Now that the problem of new members being able to register has been solved (happily no spam registrations since I worked out a solution) I've been busy working in the background on how to make the home page look current and indeed useful.
Anyway, I've come up with a concept that displays a summary of each game with links to the BBC Match Report, the MFC Highlights Video and of course a link to the Diasboro match preview. I've set up a spreadsheet and have written some code to automatically generate the page from the data in my spreadsheet so it's a quick process after each game.
These are displayed in a responsive grid that changes depending on the screen resolution of your device - so if you have a laptop you'll probably see a row of 3 Matches - a tablet will probably show 2 in the row and a small phone will just be a single match per row - though if you rotate your phone to letterbox orientation you'll probably see 2 per row.
I've been testing it on all my various devices and it seems to work in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and Safari browsers.
Though for the new stylesheet to load and display the contents of the new home page correctly you will need to completely reload the page as browsers tend to 'cache' most files on your device (i.e. store the old version in memory) until you tell it to reload the page completely.
If you can see the message "You need to reload the page..." then it means the new stylesheet is not loaded - once the new stylesheet is load this message is then hidden.
If you have a Windows laptop that is easily done by pressing 'ctrl' and 'F5' at the same time or 'ctrl' and 'Refresh'
However, mobile devices are less straight forward and the best way I found was:
- first turn on 'airplane mode' (usually a slider under settings)
- go to back to your browser and open the Diasboro home page then click on the refresh button - it will probably then tell you that you're not connected to wifi or mobile signal and then just show a blank page - this is what you want.
- go back to settings and turn 'airplane mode' off again
- now go back to the Diasboro home page in your browser and refresh the page again and this will now force the browser to reload the page with the new stylesheet.
Hopefully, you all understood that and if you didn't or you couldn't get the home page to load correctly then post a message and I'm sure we'll sort it between us
Sorted. Good work @werdermouth
The links to the highlights and BBC reports are fantastic. I’m in awe of your skills - if only I could apply them to my own Blog, instead of using the numpties who I pay at the moment. (To be fair they haven’t billed me this year - they’ve probably forgotten I exist).
Just noticed Chrome browser was displaying the text in the Welcome and Register boxes in uppercase so have amended the stylesheet to fix that.
This is superb. Thank you very much for conceiving it and then putting it together.
My windows version worked straight away, but the 'airplane mode' method didn't work for me in Chrome on my android phone. However going into Settings, then Apps and then clearing the cache for Chrome did the trick.
Thanks and thanks for the tip on how to clear the cache on Android phones - I’ve only got an iPhone so couldn’t test the airplane mode on Android. You would think all these tech firms would have a simple button to load the latest version of a website but I guess that would be too easy 😆
Wow. That looks fantastic Werder. The thought and effort you have put in really shows. Many, many thanks for maintaining this playground for us all to be ourselves in.
Werder
Could we include a page showing how to post new match previews ?
Could we also post the schedule of games with those Diasborians allocated to write the previews (excluding email details etc)
This will hopefully help posters writing previews for the first time and letting Diasborians see how much time they have before flexing their writing skills.
If you think this is ok I can email you the spreadsheet for the season
OFB
Great stuff Werder. Thanks for all of your hard work and expertise
That looks amazing. For some reason - maybe iOS 17 did it - my iPad automatically switched to the new version and actually shows all games for the whole season as you scroll down. I haven’t tried the laptop yet which is Windows based.
UTB
Tried to update on the Windows laptop and was having trouble as Control + F5 wasn't working. Discovered that I have a function key 'fn' which I needed to press at the same time as Control and F5. Worked OK.
UTB
Sorry, I'm not a Macbook Pro guy. I found this online.
- Mac users: hold down Cmd and Shift and then press R on your keyboard.
Good luck
Try in the Safari menu-bar ‘View’ and then option ‘Reload’ - or on the keyboard press Command and R
Thanks all good now. it looks great Werder
No problem with a posting guide - I think I already have access to the spreadsheet as it was uploaded to the forum. I look into it during the next week and set something up and provide a visible link or menu option in the Forum.
Looks fantastic Werder, thank you for all your hard work.
I was only going to show 6-12 games on the home page but since there were only 14 at the moment I thought I'd include them all for now. Though obviously as the season progresses it will be too many games to show on the home page so what I will do is create a new page that will show all the games and just have the last 6-12 games on the home page with a link to a page with all games.
@werdermouth. Thanks Werder for this, your skills and all your hard work are very much appreciated; it looks amazing and works flawlessly.
I have so far only loaded on iPad using a Chrome browser and will try Windows lap top later.
The flight mode method did not work for me. I have Diasboro forum loaded as a favourite, so removed it from favourites and then typed Diasboro.club into my browser which brought up the new home page which I have now saved as a favourite.
On a separate note, when liking a post I have noticed that I often have to hit the thumbs up button two or three times for all likes to be correctly recorded.
For example, OFB had liked one of your posts, I liked it and my name replaced OFB, I hit the button again and my name was replaced by OFB. Hit the button again and both our names showed.
On a post which has not been liked, I often have to hit the button three times before my name appears.
On posts which have multiple likes and the number of persons liking recorded, if I like my name appears but one of the others is removed. If I hit the thumbs up button twice more then all names appear and the number of likes is updated.
This is not a major issue and I would not wish you to spend any great time on it but thought you might like to be aware.
I am not sure if this is just particular to me or others are affected. 😎
Thanks and I think the flight-mode method seems the main solution for a Safari browser on a mobile device - Just reading about Chrome on an iPad or iPhone it appears the method to clear the cache and reload a page is to go to History and clear History, cache and cookies - though can't test it as I don't have an iPad.
For something so basic it seems overly complicated that there isn't just a standard method that works on all devices and browsers so that updated files get reloaded. Browsers, particularly on mobile devices, do this to minimize data downloading so opt to cache most files on the device.
Though there may be a way where I can set some expiry date in a configuration file on the Diasboro server to force a page to be reloaded by a user's browser. I will look into it for future updates.
As for the problem with the 'likers' - yes I've noticed it and have looked into it but it appears to be something that happens at random and can't seem to find any errors in the code. The likers code uses a Forum software function so it may also be related to either the server or browser caching variables.
If I force the Forum software to reload a thread or topic then everything gets sorted to how it should be - also if someone else likes a post that often resets the likes to how they should be. It's that black box problem of not knowing what's happening on the inside but only seeing the result from the input.
Werder,
I emptied the Cache, reloaded and hey presto, it's there and working on safari and Opera. A souped-up Diasboro. Well done and very, very good indeed. Thank you for your considerable efforts.
UTB,
John
@werdermouth. Thanks Werder for the feedback and I forgot to mention that as part of reloading the new page I did clear the cache, cookies and history before trying to reload and that clearly worked.
Glad it’s not just me that was having the “like” issue, it’s not a big deal and as I said earlier not worth spending time on, we can live with it. 😎
@werdermouth with my Android tablet (pretty new Sqmsung) I needed as part of reloading the new page to clear the cache, cookies and history before trying to reload and only then it worked.
I did try the initial instruction a few times without success. So the home page looks new and nice, but this forum page is as before - am I right?
Up the Boro!
@werdermouth. Just updated my lap top with the new home page. It looks amazing on the bigger screen and highly professional. Well done and thank you. 😊😎
Yes it does appear that tablets - especially if they use a Chrome browser - need to delete the History, cache and cookies to be able to reload a page. People often complain about Windows but at least they have a simple system of 'Control' + Refresh to reload a page - can't really understand why there isn't a simple menu option on phones and tablets to reload an updated page.
And in answer to your question - no I haven't changed the Forum pages 😀 The reason I changed the home page was that it was completely out of date (Neil Warnock was the last manager displayed!) and I hadn't spent time on it previously because the problem of registration for new members meant I was contemplating moving Diasboro back to Wordpress.com.
However, having solved that problem it was time to start making the Diasboro.club site more current and accessible - I will work in the background adding a few more features and making it easier to find all the content of previous seasons too.