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Back up and running - using phpBB 3.2 now

Posted: March 23rd, 2017, 11:18 am
by Jonathan Robie
B-Greek is now using the latest phpBB software, and is back up and running. Thanks to the folks at ibiblio and at phpBB's support forum for their help!

Some changes in the newer software:

- Security improvements
- Much more readable on smartphones and small screen devices
- Small improvements to the UI

The fonts look good on my screens, please let me know if you have difficulty with fonts on your devices.

Apologies for taking 2 days to get this to work, I ran into a database problem, then a php version issue that took me some time to diagnose. No data was lost.

As some of you know, I did this in response to a hacker who had managed to insert a link into one of our pages. As far as I can tell, that link would not have damaged anyone's computer or inserted malware. The site should be secure now, phpBB has regular security scans and this is the latest version.

Re: Back up and running - using phpBB 3.2 now

Posted: March 23rd, 2017, 11:36 am
by Wes Wood
Thank you for spending your time and energy fixing the site, and for all that you do behind the scenes! Great job! :D :D :D

Re: Back up and running - using phpBB 3.2 now

Posted: March 24th, 2017, 2:19 pm
by Stephen Hughes
It is certainly better on portrait shaped (longer up than across) devices than before.

Here is a sample of how Greek appears on my mobile.

[Actually, I can't upload files now. Is that just me?]

Re: Back up and running - using phpBB 3.2 now

Posted: March 24th, 2017, 4:44 pm
by Jonathan Robie
Stephen Hughes wrote: March 24th, 2017, 2:19 pm It is certainly better on portrait shaped (longer up than across) devices than before.

Here is a sample of how Greek appears on my mobile.

[Actually, I can't upload files now. Is that just me?]
Ooops, I had a file permission wrong. It works now - here is a screenshot of your last post.
Screen Shot 2017-03-24 at 3.46.42 PM.png
Screen Shot 2017-03-24 at 3.46.42 PM.png (43.45 KiB) Viewed 10493 times

Re: Back up and running - using phpBB 3.2 now

Posted: March 24th, 2017, 7:39 pm
by Stephen Hughes
Stephen Hughes wrote: March 24th, 2017, 2:19 pm It is certainly better on portrait shaped (longer up than across) devices than before.

Here is a sample of how Greek appears on my mobile.

[Actually, I can't upload files now. Is that just me?]
This is just the same font issue from before, I guess.

Re: Back up and running - using phpBB 3.2 now

Posted: March 25th, 2017, 1:09 pm
by Jonathan Robie
I tried adding a Google web-based font. Does this look good to you now?
Καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ γάμος ἐγένετο ἐν Κανὰ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, καὶ ἦν ἡ μήτηρ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐκεῖ·
How about this?
ἁμαρτία, -ας, ἡ (< ἁμαρτάνω, q.v.), [in LXX chiefly for חַטָּאת and cogn. forms, also for פֶּשַׁע ,עָוֹן, etc. ;]
This question is for anyone who wants to answer. Is this a usable font in your environment?

Re: Back up and running - using phpBB 3.2 now

Posted: March 26th, 2017, 3:58 am
by S Walch
I can read the Greek fine, via Chrome on either Windows or Android.

Could we have a better Hebrew font? Something akin to what we have over at B-Hebrew would be swell :D

Furthermore, did all the text here just get about 25% larger? Checked, and I haven't accidently increased my browser viewing size :)

Re: Back up and running - using phpBB 3.2 now

Posted: March 26th, 2017, 6:15 am
by Jonathan Robie
The font size is larger because I wanted to make it easier to read diacritics, and I know we have some older people whose eyesight is not what it was. Is it too large, or is this just something you noticed?

It's hard to find a font that is (1) available as a Google font so it doesn't use whatever is on someone's system, (2) supports the Greek extended character set, and (3) supports Hebrew. Those are the three criteria I used.

It would be possible to add a special tag for Hebrew, but people are unlikely to remember it and use it, since most posts don't use Hebrew. I don't see many people using some of the special tags we have now.

Re: Back up and running - using phpBB 3.2 now

Posted: March 26th, 2017, 7:13 am
by S Walch
The size is just something I noticed. :)

I actually prefer it; as I have to wear multifocal lenses, the larger size is much easier to read without having to almost hit my face against the monitor to see small text.

Did some googling to see if I could find anything concerning phpbb and Hebrew, and found the one and only Kirk Lowery asking a question on the phpbb support forum, which effectively resulted in him doing what occurs at B-Hebrew anyway :)

Re: Back up and running - using phpBB 3.2 now

Posted: March 26th, 2017, 9:34 am
by Kirk Lowery
Vocalized and cantillated Hebrew is much more difficult to read at smaller font sizes. I created a special "heb" tag, which uses the SBL font (the most readable, IMO) at a higher font size. However, members tend not to use it, because it's an extra step. :-(

Jonathan, you can define any arbitrary tag (with square brackets) in the admin panel. Click on the posting tab. PM or email me if you'd like to see how I did the heb tag. (It comes up, BTW, on the editor toolbar after it's defined.)

Where did you define the default greek font and size, Jonathan?