I’m in the process, at the moment, of some interesting changes to the BMTG site. Instead of each show/concert page being individually written (with a few calls to scripts to display photos, etc) I’m creating a totally automated page generation system - simply tell it the show name, call the generator script and you get a show page out the other end. This includes the automatic detection of photos (just drag and drop a new photo into the appropriate folder and it then appears on the page) and the fetching of descriptions from the JPG data. Nice (if I do say so myself).

However, all of this has had an impact of server times. In the past I’ve not measured server times for performance monitoring, as they’ve been so insignificant. Now, I’m having to for the show pages. In fact the changes have pretty much negated recent performance improvements.

The next package, though, should help with this as I bring in some further performance improvements (including image caching and sorting out some shoddy MySQL programming of mine).

However, going forward (and I hate that expression), performance is something I will look at it with each package update.

After that there are packages due to SEO and Accessibility. So, they too will become part of the “standard” package check. Indeed, I have 4 things on my radar…

1. Accessibility
2. SEO
3. Security
4. Performance

Security, which will be tackled in the next package along with performance, is mainly around MySQL injection and the like - making the site as hacker-proof as possible.

It’s actually quite exciting as SEO and Accessibility is not something I’ve really concentrated on in the past, so I’m looking forward to the research and learning that will go with this.

In the past I’ve mentioned the Lightbox script that I use on the BMTG website and on this blog. This uses the Scriptaculous JavaScript library.

Last night I stumbled across an alternative to Scriptaculous, named mootools. This is a lot more compact and they even allow you to compile your own version at the point of download, allowing you to limit its content. It even compresses the code for you. Anyway, this is no good to me without a matching Lightbox script and, lo-and-behold, I found one named Slimbox - in fact it’s almost identical, but quicker and various improvements made.

I’ve now embedded both of these in a new version of the BMTG site that I’m working on, and it works like a dream with no modifications to my existing code (other than calling different scripts and stylesheets) required. Nice. It’s more compact and a lot quicker too.

One down side is that I was using Scriptaculous for one of the changes I was making to the site - namely hiding various page contents unless a button is pressed to reveal it. mootools has an equivalent function, but it’s not so easy to use (the downside of a more compact system I guess). Instead, I’ve done anyway with the flashy effects and used a simple bit of JavaScript instead.

By default the section that I want to hide has the following DIV surrounding it…

<div id="cast_div" style="position:relative; display:none">
:
Content here
:
</div>

This will hide the content until a button (displayed above the content) is pressed.

So, to reveal the content you add the following..

onclick="document.getElementById('cast_div').style.display='block'"

To hide the content again…

onclick="document.getElementById('cast_div').style.display='none'"

Streamline are officially rubbish. The BMTG site was a combination of slow or inoperative for about a week and all I got was messages that engineers were looking at it. Oh, and I couldn’t access the MySQL tables.

Thankfully, I use MySQL Tools to create regular backups on my home PC, so I used some of those to rebuild the tables at Memset. I also decided to rush out the version of the website that I was working on - I’m still testing this now even though it’s been live for a number of days.

The hard bit came when I found that Memset don’t allow domain transfers. Rather than keep the domain at Streamline, I decided to move it to 1&1. Their prices are also remarkable cheap. So, I moved the IPS TAG from Streamline to 1&1 (whilst still keeping the DNS pointing to Streamline). When that was done, I simply updated the DNS at 1&1 to Memset. If there was any downtime during all of this, it wasn’t very long at all.

And Memset hosting really flies… far better than it was ever at Streamline. In a word - “superb”. And free for charity hosting.

Before closing down the account at Streamline I asked, because of the issues we’d had, whether they’d consider (especially as this was a charity not-for-profit) refunding part of the remaining hosting fees. They ignored this request and simply closed it down. Nice.

I still have Artiss.co.uk (including this blog) hosted by Streamline, because I paid for 2 years hosting back in December. Unless anyone wants to donate some money, I can’t justify moving right now. Ironically, I wrote this blog offline a couple of days ago but have been unable to upload it due to my blog being down. Thanks to Streamline.

Just a few weeks away from our a series of concerts, just when publicity is critical, and the BMTG site is down. It’s displaying an internal server error, which at first I thought might be my fault, until I realised that I hadn’t changed the site since it was previously working.

Having said that it was pointed out recently that a sub-domain, used by members, was broken. It too was displaying the same error and it turned out to be due a PHP variable I was displaying on the screen (invisibily at the bottom of the page for debugging purposes). Not sure why it caused a server error, but removal of it fixed the problem. At the time I thought it was odd that it hadn’t affected the main site because that too used the same variable. Anyway, I changed the main site as well. That was weeks ago.

So, the site is down. It’s been like that since, at least, first thing this morning and there’s no sign of it working. The host, Streamline.net, “escalated it to a 2nd line engineer”. Whatever that means. But they’re saying it might not be fixed within 24 hours. Great.

Which is why I’ve taken this opportunity to sign up with Memset. Not only are they regularly voted as the UK’s best host, but they provide their service free of charge for charities. So I’m already set up and I’ve copied the site into a test region. I just need the BMTG site to come back up so that I can  start testing the Memset version. If it offers me everything I need, I’ll be waving goodbye to Streamline. I’ve been plagued by downtime and speed issues (particularly FTP speed).

This site is also hosted by Streamline. Memset is more expensive for your general hosting, but I’m certainly seeing the advantage. The BMTG site will be a test - if all goes well, then I can’t see any reason why I won’t migrate this domain to Memset as well.

And they’re carbon neutral.

Well, it is now. As predicted, I didn’t get the Vice Chairman role. I knew it before I got there. But, never-the-less, I still gave it 100%, my speech was loved and I let no-one down.

But I still feel robbed. Kind of. Without the behind-my-back nasty comments, how would I have done? It might be that I still wouldn’t have got it. But why?

The person who did get the role has been performing the Patrons & Subscriptions role which I handed over to her 4 years ago. This has been her only position on the Committee. The subscriptions part of her role is now virtually non-existent as most are now done via Direct Debit. Never-the-less she didn’t spot the fact that for 8 months last year I changed my DD to that of a non-acting member. How do I know she didn’t spot it? Well, she had last years show programme show me as an acting member. Plus she makes a big thing of ensuring ALL money is in by the end of the year because of the accounts. Although I had good reason for this change, I was never given an opportunity to explain it.

The second part of her job is recruiting and looking after Patrons. The patron numbers have halved during her 4 year tenure.

So, what has she been doing?

Well, first of all, nobody probably knew this because NO-ONE asked her any questions after her speech. I assume I was the only one to have done some homework.

So they’ve elected, as Vice Chairman, someone who has shown during the last 4 years that she can do a below-average job. What does that say about the fact that I lost?

Last year, for the first time, I was acknowledged during the AGM for my work, especially on the website. This year, once again, it didn’t happen.

So, my conclusions are… I’m not seen as useful (certainly not wanted as a useful member of the committee) and work, which I don’t actually have to be doing, is un-appreciated. Charming.

Of course, I’m wary that all of this will look like sour grapes. But how else am I supposed to interpret this? As a vote of confidence it’s damning. And, let’s be honest, after the “rumour” that’s been floating around, I may as well throw my toys out of the pram as it’s probably what people will be expecting.

Here are a few things that made me think the voting wasn’t going to go my way… nasty rumours being spread behind my back, friends not responding to emails asking for their support, the out-going Chairman making a joke to my competition about not being on the committee YET… and so on.

So what to do now.

I’m certainly not feeling good vibes towards my friends right now but, then again, I never like to make a hasty decision. I suspect a long dose withdrawing my assistance may be called for. But I’ll admit that the damage may already have been done.

Maybe my CV will end up in the post to some other local groups.

Maybe I’ll give up on this theatre malarkey altogether and concentrate on friends who aren’t spiteful behind your back, and appreciate you a little more.

I assume they exist.