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The page exists, but it's empty. The same goes for another new submission. We're still working on getting some things to work on the new host. Since the submission scripts are something David wrote and which I have rarely ever used, it may take some more time to get them fixed.
Thanks for the info, Fergus. I'll try to get around to re-submitting the variant for this website at some point after the problem is known to be solved. Meanwhile, for anyone who is curious and/or impatient, I can give the CFC website link I wrote of regarding my blog entry there for this variant (the blog entry looks different slightly than what I had tried to submit to The Chess Variant Pages, as for one thing I only gave a primitive diagram for the setup position of the game): http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/entry.php?100-Super4*Chess-(four-dimensional-chess) Furthermore, here's a link to my CFC blog entry for the second 4D variant of mine that I wrote of that was finished being invented in the year 2016 as well (the variant is yet to be submitted as an entry to The Chess Variant Pages in some form, likely with a nicer diagram included too). FYI it is a 5x5x5x5 4D variant: http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/entry.php?101-5*4DChess-(four-dimensional-chess)
This seems the logical thread to continue the discussion started <a href="http://www.chessvariants.com/index/listcomments.php?subjectid=422706f7808776e0">here</a> as it exactly describes what I have encountered. I have not yet had an opportunity to try updating on a different computer, but I hope to do so soon.
What I have just noticed is that the comments are appearing twice at the foot of the page. I do not know whether this is significant, but it is an anomaly and detracts from the page's appearance.
One thing I want to work on, perhaps while fixing the scripts for making submissions, is to switch from mysql_* functions to PDO* functions. The mysql_* functions have been deprecated in PHP, and they will be removed from a future version of PHP. So I looked into the alternatives, these being Improved MySQL (mysqli_*) and PHP Data Objects (PDO*). Both have the advantage over mysql_* of allowing prepared statements. PDO has two main advantages over mysqli. The one I think will help most is that it allows named parameters in prepared statements. The other is that it supports more database formats than just mysql. This is not so important right now, since I will continue to use the mysql format, but if the mysql format were ever deprecated, or something much better came along, it would be easier to make the change if the code were already using the PDO* functions.
I have started the transition to PDO. First, I wrote a test file to make sure I knew what I was doing. Then, I rewrote the connect_to_database() function to connect through both mysql and PDO. This did not break anything using mysql. I then rewrote the itemid() function to use PDO, and it is working. So we can transition to PDO without doing it all at once. We can do it one function or file at a time. With that in mind, I can make some fixes while also changing the database code to use PDO.
I have just noticed that old-style pages are displaying comments, so it might be that mechanism that is causing PYOs to display them twice. If anything that suggests that it less likely to be connected with the issues in posting updates, but it still makes for a lot extra being displayed on the page.
Both msdisplay.php and the footer included code for displaying comments. It hadn't previously been in the footer, because David had used a Perl footer that just gave a link to the comments. Since I replaced his footer with a PHP footer that includes comments, I removed the code for including comments from msdisplay.php.
The problem with submissions was that the POST data would not go through the first time. I could see this from the empty strings in the SQL it showed me. When I simply reloaded membersubmission3.php, I would see the POST data in the SQL, and it would get recorded in the database. So it appeared that the problem was not with membersubmission3.php but with the process of getting the POST data to it. Since it previously helped in another case, I changed the ACTION URL in the FORM that goes to membersubmission3.php to the full URL. Making that change to membersubmission2.php seems to have fixed the problem with submitting games.
I just re-submitted my "Super4*Chess (four dimensional chess)" variant to The Chess Variant Pages. At first a somewhat garbled version of the text appeared, but then when I clicked on "View Submission" the entry appeared to be as I had hoped, i.e. text showing properly (with 1 Diagram Designer generated diagram included), game title included. I still am indicated to be not signed in when I try to view any unreviewed submissions of mine (on the webpage "Your Unreviewed Submissions), and I am unable sign in on that webpage, perhaps because my browser is not adequate. In the past sometimes I could sign in on certain webpages if using my (currently broken) desktop computer instead of my laptop (which I am using presently). For me, on some webpages of The Chess Variant Pages, the menu of options at the top shows as a vertical (rather than horizontal) list, sometimes when using either computer, in a way which also keeps me from using any of the options (such as to be able to sign in). However, it is possible that the problem of being indicated as not being signed in on this particular webpage is one of the glitches that may need be dealt with by Fergus. Meanwhile, I have no way of editing my now apparently tentatively accepted submission, at least until after it has been reviewed (& if accepted) by editor(s). In the meantime, could an editor please verify that indeed my submission has been tentatively accepted (i.e. by this website).
That page lacked a DOCTYPE declaration at the beginning. Adding one fixed it. It was not that you weren't logged in but that the page failed to recognize that you were logged in.
Please let me know if you can edit your submission. I'm not familiar with whether this can be done, but I think it should be allowed.
Fergus wrote: "Please let me know if you can edit your submission. I'm not familiar with whether this can be done, but I think it should be allowed." I added a couple of letters to the text of it successfully, so the answer appears to be that I can indeed edit it. In case you missed it, I slightly edited my previous comment, to elaborate on troubles for me that may or may not be caused by having an inadequate browser, as far as viewing and using this website goes. So far it seems I can get by (I prefer not to try to change browsers for now), although just now I looked at some games to see if I could unfavourite them, and in many cases the top menu of such a game's webpage appeared vertical in presenting the options. Not only that, but in some such cases I previously favourited these games by listing all its comments, i.e. getting to a webpage where the menu options happened to be presented horizontally. Now, even when that happens still, I don't see any way available by way of a heart option to favourite or unfavorite a particular game. Luckily this is not a priority to fix, but I thought I'd mention it in case you were unaware.
Are you using a mobile device, by any chance? The mobile menu appears vertically. It is normally hidden unless you touch the ≡ sign. If you're seeing a vertical menu on a desktop or laptop, then please give me an URL to look at.
Hi Fergus I'm using a laptop (it's the only computer available to me at home currently, nor do I use a mobile device). Here's a sample URL (if I understand that phrase right) from The Chess Variant Pages which produces a vertical menu of options on my laptop: http://www.chessvariants.com/dpieces.dir/berlin.html
Just now I submitted "5*4DChess (four dimensional chess)" to The Chess Variants Pages, and after I hit "Submit" a new webpage with that game's title showed up, but the page appeared to be empty otherwise (same story when I checked it under the webpage "Your Unreviewed Submissions"). :( If the webpage is indeed empty, could an editor please delete it, and after the new problem with making submissions is solved, I'll hope to resubmit it under the same title eventually.
The menu on http://www.chessvariants.com/dpieces.dir/berlin.html is appearing horizontally to me. So it's not an instance of the wrong header being used. Can you provide a screen shot of what you're seeing to help me better gauge what's going on?
All the presets have a bug that when you click "Invite" then switch to the chess preset.
Fergus wrote: "The menu on http://www.chessvariants.com/dpieces.dir/berlin.html is appearing horizontally to me. So it's not an instance of the wrong header being used. Can you provide a screen shot of what you're seeing to help me better gauge what's going on?" Like I've alluded to before, I'm rather out of my depth these days when it comes to computers. However, with some luck I did manage to create a screenshot icon (shortcut) on my desktop of the Berolina Pawns variant webpage, and then I emailed it to your address as webmaster of this website. Hope that suffices. If you can get around to it, in the event you missed it, I replied to your comment re: my Super4*Chess submission needing to be edited, and I asked if you could advise me (such as perhaps only clarifying that I in fact may have taken a step in the right direction). It's not a priority though, as I am going to be playing over-the-board chess all weekend, including tonight at my club, as well as Friday night, so I'll soon begin a long break from using a computer to visit here, or to visit other websites I go to, until the weekend is over, if only for the reason to concentrate better on playing chess. Take care, Kevin
Carlos, that bug is now fixed. I was trying to fix something else last night and removed a line of HTML I thought might be the problem. Although the problem was something else, I left it out because it seemed redundant. But it wasn't. So I added a new line that does the same thing more accurately.
Kevin, Since I didn't get your email, I whitelisted your address in SpamAssassin. Please try again.
I've just emailed you again. Neither email has bounced back at my end of things so far, at least.
Earlier I posted (directed to Fergus): "...If you can get around to it, in the event you missed it, I replied to your comment re: my Super4*Chess submission needing to be edited, and I asked if you could advise me..." I may have solved my problem in question on my own. Under comments to my submission in question, I've just posted: "Out of a sudden inspiration, I tried using the Diagram Designer to make just a 1x1 (square) board for displaying each single piece type used in my variant (Super4*Chess); I then cut & pasted the diagrams (as I generated each of them) into the piece descriptions. Hope this is adequate, as far as editing my submission goes."
That's one way to do it, though it's not the easiest. This shows that you know how to include an image on a page. The easier way to do it is to copy the URL for each image from the Diagram Designer and use that. The images are displayed around the board. You can get the URL for an image by right-clicking it and selecting the appropriate option from the right-click menu. For Internet Explorer, this is "Copy". For Firefox, this is "Copy Image Location". For Chrome, this is "Copy Image Address". For other browsers, it may be something similar. This will put the URL for the image in your clipboard, and from there, you can paste it into your document.
H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Jan 7, 2016 10:01 PM UTC:I understand that it is possible to use HTML img tags in non-HTML submissions. It this an exception, or would it also be possible to use div tags there to define an interactive diagram?
Okay, I'm guessing that non-HTML submissions are formatted differently but do not actually prevent the use of HTML. So, DIVs should probably work in them, though if you are using HTML, then I would recommend clicking the HTML option. In comments, as opposed to submissions, non-HTML comments do not allow HTML.
H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Jan 8, 2016 06:51 AM UTC:> Okay, I'm guessing that non-HTML submissions are formatted differently but do not actually prevent the use of HTML.
OK, great. I always tick HTML, but the downside is that this collapses all your text into one big paragraph if you don't put in all the HTML tags for formatting, and many people would not know how. So it is very convenient that there is a possibility to use their own line feeds and spaces for formatting, and still can paste HTML diagrams as blackboxes into it from the diagram generator or interactive-diagram wizard.
I'm up way too late, but I couldn't resist checking this website at least one last time. Fergus wrote: "That's one way to do it, though it's not the easiest. This shows that you know how to include an image on a page. The easier way to do it is to copy the URL for each image from the Diagram Designer and use that. The images are displayed around the board. You can get the URL for an image by right-clicking it and selecting the appropriate option from the right-click menu. For Internet Explorer, this is "Copy". ... This will put the URL for the image in your clipboard, and from there, you can paste it into your document." I use Internet Explorer on my laptop (or desktop computer, when it is working), and I did try copying it the way you described, Fergus. My mistake was that I tried to 'paste' straight away, and nothing showed up at all in my submission. I hadn't realized a 'clipboard' was to be involved. I'll try to get around to looking up how a clipboard is used again, and try to do such piece depictions as you described, if there isn't something easier available (like later on cutting and pasting the work I've already done when editing Super4*Chess). Back in the 1990s when computers and the internet were apparently really taking off, a condition I've had probably most of my life really took off too (e.g. having visions once in a while), and as a result generally I've tried to not experiment (nor use computers) too much. For example if there's a way to do something with a computer that I know works I'll use it, even if it may cost me just a little bit more time. Finding the time to try to undo the consequenses of an apparently harmless experiment gone wrong when using a computer is something I developed a sort of aversion to years ago.
H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Jan 8, 2016 11:17 AM UTC:'Clipboard' is jargon for the invisible place where data lives between the user ordering a 'Copy' or 'Cut' and ordering 'Paste' (through a menu selection or by using Ctrl-C/Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V keys of the keyboard). So I don't expect you did anything wrong there. The special thing here is that normally you load the clipboard by first selecting a visible text, and then 'copy' it. While the mentioned menu items of the browser do put the URL specifyng the location of the clicked image there, rather than the image itself.
<p>
You should see the URL (starting with "http://") appearing in your text when you 'Paste'.
<p>
What is most likely the problem is that an URL in the text of your submission is not enough to make an image appear; it would just display the URL as text. To get an image on a submitted page you would have to write
<p>
< img src="URL">
<p>
in it, with URL the pasted URL.
I still have a couple of hours before I have to get busy today with other things. As I alluded to earlier, H.G., when I copied & then tried to paste the piece symbol as described, literally no text or image appeared in my submission (i.e. nothing happened whatsoever after I tried to paste). Instead, one thing I tried after was to save the webpage for the piece symbol as one of my 'Favourites' (another option besides 'Copy' that is allowed when one right-clicks on such a piece symbol). Then, in actually going to that webpage on the web, I did see the piece symbol in question displayed, in the upper left corner of an otherwise blank webpage. Anyway, I then pasted that http address for that webpage into my submission, but then when I viewed it by re-submitting my submission, all that appeared (of course, I suppose) was the text of the http address (kind of similar to what you were describing for something else). Maybe there was somthing I could have done with the http address that I inserted in my submission, e.g. something kind of similar to what you were describing. After giving up perhaps prematurely, the next day I had my 1x1 board (including piece symbol) representation inspiration for using the Diagram Designer, and I eagerly took the sure route to success, much like a baseball infielder takes the sure throw out to first base, rather than trying to throw out a base runner by throwing to second base. Anyway, the fact that my original copy and paste attempt produced absolutely nothing (such as text) in my submission suggests to me that there may in fact be a bug with, say, the Diagram Designer, unless I did something wrong in copying & pasting (in this case, seems hardly possible).
H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Jan 8, 2016 09:13 PM UTC:And did you copy the image or the location of the image? You cannot paste an image in a text form, so if you copied the image instead of its location (URL), then it would explain why nothing appeared.
I got home early today from my weekend tournament, and having taken care of other things at home I thought I'd check my email & various websites tonight at least one time each all the same. That's after getting my inevitable game with GM Sambuev out of the way today (I lost respectably IMHO, getting ground down in a major piece ending after trying to hold a draw with the Petroff Defence). I got your email from today Fergus, and I sent the screenshot (of the Berolina Pawns webpage) to your other email address just now, as you suggested I try instead. H.G. Posted: "And did you copy the image or the location of the image? You cannot paste an image in a text form, so if you copied the image instead of its location (URL), then it would explain why nothing appeared" Yes, apparently in my innocence I tried to just paste the image. The only URL I noticed for it was after I saved it as a webpage Favourite, rather than just clicking on 'Copy' (after right-clicking on the image of the piece symbol).
H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Jan 10, 2016 09:32 AM UTC:> Yes, apparently in my innocence I tried to just paste the image. The only URL I noticed for it was after I saved it as a webpage Favourite, rather than just clicking on 'Copy' (after right-clicking on the image of the piece symbol).
In my browser (Firefox) when I right-click on an image it pops up a menu with (amongst others) the items
- View image
- Copy image
- Copy image location
- Properties
Yesterday I got to the computer from which I had made successful updates, but unfortunately I could not try it out because the mouse was not working properly and there was not another one easily accessible that could be substituted. I still cannot post the updates that I want to from th computer that I am currently on.
I'm back and rested after my weekend tournament, finishing clear second at 1.5 points behind GM Sambuev (5/5, again), so I did about as well as I could reasonably hope for. H.G. posted: "In my browser (Firefox) when I right-click on an image it pops up a menu with (amongst others) the items • View image • Copy image • Copy image location • Properties When you select "View image" it displays the image as a separate web page, with the URL of the image (as usual) in the address field above it. You could then select and copy the URL from there. But when you select "Copy image location" it should already have copied the URL without additional mouse manipulations, and without the need for changing what page it was displaying. With "Properties" you get a popup window with all kinds of info on the image, and one of them is the URL. You could also copy that URL from there." At the moment I'm using a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Vista, Windows Explorer browser (clicking on its properties reveals it to be created Sept. 2009). When I right-click on a piece image of the Diagram Designer, the options I can choose to further click on unfortunately do not include View Image or Copy Image or Copy Image Location, but the options available to me do include "Copy" and "Properties". Clicking on Properties does reveal the URL (the same one as if I had clicked on "Save to Favourites" instead of "Properties", I suppose). I'm not sure using this URL (in the way you described in an earlier post) would save me much time (if at all) compared to doing it my way (i.e. by copying Diagram Designer HTML code for a piece on a 1x1 board), that is if needing to over and over insert more than one piece image (of more than 1 piece type, even) to be shown into a Chess Variant Pages webpage submission. However, doing it your way could show a clean/nicer piece image, in that my way of doing it shows the 1x1 square board with a coordinate included (namely "a1", with the "a" unfortunately partly not showing because the board is so small, I assume). Perhaps the choice is a matter of taste?! In any case I may try doing it the way you described at some point, H.G. Thanks for your advice. [edit: I tried do it H.G.'s way just now when editing my old 4*Chess submission, but nothing appeared at all when I used quotes around the URL, or when I did not use quotes. I had followed H.G.'s earlier directions, unless I somehow went wrong (I may try H.G.'s method later if I can figure it out, pending any further thoughts); the directions posted earlier were: "To get an image on a submitted page you would have to write < img src="URL"> in it, with URL the pasted URL."] [2nd edit: I solved my problem using H.G.'s method (to show single piece images from the Diagram Designer in a submission) by using quotes around the URL & using uppercase for IMG SRC, in a test I carried out. The piece image I chose to test out (in a submission, temporarily modifying it by editing) was shown all by itself, underlined as in the Diagram Designer. Note that I put this 2nd edit accidently in my 4*Chess submission thread too.]
I am still having trouble posting updates, including to some variants as well as piece articles. The issue of updating variant pages has become more urgent as I have noticed that I cannot see ffen diagrams from the computer on which I am currently going online and was hoping to replace them. Even had there been no problem updating, it would take some time to replace them all, and I would be interested to know if this problem is due to my change of computer or the move of website, If it is the latter, then for all the shortcomings of these diagrams this needs fixing in the interim before I (a) am able to edit all my pages properly again and (b) I have the time to carry them all out.
For the record, in case an editor has time to make - and better success updating - the changes, the intention was to replace the three ffen diagrams on the Nearlydouble Chess page with the following virtual images respectively:
I can see the ffen diagrams on the Nearlydouble Chess page. So I expect your browser is having some trouble with JavaScript. If you can't switch computers, then I would suggest switching browsers or at least making sure JavaScript is working in your current browser.
You're quite right! I had to change the JavaScript setting for an entirely different reason and it has the side-effect of making the diagrams visible. Oh, well, that panic at least is over.
What it does not fix is my inability to edit certain pages. One that I did succeed with was Flyover Xiang Qi, on which I moved some text from the Notes to the introduction to move the array diagram lower down. I notice that it did not have any comments, whereas the pages that I have failed to edit do have some, so it looks like comments might be part of the issue.
Ben Reiniger wrote on Tue, Jan 26, 2016 12:09 PM UTC:Can you describe exactly what happens when you try to submit an edit? You said earlier that perhaps it's because the text boxes contain too much. Apparently that is possible, if unlikely: the maximum size of a "text" type entry in our database is ~65000 characters. I would not expect it to have anything to do with whether the item has been commented on or not.
Well I have no trouble editing Hourglass Hex Chess, which is a bigger file than Nearlydouble. Unfortunately that appears to demolish both our theories, as Hourglass Hex has comments as well!
When my attempt to edit fails I get error 403. When it is successful a garbled version of the variant appears on the next page - but with the "view submission" link at the bottom so that I can continue to the page as edited.
Ben Reiniger wrote on Thu, Jan 28, 2016 06:24 PM UTC:Hmm, I get the 403 error too, whether I try to edit as an editor (which uses a different script) or as you (which would give an error since I haven't entered your password; either the 403 overrides that error or the script doesn't make it to that point). It's odd that it happens for the same script but different itemIDs. Oh, and the garbled version of your page that shows after submitting was added by Fergus to help debug (some other?) problem(s).
I have had error 403 again, this time with two pages that have no comments - BacCancat and Pass Variants. Any ideas, anyone?
Pages on which I am getting the 403 error now include 125% Shogi/XQ, BacCanCat, Index B to Man and Beast, Man and Beast 06, Nearlydouble Chess, Pass Variants, and Yonin Toyang Mitregi. Ones that I have succeeded in editing can be seen clearly on the list of recent updates. Being unsuccessful is all the more annoying now that the advice "Please don't use JavaScript, multiple images, or Ascii Art" is given, as for the most part this is what I am trying to remedy!
Charles, I updated the code in the relevant scripts to access the database with PDO instead of with mysql functions. Please check if this fixes your problem with updating some games. If it doesn't, please provide a detailed report of where it goes wrong and what it says to you.
It does not seem to have made any difference. If I click on "more information" I get the message "This error (HTTP 403 Forbidden) means that Internet Explorer was able to connect to the website, but it does not have permission to view the webpage. For more information about HTTP errors, see Help."
I have just noticed that this issue seems to go beyond the CVP, as when I looked to the link from here (itself reached via Gross Chess) to I got the error "You don't have permission to access /melki9/paulovitsgame.htm on this server. Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request." Is there anything about Internet Expolrer 11 or the settings on an individual computer that could be relevant?
A 403 error on an unrelated site doesn't mean that the problem you are having here goes beyond the CVP. Given that this site is physically located in the U.K. and the other one is physically located in Sweden, you can bet that what's happening on that site has nothing to do with what is happening on this one. I tried to edit "125 Percent Shogi and 125 Percent Xiang Qi" and got a 403 error like you did. It turns out that the files I updated yesterday are ones available only to editors, and they are not the ones you use. As an editor, I saw links on the screen that you wouldn't see, which led me to a different script. So I will convert the scripts you use to PDO and see if that makes a difference.
About making submissions. I sent a submission email to the chessvar yahoo address one week ago, how long it usually requires to get an answer?
I am still getting the error, including with 125%...
Regarding Paolo's question, I e-mailed updates to old-style pages years ago that have still not been posted.
I haven't fixed it yet. I'll let you know when I have.
Ben Reiniger wrote on Fri, Mar 4, 2016 11:35 PM UTC:Paolo, I have just responded. (We seem to occasionally go through long periods with no emails, during which I tend to get out of the habit of checking the account. Sorry for the delay. And Charles, there was a period before I joined that the emails were more or less completely unread. If there's something specific I should go back and find, let me know.)
I changed the scripts from mysql to PDO, and I changed the FORM action to a full URL, and it still didn't fix the problem. So I then turned to testing the data sent for "125 Percent Shogi and 125 Percent Xiang Qi." I deleted each field in turn until I stopped getting a 403 error. It was something in the Setup field that was the problem. I then deleted parts of Setup until I isolated what was causing the problem. It came down to the expression "../../". This appeared twice, and when I changed both to "/", all it complained about is that I didn't enter the right password. I don't know why it hiccups over this, but if you will just change your links to use full URLs, that should eliminate any instance of "../../" and allow your updates to get through.
At present I seem unable to edit even the pages that I could edit before - which I have been trying in order to add "&board=210.102.021" to the end of my hex ones as suggested. I am getting the message "This error (HTTP 500 Internal Server Error) means that the website you are visiting had a server problem which prevented the webpage from displaying. For more information about HTTP errors, see Help." Hopefully this is an unrelated issue which will be resolved soon.
In order to debug this, I have temporarily made myself the author of Hexgi listed in the database.
I debugged the script, edited Hexgi to use three-color boards, and returned the authorship to you. Note that the ending period, which you didn't include in your quotation of what you need to add, is a very important part of the checker pattern. It is not a mere divider. The period after each sequence of colors (identified by digits) tells it to repeat that pattern for the rest of the rank.
Sorry for chipping in again. I submitted, but the Step 3 just appeared as a blank page; however now the game categories appear in the "Your Unreviewed Submissions" page, so it's fine. Right?
Paolo, I'm not aware of any problems right now. If you are, please give me a step-by-step of what you are doing, including the URL of each page.
I am not sure what happened, but now it is definitely fine :) It's added in index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSthroughthelook
H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Mar 12, 2016 04:47 PM UTC:I don't know what happened, but it seems my article on interactive diagrams has been completely corrupted, all less-than signs in it being interpreted as HTML tags, rather than being printed. I am pretty sure this wasn't the case when I last touched it. So it seems there is something changed in the rendering scripts that corrupts the display...
Your page and msdisplay.php were both last updated a month ago, but display_user_submission.php was last updated on March 4th. I just modified this by commenting out each line that applied reverse_htmlentities() to one of the page content strings, and it fixed your page. I'm not sure why the code uses this function or how this could affect other pages. I do recall seeing code for converting page content strings to htmlentities before writing them to the database, and maybe this was for keeping the SQL string from being corrupt. But now that I switched the code for writing user submissions to the database over to PDO with prepared statements, that's no longer an issue, and I removed the code for converting strings to htmlentities before writing the SQL string.
So far, things have been going well - it hardly seemed worth mentioning in a comment as my updates were so evident in "What's new". I have now, however, encountered another problem. When trying to update Commedia dell'Arte Chess I get the message "Error Performing UPDATE Item query: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'Arte Chess', Categories='2d,Large,Shape', ModifiedDate='2016-03-21', YearInvente' at line 1". It is, I suspect, due to the apostrophe in the page title.
What is the URL for the script that gives you this error message?
http://www.chessvariants.com/index/membersubmission2.php
I just finished rewriting membersubmission.php and membersubmission2.php to use PDO methods instead of mysql functions. Please let me know how it works.
I also modified the database and membersubmission2.php to allow itemids as long as 64 characters. Since itemids are being used in URLs, the 16 character limit is making less intelligible URLs when games have long names. I may update existing itemids to use longer portions of the summary field, but that will take a script that does it systematically.
One more change is that spaces in a name are now converted to hyphens, and not underscores, when generating an itemid.
H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Mar 25, 2016 09:24 PM UTC:Fergus Duniho wrote on 2016-03-12 ... I just modified this by commenting out each line that applied reverse_htmlentities() to one of the page content strings, and it fixed your page.Indeed it did. I just had to remove the extra level of html escaping that the JavaScript outputted, and now the Design Wizard is working as well. (Before, the HTML code for the designed diagram it would show at the end showed an extralevel of escapes on the lt symbols starting the tags.)
The side bar for advertizements still has a rather adverse effect on the page, however. It runs over the entire height of the page, even though only the top 20% or so is filled with adds. So it just adds a lot of blank space, distorting the actual content by compressing it in the space that is left.
Is it really needed to make these side bars run along the entire article if there is no content to fill them anyway? I cannot imagine that I am the only one annoyed by part of my screen being wasted for blank space. E.g. the side bars could be put only beside the Introduction and Setup sections, so that the later sections can use the full width of the screen?
After the Design Wizard has run and displays its result, the article even starts to overlap the ads in the side bar. This might be a consequence of that the width actually changes by running the Design Wizard. Would it be possible to hide these side bars from the JavaScript of the Design Wizard when it needs more space (basically when the user activates it). E.g. by giving them an id so that their display attribute can be set to 'none'?
H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Mar 26, 2016 07:39 PM UTC:Never mind, I managed to close the ad colums by accessing them by class (leftcol/rightcol) to hide them, and reset the float, marginLeft and maxWidth of the 'main' element. So the Design Wizard can now use full screen width again.
The main purpose of the sidebars is to make the content narrower, because this makes a page easier to read. It also helps contributors who are designing pages on desktops with wide-screen monitors to design them in a way that will work on mobile devices, for which extra width is not even an option. So, yes, they have to go all the way down, and they should not be hidden unless it is for a page that requires the extra width and is not intended to work on mobile devices. Using the space for advertising is a side benefit of having the extra screen space available.
You do not have to edit the CSS of user-submitted pages to remove stuff you don't like; you can do what I did instead. I don't like the narrower content or sidebar ads either, although I used Stylish to remove them from all pages (and force the content to use the full width of the window), and to remove script warnings, as well as to remove the "fineprint" area (used for editing the page) from printouts (this also means I now have to maintain my own stylesheets, although I can deal with this; furthermore my stylesheets won't affect anyone else since they are local to my computer). However, I cannot figure out how to make the printout to use the full width of the page, nor to convert pictures to monochrome on the printout (if you know how to do these things, please tell me). However, note that at least Firefox does have "responsive design mode" which allows to test it at various screen sizes, as well as rotation and touch events (I myself do not use it, although it can be useful to you if you do mobile and that stuff).
You can print pictures in monochrome by telling your printer to print the whole page in monochrome. Just adjust your printer settings before printing.
> I cannot figure out how to make the printout to use the full width of the page One of the best ways of dealing with bugs is to report them. I took a look at the print preview for some pages and found the content displayed in a narrow column. I have now fixed that.
Ah. I wasn't sure if it was intentional, although posting about it here does seem to be a report, anyways. <strike>However, it is still wrong to me in the print preview, whether or not my custom CSS is enabled (I tried it both ways), and regardless of the scale setting and other settings for the printout. The file I used for testing is: <a href="/invention/mitred-framing-3-6x6-to-8x8">mitred-framing-3-6x6-to-8x8</a></strike>(I fixed it; the problem was that I needed CTRL+F5 and then it worked. However, now it says "stylesheet could not be loaded", even though the stylesheet does exist as as I can confirm, and does execute. Perhaps the error message is a bug in Firefox and is harmless.)
H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Mar 28, 2016 10:00 AM UTC:<pre>Fergus Duniho wrote on 2016-03-27 None
The main purpose of the sidebars is to make the content narrower,
because this makes a page easier to read. It also helps contributors
who are designing pages on desktops with wide-screen monitors to design
them in a way that will work on mobile devices, for which extra width is
not even an option. So, yes, they have to go all the way down, and they
should not be hidden unless it is for a page that requires the extra width
and is not intended to work on mobile devices. Using the space for
advertising is a side benefit of having the extra screen space available.
</pre>
OK, that sounds reasonable. The Design Wizard is a rather specialized function, however, occasionally used by people who want to generate HTML code for pasting it into the web page they are designing. I don't think it is imperative that they could do that from a mobile device.
<p>
It would still be nice if you assigned a unique id to the side bars next to the article, and the 'main' HTML element, so that they could be accessed from the JavaScript through getElementById. To restore full width I had do set the display style of the side bars to "none", and the MarginLeft and maxWidth properties of the 'main' element. I now have to reach those elements through getElementsByClassName (for 'leftcol' and 'rightcol') and getElementsByTypeName (for 'div', 'main' and 'article'), which is a pain because they return arrays, out of which you would have to pick the proper element.
<p>
Although what I have now works fine, it is critically dependent on the structure of the page. Somy worry is that at some time in the future, the current code would cease to work because you re-organize the layout in the display scripts, making the article reside in the second 'DIV' element of the page instead of the first, or adding other elements with class 'leftcol'. The system could be made more robust by assigning an id to the elements that need to be affected, which would be kept the same no matter where they go.
<p>
Of course it would be even nicer if all displayed pages defined a JavaScript function FullWidth() by themselves, which would do whatever was needed to make the side bars disappear. Then people that would need the extra space for whatever reason could just call that function, without being dependent on any assumption on the current or future layout of the page. (Which they would depend on if they had to implement this function themselves, as I now did as part of the handler for the 'Design Wizard' button press.
<pre> var adbar = document.getElementsByClassName("leftcol");
adbar[0].style.display = "none";
adbar = document.getElementsByClassName("rightcol");
adbar[0].style.display = "none";
adbar = document.getElementsByTagName("div");
adbar = adbar[0].getElementsByTagName("main");
adbar[0].style.float = "left";
adbar[0].style.marginLeft = "1px";
adbar[0].style.maxWidth = "100%";
adbar = adbar[0].getElementsByTagName("article");
adbar[0].style.float = "left";
</pre>
If you need greater width only at the bottom of your document, you may be able to get it by closing the ARTICLE and MAIN tags before the code for your design wizard. Technically, the sidebars do not run all the way down the article. They are both closed in the HTML before MAIN and ARTICLE even appear. They only appear to go all the way down, because MAIN is given a width that fits it between the sidebars.
H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Mar 28, 2016 03:56 PM UTC:But I cannot place anything outside the ARTICLE, can I? The submission script wraps everything I submit, including the Design Wizard, inside that ARTICLE inside MAIN inside DIV class="middle". And the ASIDE side bars are sibblings to that DIV.
I have not experimented with this, but the CSS file defines a float style for the side bars, suggesting that the text would drape around the ads, if it were not for the setting of the margin. So perhaps there isn't any need to hide the ASIDE elements, if I just want more space at the bottom, and an I just reduce the marginLeft and increase the maxWidth of the MAIN element.
I did it for you, and I noticed what seemed to be side effects. The text was going over the inner nav bar, and the wizard wasn't working. So I undid it, but the text continued to go over the nav bar, and the wizard still didn't work. So it didn't cause those effects, but they are something you want to fix. In general, closing the ARTICLE and MAIN tags is just a matter of inserting the HTML for closing these in your code. This will leave you with some unexpected tags for closing ARTICLE and MAIN further on in the document, but the page should still work. Unlike BODY, ARTICLE and MAIN are completely optional in HTML documents, and you are free to place code outside of them. It is just that headers and footers are set up here so that MAIN and ARTICLE get opened in the header and closed in the footer, which places the main content of a page between the two ARTICLE tags, which are inside the two MAIN tags.
H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Mar 29, 2016 06:50 AM UTC:Well, I am not sure what exactly you did, but it pretty much destroyed the entire article. There are PRE tags now around every section, disabling the normal text formatting (and selecting a monospace font). I guess this is causing the text to overrun the NAV BAR.
All escape codes for the less-than sign seem to be gone again, so that HTML tags that should have appeared as literals in the text now again are interpreted as active HTML tags.
Whatever you did, can you please undo it?
"I just finished rewriting membersubmission.php and membersubmission2.php to use PDO methods instead of mysql functions. Please let me know how it works."
It is worse than ever. This time all I get is a blank page, when trying to edit index information not just on that page but on any page of mine.
H. G., when you mentioned the PRE tags, that clued me in on what happened. It was treating it as a submission that doesn't use HTML. The problem was that there were some mismatched variable names between two scripts, which caused checking the box for using HTML to have no effect. So I fixed that and closed the ARTICLE and MAIN tags just before your wizard.
Charles, I have temporarily listed myself as the author of Commedia dell'Arte Chess to debug the scripts.
Charles, I have finished debugging the scripts, and I have relisted you as the author of your page. I added a note at the end as a demonstration that the scripts are now working.
H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Mar 29, 2016 04:56 PM UTC:> So I fixed that and closed the ARTICLE and MAIN tags just before your wizard.
OK, I see what you are doing: you just put an unbalanced closing tag for MAIN and ARTICLE in the submitted text, and this will locate part of that text (in this case the Design Wizard, which initially is hidden) behind those elements. The fact that the display script still adds another {/MAIN} and {/ARTICLE} behind the Wizard does not matter; these are simply ignored by the browser.
With the screen width I have (enough for adding the left ad side bar), this makes the "fineprint" end up partly behind the article text, and mostly in the left side bar below the ad, however. This is a bit ugly.
I did find a work-around for that, which is structuring the submitted text as:
{DIV class="middle"}
{ASIDE class="leftcol"}ad image{/ASIDE}
{ASIDE class="leftcol"}ad image{/ASIDE}
{MAIN}
{ARTICLE}
------------------------------------------
Normal article text
{/ARTICLE}
{/MAIN}
{/DIV}
{div style="display:none"}
Design Wizard
{/div}
{DIV class="middle"}
{MAIN}
{ARTICLE}
-------------------------------------------
{p}{hr}{div class="fineprint"}This 'user-submitted' page...{/div}
{/ARTICLE}
{/MAIN}
{/DIV}
where the part between the dashed lines is the submitted one, and that outside it what the retrieval script adds. On Firefox this has the desired effect: when the Wizard is hidden the fineprint displays normally below the article, with the same left margin, like it was in the same ARTICLE element. All tags are now balanced (after the retrieval script does it work, not in the submitted text).
Only caveat is that it is against HTML regulations to have multiple MAIN and ARTICLE elements.
H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Apr 23, 2016 09:09 AM UTC:This is getting a bit tedious, but the article on the Interactive Diagrams
is again completely wrecked w.r.t. displaying the less-than characters in
it. The Design Wizard does not work at all, when the requested board should appear for placing pieces on it it just displays garbage text.
<p>
It was working perfectly before, and the fact that the Design Wizard opens in an area without side bars shows that this same version is still being used. So you must have altered the display script again.
No, the script did not change again. It was brought to my attention that the changes I previously made were affecting the display of other pages. (See the Decima page for details). To correct this, I did a search and replace on the MemberSubmissions table. When I was doing a search and replace for the Notes field, I did see your page get caught up in it. So before I went through with the replacements, I opened another tab with the entry for your page in it, and after I made the replacements, I changed the value of Notes back to what it was. But Notes was the last field, and maybe your page got caught in the search and replace earlier. All it changed were HTML entities for less-than and greater-than signs. You can fix your page by putting HTML entities back where they belong.
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