I spent yesterday working on the Player Profiles on GPL. These profiles are built by the SportsPress (SP) plugin that I have been using for a long time. I was always frustrated with how the profiles looked. Well, at least the part that was generated by SP which was the top part with all the player main specs. Below it was content I have always generated by myself since SP allowed that. But I needed some strong coding to fix what they generate. So working with Gemini Code Assist yesterday we got it all fixed up.
You can see the old and new versions of the profile with the attached screenshots. How they just put plain text and whatnot was really outdated. So the new profile shows the number and what country the player is from in a much nicer way over the profile photo. Instead of the tiny images they were using for the country, it is now actually using a unicode character instead. The code just reads the country and displays it on it's own. Looks nice!
The rest of the data is organized and much cleaner in a "Player Vitals" section that uses the GPL theme colors. I even built in code to retrieve the NHL logo and team website if the player has been drafted. I need to make sure the team name in each profile is in their correctly and the code takes over to populate the data.
So the player profiles are MUCH MUCH better visually now.
You can pick any player the view their profile on the Roster Page. Let me know what you think of this change/update.
OLD vs NEW Below
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Jup, question…the last year I’ve had a problem with topics not letting me see the latest posts. I see the list of topics and under the headline is usually a gray arrow showing the latest post. Now at random intervals and random posts, the gray arrow is there but no post. When I click on topic it goes to the first page, not the last. And it’s not every topic, it changes. It’s not my cache as it comes and goes with irregularly. It doesn’t seem to matter if I’m logged in or not.
Dorothy: Who’s that?
Scarecrow: A man with an axe and a can of lube. I’ll ask if he wants to join us.
Jup, question…the last year I’ve had a problem with topics not letting me see the latest posts. I see the list of topics and under the headline is usually a gray arrow showing the latest post. Now at random intervals and random posts, the gray arrow is there but no post. When I click on topic it goes to the first page, not the last. And it’s not every topic, it changes. It’s not my cache as it comes and goes with irregularly. It doesn’t seem to matter if I’m logged in or not.
I guess I am not quite following you. When you are on the portal page or a forum page like THIS PAGE?
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Jup, question…the last year I’ve had a problem with topics not letting me see the latest posts. I see the list of topics and under the headline is usually a gray arrow showing the latest post. Now at random intervals and random posts, the gray arrow is there but no post. When I click on topic it goes to the first page, not the last. And it’s not every topic, it changes. It’s not my cache as it comes and goes with irregularly. It doesn’t seem to matter if I’m logged in or not.
I guess I am not quite following you. When you are on the portal page or a forum page like THIS PAGE?
Heres a screen shot.
Notice how under Might Be a Stupid Subject there is an arrow but no post, while any other topic has the latest post showing. Just to add even more weirdness, it’s MY post that’s not showing under MBASS, BUT my post to you under Website Support does show after the arrow. Like I said, it’s random and makes no sense to me when or why it doesn’t show. It doesn’t seem to be on my part as like examples above, it’s there and not there for the same poster, me.
Dorothy: Who’s that?
Scarecrow: A man with an axe and a can of lube. I’ll ask if he wants to join us.
Notice how under Might Be a Stupid Subject there is an arrow but no post, while any other topic has the latest post showing. Just to add even more weirdness, it’s MY post that’s not showing under MBASS, BUT my post to you under Website Support does show after the arrow. Like I said, it’s random and makes no sense to me when or why it doesn’t show. It doesn’t seem to be on my part as like examples above, it’s there and not there for the same poster, me.
I see what you mean...
When there is nothing there, it mean someone replied with an image/gif, maybe a social post. Something along those lines. The message board software doesn't know how to work with that. What I did when I programmed the Recent Topics on the portal page is when that happens, it will just say [Image / Video / Social]. But that is not built in to the message board software. This is only my custom coded area. Unfortunately since that is built in, there is nothing I can do about it.
I rarely use the Recent Posts / Topics page, so I guess I do not pay attention.
Basically it comes down to the message board not wanting to post a big image in a little window.
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@kelly-red if you just click the topic title, it will take you right to the first unread post in that thread when you are on the Recent Post / Topics page.
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Really random and probably inconsequential, but I noticed the player roster page was organized alphabetically by first name, which is a bit odd. Intentional, or just how this program does it?
Really random and probably inconsequential, but I noticed the player roster page was organized alphabetically by first name, which is a bit odd. Intentional, or just how this program does it?
The SportsPress Pro plugin that I have been using for years only has a single name field. So first and last need to go in there. It also makes the url for the player as well. So that mean the sort will automatically do it by first name.
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Just made some tweaks to the mobile interface in the message board. Just wanted to clean up the user name area and info a bit. Put the avatars on the right. Made some things better and cleaner.
Edit: It may need some cache clearing for it to show up looking different for you. Just never know.
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I created a custom plugin for Vegoe's Top 20 Poll. It now loads the most recent poll as well as give you access to the entire season as well on a single page. I will get last years polls added soon. If Veegs wrote an article about that particular week, you will see it displayed below the poll. You can also chart how teams have moved within his poll as well. Just select a team and chart it out.
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Yeah... The recent topics that is at the end of the topic sucks. It is built in to the forum software. I wanted to replace it will my custom code on the Portal page, but was unable to do that.
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Yeah... The recent topics that is at the end of the topic sucks. It is built in to the forum software. I wanted to replace it will my custom code on the Portal page, but was unable to do that.
Ok - I could have sworn on mobile after entering a topic and scrolling to the last post that unread topics/portal used to be visible but apparently not. 🤣
Ok - I could have sworn on mobile after entering a topic and scrolling to the last post that unread topics/portal used to be visible but apparently not.
I honestly have no idea, I have never used the feature.
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Yeah... The recent topics that is at the end of the topic sucks. It is built in to the forum software. I wanted to replace it will my custom code on the Portal page, but was unable to do that.
Ok - I could have sworn on mobile after entering a topic and scrolling to the last post that unread topics/portal used to be visible but apparently not. 🤣
They were before the new updates a couple weeks ago.
Actually, I didn't shut it off to link to the first unread... I select YES on that option and it refuses to save the preference. So it is basically broken.
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I have completely revamped the NCAA and MN Stats pages.
NCAA now loads very fast compared to how it used to load. All Men and Women in D1 stats are there. Skater, Goalie, Team. I also have 5 seasons worth of data as well. Very slick.
The Minnesota Stat page is using the same format and actually pulling it's data from the national stats. Same deal with 5 seasons worth of data. I have found the Team tab to be most interesting. I created "cards" showing how MN compares in certain stats. Their number and ranking. How they compare to the best and worst. IT is interesting to see how bad some of these stats are when you load different seasons.
Data now goes back to 2018-19. But as you go further back, some things break. ON the national side, you have teams that no longer exist. Many Minneota players I no longer have on our site, so their links are broken. But the data is better than nothing.
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I have just upgraded the message board software from 2.4 to 3.0. A brand new version. It will be slow for a bit while the cache gets caught up for everyone. Still tweaking a few things here and there, but this is a good thing in the long run. As usual, let me know if you get any errors. There will be issues with CSS as I work my way through it all, but I am more concerned about real errors vs how things look right now.
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There is a "Recent Activity" page now that shows you all the recent replies, reactions and whatnot. Not sure what anyone would use it for, but it is in the Community menu.
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Small item. In the box that we type out a post, I can’t access the smiley face in the lower right corner lately. Can’t get to the little “M” that I like to use on occasion
Small item. In the box that we type out a post, I can’t access the smiley face in the lower right corner lately. Can’t get to the little “M” that I like to USA on occasion
Same here. It's there, and I can select it, but it doesn't do anything.
Small item. In the box that we type out a post, I can’t access the smiley face in the lower right corner lately. Can’t get to the little “M” that I like to USA on occasion
Same here. It's there, and I can select it, but it doesn't do anything.
Ooooh.... That's a good one! The smiley face is actually an added feature. So I will have to reach out to them on that to get a fix.
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There is a "Recent Activity" page now that shows you all the recent replies, reactions and whatnot. Not sure what anyone would use it for, but it is in the Community menu.
the recent posts are highlighting again so you can view unread threads at the end of a topic like we used to without having to go to the portal main page again!
Edit: it appears to take you to the end of the thread though and not the first unread.
the recent posts are highlighting again so you can view unread threads at the end of a topic like we used to without having to go to the portal main page again!
Yep! I knew you'd like that. The old "widgets" where just broken and changing settings would not save. They were re-written for this new version.
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I found the problem with the smilies. It was actually a javascript error with one of the custom plugins that I created recently. I just fixed that error and now they are working again!
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Hey dumb question, but did one of the upgrades to the site, axe the ability to post GIFs? I tried to add one of Jagr but could not for the life of me find where the GIF button is.
'29, '40, '74, '76, '79, '02, & '03
GPL's Resident Cabin Enthusiast & Cadets Hockey Fan
Hey dumb question, but did one of the upgrades to the site, axe the ability to post GIFs? I tried to add one of Jagr but could not for the life of me find where the GIF button is.
You are correct... I need to investigate.
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Hey dumb question, but did one of the upgrades to the site, axe the ability to post GIFs? I tried to add one of Jagr but could not for the life of me find where the GIF button is.
You are correct... I need to investigate.
Interesting... During one of the updates, the extra smiles and gifs in the bottom right of the text box was deactivated. Looks like Private messages was deactivated as well. I just reactivated them and all seems to be back to normal. No idea why they were deactivated.
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“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Been adding more Women's content to the site, still very much in progress. But you will notice up top in the menu are changed up navigation. Instead of B1G and UofM, now you will see Men and Women. The old B1G has been moved to the men's menu.
Still building more women's content, so that menu will get more populated as content gets added. But I have added some of their content to the Game Info tab on the portal page. Small steps... But we are getting there.
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I just implemented a custom plugin I built to allow me to remove old threads that are locked and NOT have it affect your post count or Reputation Points. I just removed that Trivia Post from 2022 and before removal it had over 6000 posts. @zwak had about 1400 posts in that thread. But after deletion, he still has the same post count and Rep Pts.
The original GPL message board allowed me to prune old threads without messing up post counts. Well, that is finally back!
Another small plugin I built was the actual Pruning process itself. The built in wpForo software when deleting a thread deleted it 1 post/reply at a time and then recalculated the stats after each deletion. Just removing a 500 post thread would take 20-30m and sometimes timed out. I would have to come back and finish the remaining deletions. Took FOREVER!!!
Well this new pruning method/plugin just goes straight in an deletes the entire thread and it works with the post count plugin to keep everything in order. Then it "fixes" the post counts so they are not lost. Very slick. That 6000+ post Trivia thread was removed in 45 seconds!
So yes... Totally nerd stuff on my end, but it is cool to create customizations like this. Not sure why the message board software doesn't do this in the first place. But I can at now at least delete old stuff without affecting your count or rank!
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Every time I turn around, you're doing something good with the board. Keep up the good work, Jup.
Thanks.
I just think there is no need to keep old threads forever when it is not really need. But I didn't want to mess up the users stats. So I will be spending some time removing old threads just to make this place a bit more lean.
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I have purged about 35k in topics/posts in about a 10 minute span. Something that would have taken days without this new plugin AND the stats would have been gone too.
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Player profiles have been completely re-written and are quite different in the main player card area. A few examples: Brodie Ziemer and Emma Kreisz. The Roster "Profiles" are slimmed down a bit. Men's Roster. The recruits area is also revised as well. Men's Recruits / Transfers.
I just didn't like the previous changes, so I re-wrote a lot of code to get this up and running.
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Revamp the Officials profiles on GPL. I still need to take photos of so many of them, but can anyone help with their numbers? Most of my photos are of their faces not their numbers. So I have no idea what their numbers are. Any help?
Revamp the Officials profiles on GPL. I still need to take photos of so many of them, but can anyone help with their numbers? Most of my photos are of their faces not their numbers. So I have no idea what their numbers are. Any help?
As you may have noticed, there is a new birthday widget in various places for players and staff. Logged in users can close it if you want to make it go away. It should return for the next birthday. Guests (logged out) users cannot remove it.
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I just blocked a bunch of countries from accessing GPL... 99.9999% of the time the site gets slow or doesn't load because of BOTS hitting the site all at once from different locations. Today I was actually ON the site when it happened and I could see the logs at the exact moment. All foreign countries. So I just decided to block those suspect countries and hopefully it limits this issue a bit more.
I believe we have a few people across the globe that regularly use the site. Hopefully I didn't block them.
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“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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