Site Update Heads Up November 17, 2010 8:45 AM   Subscribe

We're making some background updates to the site today, please excuse our mess.

We're updating some code on the site today and there could be some temporary wonkiness while we get everything up to speed.

More info than you want to know: back in 2006 when we added favorites/flagging we used a JavaScript library called Prototype to help out. Here we are in 2010 and most of the world has moved on to using jQuery. (When has that stopped us before, amirite?) Anyway, we're moving on with the rest of the world so we have some new code for various pieces of the site including (but not limited to): flagging, favorites, the inline youtube player, projects voting, removing threads from RA, attending at IRL, and various yellow fade update notifications.

Once the update is complete you shouldn't notice any changes on the site. Moving to jQuery will let us do some new things down the road so the hassles from this will eventually be worth it. So, just wanted to give you heads up and let you know why there might be some problems today during the transition. Once the updates are completely live I'll post again here and we can find out what broke.
posted by pb (staff) to Bugs at 8:45 AM (52 comments total)

More info than you want to know [...]

Heh. Wrong!
posted by FishBike at 8:51 AM on November 17, 2010 [4 favorites]


I'm a musician, so you'll have to clarify something for me.

Does upgrading to jQuery mean I get my flying car sooner or later? Because I'm pretty sure I was promised a flying car by now.
posted by SNWidget at 8:52 AM on November 17, 2010 [6 favorites]


Just so's we're clear, I am not sweeping up any drywall dust. I do enough of that shit at work.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:58 AM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Amidst all this, pb gave me a pretty little pony yesterday.

This pb..is awesome?!
posted by special-k at 9:01 AM on November 17, 2010


So, we're being given a pony? For free? This is worth way more than the $5 bucks we paid to this place the first time.
posted by deezil at 9:04 AM on November 17, 2010


Good luck to both of you and we'll see on the other side.

*puts helmet on, dives off ship*
posted by nomadicink at 9:05 AM on November 17, 2010


We're making some background updates to the site today

So, uh, you and mathowie are out getting your hair did?
posted by special-k at 9:11 AM on November 17, 2010


I loves me some jQuery. It's hard to imagine life without it.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 9:12 AM on November 17, 2010


I'm pretty sure I was promised a flying car by now

I was promised flying cars.
posted by maqsarian at 9:16 AM on November 17, 2010


I had some weird effects during the changeover we did on the admin side, possibly greasemonkey related, so people may want to make sure they're doing all manner of cache flushing and refreshing if they're getting odd effects.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:17 AM on November 17, 2010


I just fell over this box of old code. Who do I sue?
posted by rtha at 9:19 AM on November 17, 2010


so people may want to make sure they're doing all manner of cache flushing

The rule is:

- if it's yellow, let it mellow
- if it's brown, hit F5
posted by DU at 9:23 AM on November 17, 2010 [3 favorites]


special-k: "This pb..is awesome?!"

stands for pretty badass.
posted by boo_radley at 9:23 AM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Well, something changed, I can tell you that. I thought I quit already!
posted by yhbc at 9:27 AM on November 17, 2010 [4 favorites]


Let us know when the update is over! I'm having issues with favorites, and want to make sure they're just because of the updating, and not something else.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:28 AM on November 17, 2010


Heh. Now it says there have been 310 posts and 28265 comments posted since my last visit to MetaTalk. I've got some catching up to do!
posted by Curious Artificer at 9:37 AM on November 17, 2010


Wait, didn't I just see that same black cat?
posted by octothorpe at 9:38 AM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Diçka patjetër e ndjen të ndryshme. Unë nuk mund të mjaft të kuptoj se çfarë.
posted by Rhaomi at 9:49 AM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Thanks for posting this heads-up, pb. I'm just now getting JavaScript errors when I try to favorite, and I hadn't started a new session or anything.

I guess I should spend the duration just reading threads where I'm fairly sure I won't agree with anything. TSA, ahoy!
posted by catlet at 9:53 AM on November 17, 2010


jQuery? is that anything like jRun?

Damn I miss those {/hamburger}
posted by ShawnString at 9:56 AM on November 17, 2010


ok, the updates are in place. If you're still having problems here are a few things to try:

1.) Do a hard refresh anywhere you're experiencing the problem. In Firefox that's Ctrl+Shift+R, but check the article I linked to for specific instructions in just about every major browser.

2.) Disable Greasemonkey and try again. This update will probably break some MeFi Greasemonkey scripts. We can't support them, but once you know the problem is Greasemonkey you can selectively enable/disable scripts until you find the culprit.

3.) Check your AdBlock and NoScript settings—make sure MeFi scripts are whitelisted. We added a couple new scripts including this one and this one. Try those links and see if you can reach them directly in your browser. If not, a browser extension is usually to blame.

If you're still having trouble after these, please let me know here or via MeFi Mail. Please include the URL where you're having the problem. And if you could include your Browser info that might help narrow problems down to a specific browser or version. If you're not sure which browser version you have, visit this page and copy the line after Browser to paste in here. Thanks!
posted by pb (staff) at 10:04 AM on November 17, 2010


Pony request: Make the Mobile interface better-er. This should theoretically be really easy to do with JQuery Mobile.
posted by schmod at 10:17 AM on November 17, 2010


$(this).addClass('hug');
posted by schmod at 10:18 AM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


schmod: " Make the Mobile interface better-er."

As a developer, I have to say this is a good definition of a non-actionable request.
posted by boo_radley at 10:37 AM on November 17, 2010 [3 favorites]


I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you.
posted by inigo2 at 10:45 AM on November 17, 2010


How come I don't see the new "three minute edit window'?
posted by ericb at 10:48 AM on November 17, 2010


Your doing background changes? Does this mean we're going to something with more of a professional white?
posted by Nanukthedog at 10:49 AM on November 17, 2010


I just got the MeTa front page for august 7 a minute ago. This probably explains it.
posted by slogger at 10:53 AM on November 17, 2010


"hard refresh" is my secret name for Viagra
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 10:58 AM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


One of our top priorities is a new HTML5/Flash-based music player for MeFi Music and the Podcast. There's a list after that, but I don't want to get hopes up. It'd be edit window all over again.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:46 AM on November 17, 2010


deezil: "This is worth way more than the $5 bucks we paid to this place the first time."

What do you mean "we", n00b?
posted by deborah at 12:34 PM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


My background is still the same unprofessional color.
posted by cjorgensen at 12:38 PM on November 17, 2010


One of our top priorities is...edit window

Edit window confirmed!
posted by juv3nal at 12:38 PM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


IS THIS WHY I AM NOT RECEIVING HUNDREDS OF FAVORITES RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I WONT STAND FOR IT
posted by orville sash at 1:27 PM on November 17, 2010


Edit window all night long.
posted by mintcake! at 2:42 PM on November 17, 2010


I am very very fond of jQuery. I think I want marry it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:55 PM on November 17, 2010


Eh, jQuery is just YUI, except they broke accessibility to enable fun stuff.

disclosure: long (live) YUI
posted by davejay at 3:57 PM on November 17, 2010


test
posted by nomadicink at 4:02 PM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


One of our top priorities is a new HTML5/Flash-based music player for MeFi Music and the Podcast. There's a list after that, but I don't want to get hopes up. It'd be edit window all over again.

Hey, this is about HTML5, not jQuery, but if you're going to start doing HTML5 stuff, would you please update the few form fields on the site that match it to use <input type="email" /> and the like? I just gave an hour-long lecture on such things here, and I feel like promoting the love.

besides, that small change would make mobile user's lives easier, thus fulfilling that pony a smidge.
posted by davejay at 4:02 PM on November 17, 2010


Uh oh, I notice the site is coded to 4.0 transitional. You'll want to update to 4.01 strict and test everything before you attempt to us the HTML5 doctype. Just a heads-up. Good luck, we're all counting on you etc. etc.
posted by davejay at 4:06 PM on November 17, 2010


nah, we're not moving the entire site to HTML5. Just using some of the features for browsers that support them.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:17 PM on November 17, 2010


taking that tangential conversation off to memail
posted by davejay at 4:21 PM on November 17, 2010


davejay: "long (live) YUI"

This is not likely. I admire your optimism, however.
posted by boo_radley at 4:30 PM on November 17, 2010


This is not likely. I admire your optimism, however.

Have you seen YUI3? It's a pretty fab architecture.
posted by davejay at 4:34 PM on November 17, 2010


While we're mentioning forms, pb, I get this very odd behaviour with the firewall at work. There's something triggers -- sometimes -- the firewall to block posting on the blue, but not anywhere else on the site. I think it's comment_something_preview.cfm?

Massively annoying, as I can post to Meta or Ask or whatever to my heart's content, but on the Metafilter proper, I'm blocked from posting some fairly large percentage of the time. Just wondering if maybe the difference might be some blue-only legacy cruft that can be excised.

But this is a one-person-affected bug report, so I very much understand if you don't spend any time looking at it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:36 PM on November 17, 2010


Sorry about the trouble stavros, firewall issues are tough to debug from this end. We aren't doing anything different on post MeFi comments vs. Ask or MeTa comments. What does your firewall error message say? That's probably the best place to start.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:40 PM on November 17, 2010


oh please oh please oh please let the firewall error say "Error: you have attempted to overthink a plate of beans"
posted by davejay at 4:42 PM on November 17, 2010


No worries. I just thought on the offchance something was different in the post process between the subsites, and so easily maybe identifiable.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:48 PM on November 17, 2010


I had some weird effects during the changeover we did on the admin side

I didn't notice any problems with the admin page.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:53 PM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


On this recent post the inline youtube opens a new page instead of opening inline. It only happens on the post's page; it works fine on the front page. A more recent post with inline video works fine both in the post and on the front page.

I'm using Win7 64 bit, Firefox 5.0.
posted by GeckoDundee at 6:00 PM on November 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yes I see that same behavior on Chrome under Linux, Gecko. It seems like the difference is that the class for the broken one is "lb0n" and the class for the working ones is "vid".

(On the plus side, now that MeFi is using iframe embeds anyone opted into HTML5 YouTube playback will get HTML5 embeds when available. This has been true for a little while now but thought I'd mention it again since (a) HTML5 was mentioned in this thread, and (b) I want more people to use HTML5 on YouTube :) )
posted by wildcrdj at 7:08 PM on November 17, 2010


Thanks GeckoDundee, fixed it up.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:12 PM on November 17, 2010


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