Version History for 2011 This is a complete version history of the XOWComics.com site for the year 2011. Other years are available by using the links listed just below.
You can also use the "Versions" rollover menu, just below also, to quickly jump to individual release version. The release dates for each version are listed in the rollover menu for your convenience.
You can see quite easily how quickly the site has progressed. Your feedback has driven this success and rapid development!
Another small update to add a few more tools and navigation conveniences for DCBs. Nothing of particular interest unless you are a volunteer editor with access to the DCB tools. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added page to automatically prefill documents from a selected directory of DCBs into individual Issues within the current Series when using the Add Many tool for DCBs from the Series Detail, Issues Listing page. The matches are all confirmed on a single form before and DCBs are added.
Added rollover dropdown navigation menu to the pagination bar of the Series Detail, Issues Listing page.
Removed display of My Collection row coloring from the DCBs view of the Series Detail, Issues Listing page.
Corrected bug where the My Collection column headers were being displayed on the Series Detail, Issues Listing page even when not logged into an account.
Added automatic JavaScript detection of a leading '?' to the query parameter when using the parsing function for name value pairs in a query string of a URI.
Corrected bug where particular character values in a path name were making the PHP fail when adding multiple DCBs.
Corrected sorting indexing problem when working with multiple directories or documents in the DCB editor tools.
Small update to fix a few problems with the DCBs and add a few new tools. Nothing of particular interest unless you are a volunteer editor with access to the DCB tools. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added new view page to the Series Detail, Issues Listing page specifically for DCBs and all of their attributes.
Added new editor tool available from the DCB View page of Series Detail, Issues Listing for adding multiple DCBs at one time in a drag-and-drog, paginated interface.
Automatically set the check state of the Document Not Reviewed checkbox in the interface when adding a DCB.
Corrected bug with incorrectly setting the Publicly Downloadable flag when adding a DCB.
Corrected bug with incorrect failure thrown about movement when adding a DCB.
Corrected bug related to incorrect error thrown with the date format when adding a DCB.
Tad bit of time since the last update to the site as we added loads of "infrastructure" for some new features to include in the coming months. This update integrates some of these additions andimprovements so we can start adding data and limited user testing of the new features. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added currency format data for MXP, BRB, and NOK base currencies.
Corrected interface bug when adding an Indicia Publisher to an Issue not defaulting the selection to 'None'.
Added keyboard shortcuts of '+' and '-' to the editor tool for entering Prices on an Issue.
All contact forms in the site now check correctly for contact fields of submitter.
Added default language variable global variable in PHP for the whole site.
Set the default language for a Series when being created with the editor tools.
Added tertiary host for storing and serving all Digital Comic Books (DCBs) documents and data.
Added new DCBs table to the secondary database for storing all DCBs linking and attribute information.
Created Digital Comic Books core library in PHP for holding all DCB related code moving forward.
Added DCB access privilege for editors (restricted tightly initially).
Created 'DCBs Archive' directory on new DCBs host for holding all DCB documents.
Added download tool (page) to DCBs host for retrieving an existing DCBs document. Security enabled on this tool very tightly initially.
Added display of all DCB details on the Issue Detail page, restricted initially to show only for those with DCB editor privileges enabled.
Built automaton to retrieve list of hierarchical document from the 'DCBs to File' directory on the DCBs host.
Added DCBs Add tool to the Issue Detail page for adding a new DCB by selecting a DCB document from the 'DCBs to File' directory.
Added DCBs Edit tool for Editors to the Issue Detail page, restricted by access to the new DCB privilege.
Added DCBs Delete tool for Editors to the Issue Detail page, restricted by access to the new DCB privilege.
Adds a crossdomain.xml document to the site.
Added automatic generation of the root sitemap.xml document for the site.
Removed duplicate row generation code for the Genre XREF table from automatons for cloning Issues and Content Items.
Cleaned up linking between contacts and users in the secondary database with new columns and data updates.
Between meetings, summer activities, and a birthday, we took almost a month off from updating the site. With this update, a few additions and bug fixes are integrated into the site, though. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added Recommend to Friend icon to main navigation bar for logged in users and included it on the Icon Legend page.
Added Recommend to Friend page and functionality for all logged in users.
Changed all page navigation enterable areas on all Listing Pages in the site to now be rollover menus.
Rollovers for page navigation in pagination bars were limited with a More... option to have a full selection list.
Changed "First Issue Cover" title to "Sample Issue Image" on Series Detail page.
Corrected syntax error in the Edit All page for Series.
Corrected Group By syntax error in the SQL of some searches.
This update focused on adding some new functionality to the Pagination Bar on the My Comics page; once this has been fully tested and is found "workable" for users, it will be spread to all Listing Pages in the site. Many bug fixes and tweaks were implemented throughout the site, also. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added secondary sorting options to the interface on the My Comics page. Interface for the Pagination Bar modified to handle the changes.
Added full support for secondary sorting options in the core request handling, stored sorts, and user sort systems throughout the site. Update storage of data to handle secondary sorting options within the core data of the site.
Changed the page navigation enterable area to a rollover menu in the Pagination Bar on the My Comics page.
Added currency code in the autocompleter selection display for currencies in the Issue Prices interface for editors.
Tweaked the interface for entering Issue Prices to provide more guidance and instructions to the editor when using.
Added currency format for the Polish Zloty (PLN and PLZ).
Added admin page to handle updating the denormailzed columns for Issue Prices display on Listing Pages for a single, specified currency code.
Ran update routines to populate denormalized columns for Issue Prices display on Listing Pages for new currency formats entered.
Added core routines to handle setting boundary Issues within a Series.
Added Eyeball icon for linking in a new window to the target Issue page on the Notated Issue Images page for editors.
Added coloring of rows in the display when clearing a notated Issue Image on the Notated Issue Images page for editors.
Added contextually appropriate (by resolution disposition) row coloring when resolving an Issue Image Task on the My Open Tasks page for editors.
Corrected bug with the Remember Sort tool not properly saving the sort options.
Corrected bug with the Add Many Issues tool not setting boundary Issues in the Series.
Corrected bug with the display of boundary Issues sometimes being incomplete within a Series on the Series Detail page.
Reset all denormalized Issue Count columns for Publishers and Series to handle incorrect data maintenance previously in site.
This update focused on many bug fixes and corrections throughout the site, particularly with the new Issues Prices schema. Some new Help pages were added and the Edit Group tool for Issues Prices was also included. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added Edit Group tool for Issues Prices on the Series Detail, Issues Listing page (it had been removed temporarily with the deployment of the new Issues Prices schema).
Added cloning of Genres when cloning a Content Item.
Added automatic resolution of any Task on an Issue Prices value for an Issue when the Issue Prices for that Issue are saved from the interface.
Added Help page for the XOWComics.com Search tool.
Added Help page for Editing in the Editors Help section.
Added currency format for the Polish zloty (PLZ).
Updated Help page for Data Structure to include content for the new Issues Prices schema.
Updated the Help page for My Collection Preferences to include documentation for the Default Currency setting.
Corrected syntax error in Download My Comics that prevented the document from being downloaded.
Corrected bug in data filter triggers wherein an inappropriate tuple was being utilized.
Corrected bug with core formatting routine for Publication Date.
Corrected bug on the editing of Prices in an Issue with no preexisting Prices was failing.
Corrected bug with core routine for removing Issues Prices rows was incorrectly reporting an error condition.
Corrected bug in automaton for saving Issue Prices wherein it would fail if a single price with no Note was being saved.
Corrected bug wherein the editing of Content Item Type was not updating the displayed value properly.
Implemented the use of a default country throughout the core code of the site.
Added column declarations to all update triggers to improve efficiency.
Changed all primary key columns in the secondary database to be of type serial. Removed all insert triggers from these tables for setting the value of the primary key on inserts.
Corrected referencing bug in the Download My Comics routines which left some data missing from the downloaded document.
Corrected the incorrect naming of some XLarge image documents which had existed from a historical bug in the upload routines.
Corrected bug wherein the Listing Page display value for an Issues Prices was not always updating.
Corrected bug in which the adding of multiple Issues to a Series would double the number of Issues added to the counts for the parent Series and parent Publisher.
This update focused on implementing a completely new schema for Prices on Issues. A completely new storage mechanism was developed and implemented new interface throughout the site to support the new data storage schema. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added Default Currency column to the Users table.
Added Default Currency to My Collection Preferences page.
Updated the display of Purchase Price on My Haves List pages to now account for the Currency.
Updated all tools and interfaces for Purchase Prices including Currency on My Haves List pages.
Added Issues Prices table for the storage of individual Price values and attributes for Issues.
Update Editor Change Log documentation to reflect New and Delete actions on Issue Prices.
Added new Edit tool specifically for Issue Prices.
Updated the Clone tool for Issues to also clone the new Issue Prices data with the Issue.
Updated the Issue Detail and Cover Detail pages for the new schema and interfaces for Issue Prices.
Updated all other display and usage of the Prices for Issues throughout the site to use the new schema and interfaces for Issue Prices.
Updated the Editor Change Log and My Changed Objects pages for the new schema for Issues Prices.
Add column for the display value on Listing Pages of the new Issues Prices schema to the Issues table.
Removed temporarily the Edit Group tool for Prices in Issues on the Series Detail page.
Removed temporarily the editing of the old Price field for Issues from the Issue Detail, Edit All page.
Removed editing of Price field for Issues from the core Edit tool.
Added Price Parts table to aid in the automatic parsing of textual price values into the new Issue Prices schema.
Added and ran parsing routine to move existing textual Price data for individual Issues into the new Issue Prices schema.
Automatically created new Tasks rows when appropriate for parsed Price values as they are placed into the new Issue Prices schema.
Added and ran aggregation routine to populate the new List Display column for Prices in Issues as part of the new Issue Prices schema.
Updated triggers on the Issues table to include column limiters in the declarations.
Moved bad browser warning message to display on all pages when a user is not logged into an account.
Implemented different status types for the Contextual Content Manager.
Added default currency values for all currency formats.
This update focused on integrating some standardized reference data for use throughout the site. Data for languages, countries, currencies and currency formats were all added to the core database. Languages and countries were updated in the actual comic data to integrate the new reference data (the others will integrated in a near future release). Updates were also made to all of the new features recently added to My Collection. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added Edit Selected Group tool for CGC Graded attribute on the Edit My Comics page.
Added CGC Graded as a sort option on the My Comics List page.
Added Edit Group tool for CGC Graded attribute on the My Comics List page.
Added Edit tool for Country on the Publisher Detail page.
Added display of Country to the Indicia Publisher Detail page.
Added Edit tool for Country to the Indicia Publisher Detail page.
Cleaned up many naming convention anomalies in the Web Links Manager data used throughout the site.
Added Tools Help framework page to the site.
Added framework page for the Editors section of the site.
Added Editors section of site to the Site Map page, displayed conditionally upon the current user having editor privileges.
Add Editors Help framework page to the site.
Completed a minor reorganization of the pages in the Editor section of the site.
Completed a minor reorganization of the pages in the Help section of the site.
Add structure and data for ISO compliancy for Languages to the core database.
Update core PHP libraries for compatibility with the new Languages schema.
Widened Edit tool window when working with Languages.
Updated all import routines to handle new Languages schema.
Added new core PHP library document for Languages.
Update site code to work with new Languages library and schema.
Transitioned all existing data for Languages to the new schema and data.
Add structure and data for ISO compliancy for Countries to the core database.
Updated core PHP libraries for compatibility with the new Countries schema.
Updated all import routines to handle new Countries schema.
Added Countries Viewer page to the admin section of the site, including flag image documents.
Updated all flag image documents for Countries and made sure all missing flags were added to the site.
Added new core PHP library document for Countries.
Update site code to work with new Countries library and schema.
Transitioned all existing data for Countries to the new schema and data.
Add structure and data for ISO compliancy for Currencies to the core database.
Added new core PHP library document for Currencies.
Added Currencies Viewer page to the admin section of the site.
Added Currency Formats table and data to the core database.
Added new core PHP library document for Currency Formats.
Added Currency Formats Viewer page to the admin section of the site.
This update focused on updating much of the My Collection section of the site. A new page, Edit My Comics List, was added to aid significantly in the setting of attributes for copies of Issues on My Haves List. Downloaded documents were also updated, with a new option for downloading the contents of My Haves List with each copy of each Issue listed with attributes. We even added filtered downloads for specific Publishers and Series for all My Collection list. A great deal of the Help section has now been filled out, too. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added Edit My Comics page to site. This is similar to the My Comics List page bug includes checkboxes, with selection tools in the column header, for selecting a specific set of rows being displayed. The page includes a new Edit Selected Group tool for all attribute columns, too.
Added new downloadable document for My Comics List. This document includes a line for every copy of every Issue on My Haves List (i.e. My Comics List). It includes all of the attributes for each (i.e. Condition, CGC Graded, Purchase Date, Purchase Price, Box Title and Notes).
Added links to My Collection areas of Publisher and Series Detail pages for downloaded documents. These are abbreviated downloads containing the corresponding My Collection content (My Haves List, My Comics List and/or My Wants List) for the detail object (Publisher or Series) only.
Added Edit Group tool for users for the Require CGC Graded column on the My Wants List page.
Added Edit Group tool for users for the Minimum Condition column on the My Wants List page.
Added Edit Group tool for users for the Notes column on the My Wants List page.
Added Edit Group tool for users for the Condition column on the My Comics List page.
Added Edit Group tool for users for the Purchase Date column on the My Comics List page.
Added Edit Group tool for users for the Purchase Price column on the My Comics List page.
Added Edit Group tool for users for the Box column on the My Comics List page.
Added Edit Group tool for users for the Notes column on the My Comics List page.
Added Edit Group icon to the Account Holders section of the public Icon Legends page.
Added setting of Default Box for new copies of Issues added to My Haves List to the My Collection Preferences page.
Add framework and content to Help page for My Favorite Pages.
Added framework and content to Help page for My Haves List.
Added framework and content to Help page for My Wants List.
Added framework and content to Help page for My Boxes.
Added framework and content to Help page for Downloads.
Removed all 3rd-level content from the Help rollover menu in the Navigation Bar.
Added Edit Select Group icon and tools to site.
Corrected bug with all downloaded document in which the last summary lines were not included in the document.
Corrected bug on the retrieval of Publishers automaton dealing with range checking.
Moved the handling of foreign keys in the core tables during imports.
This update focused on many minor maintenance tasks needing to be completed after the migration of data from the last release. Many additions were also made to the Help section of the site. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Removed updating of Notes fields for Series, Issues and Content Items during imports if they have already been touched by an editor within the site.
Updated all import routines to handle new configuration of Genres.
Added Help page for Links, Rollovers, Issues, Oh My! to site under Navigation.
Added Help page for Change Account Options to site under My Account.
Added new framework page to Help section for My Collection.
Added Help page for My Collection Preferences to site under My Collection.
Added Help page for Sharing My Wants List to site under My Collection.
Cleaned up and standardized layout and content for My Collection page and to some areas below in the site.
Added constraint to the new search archive columns.
Corrected bug with integration of multiple change log rows on a single column for single row during imports.
Corrected bug in import routines involving Issue Image links to Content Items.
Corrected bug in import routines failing with the new Genres schema on change log entries for cloning Content Items.
This update focused on completing the integration of the new Genres Manager throughout the site. With this update, Genres are now a fully organized field of information in the site. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Corrected typo on the Series Detail Sort Issues page.
Correct a variable initialization error on the Report Bug page.
Updated Search to now provide a choice list for searching by Genre in Content Items. Full memory and My Favorites support integrated with new searching option.
Updated the Searching page in the Help section for the new schema for Genres.
Updated the search archive for storing the option for the new Genres schema.
Upgraded all software used for developing and hosting the site in both development and production.
Updated Genre editor tool for Content Items to use the new interface introduced in the Genres Manager for editors.
Updated the cloning of Content Items to include support for the new Genres schema.
Updated the integration of the Editor Change Log during imports to support the new Genres schema.
Updated the Editor Change Log page to support the new Genres schema fully.
Updated the My Changed Objects page to support the new Genres schema fully.
Ran routine to populate new cross referncing table for Content Items and Genres from scratch for this update.
Ran routine to repopulate the Genres column in the Content Items table for the new Genres schema.
Friday, April 22nd, 2011: Integrated external data set dated April 15th, 2011, into site.
This update focused on many tweaks to the numerous interface changes from the last version. Also, most of the core pieces were put into place for a new approach to the Genre field in Content Items, enabling many new tools for editors to start working with and adding data to for pending changes in functionality in this area. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Improved the sorting of Issue Images within an Issue to more likely display covers before other types of Issue Images. Linking to Content Items is integral to making this function as best as it possibly can.
Doubled the number of items displayed in the rollover for Issue navigation on the Issue Detail and Issue Image Detail pages.
Updated screenshots and content for the Data Structure Help page.
Updated screenshots and content for the Display Options Help page.
Increased the ToolTips width for all browsers as some browsers were inappropriately wrapping content too short, creating way too many multi-line tooltips throughout the site.
Corrected problem with Attribution History area not moving when Notes on a Detail page were disclosed, happening only on IE 8 and below.
Corrected opacity problem on rollover object for Issue navigation on Issue Detail and Issue Image Detail pages that showed on IE 8 and below.
Centered all footer items on every page in the site.
Built a cache in the core code for the site for caching the parsing of the user_agent on requests.
Built a cache in the core code for the site for caching the Interface Labels during a request.
Updated most third party JavaScript libraries to the latest release versions.
Added full support and configuration for AutoCompleter libraries throughout site.
Added tables to the core database for Genres, Genre Parts and Cross Referencing Content Items to Genres.
Added routines to initialize Genre Parts table with data parsed from Content Items Genre field as it currently exists. This data was placed into production "as is", though it was parsed from a dataset of 20110404.
Organized all initial data in the Genre Parts table into two-level hierarchical structure for use in the Genres table.
Populated Genres table with organized Genre Parts data.
Added Genres library to core libraries used throughout the site.
Added new Genres Manager privilege for editors. Enabled privilege by default for all currently active editors.
Added Genres Manager page to the Editor menu for all editors that have privileges for the Genres Manager.
Added Data Analysis section to the Genres Manager page.
Added Genre Parts and Genre List section to the Genres Manager page.
Added Genres Feedback section to the Genres Manager page.
Added Testing Genres Selection section to the Genres Manager page.
Updated Issue Detail, List Content Items page to display the new Genres field as it will eventually appear. Showing this only for editors with privileges to the Genres Manager.
This major update focused on a large overhaul of the HTML used throughout the site. It is not a complete redesign, rather it is a cleaning of much of the HTML used in the site. Greater support for modern CSS techniques was integrated into the site and some feature improvements were also implemented in the site. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added wallpaper setting tool to Issue Detail and Issue Image Detail pages. This allows a user that is logged in to set any Issue Image to be their wallpaper for use throughout the site.
Added support for account holders to set a custom wallpaper image, selected from Issue Images, or wallpaper color for all pages in the site.
Add wallpaper color selection and clearing tools to Display Options page in My Accounts.
Added Last Statuses storage for accounts for use on interface setting maintenance and memory throughout the site.
Updated all settings on the Display Options page of My Accounts to now allow for setting of "Last Remembered" for disclosure widgets.
Added disclosure widgets for all detail areas and Content Items listing areas in the site. Set these to automatically be "Last Remembered" with no account setting option; for non-account users, they are always automatically open.
Changed the nomenclature for "Stories" to "Content Items". The alleviates a problem with different "types" of Content Items, which include both "Covers" and "Stories".
Changed the nomenclature for all Content Item columns to now be centered around the role of the artist instead of the task being performed (e.g. "Inks" became "Inkers").
Added new summary count column to the Content Items table for Content Item Types of Covers.
Added display of new count value throughout site. Standardized display of summary counts throughout site.
Reworked the summary count columns in the Content Items table. Now using custom column settings in the Content Items Types table for Covers and Stories types.
Resorted all items in the Content Item Types table to group items of the same grouping type together in the interface.
Reworked display of Attribution History and My Collection areas to now handle properly only the title row having a background color. Cleaned up rounded corners
Removed all HTML TABLEs from all Detail pages in the site.
Removed all HTML TABLEs from the Content Items listing area on the Issue Detail, List Content Items page.
Removed all HTML TABLEs from all pagination bars throughout the site.
Removed HTML TABLEs from most pages in the site. The remaining TABLEs primarily are just listing areas on individual pages.
Moved dynamic CSS objects to a separate document served through a standard Unix timestamp integration in the document name. Rules in Apache obviously handle the serving of the dynamic CSS documents.
Added support for dynamic CSS content.
Updated Labels Manager throughout site to more easily access labels for use throughout the site. Added compound keys support to the table.
Reset the width of the standard header and footer areas on each page to be exactly 1000 pixels.
This minor update focused on some quick changes to improve useability and automation in the site. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Renamed Story Types and cleaned interface for selecting Story Types throughout the site. Added a Story Type of "Table of Contents".
Integrated automatic resolution of Tasks to all delete tools throughout the site.
Updated Tasks to a state of Resolved for items that had previously been taken care of but the Tasks was not manually marked as Resolved.
Cleaned the interface and display of data on the My Changed Objects page.
Added truncation to excessively long Story names in all dialog interfaces throughout the site.
Modified Delete Story editor tool to automatically delink any Issue Images linked to the Story being deleted.
Ran update routine to automatically link existing Issue Images to the sole Story of type 'cover' in the Issue in which each Issue Image is located.
Updates REMS administrative interface to automatically link new Issue Images to the sole Story row within the Issue the new Issue Image is being placed in.
This update focused on many improvements and enhancements mostly dealing with Issue Images, including a change of nomenclature throughout the site from "Covers" to "Issue Images". Linking of Issue Images to Stories was also added and integrated throughout the site along with many other interface and useability additions. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Completed a full nomenclature change in the interface: Covers are now entitled Issue Images.
Changed all Issue Image tools to now be exclusively full icons in the interface. In particular, previous text links for Shrink, Enlarge, and Very Large are now new icons in the interface (available now also on the Icon Legend page). Updated the organization and display of all of the icons for Issue Images on the Issue Detail and Issue Image Detail pages.
Redesigned interface and reorganized the code for displaying the My Collection area on Detail pages. My Collection areas are now behind a disclosure widget in the interface.
Redesigned interface and reorganized the code for displaying the Attribution History area on Detail pages.
Added "Approved by:" credits into the Attribution History area on all Detail pages. This is specifically for Tasks, showing the volunteer editor information for who actually approved the Task and thereby the data change in the site.
Added account preference, available on the Display Options page in My Account, to control the default disclosure widget setting for Overview areas on all pages throughout the site.
Added account preference, available on the Display Options page in My Account, to control the default disclosure widget setting for My Collections areas on all detail pages throughout the site.
Added new editor tool: Issue Image Linked Story. Available on the Issue Detail and Issue Image Detail pages, this tool allows linking of individual Issue Images to individual an individual Story.
Updated View Issue Images dialog interface to now display Linked Story data. Cleaned up display and interface of the dialog.
Added support for selecting and storing Linked Story while uploading a new Issue Image.
Added More Info icon to the interface on Issue Detail and Issue Image Detail pages for Issue Images that have a Linked Story set. This is merely a link to the appropriate Linked Story on the Issue Detail, Stories Listing page.
Updated Move Issue Image tool to delink any existing Linked Story value for the moving Issue Image.
Added count triggers to the core database for almost all denormalized relational counters, allowing much SQL for maintaining these columns to be removed.
Reorganized the core storage of original Issue Images that have been directly uploaded to the site.
Updated browsers primary key storage to now be of type serial, allowing the COALESCE trigger to be removed from the table.
Added Reply-To header for all form driven email coming to administrators of the site.
Fixed bug related to the request source value being picked up in the pagination bar storage and thereby crossing inappropriately into an immeidately subsequent page that utilizes the request source (e.g. Browse pages).
This update focused on cleaning and reorganization of the cover image documents and routines throughout the site. Key changes in the update were required in production to continue to reorganization development of this area of the site. A very cool interface addition was also included in this update. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Ran routine to double check early cover uploads into site to make available 'X-Large' versions of covers, as applicable.
Added counter notations to all listing areas for Issues to indicate the number of Covers available for each Issue.
Added counter notations to all listing areas for Brands to indicate the number of Brand Images available for each Brand.
Corrected bug in Search Brands routine that made the SQL query fail under different conditions.
Corrected bug with redirection failing on Account Confirmation page if the account had already been confirmed.
Automated backup and retrieval of cover directories from production to development.
This update focused on numerous interface and and usability improvements across many areas of the XOWComics.com site. Some changes were long-standing concerns that were not of immediate importance early, some were improvements needed due to recent feature additions to the site, and some were just plain bugs that needed to be corrected. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added Brand Image Viewer tool to the Browse by Brands page, Search by Brand Names page, and Publisher Detail, Brands Listing page. Viewer allows for paging through all Brand Images for the selected Brand. All sorting options were added for this newly displayed data on the Listing pages.
Added a new Cover Upload icon on the Issue Detail and Cover Detail pages for the user (non-editor) cover upload tool.
Added a Remove Comic tool to the View Comics page within My Collection. This allows for the direct removal of individual comics on My Haves list of My Collection without any further selections needed.
Denormalized data for Brand Image counts related to Brands. Updated database code to automatically maintain the denormalized data.
Added display of the currently selected Brand Image in the select Brand for an Issue editor tool. The listing of available Brands to choose from was expanded to included one copy of each Brand for each Brand Image in the site for it.
Removed requirement for editors on the Resolve Task dialog for Covers that a Note was required when setting a Task to Accepted.
Updated the display on the Editor Change Log page to now translate values for: Country in a Publisher, Primary Image for a Brand Image, Country in a Series, Langauge in a Series, Publication Type in a Series, Brand in an Issue, Indicia Publisher in an Issue and Story Type in a Story.
Added Overview documentation behind a disclosure widget on the pages for the Editor Change Log, My Changed Objects and Notated Covers.
Corrected bug on My Open Tasks page that allowed further "resolution" of a Task still on the page that had already been resolved.
Added capability for entries in the Change Log to now be flagged as pending. Used new capability for user (non-editor) cover uploads. Added support for this new status of entries in the Change Log to correct invalid display of Attribution History entries for covers either pending or rejected from users.
Cleaned up handling of no items to display in the listing area of and Listing page.
Cleaned up handling of all invalid identifiers used requesting Detail pages. Site now displays appropriate content on page to invalid or malformed requests.
Corrected bug that made the Publisher column empty on the Browse by Brands and Browse by Indicia Publisher pages when an editor was logged into their account and had initialized My Whiteboard.
Corrected rare bug in which an invalid date for DOB on the Create Account page, if it is the only invalid or incomplete valid, was not caught and thereby ran an invalid SQL statement that failed.
Cleaned up and reorganized many of the core PHP libraries used in the site.
Began implementation of compilation and reporting of data and statistical tools for searches done throughout the site.
Built a cache for the REMS system in the admin section of the site to more than double the efficiency of the manager.
This update focused on improving the usefulness of the new cover upload process. In particular, a new My Change Log page was added for all users to see the suggested changes they have made in the site. A communication mechanism was built to allow volunteer editors to have their notes read by the submitting user and for the user to also make notes on submitted changes. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added My Change Log page for users, available under My Account. This tool lists all changes the user submitted (limited to cover uploads, for now). The status of each submission is shown with row colors and documented with an Overview section at the top of the page (with a disclosure widget). A user implementation of the Task Notes tool is available with the ability to enter a new note for each submission. An option is available in this tool to reopen a submission for further review if the submission was rejected by a volunteer editor.
Added a table for handling individual notes for tasks. Wrote migration routines for existing data to use the new table and updated all code throughout the site to now use the new table.
Added a denormalized notes counter column to the tasks table to increase the efficiency of much of the interface changes and functional additions in this release. Upgrade routine populates the new column and triggers maintain the data in this new column.
Added Task Notes tool to both the My Open Tasks and My Resolved Tasks pages for editors. Tool shows on the page the number of existing task notes associated with each task. The tool itself displays the task notes and allows for a new task note to be entered.
Added Overview documentation on the My Open Tasks and My Resolved Tasks pages for editors, available within a dislcosure widget for easy conservation of window real estate.
Added sort options of "Resolved" and "Task Notes Count" to the My Resolved Tasks page for editors.
Added sort options of and "Task Notes Count" to the My Open Tasks page for editors.
Repurposed existing comments and resolution notes columns in the tasks table to only store automated notes for the task. Updated all code throughout the site to accept this repurposing.
Added colors to rows on the editor's My Resolved Tasks page to indicate the resolution status of individual tasks.
Fixed bug with the editor's resolution tool for Tasks involving user uploaded Covers wherein the cover was never released for viewing to the public.
Fixed multiple bugs with editing and storage of notes and captions for covers.
Added security to many of the support and subsidiary directories throughout the site.
Automated synchronisation of many directories of data between the development servers and production servers, thereby relieving a great deal of time and bandwidth needed during full backups of the site.
Reorganized all core PHP libraries in the site to more accurately reflect functional groupings of routines and document names. Renamed many of the core routines for images as part of this clean up.
This update focuses mainly on the Editor Change Log page for volunteer editors. Many display and interface improvements required a great deal of work across most of the editor tools; these changes increased considerably the usefulness of the displayed data on this page for editors. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added the Add Cover Image tool for users to the Cover Detail pages, exactly as it exists on the Issue Detail pages.
Add "Report Abuse" option to the Resolve Covers Task tool for editors on the My Open Tasks page. When set, this automatically notifies staff of the report.
Added support for selecting the source on the Editor Change Log page. This allows editors to list content by any individual object type (e.g. Publishers, Series, Issues, Stories, etc.) or to display all.
Added columns to the Editor Change Log storage for old and new object names for each row.
Updated all editor code to populate the old and new object name columns for all Moves, Move Ups, Deletes, and Clones.
Updated all existing data in the Editor Change Log to populate the old and new object name columns for all Moves, Move Ups, Deletes, and Clones.
Updated Editor Change Log page to now use the old and new object name values for display. All items are shown as links to the appropriate objects in the site. This cleans considerably the display of data on this page.
Tweaked a couple of the sorting options on the Editor Change Log page. Changed the secondary and tertiary sort columns to be more logical and intuitive for some of the primary sort column options.
Corrected bug in the Move Up tool where the change log was being created as a Move action. Corrected the existing data already to account for this bug.
Corrected bug with the Move Up tool where source values of Move Up actions were not being logged correctly in the Editor Change Log. Corrected existing data in the Editor Change Log to rectify the existence of this bug for previous actions with this tool.
Corrected bug with users not being fully setup when a user logs into the site and is not under a follow or favorite redirect. This was merely an annoyance bug but well worth fixing finally.
Updated the Browse Cap database to the current release.
Made incremental improvements to DMC manager to handle new users tasks automatically within the site.
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011: Integrated external data set dated March 1st, 2011, into site.
This update focuses on opening the Cover upload tool to all users of XOWComics.com with an account. The My Tasks tool for editors has been updated to provide a means for reviewing cover uploads from users that do not have editor privileges. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Updated XOWComics.com Toolbar for Firefox to v0.3.0, making it fully compatible with the current navigation and content of the site.
Updated XOWComics.com Search tool to v0.3.0, making it compatible with the new URL structure in the site (from late in 2010) and the new OpenSearch specification.
Updated Issue Detail and Cover Detail pages to enable "Add Cover" (cover uploading) tool for all users logged into their XOWComics.com account. Maintained exact nature of the Add Cover tool for editors, both the upload process and immediacy of availability.
Modified covers tracking in database to now maintain whether individual covers are currrently "pending". Pending covers are those uploaded by a user without Add Cover privileges and have not been either approved or rejected yet in the My Tasks interface for editors.
Pending covers are shown only on Issue Detail and Cover Detail pages for users with My Tasks privileges or the original uploader of the cover. Pending covers are shown with a blue border. Added note to the bottom of display of covers on these pages to note what the blue borders mean, shown only when there are covers on the page that are pending.
Modified My Tasks pages for editors to now handle pending covers. Custom interface built to handle approving and rejecting pending covers.
Updated all cover handling SQL code, except some SELECT code, to now be within a central library accessible throughout the site for use.
Modified all cover access code throughout the site to respect pending covers, as appropriate.
Added Bookmarks and URLs Help page, framework and content, to the site.
Updated CSS for modalbox and datepicker tools, providing a consistent color scheme and layout within these tools as used in all other areas of the site.
Corrected bug with triggers for all core tables in setting the modified timestamp for individual rows.
This update focuses primarily on feature additions to the My Wants list of My Collection. An assortment of refinements and updates were also provided across a wide range of the site. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added structural support for storing Minimum Condition, Require CGC Graded, and Notes for each issue in My Wants list of My Collection. Updated all code in database engine to handle setting, updating, accessing and maintaining this structural change.
Added My Account settings on My Collection Preferences page for setting default values for Minimum Condition, Require CGC Graded, and Notes for each issue added in My Wants list of My Collection.
Added full support for the display of Minimum Condition, Require CGC Graded, and Notes for each issue in My Wants list of My Collection on the View My Wants, View My Wants Gallery and User Page pages.
Added edit tool for Minimum Condition, Require CGC Graded, and Notes for each issue in My Wants list of My Collection on the View My Wants and View My Wants Gallery pages.
Added columns for Minimum Condition, Require CGC Graded, and Notes for each issue in My Wants list of My Collection in the Download My Wants Excel (XLS) document.
Updated import processes to initialize denormailized hierarchical data/columns for new table storing issue collectable information for each user.
Added Edit image (pencil) to Icon Legend for general uses, documenting its usage in the My Haves and My Wants list of My Collection.
Added framework, linking and full content for Location Help page.
Added My Collection Preferences link to the My Collection menu in the navigation bar. This had apparently been missed when the new rollover menus were built.
Fixed a bug with page entry changes in the pagination bars of search result listing pages not actually changing the displayed page of results.
Corrected bug with one JavaScript document being served as the wrong type (should all be 'text/javascript').
Corrected bug with deleted imprints causing an exception on the Series Detail page core code.
Corrected bug with the Wants column of the Publisher Detail, List Series page incorrectly linking to the My Haves list of My Collection.
Corrected bug with the initialization of My Whiteboard failing.
Added parsing routines to the DMC manager in the administrative section of the site.
Removed all support for Imprints from My Collection and the Issues level, no longer storing or maintaing denormalized data for Imprints in these areas.
Thursday, February 17th, 2011: Integrated external data set dated February 15th, 2011, into site.
This very minor update is focused primarily on an indexing change for searches throughout the site. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Added new custom English dictionary and full lexeme specifically for customization within comics. This allows for creating custom priority, ranking and stop word lists for searches specific to comic books.
Added full content for Detail Pages in Help section.
Removed MIME encoding of email addresses.
Corrected a few bugs and provided upgrades to new DMC Manager tools in admin.
Updated admin data handling tools to latest release.
Friday, February 4th, 2011: Integrated external data set dated February 1st, 2011, into site.
This update concentrated mainly on updating the Help pages within the site to bring them current with all of the interface updates and streamlining from the last few months. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Completed content for Help, Navigation, Listing Pages finally.
Updated Help for Searching.
Updated Help for Navigation Bar.
Updated Help for Account Display Options.
Updated Help for Account Shared Options.
Updated import routines for setting denormalized counts to offload selection to temporary tables, increasing significantly the performance of this routines and reducing the impact on the system while they run.
Corrected anomaly with import routine for setting story counts in Issues not stopping automatically.
Updated all remote management routines in the admin section of the site to now automatically detect and stop when they are complete.
Add full DMC system, including importing existing data and creating initial sending routines and management pages for recipients.
Corrected bug with cover uploads that was preventing cover uploads at all (posted this fix into production immediately once discovered and fixed).
Corrected bug with Favorite Pages duplicating the object name when adding a Favorite Page.
This update provided a major cleaning of the data import routines used regularly within the site. Work was also done to clean up the display of the Attribution History throughout the site, adding an account preference to control the default setting for the new disclosure widget on this area. A new Tasks Manager was also added to the side with tools for editors to work with and manage tasks within the site. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Updated Cover Detail page to now contain all data and editor tools exactly the same as the Issue Detail page does.
Added new account preference on the Display Options page for controlling the default state of the disclosure widget for Attribution History displays throughout the site.
Added disclosure widgets on all Attribution History displays on Detail pages throughout the site.
Added Tasks table and Tasks Manager routines to the site. Populated new table with default values from the last import from an external source.
Added new columns to core tables to support new functionality related to external data source.
Changed import routines to no longer require any time for editor tools to be disabled. Multiple steps are now used to integrate the Editor Change Log rows during import processing.
Update import routines to filter completely all data loaded from external sources of all extraneous byte values.
Corrected bug within import routines wherein the integration of Editor Change Log data was not properly checking whether an external data change was actually required.
Updated import routines to now handle and replace missing rows in core data tables from external data sources.
Added My Open Tasks and My Resolved Tasks pages in the Editor menu. Pages allow for viewing and managing Tasks by editors in the site, including resolving Tasks and making notes on Tasks.
Corrected a bug with the page entry controls on My User Page.
Corrected bug with the edit field editor tool for Brand Images.
Corrected bug with page entry control on all listing areas of Detail pages within the site.
Corrected bug with counting deleted avatars on the Shared Information preferences page.
Corrected bug with the Move Publisher editor tool automaton setting the Editor Change Log created incorrectly.
Corrected bug with the Count of Stories by Type not being set during import processing in Issues.
Corrected bug in the core editor routine for deleting Publishers.
Added explicit indices on id columns for all core data tables.
Moved the NameValuePairs and DateParts tables from the primary database to the secondary database for the site.
This update concentrated on streamlining the Issue Detail, Cove Detail and Issue Detail, List Stories pages. Also, an account option was added to publicly publish a user's My Wants list for anyone to see and browse (My User Page, basically, with more features to come soon in this area). The detailed listing of updates follows:
Created a new user preference on the Shared Information page in My Account to publish publicly My Wants. That page contains the exact URL for access then to the publicly available My Wants list. By default, this preference value is obviously disabled.
Created My User Page directory with all appropriate security.
Created My Wants for public display page in My User Page directory with all appropriate security.
Changed all issue navigation interfaces (e.g. on Issue Detail, Cover Detail, and Issue Detail, List Stories pages) to no longer be HTML form elements and instead be rollover items. Limited number of items in rollover menus for issue navigation and included option to show a full listing to choose from in a dialog box on the page.
Added issue navigation interface to bottom of Cover Detail page.
Added issue navigation interface to bottom of Issue Detail, List Stories page.
Changed all rollover menus to now drop below the parent item being pointed at instead of to the right.
Created new color scheme for rollover menus for use on the Issue Detail, List Stories page for navigating Stories in an Issue.
Built test page for rollover menu layout and user interface testing to more efficiently check on multiple platform reactions to rollover menus.
Moved all timestamp management for core objects in the database into triggers.
Updated primary search and page entry areas on all pages to now support hitting the Enter key to activate on IE 6 through IE 8.
Moved primary editor tools on Series Detail page into the "title" line for consistency with all other pages in site.
Moved all redirect documents at root of site into web server's rules for more efficient redirect handling.
Created admin routine to create SEO document for static pages throughout site. Added preferences for SEO settings to Web Links table to control this publishing. Integrated new document into full SEO document generation routines for site.
Increased banner area on top of page to accept a slightly larger text banner on the far right.
Corrected problem with rollover menus throughout site not layering on top of some other elements properly. Made certain rollover menus now should always display above any other items in site and no longer be subject to opacity problems.
Corrected bug with sorting on My Changed Objects editor page wherein applying a sort of any kind was clearing completely the display selection.
Friday, January 14th, 2011: Integrated external data set dated January 1st, 2011, into site.
Thursday, January 20th, 2011: Integrated external data set dated January 15th, 2011, into site.
This update concentrated on a streamlining of the major interface components throughout the site, particularly with the navigation bar for every page and the pagination bars used on listing, browse and search pages. The detailed listing of updates follows:
Removed all HTML form elements from navigations bars throughout the site and replaced with rollover menus.
Move Location rollover into first navigation bar line throughout the site.
Removed the third navigation bar line for logged in users and editors and integrated the content dynamically into the second navigation bar line. This makes it standard throughout the site that there are always two navigation bar lines no matter whether a user is logged in or not, or what the logged in user's privileges are.
Moved navigation bar icons all onto second line, with the Facebook and Twitter icons being moved to the left side.
Removed all HTML tables from the primary page opening and closing for all pages, including the navigation bars. Made all HTML in these areas dynamically sized for separation of content and layout. Set a minimum width of 1,000 pixels on the navigation bar and banner areas.
Removed all HTML form elements from pagination bars throughout the site and replaced with rollover menus.
Replaced the drop down menu for page selection in pagination bars throughout the site with an enterable area to just type in the page number to go to on multipage listings.
Placed Facebook Likebox under global display preference control to streamline development requests.
Removed all extranous HTML style attributes throughout the site and made many additions to CSS to handle these removals.
Fixed bug with Clone Story editor tool that prevented it from functioning.
Added privilege for Move Publisher to site and added to the editor View Privileges page.
Increased Caption field for Cover Images to a length of 100 characters.
Did thorough interface testing for basic functionality on IE 6, IE 7 and IE 8 on Windows. A few visual problems with IE 6 have been ignored as this browser is so old and utilized by so few users.
Added IE 7 to the "recommend to upgrade" browsers list, up from IE 6 (this is only checked on the main page of the site with the recommendation message being displayed in the contextual content area just below the navigation bar).
All listing pages with the Publisher Detail page have had the create editor tool appropriate for the type of listing moved to the top right of the pagination bar. This addition makes the placement consistent with all other detail pages throughout the site.
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