displayed. "No logs", obviously, doesn't keep track of anything. "Complete logs" tracks and displays every hit. "Complete logs (but not you)" tracks every hit, but doesn't count hits by you in the tally. "Complete logs (but not members)" tracks every hit, but doesn't count hits by any members including yourself. Switching back and forth between any of the three versions of logs won't change the totals, just how those totals are reported.
The system is set by default to only keep records for 30 days. It checks for and purges any older records every time you look at /log (after you look though, so if you don't look for some time you will see everything on the first look, and then only those within one month afterwards.)
The googlebot was spoted this morning on (at least) my page, so maybe they are starting to index us again. Not that anyone really cares, but I thought I'd mention it.
There is some very crude output from the new logs visible at /whateverpage/log. You can only see your own logs, and you won't see any of your own hits (unless you are not logged in to the system when you hit your page.) Just shows the referer (if there is one) and the user agent (browser and operating system and maybe some other info about the surfers computer.) A * means it's not a registered user.
This will all change. And yes I know that's not how you spell referer, but that's the way it got written up in the official w3c spec, so that's how people spell it.
There is now an option for turning logging of your page hits on or off in /editpage. It's off by default. Change it to 'logged' to start keeping track of visitors to your page.
A utility for looking at recent visitor stats will be coming soon.
Wow. I reproduced the "rachael bug" where you try to load the site and you just get a blank page and a 'document contains no data' error. Yuck. This is tied (I now see) to some weirdness in the log out process if you choose to erase the cookie from 'every computer with this cookie'. I think I see how to prevent this. Hopefully this hasn't been a problem for anyone else. (The quick fix is to quit your browser, then delete your cookie file, then restart your browser.)
Steve and Alex and I talked a little last night about how the [new comments] link on the front page sometimes takes you to the middle of a thread, and there will be more unread comments above your position in the same thread. If you go back and reload the home page the preceding (still unread) comment will still be linked, and continuously returning to the home page and clicking on the decreasing number of [new comments] will eventually bring all of them into view. Still, it would obviously be better if the system would take you to the top-most unread comment in any thread with multiple unread comments. I've made a change to this effect, but not sure if it will work. Any feedback as these situations (do or do not) arise is appreciated.
Still working on the weirdo bug that was/is causing problems with the archive (either posts that shouldn't be showing which are, or the opposite.) Tracking this down has basically led me on a tour back through the entire logic of the system. Yikes. It's not a pretty site in there. Spaghetti code I believe it's called. Anyway, made some changes to the /edit and /post scripts. If you were trying to post or edit between 2:30 and 3:30 today you might have gotten some errors or other strange results. Should be working now. Definitely fixed some things. Also got my head around a few more problem scenarios that still have to be fixed. These involve strange combinations of events, but could possibly happen. The best fixed that happened today has to do with deleting posts. Before, if you deleted a post that was showing on a page (say the page is set to display 10 posts) then the page would only show 9 posts. This was a problem in its own right, but also led to other problems if still more posts are added. The probelm would be that stuff at the bottom of the page wouldn't slip into the archive correctly. This should be fixed now. If you have a page set to display 10 items, and you have more than 10 items (i.e., some have already slipped into the archive) and then you erase one post that is one of the 10 showing, you should now still have 10 posts showing on the page (it will now resurrect one out of the archive.)
One of the problems still to be fixed involves changing the orientation of the page (from chronological to reverse, or the other way around.) If you do this, and the end that you are putting at the top contains deleted posts, things will go a little screwey. So beware of reversing the ordering of your page until further notice.
One quick fix for this sort of problem is to set the number of posts to display on page (set in [editpage]) to '1', and then set it back up again to whatever you want. This is like 'reseting' the ordering mechanism of the page. Blah, blah, blah.