$1936

Question regarding emails...

Except for lost password, are you aware of any other functionality that sends email?

I've seen that it's also available in Guestbook & in profile but I think it's only for Webmasters...

We never use it, so it probably is. We have our own yahoo mail address which is not attached to anything on the website.

I haven't been active here a lot lately but I kept working a lot... For the last days I've been making progress on the data migration (an important and complex part that's necessary for the day we switch server).

I took some time to investigate a problem that was mentioned somewhere in this thread (maybe by kleinevos?)... It was related to patterns modifications that weren't reflected in the generated images. So, for example, you have a pattern made with 6 different tones of red strings. The pattern is submitted (waiting approval) and you can see its generated image. Then someone (a mod) decides to change the colors (for example, change half of the strings from red to blue).

1) It's a problem right now on privatebeta as the generated image doesn't reflect the changes.
2) I've tried to do it with a normal pattern on the actual website and I can't go to the generator...

However from my investigation, the current website would have the same problem as private beta if you edit a pattern. I need to get a little technical to explain what is happening but I think it might help to find if I'm missing something :

- The problem is not that the image is invalid on private beta, it's that your browser saves the image (it's call cache) so instead of asking the website (everytime) "please give me the image of pattern 123123" it first checks if it has this image in its cache. So what happens is that your browser "saves" the image the first time it downloads it and then stops asking the web server the "latest" version.
- It's possible to circumvent this problem by configuring the server to tell the browser "here is the image, but please don't put it in cache".
- Now here's where I'm confused... The new server and the official server are configured about the same way. They both allow the browser to cache the image indefinitely. So, from what I've seen (configuration wise) both website should have the problem?!

Is it a problem with the new website? If not, could you please show me an example where/how you can modify a pattern and see its updated image?

Another question...

On the current website, some characters are not correctly displayed. For example, when kleinevos makes a single quote it's displayed as a series of characters...

Have you seen any other case like that (if you'd have an example for each incorrect character that'd be perfect). The problem is not that those characters are "incorrectly displayed" it's that there were incorrectly saved. So in my "data migration script" I'll try to fix those...

The single quote problem in the forum can't be fixed (I mean I can't fix the past comments but the new website will work fine). The "incorrect character cases" (for example what happens to kleinevos) in the forum have all been replaced by question marks when they have been saved in the database... I can't just replace question marks by quotes since all question marks will become a single quote... Even when a question mark was really intended...

Anyway, if you find other cases I'll check if it can be fixed.

Last thing, I saw some "encoded characters" are in fact emojis. I'll see if those can be converted in the future but it's not on the roadmap for 1st version...

Celicia mentioned the generator issue.
I haven?t had problems with it myself so far. It is like you said, our current site also has this issue. We always had to refresh pages a few times to see the updated image. I?m used to that. Sometimes it needs no refreshing though, so maybe Celicia didn?t experience it often on our current site.
Something else: There is almost no difference between two shades of a color that are next to each other on the color-chart. Can that be improved? It already was a problem on the current site, but it seems to be worse on the privatebeta. It is not the top-image, but the pattern-image that is the problem.

Many russian users have used their own symbols here, too. So it?s probably not only single quotes and smileys.
I have had something else that turned into a percentage symbol, but I don?t remember what it was.

Testing:
? Single quote
% Percentage
# Hashtag
Who?s
I?m

Patterns with less than 6 strings cannot be seen in the generator (current and private version), so they cannot be modified (# 50554, 96409, etc.). I think it's because the generator has 6 strings by default. Maybe a while ago it was changed to avoid these patterns.

2) I took the rejected pattern # 98957 from the private site and changed the color strings twice. The image was updated on the pattern page but not in the pattern search list.
Then I cleared the cache and updated the search pattern page and the image did not change. I used the image link to go to the pattern page and there the pattern showed the new colors.

3) I tried to do the same with the same pattern on the current site. The pattern was rejected, so the only way to edit it from the pattern page is through the "edit pattern in the generator" link. This link does not work.
To edit it I used the link: https://www.friendship-bracelets.net/js_gen.php?edit=98957
Then I went to the pattern page and the colors changed. After this, I did a pattern search with 6 strings and it was shown with the new colors.

4) If the pattern is pending on the current site, on the pattern verification page there is an "edit" link that works well.

5) Finally I created a pattern on the private site, from the pending pattern page I edited it before "checked " it, then I "checked ", I looked for it in the list of patterns, re-entered the pattern and edited it again , and I looked at it in the list of patterns. It seems that everything worked fine. Then I "rejected" the pattern and modified the colors and now it is not reflected in the pattern image. I went back to the editing page, it looked with the new colors, I saved it again and it was displayed correctly. Finally I accepted the pattern again.

I hope some of all of this will be useful!

I know that what concerns us is the new version of the site but I comment this because I don't know if it moves the same to the new site.
I want to create a pattern from the carpet "generate", "choose a pattern type", "normal pattern" and it don't works for me. (I was using an Android phone)
Instead use the link to change the color: https://www.friendship-bracelets.net/js_gen.php?edit=66747, I deleted rows and strings until I reached 4, create the pattern and save it as a new one. (# 102367 in pending patterns). Then I wanted to edit it and what I described in point 1 of the previous post happened.

I tried the same on the private site. Now from "generate", "choose a patern type", "normal pattern", it works fine. It takes me to the generator that has 6 strings by default. I delete two and create my pattern, I save it, I mark it "Checked", it appears in the list of patterns and from there I enter it again. I use the link to edit it and it takes me to the generator, with 6 strings, but it doesn't show me the pattern of 4 strings so I can't edit it (point 1 of the previous post). On point 5 to the previous post I described you that I could do all OK with a 8 string pattern.

@kleinevos
1) I keep note of the "colors available in the color picker" for later.
2) It's not the top image but the pattern image that is the problem? -> Sounds like the opposite that was seen by Celicia?
3) For the other character I have the feeling that if they're replaced by a single character I won't be able to "update the past entries". I'll be able to do it in some comments (I think it was in comments) because the single quotes were replaced by a "unique sequence" of multiple characters (so I can find those back easily). But if it's only 1 character I can't do it... Anyway, problem should be solved for future entries on the new site.

@Celicia
1) You're right the patterns don't load when they have less than 6 strings. Since it's a problem right now I'll keep it for later and finish the missing features that are working on the current site.
2) Image in search not updated after clearing cache : I'll take a look at it. Seems the opposite of what kleinevos have seen on her side. Images not changing after clearing cache are a big problem though.

I'll keep you updated!