What Changed in August and September 2017
Saturday August 5 2017
- By pre-release patch fixed a caching problem with marker places (see issue 300).
- Similarly, an even smaller patch, fixed a problem with quickroute and places with embedded commas (see issue 297).
To Sunday 27 August 2017
- Improved background processor. Refactored code to make more readable and arranged for files to be transferred to a new "execute" directory before being run. This means that if a queued command fails it will be kept in the execute directory but not retried (before this the system would retry and fail forever). Fixed error handling (do not disable SIGCHILD if you want system() to work!).
- Improvements to the changes data for the change log and for the RSS feeds:
- Keep previous version which makes display much more sensible when several edits have taken place recently
- Better display of changes in the "show recent changes" page
- A button to expand all changes in that display
- Fixed logging of photo changes
- Where relevant, these improvements are shown in place history as well
- Lots more changes preparatory to moving the site to https at Google's insistence (frankly, if you don't trust your ISP I'm not sure why you should trust us!) while still allowing http for development and private instances. The policy is to use explict https for remote sites but the source protocol for internal complete links:
- QR code generator using protocol-relative URL
- feature.can uses protocol-relative URLs for pictures passed to social-media tools
- gazetteer.can uses PRURLs for search-engine redirects
- logon.can uses PRURLs for calls to create mantis accounts
- showstuff.can uses PRURLs for gravatar and for preview photos, and doesn't assume external links should be http
- cached_gaz_data does similar for preview photos
- all internal redirections (through "Redirect_To" and similar) use PRURLs
- calls to Google geocode use https
- Upgraded feature.can to use better OS grid code (missed when general upgrade done previously)
- Pre-release patch to placefinder to prevent looping on "bridge nn" in route planning (issue 303).
- Fixed typo that prevented the history button re-appearing when you closed a place's history
- Fixes to form code to make it work when shown on a /place/ url or similar (fixes associated bug described in note on issue 303.
- Lots of changes to the geodata fetching code to reduce the load on the database (this was a partial cause of yesterday's lockout (see issue 309).
→ Release 9.30.4
Monday 28 August 2017
- Fixed bug that had removed most default access records and re-created
- Added new quicker, and hopefully more popular way, to quickly change access
- Added that access has changed to changes and rss feed. No detail in the changes as it would involve fairly substantial coding.
- Changed gazetteer layout to put the linear map and the text alongside each other
→ Release 9.30.5
- Pre-release patch to allow history of places with access changes
- Work to make moorings as easy to change as accesses, and go for a single value not a star rating
Tuesday 29 August 2017
- Allowed comparison of lookup tables
- Used this to modify "if changed" code in revision to prevent superfluous access changes being logged - issue issue 311
- Changed code so that setting access always made it visible
Wednesday 30 August 2017
- Some pre-release hacks:
- Fixed some permission errors around the background processor
- Fixed mantis cookie creation (PRURL was not the way to go here)
- Avoided errors with Googlebot-invented compound URLs like http://canalplan.org.uk/gazetteer/waterway.cgi?id=mfv7
Friday 1 September 2017
- Fixed default access for ends of waterways (some were getting missed)
Saturday 2 September 2017
- Made "/location/" urls internally redirect as asked for in issue 307
- Fixed a bug where a four character name with an initial capital caused an error (it treated it as a putative ID, then complained about it!)
- Fixed a bug in history for brand-new places
- Added text to explain changes to mooring and access (and some fairly generic code for other types in future)
- Script to change old star rated moorings into mooring data in place extra
Sunday 3 September 2017
- Partitioned and disabled the web ring code until it supports https
- A basic "what's the system status" page for admins but not linked in anywhere
- Completed and tested the mooring code
- Temporarily disabled the "share" from gazetteer pages - will probably replace with entirely inhouse system anyway.
- Made links from index page photo go directly to the place, not via the gazetteer
- Fixed the bug where the gazetteer put a "nomarker" on when it shouldn't
- Strange patch to Geograph code to make thumbnail URLs into https - they aren't when fetched via wget
- Rationalised variables in rss and "what's new" code to avoid two almost identical lists
→ Release 9.30.6
Sunday 10 September 2017
- Lots of improvements to mooring code - ability to set how you moor and any restrictions as well as a comment. *Improved display in changelogs.
- Code to build html files from templates systemised
- New social logon using our code rather than an external user
- Fixed display of special characters in place names when picking the starting place for a ring issue:316
→ Release 9.30.7
Monday 11 September 2017
- Fixed bug where some place names "looped" when selecting them (where the case wasn't exactly what was expected)
- Fixed bug where it segfaulted on searching for, say, "wigan flight"
- Improved efficiency of search code slightly
- Fixed crash when setting a mooring to "impossible" in edit place
- Fixed bug in sorting when a mooring and marker place change fell in a particular order and broke changes/RSS
- Added a title to the release history
- Fixed link to RSS feed
→ Release 9.30.7.1
Tuesday 12 September 2017
- Pre-release patch to micro-buglet that prevented the place in the change log showing when photo information was changed
- Another similar one that prevented mooring time limits being picked up from place editing
- Work to suppress change log entries for mooring and access when creating a new place
Thursday 21 September 2017
- Pre-release patch to properly report missing co-ordinates when adding a place (issue 325)
- Restored icon for "add area" (accidentally deleted when tidying up when "furthest place" stopped being a button)
- Prevented an error if you pressed "Do it" when choosing to add with marker places without selecting a line segment
- Fix to catch faked input from Swedish hacker and prevent errors
Friday 22 September 2017
- Made a very crude "where is this IP" function for the change log. More proof of concept anyway and won't work in the RSS feed as it's JS based.
Saturday 23 September 2017
- Made "where is this IP" part of the show user code. Now can link from change log and RSS for all users. Basic functionality - just list fields. Could later enhance to map, to links to reverse DNS or whatever.
Monday 25 September 2017
- Wrote useful script to edit textual fields in databases - can use to change all references to users in the RSS config to work as links.
Wednesday 27 September 2017
- Fixed punctuation error on mooring text where sometimes we go ", ."
- Fixed error with places with unknown rise, introduced with the lock JSON a few months ago
- Deleted spurious place_extra entries from database to fix issue 328.
Thursday 28 September 2017
- Made all names of people in RSS feeds into working links to show-users (so used code from Saturday and Monday).
- Started code to allow escaping of all strings in lists and lookups
Saturday 30 September 2017
- Used the ability to escape all strings in lookups to fix over-escaping issue behind issue 327.
→ Release 9.30.8
- Addressed issue 281 and fixed a problem with the related logic problem with distances to termini being shown badly in those circumstances.
- Produced an error message if you try to delete a place that doesn't exist (yes, it does happen!).
- Fixed a bug where trying to add a place with a name that exists crashed in the recovery code!