Posted: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:37:14 +0000
From: Ozz Nixon member since Jun 12 2009, has contibuted 79 messages.

Yeah, there are a couple design flaws in the current version of this message software. Sept/Oct was very crazy gearing up for the new web site servers and infrastructure changes. As of today, we are live on the new IBM Blade Centers --- which means I will have time to focus on this message software and implement features like WYSIWYG, save/cancel buttons instead of assuming people will understand exiting the textbox automatically saved the changes to the server.

Thanks,
Ozz

Posted: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:31:36 +0000
From: Ingemar Ragnemalm member since Aug 17 2009, has contibuted 10 messages.

This system is really strange. In particular, having the message saved when I try to scroll down to check out earlier messages, that is highly unexpected and non-standard. So forgive me if I make half-written messages. It is bound to happen.

Posted: Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:01:30 +0000
From: Ozz Nixon member since Jun 12 2009, has contibuted 79 messages.

SEARCH ENGINE

The search engine rescans the content of the whole server cluster ever couple of minutes - generating a current snap shot. So, you may not be able to search for your new message or new topic for a few minutes, however, you can still navigate to the messages. Along with edit, reply or even post another new message.

The reason we hold off on automatically reindexing the server cluster instantly is due to the latency of crawling all of the locations. We experimented and found that with normal usage, many times the new message is indexed within a minute or two of saving it... and except for your first couple of messages, you normally would not search for what you just posted... except on a return visit.

We will post another message on how to use the search engine.

Posted: Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:00:42 +0000
From: Ozz Nixon member since Jun 12 2009, has contibuted 79 messages.

Since our server cluster has machines around the world, we elected to use a file based message design. When you enter a new topic, we make a new folder. Every new message is stored as a php include file within that folder. The message software is in read-only mode until you sign-on. Once you have created your account, and/or signed on, the content of your page will change, giving you new features. First you will notice that the orange title bar now has 3 new ICONs displayed, and just below them is a special text message.

A new message is created by simply clicking on the text for a new message,


or the third icon "New Message" button.



This produces a white text area for typing in your message. At first glance it feels like a simply memo box you may have already had experience with. However, we had added some server side macros to help produce useful information in your message body.

First off, as you press enter the carriage return/linefeed is translated to XHTML line breaks. It also translates the ampersand character to XHTML character code &. We also support some inline XHTML code:
<br> - Line Break
<p> - Paragraph Spacing
<strong> - Strong Font Mode
<em> - Emphasized Font Mode
<b> - Bold Font Mode
<i> - Italic Font Mode
<code> - Monospaced Code Font
<h3> -

Header #3 Font Size

These inline XHTML codes will not render until you save your message. We also introduced server side macros to help make this a better messaging tool, especially for programmers. There are four "stamping" macros: In uppercase, lowercase does not translate so we could show them to you!
@NOW@ = RFC_822 Timestamp
@DATE@ = Day, Date Month Year
@TIME@ = HH:MM:SS Zone
@FROM@ = Your IP Address

The only time I could see you using the above macros is to sign your modification if you edited a message - so people would know when you made the revision.

The last set of macros, we call BOX codes:
[CODE]...[/CODE] = produces a nice monospaced solution to render actual code snippets.
[CRT]...[/CRT] = produces a nice monospaced solution on a black background to minic a shell or DOS window output.
[HIGHLIGHT]...[/HIGHLIGHT] = changes the text background to cyan highlighter color.

To save your message simply click outside of the white editor window. This posts the message on the master server which is replicated instantly to the other servers in the cluster. If you need to make any modifications, simply click on the text for your message - it will auto-resume editing as long as you have not left that page. (*) Otherwise you will have to click on the EDIT button (only visible on the message(s) you wrote).

Replying to a message works like "A new message", except your post is inserted into the original message. This helped enforce proper organization. Since this is an AJAX based solution, you can also press the ESC key to abort your new message or new reply.