Project Euler Forum

A major rewrite of the main website back end has been taking place on my local machine for some time and on 10 August 2017 the updated scripts were uploaded. It is hoped that the changes made will provide a little more fluidity and robustness to the functionality of the website. Sadly, very little has been done in terms of cosmetics, so you are unlikely to notice much on the surface, but I can assure you that significant changes have been made to the way the website handles data.

With any update there is only so much testing that can be done locally before the changes are made to the production website. So it would be very helpful if this thread is used to report any bugs that you might identify. I would ask for your patience if any bugs or issues come to light as I hope the necessary changes will benefit all of us in the long term.

What if the code had many eyes looking at it? That way more bugs can be found.

The scripts have been checked and tested extensively on a local machine. The issue is that we cannot know how it will perform until it goes live on a website where multiple users will be trying to access the same scripts simultaneously. Currently it has many eyes looking at it and it is experiencing the most rigorous testing any developer could hope for.

So far, almost all of the changes I've noted so far has been on the Statistics page.

Anyway, the 'Cached at' info and the time stamp overlaps atleast while on phone. Not a big deal, not a show stopper. Noticed it, hence reporting it.

Also, the 'members at Level 1+' and 'mean number of problems solved' does not make much sense in some places as there are very few data points (South Sudan in Countries is an example). Introducing a cutoff as an eligibility criteria could be an alternative way.

If I've done my job properly you shouldn't notice any changes. Apart from those small changes on the Countries page, it's all back end stuff to do with the way that caching takes place. Because there shouldn't be any particularly notable changes, I was informing members in case any unexpected bugs crept in, so that they would understand why and could help by reporting any they noticed.

Where are you seeing Cached at? The top of the statistics pages have a very short message saying something like, "Cache update: X minutes". It's not a very long message so it shouldn't overlap with anything. Having said that, I don't use a mobile phone so I only design the site for desktop. If it works on phones, then that's a bonus. I have neither the time (nor the interest) to invest any time making the site mobile phone friendly.

When a country has no members at level 1 or higher and you click on that country you get the following message: I'm afraid that the problem will persist until there is at least one member at level 1 or higher for that country.

Thanks, Hans. It should be fixed now.

euler wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 11:03 am ...If it works on phones, then that's a bonus. I have neither the time (nor the interest) to invest any time making the site mobile phone friendly.

Okay.. Seems I said something wrong which I never intended.

I'll continue to visit the site on my laptop then. Thanks

Sorry if it sounded like that. You never said anything wrong and I've always appreciated your feedback. It's just that personally I have no interest in making the website mobile friendly. However, if someone wishes to create a CSS so that it renders better on narrow screen devices, then they are more than welcome. I would recommend that they PM me first.

Apologies euler. Maybe I misinterpreted your reply.

MuthuVeerappanR wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:38 amAlso, the 'members at Level 1+' and 'mean number of problems solved' does not make much sense in some places as there are very few data points (South Sudan in Countries is an example). Introducing a cutoff as an eligibility criteria could be an alternative way.

I forgot to address this. I've modified the scripts to only highlight the top five values if the total number of members is 30 or higher. I know it's fairly arbitrary, but generally results below 30 are considered to be statistically insignificant.

MuthuVeerappanR wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:38 amAnyway, the 'Cached at' info and the time stamp overlaps atleast while on phone.

Not just on a phone. Here it is in Firefox on a PC: The "Cache update" text overlaps the time. Something overlaps the time on most of the pages:
Statistics, News, Account, Progress, Recent, and Archives page.

Edit: It also happens in Chrome. It turns out however that when you widen the window, the overlapping items separate.

I don't know how to fix that. The central section is 1000 pixels wide. I can't imagine any desktop being less than 1280 pixels, so it shouldn't overlap. If someone is a CSS wizard and can make some suggestion then I'll gladly do something about it.

It happens in IE too.
When the window isn't wide enough overlaping occurs.
@Colin: sometimes people don't use the full width of the screen.
For the time being there seems to be a simple solution: print those data below each other.

The problem is that the cache update information is not available when the sign-in information panel is output to the page. So what I've done is placed the cache info division absolutely on the screen to the right, just below the sign-in information panel.

This seems to be a bug.

When we click the link to our posts from the Progress page, it usually links to our post.

Now when I click one of my posts for the first time, it just goes to the first post on that thread. From then on, it works properly.

I've made some changes. Let me know if it is working for you now.

euler wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 11:19 pm The problem is that the cache update information is not available when the sign-in information panel is output to the page. So what I've done is placed the cache info division absolutely on the screen to the right, just below the sign-in information panel.

Perhaps you can place it above that sign-in information panel?

euler wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 9:14 am I've made some changes. Let me know if it is working for you now.

Seems alright now..

When viewing the Archives I get: Currently there are 608 problems so it should read: