166 matching results for "zippo":
| Topic Title | Author | Comment Text | Created | Forum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrating WSN Links and WSN Forum | zippo | Although I have no site that hosts both scripts at once in an integrated fashon, AFAIK it would just mean a single user account & login for both the links directory and the forum. Aside from not having direct experience with that specifically, I will mention that I feel Paul's competency in PHP and general ability to produce quality products is there. Upside as a customer is that one author can perhaps understand and maintain their own code better than many authors keeping up with coding and style of author xyz. On the downside, there is only so much a single author can do and how that is delegated usually corresponds to cash-in and personal conquests. The forum as babrees mantions is very nice in that although it provides a nice look 'out of the box' it also can be (after a learning curve) easily modified to look as you wish. My top reasons for going with both Link and Forum were:
I've always been a stickler about flexability and options since the first thing that I've usually moved away from a product has been to break away from a rigid, predisposed aspect that will never change or is unlikely to change without world outcry.  Admitedly, I never implemented a forum before WSN-Forum so I can't first hand argue one over the other. Also, since I was absolutely certain that WSN-Links was the absolute best linking script I felt somewhat compelled to also go with WSN-Forum over anything else. The obvoius best way for you to decide would really be to try the Forum script out and digest the differences between it and phpBBS and reckon with them. If that's a hard thing to do with your present hosting or somesuch, I'd be willing to setup a WSN-Links + WSN-Forum combo for you on my server for you to knock around. |
Oct 06, 2006 - 9:52 AM | Paid Scripts Support |
| Pagination -- {PAGE} ? | zippo | Thanks for the manual add, although a search for 'n_prefix' yields nothing relevant that I can see  , it does seem to show a glitch in the result page:Found 1 matching result for "n_prefix": 1 total matching articles Can't Login to Admin Panel Description: What to do when you appear to be completely locked out of your directory's admin panel. Rating: (3.71/5 based on 38 votes and 11221 views) Category: Troubleshooting Page: {ARTICLEPREVIOUS} {ARTICLECURRENTPAGE} {ARTICLENEXT} I fiddled around with this again and, as you already know, it can be pretty close the the same with: Settings -> General -> Show next and previous [1] pages, plus first and last. Just shows page numbers instead of << or >> type widgets. |
Oct 06, 2006 - 9:11 AM | Paid Scripts Support |
| HOW-TO : mySQL backup + safe_mode = on | zippo | If you're tired of going to phpMyAdmin to export your tables this might provide some help. First this may be mildly pertainant to my setup: FreeBSD 5.4 PHP 4.4.2 MySQL 4.1.14 ..but will still be relevant to other flavors of *nix and perhaps windows. While many people just turn off safe_mode it's a relinquishment of some security in favor of running a more exploitable environment. Mind you, there is no safe_mode in PHP 6 so this will have little if any usefulness there, unless the reconstructed exec() helps. First of all with safe_mode = on the PHP exec() function will be limited to directories listed by the safe_mode_exec_dir variable. If you are able to have a user php.ini then you can possibly tweak this variable. There may be some default directories already set too. If you can customize your httpd.conf file that is good too. It all boils down to how your hosting is setup and what you have access to. For someone with a VPS or dedicated server this will be a snap since you're able to get at all this stuff. In any event it is neccessary to for the backup and restore features to access mysql and mysqldump so where those are needs to be listed in the safe_mode_exec_dir value. My approach was to use the custom httpd.conf feature of my hosting control panel. You'll want to add something similar to: (the path to mysql & mysqldump) php_admin_value safe_mode_exec_dir '/usr/local/mysql/bin'..in the appropriate <VirtualHost xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:xx> section then restart or reload Apache (httpd) for the change to take effect. At this point you may be ready to make and restore backups. In my case I needed to modify the /admin/export.php file since I was unable to pipe the output to a file -- this may be true for "safe_mode = on" no matter what but since I didn't find out why, I just worked around the problem, here is my solution to the error I was getting: mysqldump: Couldn't find table: ">" In /admin/export.php find: $execcommand = "mysqldump --add-drop-table -Q -h $dbhost -u $user -p". $pass ." $databasename > $outputfile &";..and change to: mysqldump --add-drop-table -Q -h $dbhost -u $user -p". $pass ." $databasename -r $outputfile"; On the import side of things, In /admin/export.php find: exec("mysql -h $dbhost -u $user -p". $pass ." $databasename < $inputfile &");..isn't working for me but the backup.sql file can be used via phpMyAdmin to restore things.My guess is that it's something with the pipe input of the backup.sql file. I suppose there is a chance that I'm just not waiting long enough..  I'm not logging any error so maybe that is my problem, impatience.I'll look into the restore situation more and edit any findings into this post if and when I get a solution. If you can confirm that I am just not waiting long enough that would be nice to know. |
Oct 04, 2006 - 2:17 PM | Paid Scripts Support |
| Pagination -- {PAGE} ? | zippo | Back some time ago on the old wsnforum.com forum I asked about creating something like: first | previous | 1 2 3 | next | last ..or something intuative but short like: << < 1 2 3 > >> Paul had responded about a change that was made to allow this sort of page selection but the message for that topic is gone now. I looked for more information about the "{PAGE}" variable and tried some toplist pagination variables but I seem to be missing something and don't have the old message for reference anymore.. |
Oct 04, 2006 - 10:57 AM | Paid Scripts Support |
| 4.0 beta notes | zippo | Probably 99% of my htaccess file is for non cosmetic reasons like the url rewrite for WSN-Links. Also if you've not considered, some hosting control panels fiddle with htaccess if requested. EG: simple 'plug-in' kind of mods for things like hotlink protection and such. The option to disable auto htaccess mods by WSNL, unless it absolutely needs it in 4.xx to function, is a prudent I think. Thanks. |
Oct 04, 2006 - 9:15 AM | Paid Scripts Support |
| Uh, maybe some new insight | zippo | I'll contend that a new posts feature can be daunting for forums with much activity. I find myself just looking for what floats to the top on very active forums or just use search since I am usually looking for something specific. I simply noticed the quirkiness of it and it kind of sticks out now. |
Oct 04, 2006 - 9:04 AM | Paid Scripts Support |
| Security breach in 6+ month old versions | zippo | I failed to mention that my css mods were pretty much limited to hand checking that my alternate style was still in harmony with the new default style. It's not a common occurance but in the past I've seen the css get reorganized a little and new classes pop up or a graphic file change/addition which I needed to compensate for in an alternate style. The mods system sounds interesting. I'll try and check it out in the RC2 when I get time for a look. PS: obligatory rant about new posts now being reset after this post... almost like there is a timer set once I login and after xx time passes and I've posted messages the 'new posts' display gets reset to my current login date/time. |
Oct 04, 2006 - 8:49 AM | Paid Scripts Support |
| Uh, maybe some new insight | zippo | Hmm. I will admit that I have never paid a lot of attention to those. That sounds easier than it really is though since not all new posts are in 1 forum / sub forum and not all are going to be yellow. I'm going to try and pay attention to those now though and see what goes. Upon my login just now there were 8 new messages shown with the 'New Message' link. I expect that will be reduced to 1 after this post. Oddly enough it's not always true, hence the pondering of the time passed in the initial message. This should be a quick write of about 3-4 minutes. A lot of times I'm sitting in the compose message mode for 30+ minutes before I submit. PS: just had to add that the new posts were NOT cleared to 1 message this time.. acting pretty much as usual, but does lend itself to some sort of time lapsed since login culpret maybe. |
Oct 04, 2006 - 8:32 AM | Paid Scripts Support |
| 4.0 beta notes | zippo | Paul wrote: I'm going to try the RC2 soon but I trust you have some sort of tags which this automatic htaccess manipulation uses to find what & where to change?Those of you using mod_rewrite should no longer edit .htaccess manually, let the script take care of it. If the way it autocreates it doesn't work for you, please report it so that workaround methods can be implimented. I have a highly modified htaccess file of some 17k or so and I for one would prefer that there be an option to turn off any automatic changes with my htaccess file. You know as well as I that it's very easy to turn a site into a 500 error with htaccess. ..or am I misunderstanding this and this is just a 1-time mod that is made during setup and/or upgrades? |
Oct 03, 2006 - 11:24 PM | Paid Scripts Support |
| Reciprocal link check -- listing format | zippo | The listing is kind of misleading at first glance. EG: thislinkisokay thislinkisbad edit thislinkisokay thislinkisokay ... The options that show to deal with a detached link are right on top of the next link which always seems to draw my attention to the link below. A more logical arrangement would be nice or at least some sort of divider/grouping of the link and it's assocaited widgets. |
Oct 03, 2006 - 10:55 PM | Paid Scripts Support |
| Uh, maybe some new insight | zippo | Just to recap since I don't want to go and dig up all my earlier posts on this... I just logged in after a couple/few weeks of not visiting this forum. New posts showed 3 pages of new posts.. I wrote a message and then new posts were reduced to 1 post -- my new message. FWIW this is in Firefox 1.5.0.7 so this at least side steps any issues with Opera.. Anyhow, after seeing the same old occurance as described above I'm staring at the new posts since [last login] and am thinking that maybe once I post (or maybe a certain amount of time passes this session?) somehow the "last login" time is being changed from my 'practicle last login' 3 weeks ago to the 'literal last login' that was 30-35 minutes ago -- hence my new message -is- the only new message. All I do know is that it's aggrevating since now I can't go and read what has been posted since my last login through the new messages function..  |
Oct 03, 2006 - 8:18 PM | Paid Scripts Support |
| Security breach in 6+ month old versions | zippo | Well I finally got around to upgrading one of my WSN-Links installations. I skipped the normal update procedure since I had a lot of highly modified templates and figured why not start from scratch -- script wise. Also I moved the site to another server and OS in the same effort. The 'upgrade' was from 3.3.14 to 3.4.5 -- doesn't seem like much just looking at the numbers but that comprises some 10 or more revisions perhaps since my last update. After a look-see of 3.4.3 it seemed like I should just go ahead and do a fresh install and migrate the SQL. Much new looks and table changes made me think the fresh install / upgrade would ensure everything was in order and I decided it would be a good time to ditch and rebuild my customizations since some of them were 'work-around' mods that might not be needed now. Also I had changed many default .gif images to my own .jpg which was a pain to modify each upgrade. I did a couple new images matching the same extension as the defaults, just for a little less hassle upon a future upgrade.. Part of my process has been manually modifying new templates, laguage, css and php files each time I upgraded as to not miss anything new Paul had put in. To follow up with my promise above -- this was my main headache with upgrades, not relying on upgrade.php since it always missed certain aspect of my mods.. I suppose I can't really lay that on the script. I think there is just a point of no return with customizations where it simply turns into more than just setup.php and upgrade.php.. Basically I did a fresh installation on the new server. Then imported the old site mySQL and ran upgrade.php to tweak the tables from v3.3.14 to present and looked it over. All seemed to be okay and actually a broken function from my old server (list all users comments from their profile area) began working with the new install. From here I did my usual removal of the tell-tale signs of what the script is, despite the fresh look pretty much being a dead give-away until I dig into the templates and css. Mind you this isn't to detract from promoting the script but to add a little security by obscurity. Ah well. Now I am going to have to try and dig up all my old notes to remind me of things to test which some of my old mods were working around. For my second site I think that I'll try a simple upgrade and see what happens. It's heavily template modified so it's kind of a toss-up. I would rather have the fixed/new templates and all a fresh install offers but them I have to rework them to get my look back. On the other hand it's hard for me to confide 100% in the simple upgrade to cover everything anyhow since I've got so many customized areas and have often had to go back and fix stuff after quick upgrades. I'll probably take a bit different approcah this time and do a quick upgrade just to get the tables in order, then wipe the site and do a fresh installation. Given the heavy amount of new stuff since 3.3.14 it's probably a good place to 'checkpoint' my mods and begin again with the new foundation 3.4.5 provides. With any luck all that make some sense. I'm too tired to proof it now. Have to looks for some old messages on here still.  |
Oct 03, 2006 - 8:07 PM | Paid Scripts Support |
| zippo | I couldn't quite tell if this was part of the 4.x list of features but as mentioned in this message it would be desirable to allow a mixture of non/redirected links. For those just wanting to stuff link repositories w/o providing reciprocal links redirect method could be used and allow hit counting counting, etc that the redirect method affords. For those who trade links, the direct link method. Or possibly a 'penalty' setting for links that do not reciprocate whereby methods of halting SE crawlers from following (NOFOLLOW meta?) non-reciprocal links. AFAIK the SEO benefits are best without redirected links. |
Sep 08, 2006 - 11:41 AM | Paid Scripts Support | |
| Security breach in 6+ month old versions | zippo | zippo wrote: face it, upgrading can be very time consuming with even moderate customizations. Paul wrote: I'll detail my next upgrade and see if I can shed some light on the spots that always I have to comb through and modify after an upgrade. I have a list that grows some every now and then. I think somewhere from one version to another I had to expand the list of things to modify post-upgrade.That's the sort of thing I want to change. What is it that makes upgrades (within a series, where there are no significant non-admin template changes) time consuming? zippo wrote: So when will the 'fix' propagate into WSN Forum? Nothing new with it since 5/3/2006 so presumably it's adopted whatever plagues Links? paul wrote: I have the Pro but also a free version I think in some obscure directory that I test on from time to time.WSN Forum Pro is already fixed. WSN Forum free has the 3.3.8 fix but not the 3.3.21 fix... if you have the free version, delete setup.php and you'll be safe. I'll fix it in a minute. zippo wrote: Frankly it'd be nice if that product got some attention one day. I realize it's not the flagship product but I like it and feel there is still much potential with it. paul wrote: Understood. It wasn't exactly my understanding that WSNF was a hot product but nor did I suspect it was lagging. I can understand the attention commiserating with the sales but at the same time SMF hasn't gotten where it's at by being stagnent and unresponsive to their audience -- it's not so popular only because it's free.Since it's bringing me an average of $40/month revenue and vBulletin, invision and phpBB are rather hard to draw anyone away from, I'd expect updates to WSN Forum to fall into two categories: (1) Ports of WSN Links code (2) Things I want for my own forums. There are probably many people who don't know they would love WSNF given a chance. It's nice looking, works pretty well, is fast and has a lot of functionality all without requiring top tier hosting or bloat to operate. Like your WSNF motivation, cash in can make a difference. Something like shareasale with a minimal % or couple dollar commission could get people to put buttons/banners for WSNF around with the possibility of making an easy buck or two. I'd love to promote it and help sales but I am not a very savy admin for my dedicated server and the obscurity the pro licenses allowed was meaningful to me, thus promoting it via itself isn't happening on my site. Frankly it would be a ever-so-slight chance any of my target audiences would want to host a website, let alone monkey around with their own forum. |
Sep 07, 2006 - 1:29 AM | Paid Scripts Support |
| Security breach in 6+ month old versions | zippo | Paul wrote: While I can see the concern, it's a waste of energy in my opinion. Beyond providing the information it's really up to me/anyone else what to do with it..Anyhow, as more and more people get stuck further in the past I've been thinking about this lately. What could I do that would encourage people to stay up to date? Paul wrote: That's the kind of 'phone home' that gives a bad name to the practice.Perhaps the admin panel could phone home, and refuse to let the administrator continue using a known-to-be-compromised version until they update? Paul wrote: I couldn't care less if the 'phone home' was to simply tell me of a new version and maybe a little blurb about it, just as long as it doesn't somehow freeze or otherwise cause trouble if your server can't be reached.The problem there is that people don't like scripts phoning home or locking them out, but I suppose it's better to get a bad reputation for that than to get it for security. If a bad rep for having vulnerabilities is what you're trying to avoid that's admirable and expected. However not much can be done about it with the thousands of unique configurations, human error, etc -- If your script gets targeted or a machine with your script on it you can recieve some critics since it (machine or script) can and will be hacked. Period. Kind of like the saying with spam (If you don't want it, stay off the internet).. Plugging the holes as they are found is fair practice and people are generally aware that is common practice and we don't live in a utopia. I run links 3.3.14 on two sites, no issues so far I am aware of. I've been busy with other things and face it, upgrading can be very time consuming with even moderate customizations. I know that I'd be really upset if I found my site was 'locked' since whenever because I am apparently running a vulnerable version. Do what you wish but I will cease to run the script(s) if you gain the ability to shut down my site as you've described. Anyhow, enough rant on that. So when will the 'fix' propagate into WSN Forum? Nothing new with it since 5/3/2006 so presumably it's adopted whatever plagues Links? Frankly it'd be nice if that product got some attention one day. I realize it's not the flagship product but I like it and feel there is still much potential with it. My one forum is gaining momentum slowly and it's more of a website make or break situation than my links repository. If something were to cause the loss of all forum content, which users often pour much effort into, users may simply migrate elsewhere. |
Sep 02, 2006 - 8:11 PM | Paid Scripts Support |