[thesite] Testing Site --> Production Site

[Michele Foster]

Hey Folks ....

Long time no talk ... been really busy here .. sold my condo (in 7 days ..
ack) .. with a quick closing.  Long and short of it .. I'm moving from
Toronto to Ottawa around the 25th/26th of April.

Anyway .. enough of the personal stuff .. on to the evolt stuff.

It's been a long time since we rolled the test code from test.evolt.org up
to production (i.e. www.evolt.org).  In the change log
(http://test.evolt.org/CHANGELOG.txt) I notice Jeff's made a number of
changes over the past couple of months.  Reading through the changelogs and
trying to remember ;) .. I think anything listed under changes to 0.7.1 have
been rolled up .. but it was so long ago, I can't be sure.  However, I know
the code on SF was not updated since the 0.7 version.

During the past year or so, I've been one of the main testers on the test
site.  Meaning I hit that site very frequently and test various pages at
different priv levels, etc.  Looking for any bugs or problems that need to
be sorted out before we can roll the code up to production.  That's the
reason we have a test site .. so it can be thoroughly and well tested.
Anyway .. in my absence over the past couple of months, I don't think anyone
has been doing this.  As I mentioned above and as can be seen from the
changelog, there are a lot of changes that were made and that haven't been
tested.

So, what do we need?  Testers!!  Hit the test site, report any problems to
this mailing list.  If you have Admin or GodMin privs (i.e. 3/4), set
yourself up a testing user name, so that you can log in as a regular user.
Hit various pages, using different links, i.e. the sidebar elements, the
drop down box, the comments, etc.  Then repeat the same thing as a
non-logged in user.  Again, reporting anything odd/obscure to thesite list.

Ideally, there should be more than just Jeff working on the source code.
Now before a bunch of people start screaming and saying, "I would if I had
access" .. be realistic.  The majority of the code is written in CF .. so
those with CF expertise should be the ones reviewing/modifying the core
code.  However, since as far as I'm concerned, the code is Jeff's "baby" ..
communication is key.  IOW .. don't go messing up the code or changing
things around without checking with Jeff first.  If there are CF experts
that want access and have the time available to learn the architecture and
to work with Jeff, then speak up.  You won't get access just cause you want
it.

Anyway, I'm not saying there is a definite need at this time for others to
be editing the code.  However, I do think there is a need and a desire to
have other CF experts at least reviewing and discussing the code.  If you
read the above changelog, a lot of what's written there is beyond my
ability.  I'm not saying Jeff's done anything wrong or incorrect, he hasn't,
and he's done a great job .. I just think some peer review/assessment would
be a good thing.

One final thing .. if anyone else has made any changes to the code or to the
CSS files, please ensure that you have updated the changelog accordingly.

Oh .. and two more final things ;) .. Jeff, did you abandon the graphical
representation of the ratings bar?  I think the article view is still fine
.. but someone should double check.  And .. the membership stuff needs to be
set back .. since we can't roll that part up anytime soon.  Jeff, do you
remember what needs to be commented out for that?  Or Dan?  I can't remember
who's working on that.

I've got to get back to work .. for those that do end up testing the
test.evolt.org site, please report back to thesite .. even if you've found
nothing amiss.  The code won't be rolled up before a significant amount of
testing has been done.

Thanks,

Michele