Hello Everyone!
I’ve finally decided it was about time to post some more news about what’s been happening lately. I’ve moved the source code and issue tracker over to GitLab. I’ve replaced the forum software with something new, and I’m still working on the WordPress plugin for Million Dollar Script 3.0. I’ve also been working on an integration from the old version of MDS to WordPress through iframes. And finally, I’ve added a contact form and a larger privacy policy to the site. I’ll expand a little on these points below.
I’ve been using GitHub for quite awhile for various open source projects. However, yesterday GitHub announced that they were going to be acquired by Microsoft (7.5 billion dollars). I will spare you any sort of rant or further expansion on that subject. I just wanted to mention that I’ve decided to move development over to GitLab. I’ve been using GitLab for awhile for other projects and I find I like it a lot better than GitHub. So this was the final push for me to make the effort to move it over there.
For a long time I had been having issues with the old forum software not sending me notifications of new posts. Sometimes there aren’t a lot of posts on the forums so I don’t check it every day. So it would be nice if I got notifications when people posted. Everything was setup to do that, and sometimes it would work, but then there would be updates to the forum software and it would stop working again. I finally discovered some other forum software that had the ability to migrate away from the old forum plugin and now we have a nice new forum! There were some glitches and things at first with security flaws in the software which have since been fixed and an issue where registration confirmation keys weren’t being validated properly but maybe/hopefully nobody even noticed that. So hopefully it will do the trick and allow people to register and post there now.
Finally, I know I’ve been working on the WordPress plugin for way too long and I wish it was quicker but I do this in my spare time and it’s a complicated task. As I’ve mentioned before, I did keep running into issues and I keep having to find workarounds for things but that’s just how development goes. At any rate, I’m still working away at that. I’ve also been occasionally patching the old version when people report issues to me since I know a lot of people use it. I really want to finish the WordPress plugin though and have been working a fair amount on it but it isn’t in a usable state yet. However I have been moving past many of the issues that have been blocking me for quite awhile because I’ve completely changed how I was going about things. I believe I was hitting bugs in WooCommerce before but I was never able to track down the exact reason for it. At any rate, I can’t promise any release date yet, but with any luck it will be this year at this rate.
I’d also like to mention something else that might be useful to people. While installing sites for people who had ordered installations through the install service I offer, I’ve been perfecting an integration between the old version of MDS and WordPress using a small plugin that displays the MDS pages through iframes inside WordPress pages. This requires a fair amount of work to make it work properly for each site but once that’s done and the plugin is installed into WordPress it’s possible to actually run MDS from a subdomain and display the grid and user pages through the WordPress site on the main domain. This allows you to add your own menu items and customize the look of your site easier by using WordPress themes and whatnot and keep the files separate for the different software installs. I haven’t finished perfecting it for public use yet and I haven’t written any documentation on it yet but for now I can set it up for people if they like when they order the install servers, providing they use the recommended host. So if you sign up for hosting there, and you order the install service, let me know if you want it and I can set you up with a nicer way to customize your site.
Finally, I’ve added a contact form to the site as well as a more detailed privacy policy. The member registration/login system uses the forum software as well now and you can edit your profile and other goodies in the account section. I’ve switched out some other plugins in the background as well so hopefully everything is working alright for everyone. If you have an questions or concerns about any of this you are welcome contact me.
Ryan