AltArc

[Fraxtil]

What was my map number? On a similar note, how is the URL set up?

As Gforce mentioned many posts ago, the map URLs are the same as NUMA's. So, Life247, your map used to be altarc.sector-five.net/2. And usernames are the same as maps but with a tilde in front of the username, I think. So you'd be altarc.sector-five.net/~Life247. And mappacks have a caret (^) in front of them, but I don't know if they go by name or number. Which is it, Gforce?

They go by the name of the mappack. Also, his map number was nonexistent. That's why it went to the home page. I don't recall exactly what caused that, but the bug has been fixed.

Also, I updated the system again, and this time didn't overwrite the user databsae! :D Mappacks are now fully functional, as well as the private messaging system. Next on my list is the batch-download function.

Edit: WTF, the user database just deleted itself! O__O I still have that same old backup, but it looks like one person who re-registered will have to do so again.

Maybe people should just wait until AltArc is stable. I would be pissed off at this point if my registration was deleted three times.

[Nexx]

Maybe people should just wait until AltArc is stable. I would be pissed off at this point if my registration was deleted three times.

That's probably a good idea. But why isn't it stable? And if you don't know why the database is erasing itself, how can you guarantee it won't do that in the future?

EDIT: Speaking of instabilities, I just submitted a map. For whatever reason, it's map 2. But more importantly, the comments I made on map 2 from two databases back are sitting right there on my newly submitted map (the old map was Life247's). Very strange.

EDIT 2: Another big problem: I click on "users" and it takes me to a page with only one user box, and it doesn't even have any information in the fields - name is blank, under that it says "maps:", then "avg rating:N/A", etc. Total messed-up-ness.

[Fraxtil]

Maybe people should just wait until AltArc is stable. I would be pissed off at this point if my registration was deleted three times.

That's probably a good idea. But why isn't it stable? And if you don't know why the database is erasing itself, how can you guarantee it won't do that in the future?

EDIT: Speaking of instabilities, I just submitted a map. For whatever reason, it's map 2. But more importantly, the comments I made on map 2 from two databases back are sitting right there on my newly submitted map (the old map was Life247's). Very strange.

EDIT 2: Another big problem: I click on "users" and it takes me to a page with only one user box, and it doesn't even have any information in the fields - name is blank, under that it says "maps:", then "avg rating:N/A", etc. Total messed-up-ness.

It's just unstable because it's not yet complete. It's not thoroughly tested yet. Also, I'll eventually find the problem with the database being wiped. If it's happening on the public version, it's probably happening on my development box, and if it's solely the public version, I'll just make sure to do a clean wipe of the old system next time.

I got the same problem with the first map being #2. It seems to just affect the very first map submission, though. I'll look into it.

As for the "users" being one blank box.... that's because the user db erased itself again. :/ I think it happens when maps are submitted. I'm working on it as we speak.

EDIT: The problem has been identified. One line fixed the problem. I forgot to make a variable inside a function global. I'm an idiot. :| So... AltArc is stable once more, and the old user database will be restored soon.

[otters]

I'm guessing you're aware of the fact that Users are Not Found when clicking on their name...for example, http://altarc.sector-five.net/~Destiny doesn't exist.

[Destiny]

yeah, I totally submitted a map. It rocked.

[Fraxtil]

I'm guessing you're aware of the fact that Users are Not Found when clicking on their name...for example, http://altarc.sector-five.net/~Destiny doesn't exist.

I haven't gotten around to restoring the user database yet. I came to a rather startling realization that AltArc is seriously inefficient with sorting maps, and since then I've been trying to get it to be faster. With 40 maps in the database, it takes a full second to process a search query, and that number increases proportionally (think 10 seconds to search through 400 maps, 1 minute 40 seconds to search through 4000 maps...), so I can't leave it alone.

[otters]

Oh, yeah, that's probably not good. Is that why the site is down? Maintenance?

[Fraxtil]

Oh, yeah, that's probably not good. Is that why the site is down? Maintenance?

*nods*
I've begun to make it more efficient, and so far I've gotten the lag down to about 60% of what it originally was. That's still unacceptably slow, but I have plans to make it even faster.
Here's an idea of how the original system worked:
- First, create an array containing all the maps in the entire database.
- Generate the appropriate HTML code for every map and store it in the same array.
- Filter results based upon the search query and date.
- Sort the filtered results by the user's preference.
- Display the first ten of those results (or whatever count=x is).
Obviously this was bad. Now it still creates an array of every map, but it only stores the necessary information (map ID and the sort parameter, such as the map's rating, votes, favorites, or whatever).

[LittleViking]

Oh, yeah, that's probably not good. Is that why the site is down? Maintenance?

*nods*
I've begun to make it more efficient, and so far I've gotten the lag down to about 60% of what it originally was. That's still unacceptably slow, but I have plans to make it even faster.
Here's an idea of how the original system worked:
- First, create an array containing all the maps in the entire database.
- Generate the appropriate HTML code for every map and store it in the same array.
- Filter results based upon the search query and date.
- Sort the filtered results by the user's preference.
- Display the first ten of those results (or whatever count=x is).
Obviously this was bad. Now it still creates an array of every map, but it only stores the necessary information (map ID and the sort parameter, such as the map's rating, votes, favorites, or whatever).

How many parameters are going to be available for searching and sorting? I'll help you flesh out an indexing system if you're interested.

[Fraxtil]

Oh, yeah, that's probably not good. Is that why the site is down? Maintenance?

*nods*
I've begun to make it more efficient, and so far I've gotten the lag down to about 60% of what it originally was. That's still unacceptably slow, but I have plans to make it even faster.
Here's an idea of how the original system worked:
- First, create an array containing all the maps in the entire database.
- Generate the appropriate HTML code for every map and store it in the same array.
- Filter results based upon the search query and date.
- Sort the filtered results by the user's preference.
- Display the first ten of those results (or whatever count=x is).
Obviously this was bad. Now it still creates an array of every map, but it only stores the necessary information (map ID and the sort parameter, such as the map's rating, votes, favorites, or whatever).

How many parameters are going to be available for searching and sorting? I'll help you flesh out an indexing system if you're interested.

Searching includes title, author, type, and tags. Sorting includes number (aka date), rating, votes, views, and favorites, in ascending or descending order.

[Pikman]

I can't register for AltArc. I get "Error on page" as soon as I hit the button and submit.

[otters]

I can't register for AltArc. I get "Error on page" as soon as I hit the button and submit.

I'm guessing this is because the user database isn't back up yet—have you been reading this thread?

[Fraxtil]

I just got an idea, possibly inspired by what LV was saying. What if all the major search queries were cached, and regenerated each time a map's metadata is changed (e.g. someone votes)? That way the lag would only occur when somebody performs an action on a map, and not when simply browsing maps without making modifications?

[otters]

Sounds good to me (and we all know how much my opinion in coding counts).

Also, I was only slightly bored and decided to make a few buttons for AltArc, with which hopefully you'll be able to replace regular old text links on the map pages.







(Instead of just using the images, you might want to make a class for each link and set these as the background: once other themes are made for AltArc there will need to be other buttons to go with them)

[Fraxtil]

Good news, everyone!
But seriously. I found the bottleneck that was slowing down AltArc's map-searching function. It was a function I had written before I even started AltArc that works with XML, and it was used as many as ten times per each map in the database, for every search query. There was a plethora of features in that function that I never used, so I stripped most of them out and compacted everything into a two-line function that's equally functional, but at a very small fraction of the original speed. A 1000 map database now loads in slightly over half a second, and sorting them by rating doubles that figure. It's still too slow to be considered acceptable, but compared to a full second to load a 25 map database, it's an unbelievable improvement.

Also, incluye: Thanks for the images, I'll be sure to implement them into the theme when I get the chance.

[otters]

Do you have the source files? I'm working on another theme and they would be extremely helpful.

[Fraxtil]

No, I don't. I deleted them and started working from scratch again.

I'll PM you with the files later today.

[Destiny]

That sounds painful. I had to do that making a simple game of hangman, because I hadnt stored each letter of a guess as an array and it was all very messy. Obviously that is much smaller a job, but i remember what it felt like to have wasted all that effort ;_;

[Fraxtil]

That sounds painful. I had to do that making a simple game of hangman, because I hadnt stored each letter of a guess as an array and it was all very messy. Obviously that is much smaller a job, but i remember what it felt like to have wasted all that effort ;_;

I hope you know I was being sarcastic, because I'm not sure if you're doing the same or not.

Descriptions and comments now support multiple-line input, and avatar support is also complete. In addition to these updates, users can now customize their default search preferences.

Edit: Does this look like a good default avatar to everyone else? I think the max size will be 80x80 pixels.

[EdoI]

This is what I get when I go to the AltArc...

[Fraxtil]

This is what I get when I go to the AltArc...

I'm looking into that right now. I don't know what's causing it, but it might be that the httpd is down at the moment.

[Arachnid]

Oh, yeah, that's probably not good. Is that why the site is down? Maintenance?

*nods*
I've begun to make it more efficient, and so far I've gotten the lag down to about 60% of what it originally was. That's still unacceptably slow, but I have plans to make it even faster.
Here's an idea of how the original system worked:
- First, create an array containing all the maps in the entire database.
- Generate the appropriate HTML code for every map and store it in the same array.
- Filter results based upon the search query and date.
- Sort the filtered results by the user's preference.
- Display the first ten of those results (or whatever count=x is).
Obviously this was bad. Now it still creates an array of every map, but it only stores the necessary information (map ID and the sort parameter, such as the map's rating, votes, favorites, or whatever).

Ready to take back those things you said about NUMA's sorting and filtering being easy to improve yet? ;)

Seriously, though, if you haven't already, you need to look at indexing, and learn about big-O runtime. In a nutshell, if you continue to take your current approach, no matter how efficient you make it, it's going to be unacceptably slow once you get a decent number of maps. This is only going to work at all if you do your filtering in the database, with indexes, and only retrieve matching maps.

[Fraxtil]

Ready to take back those things you said about NUMA's sorting and filtering being easy to improve yet? ;)

Yeah, you got me. :/

Seriously, though, if you haven't already, you need to look at indexing, and learn about big-O runtime. In a nutshell, if you continue to take your current approach, no matter how efficient you make it, it's going to be unacceptably slow once you get a decent number of maps. This is only going to work at all if you do your filtering in the database, with indexes, and only retrieve matching maps.

I've been pondering such a system, and I still don't know exactly how I'm going to implement it. For certain, though, there will be database-level indexing before I release the final AltArc.

Edit: I've begun writing the indexer, but have yet to implement it throughout the site. Also, I decided to use AJAX for favoriting and saving maps; voting and commenting may eventually follow suit. JQuery will make things beautiful.
Edit2: The caching is almost complete. I just need to iron out a few bugs in the new search system, and it will be done.
Edit3: AltArc is now very close to completion, as I've fixed the aforementioned bug and added sorting functionality to users and packs. All I need to do now is implement comment reporting and batch-submissions to AltArc and Numa. I'm also going to change the implementation of "default sort parameters" because it's crappy at the moment. :|

[Destiny]

Can't wait to see this done :D

[Nexx]

Is this not being beta-ed atm? 'Cuz I haven't been able to load the site for ages. And if it's not being beta-ed as you're adding the features you mentioned, won't it need to be before it can really be called "completed"?