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View Full Version : New Competition Site - PGDAnnual.com



AthenaOfDelphi
10-05-2009, 11:11 PM
If you've happened to have a nose around the web for stuff relating to the competition, you'll no doubt have seen it referred to as 'The PGD Annual'.

Well, as the site is being revitalised this year, and the competition is back, we have a new site that will host the competitions...

www.pgdannual.com (http://www.pgdannual.com)

This is a very early version of the site software, but I want to avoid any last minute hitches, so I'm opening the site for signups and testing of the parts that are there. Just bear in mind that it will undergo a complete database wipe before it is launched properly ready for the competition. If you find any problems with the site, report them here. Likewise, any comments (good and bad), pop them here.

In case you're wondering... just because it's called pgdannual.com, we won't be limiting it to one competition. Several times, people have commented about having smaller weekend competitions... the plan is that once the system is finished, we'll be able to handle those too.

WILL
11-05-2009, 04:38 AM
Very nice. I like the setup of the new site so far. The front page may have to be configured to allow advertisements, but otherwise it's perfect. ;) Nice job!

Wizard
11-05-2009, 06:34 AM
Looks good Athena, well done! 8)

NecroDOME
11-05-2009, 07:16 AM
I agree, nice work :)

EDIT: Would it be possible to get to work together with the PGD site, so I don't have to register, but use my existing PGD account? (just a thing that came to my mind).

AthenaOfDelphi
11-05-2009, 08:41 AM
I think, at this stage, the answer is no. The competition site requires a lot more information about you (your address for example) that the main site doesn't, and since they are seperate domains, it's not that easy to grab your login information from SMF.

Maybe we could add it in the future, but at the moment... time is tight enough :-)

Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

AthenaOfDelphi
11-05-2009, 08:44 AM
Has anyone actually tried to register an account? I noticed Paul Nicholls tried to login (and I noticed you put an _ in your nickname Paul, the system does allow spaces)

NecroDOME
11-05-2009, 08:48 AM
I tried to register, got a white screen afterwards. User does not exists yet.

Wizard
11-05-2009, 09:01 AM
Also tried to register but got a white screen with no activity...

AthenaOfDelphi
11-05-2009, 09:15 AM
I introduced a tweak to the registration script that blocks certain names and sequences of letters... unfortunately, I keep getting length() and count() muddle up for getting the length of an array :-)

It's fixed now.

NecroDOME
11-05-2009, 09:21 AM
Yup it works now :)

Wizard
11-05-2009, 10:03 AM
I'm also registered :)

AthenaOfDelphi
11-05-2009, 10:10 AM
Thanks guys, as said in my original post, it's not all there yet... I'm currently working on the machine list which will allow you to see the specs of judges machines. After that, its the competition management stuff and then competition entry, judges entry, stage submissions, scoring.... Yowsers... I have loads to do :o

pstudio
11-05-2009, 11:11 AM
It looks pretty good so far.

The only minor complain I have is that I had to write the full name of my address. I couldn't use a dot (.) like I use to.

AthenaOfDelphi
11-05-2009, 11:21 AM
It looks pretty good so far.

The only minor complain I have is that I had to write the full name of my address. I couldn't use a dot (.) like I use to.


Can you ellaborate a little on this please, with an example. As it's a bit vague at the moment and I'm not sure what you mean.

Thanks

arthurprs
11-05-2009, 02:15 PM
8)cool

chronozphere
11-05-2009, 02:56 PM
This is looking really good. Thanks athena. ;)

Just registered!

Is it going to have a forum also, or do we have to use the these forums for all compo-related discussions?

pjpdev
11-05-2009, 04:01 PM
Looks awesome. Thanks Athena.... Registered my account too. ;D

pstudio
11-05-2009, 06:40 PM
It looks pretty good so far.

The only minor complain I have is that I had to write the full name of my address. I couldn't use a dot (.) like I use to.


Can you ellaborate a little on this please, with an example. As it's a bit vague at the moment and I'm not sure what you mean.

Thanks


Sure
it's nothing big.
Usually I would write my adress like this:


Cath. 'something in between' 1. tv. (where the last part means 1st floor to the left)

instead I had to write

Catherine ... 1 til venstre (though I omitted the last part when I registered)

As I wrote, nothing big. I just can't abbreviate my address.

Ñuño Martínez
12-05-2009, 08:38 AM
That's great. Thanks AthenaOfDelphi.

I had some troubles with the password but I'm finally in. 8) Other issue is about tildes. My real name uses them (Mart??nez) but I think we can live with it. ;)

AthenaOfDelphi
12-05-2009, 08:45 AM
Seems I've been abit too restrictive... I'll look at loosening some of the validation up.

And just remember everyone thats registered... the DB is going to be completely wiped before the system goes live for real. This is purely on-line to test stuff and iron out the kinks and so far, thanks to you all because we have ironed out some problems.

pjpdev
12-05-2009, 08:48 PM
Hi

My real name has a "-" in and the system doesn't like it, but thats not a problem. The big prob I have is that I didn't receive my activation e-mail, and I registered last night. I know my supplied e-mail adress is correct, because if I try to log in the system tells me that the account is not activated.

Apart from that... GREAT WORK!!!

Traveler
12-05-2009, 09:02 PM
@PJPDev, I can see you have been added to the system with your current PGD emailaddress. Could you tell if the email ended up in a spamfilter? Several people have registered and activated their accounts already, so I can only assume an activation email has been sent to you as well.

AthenaOfDelphi
12-05-2009, 09:07 PM
Hi

My real name has a "-" in and the system doesn't like it, but thats not a problem. The big prob I have is that I didn't receive my activation e-mail, and I registered last night. I know my supplied e-mail adress is correct, because if I try to log in the system tells me that the account is not activated.

Apart from that... GREAT WORK!!!


I've just sent you an email which will go through the same mail server, so lets see if you get that one. If not, then it could be a block on my mail server by your ISP or something to do with authenticating the server with reverse DNS. Let me know if you get the mail.

With regards to characters not currently allowed... I'm going to expand the list of allowed characters. I mainly limited them to try and reduce the chances of some obscure characters breaking the SQL and allowing injection attacks. But, I don't think thats a problem as I think I've gotten all the ones that could be problematic, so I'lll extend the allowed ranges when I've got the rest of the system sorted.

Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

jdarling
12-05-2009, 09:09 PM
Well, successfully registered awaiting activation email. I have to say its VERY hard for me to read/work with. Hopefully there will be a version that is easier on the eyes :).

Looking forward to the competition this year and can't wait to see the results!

- Jeremy

jdarling
12-05-2009, 09:13 PM
mysql_real_escape_string is your friend AOD. Course I'm taking for granted that you are using MySQL since your using PHP. A nice trick it to place an iterator at the top of your indexer that lets you escape ALL incoming REQUEST values. Then in your DAO simply make sure it calls strip_slashes.

I have a complete DAO with VO support that performs these operations automatically if it would help.

- Jeremy

AthenaOfDelphi
12-05-2009, 10:17 PM
I have to say its VERY hard for me to read/work with. Hopefully there will be a version that is easier on the eyes :).


Hi Jeremy,

What about the site is hard on the eyes from your perspective?

There is a themer element to the site, with the option for users to specify a theme. But it's not implemented fully (i.e. users cannot currently select the theme). So I may be able to sort something out, but I will need clear details about what needs changing, and I'm not making any promises at this stage.

jdarling
12-05-2009, 11:44 PM
I can't get into the site right now (seems down) but there was something about it that gave me a headache. I have to admit that I'm in the general minority though (very few people have the same vision issues I do).

Soon as the site is back up I'll let take another look and let you know.

- Jeremy

AthenaOfDelphi
12-05-2009, 11:54 PM
Hi Jeremy,

Yeah, the site is down because my hosting provider is moving my dedicated server to a new datacenter. I think it went offline at about 12:30am BST, so if they run to the maximum window they gave me, it should be back online no later than 2:30am BST.

I'm guessing that the problem with the site is just the colour scheme... possibly a bit bright. The scheme is just one I put together quickly using some stuff I'd created for another project, so I may tweak it before we go live properly... but thats if I have time.

Anyhow, when the site is back up, have a look and let me know what it is that causes you pain.

jdarling
13-05-2009, 01:08 PM
Finally got back into the competition site here at home. Now little about the site makes me feel ill. I'm guessing this has a lot to do with the color selected as the background of the main body (light yellow?). On my low end CRT at the office it looked BAD while at home on my high end CRT's and LCD's all looks good.

As I said, I have strange eyes so its prolly just me this time around.

The footer and top right of the header are about un-readable due to their small font size. They become blurry quickly on smaller screens (again not a concern on a gamer site).

- Jeremy

AthenaOfDelphi
13-05-2009, 01:13 PM
Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the info. What browser are you using? I have a fairly low end 1440x900 flat panel connected to my laptop. With FireFox 3, it's all fine... but with IE 7, it is pretty small and quite difficult to read. I need to implement browser detection and stylesheet tweaks to handle the differences, but for now, it's taking a back seat.

I'm interested in why the background colour doesn't agree with you. And I'm open to suggestions for alternatives that don't require big changes elsewhere.

jdarling
13-05-2009, 02:00 PM
Browsers are as follows:
FF 3, FF 2 on MAC, Linux and Windows 21" dia wide screen (1920x1200) and 15" CRT (1024x768)
IE 6, 7, 8 on Windows XP and Vista with 21" dia wide screen (1920x1200)
Google Chrome on Windows Vista (guess what 21" dia)
Safari on MAC OS 10.4 (hell if I know what screen size that box is about 15")

Are you using EM's for your text sizes or are you using %'s and px's? If the later it would explain the problem and the difference :).

jdarling
13-05-2009, 02:02 PM
Just looked at the source code, your using px's to set your font size. Switching to EM's would be a better idea, but you will have to switch the ENTIRE design to utilize EM's (at least where graphics aren't concerned).

AthenaOfDelphi
13-05-2009, 02:12 PM
Ok, thanks Jeremy.

I'll look at doing that further down the line.  I've tried not to specify too many sizes, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Edit:- I'll edit that response.... I've changed the stylesheet to us EMs... even with EMs it looked bad in IE, so I've tweaked the sizes slightly so there is no noticeable difference in FireFox, but the IE version looks much nicer. Header and footer are now clearly legible.

jdarling
13-05-2009, 02:45 PM
Not that you want to hear this, but you have a PNG error in IE 6 and 7 with http://www.pgdannual.com/themes/default/images/header.png

Rendered at high res you get a line on the right side of that image that doesn't match up with the BG :(

More to come as I find it :)

AthenaOfDelphi
13-05-2009, 02:53 PM
Not that you want to hear this, but you have a PNG error in IE 6 and 7 with http://www.pgdannual.com/themes/default/images/header.png

Rendered at high res you get a line on the right side of that image that doesn't match up with the BG :(

More to come as I find it :)


Thanks hon, but I already know about that... IE's inability to render PNGs accurately has bitten me in the *BLEEP* before :-)  I'll probably add an alpha blend at that edge so the problem isn't so obvious.

Edit:- BTW, I've not updated the site yet, so none of the changes I've talked about will be present there. I'm planning on an update later tonight when I've finished off the 'My Machines' functionality.

jdarling
13-05-2009, 03:45 PM
If you do that, make sure you use proper IE6 support via scripting and conditional comments. Great article about it at http://www.kashit.org/design/png-transparency-for-internet-explorer/

AthenaOfDelphi
17-05-2009, 01:43 PM
I've just uploaded the 'My Machines' functionality to the competition system site. Please can you give it a whirl and let me know if you experience any problems with it.

Thanks

pjpdev
17-05-2009, 07:17 PM
I've just uploaded the 'My Machines' functionality to the competition system site. Please can you give it a whirl and let me know if you experience any problems with it.

Thanks



Works great!!! Didn't find any problems with it.

Great work...

AthenaOfDelphi
17-05-2009, 07:47 PM
I noticed you signed up again PJP Dev... I could do with knowing whether you've received any mail from me. If not, then I may need to look into the mail transport and whether it's being blocked somewhere along the line.

pjpdev
17-05-2009, 09:40 PM
It's hard to pinpoint where the problem is with mailing. After not receiving the second activation e-mail, I think the problem might be with my mail server. I'll have to talk to my hosting providers about that.

As you've noticed, I got the activation link in my GMail Inbox. So I doubt that its your system.