2021-08-08
In these days I've been working on updating UVL to Bootstrap5, with the objective of making the site code easier to maintain, with more modern and less bloated code (no jQuery, for example).
The style will be almost identical to the 2019 generation, with improvements where needed. The menu will be a classic off-canvas menu (sliding from left)
While doing this I'm also updating the to a faster and more secure way to query the DB (already done for many pages)

As you may have noticed there are three "generations" for the UVL pages:
  • The ones updated in 2019 (i.e the homepage and the main search page)
  • The 2015-2017 pages (most pages, i.e. the game info page, group, companies, etc.)
  • The pre-2015 pages (some editors-only pages, even some broken pages like the cropping tool ...)

    I'm starting mainly with the oldest, they really need to be updated, this will make us editors life easier :-)
    To keep track of compatibility issues and find the best solutions, I'm also working in parallel other generation pages.

    the current situation is therefore this:

  • https://www.uvlist.net/me/ is 99% ready, it was the easiest to do, so a good testing bed. This is also the only "public page" for these updates
  • All the editors "logs" pages (middle generation), 90% ready
  • Editors image browser (middle generation) 75% ready, this made me search for a new lightbox as the previous used jQuery.
  • Image cropper and image editing tools (description, characters, etc) 50% done so far.

    Then I'll update the game info page, as said before this is the most complex page of all the site as it manages every possible data, and ha a lot of editors-only features too.

    I will release the pages as they are ready, and will update this thread to keep you updated.

  • 2021-08-09 (updated 2021-08-10)
    https://www.uvlist.net/me/ is online.
    No new features except for the "most active platforms" that considers game, image, article and review edits.
    I'll keep tweaking the page for a few days for some basic SEO and accessibility fixes.
    The rating stars are the original, only enlarged, I'll replace them when I'll find a nice alternative.

    -edit-
    The rating stars are now updated, now they show any floating number between 0 and 5, not just at 0.5 steps.

    2021-08-10
    Now the image, group, company and game editing log pages have the new layout.

    2021-08-13
    Added a new page to promote logged users to Editors.
    Only moderators (some of the editors) can use it following the link found on https://www.uvlist.net/me/

    2021-08-13
    Added a new page to promote logged users to Editors.
    Only moderators (some of the editors) can use it following the link found on https://www.uvlist.net/me/


    Thanks that good news. And the promoting site is easy to use. One little thing. On the FAQ page about asking for editor status the "link" to the forum on the text "ask on the forum" does not appear. All in all this is a real improvement compared to the old message function. Also that normal registered users are actually able to write on the forum again. That was not possible before since it was deactivated because of the spam bot posts some... years... ago?

    2021-08-13
    Still margin for improvements, but is better than before for sure!
    Link on FAQ page fixed, thank you.

    Yes, new users were not enabled to write due to spam issues... Now that they can easily disabled, let's see how it goes...

    2021-08-14
    Yikes! How do I update my email?

    2021-08-15
    Yikes! How do I update my email?

    That is the email used the first time... You can't right now, sorry, but I'll set up the workflow (it has to be verified, etc.) after these days of pages updates.

    2021-08-15 (updated 2021-08-15)
    The new Editors image browser is up!
  • 2021 framework
  • dropdown menu for uncommon actions (logs, delete)
  • the image type can be easily modified with just one click!
  • the edit action is still the old one, but will become obsolete soon.
  • the crop/avar function is disabled. Coming soon
  • new lighbox (to view images when clicked) that will be used in all the future pages

    A lot of things have been rewritten in this page, please report any weird issue

  • 2021-08-15
    The messages page now has a small content preview to make it a bit more handy.

    2021-08-16
    Added a new "platforms" section in the forum.
    While I fully appreciate the content, the platforms mega-thread is a mess to follow, so please add a new thread appropriately tagged "platforms" for each new platform proposal.
    About the actual mega-thread, I'm going to add an option to detach a message from a thread, so no need to rewrite anything.

    2021-08-16
    Each entry in the "Authors / Staff" section in game info pages now link to a search for the author.

    2021-08-17
    Keep up the good work!

    2021-08-19
    Thank you! (I just miss the emoticon reactions in the forum... oh well...)

    2021-08-19
    Each entry in the "Authors / Staff" section in game info pages now link to a search for the author.


    Awesome.

    2021-08-20
    In the top weekly activity, I've split articles and reviews (they are internally stores in the same collection).

    Im also working in the updated game galleries. This will lay the foundation for the new game info pages as it will share part of the layout.

    2021-08-21
    Just completed the "detach from thread" for messages.
    It just creates a new thread from the message and removes it from the previous thread.
    Any other following message in the original thread are left untouched.
    It is available only to me for now, but at least can be done :-)

    2021-08-21
    Had to remove the per-image dropdown menu in the images manager page, the options are visible in-line as before.
    This is due to a layout incompatibility between Bootstrap dropdowns and responsive tables...

    2021-08-22
    Fixed an issue on the "new in forum" section, new threads had a wrong link.

    2021-08-23
    New fixes:

    - FAQs page upgraded to 2021 layout.
    - Improvement in the beast and worst games list on the company pages.
    - Only for arcade games, replaced the Emma link (death link) with ADB (Arcade Database). Both in Italian, but a lot of MAME data there.

    2021-08-25
    Some fixes in the company details pages (who still has the old layout):
    - Shown the number of years active, according to the actual games data
    - Shown the number of games for year, to give value to the level of productivity
    - Hidden the TBA releases from the Releases per year chart

    2021-09-07
    New fixes about tags:
    - Re-enabled the group editing log
    - Some fixes in the group pages cache (these pages have a smart refresh feature that is not working as it should right now)
    - "Technical specs" section in the game info pages now use the software tags (like game engines, etc) along with the hardware ones

    2021-09-18
    Added the popovers when hovering the mouse on a platform name, visibile on https://www.uvlist.net/me/ for now

    I am particularly disappointed that Bootstrap 5 popovers are missing many useful features, so I chose to use https://atomiks.github.io/tippyjs/ instead.
    Their content is also cached in a local indexedDB for 24 hours to avoid unnecessary requests to the server. I'm very happy with how it turned out, and this caching system will come in handy in future developments

    2021-09-19 (updated 2021-09-19)
    Reintroduced (in all the updated pages) the search widget on top of the page.

    2021-09-29
    Just updated the global search.
    New layout, optimized some queries, rearranged the displayed data and added a search box for magazines.

    2021-09-29
    Just updated the global search.
    New layout, optimized some queries, rearranged the displayed data and added a search box for magazines.


    Looks very clean.
    Does this replace the Video Game Search too?
    Because from the main page I can't see the symbols for example played and completed

    2021-09-29
    The video game search page is made specifically for searching games and has many different filters and visualizations.
    Global search is more for uncovering data across all UVL sections (platforms, companies, etc.) so less details but wider search.

    2021-10-02
    Added a small "companies to improve" section in the Users Dashboard.
    This shows the top 10 platform that have country or dates missing, just a new hint to improve our database :)

    2021-10-09
    Some updates on the game authors:

    - The game search page now has the option to show the authors
    - Press alt-a on a game page to open the authors editor.
    - Added a new format for entering authors. ( job : name )

    2021-10-23
    - Added more external searches in the game info page.
    - Working on various new updated pages, but found some core fixes that need to be fixed. This is taking time...

    2021-11-05
    The forum has the new layout.
    It is also faster, less SQL queries, better on mobile ...
    Unfortunately the article editor is not updated, that will came with an overall update to all the editing pages in UVL (games, companies, groups, reviews, etc.)

    Maybe it is now the time for the scariest ... the game info page.

    2021-11-07 (updated 2021-11-07)
    The global search now has a new events section.
    Also added the new "book", "music" and "technology" event types.
    Also renamed "TV series" to "Series"

    2021-12-08
    It is no longer needed to clear the custom cache after editing groups and companies.

    2021-12-14
    Just added a games "overall ranking" section in the company pages.
    It just counts games with at least three votes, just like the best and worst games section in the same page.

    2021-12-14
    Just added a games "overall ranking" section in the company pages.
    It just counts games with at least three votes, just like the best and worst games section in the same page.


    Typo: -> Overal -> Overall

    Is it possible to click the results? When I see this my first reaction is that I want to know which games got 5 stars for example.

    2021-12-14
    Thank you.
    No, it is not possible right now because the game search page is missing such filter, but I'm going to add it soon.

    2021-12-15
    The ranks are now clickable to see the list of games with that amount of stars.

    2021-12-17
    Added in the User Dashboard a prompt to vote the games you have played, if not done already.
    This was already available but buried in the personal pages.

    2021-12-31
    With the objective to remove the outdated image editing page, now it is possible to edit an image description directly from the images browser, clicking the pen just beside the description.

    I'm also working on a new image uploader that stores images internally in webp instead of jpeg for better quality and less storage, supports drag and drop, image editing (resizing, clean up, etc.), copy/paste (as in copy image, not copy image url), proper 24bit png for >256 colors images as already discussed, and more.
    This will also lead to a proper avatar uploader, finally.