Holy crapperdoodles! Web site upgraded
You know, it has been almost two years since the last major update, and that's like, fourteen dog years. Which is pretty much the same in internet years, and that is a long time.
Therefore, a completely new web site, not just in appearance but under the hood, too. Actually, changing the appearance is not so hard, but it is the under the hood stuff that takes all the time.
For the record -- mostly my own record -- here's what happened this round:
Upgraded the Joomla core from 1.5.x to 2.5.x. If somebody would explain Joomla's version numbering, I would probably just stare blankly, because it would still make no sense. The last update was from 1.0.x to 1.5.x, but it should have been called 2.0. I skipped versions 1.6 and 1.7, but I think they should have been 2.5... or maybe 3.0? This version should be at least 3.0. Who knows.
Upgraded the Zoo component from 2.0.x to 2.5.x. Hey, is Yootheme doing the same thing with their numbering schemes? Maybe not, because this wasn't too bad, and just requiried some mySQL database dumping and re-importing, and other stuff. The hard and time consuming part was changing my Zoo blog structure to something that works a little better. Did I mention that Zoo is the content construction kit component that powers my Geocoin Collection? That's what it is.
Upgraded Phoca Gallery and the Phoca Guestbook. The only tricky thing here was the pagination. After upgrading it had no formatting and looked like total crap. I had to identify the problem in the PHP scripts, then modify the code. When I got that right it was FIST PUMP time. Yeah!
Upgraded all the lightbox pop-ups. Previously, I had used some third-party script, but since I use Yootheme's excellent templates and Zoo component, it only makes sense to use their brand new Widgetkit component. After all, it's all tightly integrated and it's German-engineered. Slick stuff. But I had to change everything. So there's that.
Plus, a whole bunch of other stuff. Then there's the final fun part of moving all the tens of thousands of files around and doing the final tweaks to make the whole thing work. And it works.
Finally, if you are actually reading this and you're not me (because I am writing this mostly for myself), why not sign the guestbook and let me know? I'd be tickled to hear it.
