Keith Lord - Online Portfolio

I have been finding lately that the applications I enjoy using seem to loose something upon receiving an upgrade. New features are added, things I would never use (and sometimes wonder if anyone would use) and eventually the neat little application becomes this bloated thing that just doesn’t inspire me to use any more. I am sure I am not the only one who feels this, infact I know I am not, one of the key points to Zenphoto being created was an answer to the bloated gallery software you find floating around.

I have been having this issue with Wiki software, a lot of it is insanely bloated and just a pain to use. Now I can understand that Wiki’s can be complex in structuring and so you are probably going to get a lot of coding going on there, but there are some “light” versions around that don’t seem to fall prey to this issue. I have tried countless versions of Wiki software to find something that I like, I admit I am being a little picky but I need to know that it can do what I have in mind without hacking into 50 different php files to do so. Ideally what I would like to see is someone like Automattic take on the Wiki area. The format that they use for both WordPress and BBPress is something I would like to see in a Wiki. A simple installation and customization of themes, and the use of plugins for extra options. Especially with a rewrite for the urls, which has been the draw back of the light Wiki software I have used, I want more control over the urls.

A guy can dream.

With the new release of version 0.8 of BBPress, or Desmond as it has been dubbed, Michaels plugin to allow images in posts no longer seems to work.

So I took a look at the “formatting_functions.php” file located in the “/bb-includes” folder and found what needs to be changed. Where it says;


function bb_allowed_tags() {
$tags = array(
'a' => array(
'href' => array(),
'title' => array(),
'rel' => array()),
'blockquote' => array('cite' => array()),
'br' => array(),
'code' => array(),
'pre' => array(),
'em' => array(),
'strong' => array(),
'ul' => array(),
'ol' => array(),
'li' => array()
);
return apply_filters( 'bb_allowed_tags', $tags );


You will need to add;


'img' => array(
'alt' => array()),


Between the ‘em’ and ’strong’ array values.

So I have been thinking of upgrading the old DJC forums. The problem is going from v1.3.1 to v2+, means you need to completely rewrite the skin.

Seems they are relying on CSS sheets more in the newer versions which is nice, made skinning a lot easier. Still not brilliant though and trying to remember what effects what on a forum that has so many pages causes headaches. I did have to dive into the root HTML files and add some new elements in order to get what I wanted.

So the new forum skin looks ok, I might write a better skin later but its no longer at the top of my “to do” list. Seems more integrated with the new site build too which is nice, there are some elements that kind of break out of their boxes (basically when one is setting up a new registration).

My main concern is the upgrade messing up the SQL database, but I have plenty of time to figure that out. The forums won’t go up until the new build is released, and until I fix this issue with the “News” section thats not going to be up any time soon.

Really optimistic about the new site, content is better sorted, easier to find for new players and old players plus a lot of new info to be added.

So I have been using SSI+ to synchronize the news posts made on DJC’s forums with the home page of the website so I am not posting news twice.

I’m not sure what the current version of SSI+ is I think I am using 3.1 or was it 1.3 one of the other.
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