Website Update

Lyndon Lloyd 06/08/2022 55comments  |  Jump to last
Server Migration

It’s been a long time coming but ToffeeWeb is finally in situ on a new server and the core functionality should be sufficiently operational that I can turn things on in the new location and the site will be usable.

Not everything is working, however — I’m aware of most of the issues but I’m sure there are others that will crop up so please don’t be shy in reporting them either below or via email to mailto:contact@toffeeweb.com.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have cut over to the new server until everything was ready but the site had become practically unusable in the old location so I made the decision to rush and get as much done as possible before the new season starts.

Note: If you experience any strange behaviour around your login status, try logging out and logging back in to see if that corrects the problem.

The Bad

This change has involved hundreds of hours of coding changes. Practically every page that interfaces with a database has needed to be (or will be in due course) altered. Cosmetically, you won’t notice any difference really, apart from the home page.

Among the things I either know aren’t working yet or am pretty sure they aren’t but will be addressed in phases in the coming days and weeks are:

  • The navigation menu for mobile devices on the homepage
  • Some users’ names aren’t showing on comments — if your name isn’t showing, try logging out and in again
  • Archived news and comment articles from past seasons.
  • New membership sign-ups
  • The Password reminder tool may not be working 
  • The Live Forum is currently NOT working but I’ll be working on that right up to kick-off. Fingers crossed!

The Good

The move to the new server will hopefully mean fewer site crashes and Gateway timeouts but I’ll only know once traffic starts to hit the server. A lot of the code has been updated as it was deprecated and not compatible with the new server but the update should allow for some long-standing issues to be addressed, most notably the Patron/Subscription facility. If you have messaged me about Patron sign-up and I haven’t responded, please forgive me and know that it will hopefully be resolved soon.

Again, while I’ll be aware of most of the outstanding issues, there may be many I’ve not yet seen or issues that are affecting some users but not me. It’s not ideal, of course, but the fastest way to discover problems is by putting everything live and your feedback and bug reports below or via email will be very helpful.

As ever, thank you for your patience and UTFT!

 

Reader Comments (55)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()


Colin Glassar
1 Posted 06/08/2022 at 08:17:01
About fucking time!!

Congratulations

Rob Pryor
2 Posted 06/08/2022 at 08:21:03
Well done Lyndon. I think it might be worth adding a redirect from "/holding.html" to the home page.
George Freeman
3 Posted 06/08/2022 at 08:43:11
Thanks Lyndon, a great improvement and far more responsive.
Shaun Laycock
4 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:01:06
Thank you all!
Tony Everan
5 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:08:26
Onana, Gana and a new ToffeeWeb server all on the same day, things are looking up. Thanks Lyndon for your efforts with this.
Tony Abrahams
6 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:21:18
I wonder how many people were frustrated yesterday whilst ToffeeWeb was down, but you are up and running before the season begins, and Lampard also seems to be being true to his word, because I can see Everton turning into a much more physically robust team.

Hopefully it's one which might even begin to make us competitive again🤞 But we still need a centre forward, and I'm also hoping we bring Coady in, even if my biggest wish is that teams stop looking forward to coming to Goodison Pk, and our stadium goes out with the bang it deserves🙏

Dave Abrahams
7 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:35:00
Thanks Lyndon and all involved, lovely to be back and read everybody's views, I hope they are all happy posts after 7-30pm tonight!!
Gerry Quinn
8 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:39:07
Gerry Quinn
9 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:39:07
Excellent job speeding up the website, Lyndon - hope the boys are as efficient as you :)
Gerry Quinn
10 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:40:24
Looks like I am the first to screw up!!!!! For some reason, came up twice...
Tony Abrahams
11 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:41:00
All that hard work Lyndon, to get rid of the gaps between paragraphs! Nothing runs smooth in this world, especially if it's connected to Everton, mate, but many people would be lost without you, and I suppose Michael, would be lost if you didn't have to put up with him!

Brian Harrison
12 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:41:35
Great job in really quick time, well done Lyndon and all involved, lets just hope the boys get off to a good start tonight.
Brent Stephens
13 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:42:53
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. The site looks crisper now - or is that just my eyes and the long absence? Well done.

Alternatively, typical ToffeeWeb. Why can't they ever get their act together. Always ToffeeWeb. Teary Lyndon's fault. March on ToffeeWeb this afternoon.

Jeff Armstrong
14 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:48:09
Yesterday with no site and how frustrating it was, just proved how much people enjoy getting on ToffeeWeb, keep up the good work Lyndon, we might not always show it, but it's very much appreciated.
Sean Kelly
15 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:48:38
Can you play as a number 9 todayLyndon
Brian Murray
16 Posted 06/08/2022 at 09:59:33
Hope just teething problems but me and one other poster there's no name ahead of posts.
Ken Kneale
17 Posted 06/08/2022 at 10:06:33
Lyndon - well done to you and others involved - life would be lesser without TW and your eloquence and efforts are appreciated

Tony - with you there - when we leave Goodison it needs to be remembered fondly

Jeff Armstrong
18 Posted 06/08/2022 at 10:26:29
16, log out and back in.
Derek Thomas
19 Posted 06/08/2022 at 10:47:58
Instantaneous on Android here in Australia - didn't have to log in or anything.
Duncan McDine
20 Posted 06/08/2022 at 11:02:48
Testing testing 1 2 1 2. It's vital to have TW operational by “overreaction o'clock” - well done Lyndon.
John Kavanagh
21 Posted 06/08/2022 at 11:13:05
Congrats on successfully migrating from the Gomes to the new Onana server. Seems to be working fine for me. Need to test out the Live forum with some new whinges and fish puns though.

This seems to have gone so well I'm expecting a teary Blue Bill to claim the credit for it. Can you be promoted to manage all of our transfers from now on please.

Paul Hughes
22 Posted 06/08/2022 at 11:35:42
Thanks Lyndon, and everyone else involved. Seems to all be working OK for me.
I was getting a bit twitchy yesterday, being unable to get my TW fix of transfer updates.
Mark Taylor
23 Posted 06/08/2022 at 11:57:08
Working much better now, thumbs up!
Bill Watson
24 Posted 06/08/2022 at 12:01:09
Thanks for all your hard work, Lyndon.
Jack Convery
26 Posted 06/08/2022 at 12:49:57
I vote for you Lyndon as the new EFC Chairman. You see a problem and fix it ! Thanks for all your work and dedication. Not being able to see the blues in the flesh any more Toffee Web gives me my fix. Cheers.
Danny O’Neill
27 Posted 06/08/2022 at 12:59:12
Thank you Lyndon.

Yes Tony, I think a few of us had withdrawal symptoms yesterday.

Jamie Crowley
28 Posted 06/08/2022 at 13:06:01
Lyndon -

Thanks m'man. Really snappy and responsive now. Miles better.

Appreciate it.

Bernard Dooley
29 Posted 06/08/2022 at 13:10:01
Well done Lyndon; site well on the way to being really shipshape and is already noticeably quicker and far more stable.
One point. All your articles are dated 08/06/2022 and Michael's post re Frank's press conference is dated 08/04/2022
Maybe it has adopted the American Way?
Jamie Crowley
30 Posted 06/08/2022 at 13:11:58
Bernard -

That date mo/day/yr format is part of the site improvements. 😜

Phil (Kelsall) Roberts
31 Posted 06/08/2022 at 13:31:14
Jamie - George Bernard Shaw said:
"England and America are two countries separated by a common language"

But it will always be miles better, not kilometres better😁

Danny O’Neill
32 Posted 06/08/2022 at 13:34:12
Worked with the US military for decades, been with US companies since I left in 2016. I own property there.

That date convention thing still confuses the shit out of me!!!

Bernard Dooley
33 Posted 06/08/2022 at 13:53:12
Thanks Jamie.
Being 77 years old I personally find that "improvement" a step too far; to my aged eyes it just looks plain wrong, but it's not worth getting overexcited about.
Danny, if it confuses you with your background it's no wonder American girl Emily, (Emily in Paris/netflix) booked the wrong restaurant date for an important client meeting she was tasked with organising by her overbearing boss.
Julian Exshaw
34 Posted 06/08/2022 at 13:58:05
Great news Lyndon. You guys do a great job. Thank you.
Jamie Crowley
35 Posted 06/08/2022 at 14:01:38
No matter how many times I see a date like 26/08/22, it takes a good 4-5 seconds to wrap my head around it and think, "Oh ya, that's how they do it over there."

Fulham 2, El Poo 1

Great start to the new season thus far. Hang on Fulham!

Ian Carter
36 Posted 06/08/2022 at 14:03:26
Thanks Lyndon for your hard work! Now our beloved news site is back up and running!
Jamie Crowley
37 Posted 06/08/2022 at 15:17:16
Lyndon - if you get the Live Forum up prior to 12:30 EST, you've hit legendary status!
Colin Glassar
38 Posted 06/08/2022 at 15:20:40
Just in time to say, goodbye Georgy Girl the carnival is (now definitely) over. R.I.P.
Ray Said
39 Posted 06/08/2022 at 15:30:03
Great work on the site upgrades. An Everton problem solver-can you join the board?
Jamie Crowley
40 Posted 06/08/2022 at 16:38:43
Someone may have said this (?) but when trying to post with paragraphs, the system doesn't allow it.

Everything posts in sequence, no "return button" to space paragraphs / sentences.

Third line here just to verify.

Ian Jones
41 Posted 06/08/2022 at 19:22:21
Great work Lyndon.
Dale Rose
42 Posted 07/08/2022 at 11:33:31
Great work, TW — the migration must have been a success because I went to bed in Wales and woke up on an ice flow in the Bering Sea.
Barry Rathbone
43 Posted 07/08/2022 at 11:45:27
What a relief – the site really was becoming unusable.

Much appreciated.


Joe Hurst
44 Posted 08/08/2022 at 09:50:22
As you already know, the work looks to have gone really well.

Having worked (for half of my life though it so often seems more) in IT support, I can appreciate a bit that lots of work has been done on ToffeeWeb – and continues being done.

Now we'll all hope our beloved club can also have some kind of ‘blessed reincarnation'.

Dickie Langley
45 Posted 08/08/2022 at 09:56:41
Well done on the server migration.

One concern though (because it's ToffeeWeb): these new servers may be young and determined, but what's the sell-on value?

Are we going to be stuck with these on long contracts and no chance to get out?

Danny O’Neill
46 Posted 08/08/2022 at 10:05:16
I've noticed that, Jamie.

I tend to post long, and probably boring, posts. So I like to break it up into shorter paragraphs!

James Marshall
47 Posted 08/08/2022 at 13:02:21
Editing your posts leaves loads of backslashes like these \ all over your post, in particular next to apostrophes.

Also noticed problems with paragraphs not working when you type out a post - it's all one big lump of text which is hard to read (if you're old like me).

Other than that it seems much snappier and faster to load, and I haven't had any Gateway timeouts either - nice one, Lyndon :-)

Jim Lloyd
48 Posted 08/08/2022 at 18:10:10
Well done Lyndon and Michael; When I work out how to do it, I'm goin to support the site. Great job you two.rnrnBloody Nora, Dale! that's one journey and a half, that is. Hope you didn't get your feet wet:)
Jim Lloyd
49 Posted 08/08/2022 at 18:17:09
Michael Kenrick
Editorial Team
50 Posted 09/08/2022 at 09:58:10
James @47 is right.

A lot of issues with comments are coming when you go back and edit them.

Perhaps I could ask folks to refrain from editing at the moment. I try to read every comment and can fix things if they are obvious problems.

[Or boring old posts from Bernie... Just kidding! Don't have a cow, man!!!]


Brian Williams
51 Posted 09/08/2022 at 18:53:48
Danny @46.

Noooooooooo Danny, your posts aren't long. :-)))

Bernie Quinn
52 Posted 09/08/2022 at 22:20:13
Hi Michael - I'm not offended and certainly have no quarrel with you; just sorry you find my posts boring. Still - handbags away eh - and offer little fingers!?
Jerome Shields
53 Posted 10/08/2022 at 23:01:23
Good Luck Lyndon.
Brendan McLaughlin
54 Posted 10/08/2022 at 23:07:52
Migrating to a new server on the first day of the season with no guaranteed Live Forum up front... pretty Everton that!

Well done, Lyndon.

Jay Harris
55 Posted 10/08/2022 at 00:02:40
Well done, Lyndon,

Much faster now and I'm sure you will iron any bugs out as we go along.

I notice some posters are managing space between their paragraphs but I can't seem to achieve that. My paragraphs are all running into each other.

Do I need to do something differently now?

Duncan McDine
56 Posted 11/08/2022 at 09:28:38
Hi Lyndon. Just a quick one to let you know that when I click on the ‘comments' button (top of the page) it just goes blank. I'm using an iPhone. Cheers

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