This week has been a time of upgrading software that Wikidot uses to serve its services to the world. We've upgraded PHP (the language that Wikidot is mostly written in) to version 5.3. It doesn't really change anything important, but "new is always better". Well, almost always.
We had an issue with upgrading libxml2 which resulted in a broken Feed module. This was caused by a small change in the library that required an upgrade to PHP 5.3 - but we were still using PHP 5.2, which as it appeared was not fully compatible. To fix the Feed module we downgraded libxml2 back to a version used before, but this was a temporary solution. A few days later, we upgraded both PHP and libxml2. Starting from 15 June, Wikidot servers run on PHP 5.3 without any serious problems. We only located one minor error in our code which was silently ignored before, and now generates a warning in the error log.
After discovering a data form related bug in Wikidot we looked closer at the YAML-parsing library we use. It turned out it had a bug causing incorrect parsing of some strings in data form fields. We upgraded the library to see if the bug was fixed, but it still persisted. Fortunately we were able to fix the bug and submit a fix to the library maintainers, so they can include the fix in a future version of the library. We are currently using our own fork of the code with the fix applied, while we wait for them to update the official library.
Today, we're upgrading AWStats program responsible for creating web statistics for all Pro sites. The version used up until now was 6.95 (with additional browsers and search engines added to its database). The new version is 7.0 which comes with updated database (which is most important thing for us) and a bunch of other small changes.
The lesson from this is that it's good to keep your system reasonably up-to-date, but when upgrading be sure it won't break anything else. Remember the oldest (and therefore the best) Chinese saying: "New is always better".
The photo comes from Flickr
Thanks for the fix to the data form \n bug!
I'm also looking forward to the awstats upgrade to 7.0 - but it seems my site is still using 6.95. I guess you haven't upgraded it on the main website yet, or the change is going to take a while before it affects all sites.
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
The web statistics are generated HTML files. Starting from yesterday, they are generated using the new software version. UI did not change radically between 6.95 and 7.0, but there are a bunch of new browsers, search engines and indexers recognized in this version, so the statistics should be a bit more precise.
Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog
I looked at the bottom of the page for the version of AWStats that was used, and it was 6.95. I'm aware that there are only minor changes :)
One of those changes - if I remember correctly - is detection of the Windows 7 OS?
BTW, it's using AWStats 7.0 now :)
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
Hi, I'm Don Cabas,
good luck with this.
However, I´m sorry to mention that I notice a lot of errors since the update. The system no longer recognizes my master administrator as a master administartor. I cannot update any pages anymore at mostg of my sites, and I have no acces to most of the settings. I also get every 30 seconds )or maybe every minute', a message that says I have a pagelock or something like that. I cannot typ more that maybe 200 words and the error appears over and over again. I also can not use most of the settings master administrator usually can use. I hope it will be better soon. best regards Don Cabas. BTW, this option keeps asking to provide my name. I have no idea what it means. Where should I put my name? I already wrote it in the titel and in the message and it still doens't work. Another error?
Wil je zelf artikelen schrijven? Bezoek: http://www.artikelwebsite.nl/
Hi Don,
Could you please link to your site? I'll have a look at it and see if I can see what is going on.
Also, please give more information regarding where Wikidot asks you for your name. If this is for posting a comment, it sounds like it thinks you are an anonymous user (signed out).
Cheers,
Shane
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
It seems your issue is being logged out very often. I believe this had no correlation with our upgrade. We had a few users complaining about being logged out every now and then, but it never was as serious as you described. We'll try to monitor when and why some users are logged out without a clear reason.
Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog
Hi Leiger
Thank you for your help. My English is terribly bad, btw.:O
I also have the idea the site 'thinks'I'm not signed in, but I really am. I tried to work on a new wiki, www.kennis.wikidot.com but it is almost not possible to work on it. I keep getting error after error. The error I get most is: 'this tool is used by administrators of this site' (or something like it. I get this almost on every option/tool. The site acts like I'm not allowed to use any options. One option worked, but not all the time. I am the site administrator of the site, so, what can I do?
On one of my other wiki's: www.weet.wikidot.com I get another error but that is less anoying, althouygh I cannot work an a page much longer than maybe 40 seconds there.
Here on the forum I get the error: please provide your name, Pfff… I don't seem to eb able to post this message with Don Cabas account. I'll try it by PM. When I tried to post it on the forum the wiki system asked me to sign up firts. I'm already signed up and signed in.
I signed in and out and I could send a pm. Maybe I can post this too.
Wil je zelf artikelen schrijven? Bezoek: http://www.artikelwebsite.nl/
Just noticed that you post this here as well… have already replied via PM so I'll just continue there.
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
Hi, thnx for you reply. At the momen I cannot reply to PM because the system says I should make an account first. Grrr… Well, I do use explorer 9.
I don´t know much about cookies. Should I delete cookies or so and how do I do that?
Thanks for your time:) I hope I can post this message.
Wil je zelf artikelen schrijven? Bezoek: http://www.artikelwebsite.nl/
Okay, using Internet Explorer 9, and not sure if cookies are disabled.
I've gotta get going, but will look for instructions on how to check your cookie settings in IE9.
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
I can post here only after siging out and signing back in again
Wil je zelf artikelen schrijven? Bezoek: http://www.artikelwebsite.nl/
Hi, could you please try:
Also don't you have any problems with other websites?
This will tell you what's wrong. We didn't get any more reports from users, so this needs to be issue on your end.
Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog
I think this worked. I installed Firefox and so far, so good. I send you a big hug foir this:) thnx!
I think this really worked.
Wil je zelf artikelen schrijven? Bezoek: http://www.artikelwebsite.nl/