An Update on the Project Isle 
Published: Saturday 31st of July 2010 By: Jamie Swift
Well, several of you might be reading this article because you've just received your invitation by email. If so, you'll probably be thinking "why was I invited to a website that's only half finished?"
Well, it's true, the website is only half finished. However, I thought it would be best to send the invitations out to a select few now, so that you can at least access what is on here at the moment, and also so that you can come back and see what's changed around here in a few months too. I'm planning to in the next few months to start blending the Radio Bute site into this website more (i.e. when you press news on Radio Bute, you'll be taken here). So to allow this to happen smoothly it was necessary for people to have access to the new website first.
Anyway, what's changed around here in the last few weeks. Well, not an awful lot to look at for most users, but behind the scenes a lot of work has gone into improving security, defending against attacks and also patching holes and bugs that have cropped up. For example, today I found that if you visited this news article, it logged you out of the website. That was a difficult bug to track down, but it's sorted now.
I've also added a comments system to the website which will be easily implementable across other pages too, and I've transferred the old comments and news items across from Radio Bute into the new systems. There's been lots of other little jobs done too, but nothing worth mentioning really.
There's lots left to do, but it's getting there slowly, and it's been good fun along the way so far. So have a browse round and see what you think. As always, I'm looking for suggestions and comments. Please feel free to post them below.
Reader Comments:
2010-08-02 23:16:29
Thought I might be first to comment. Makes a change from being last. Not quite sure what I can contribute, except to include this which a sister showed me recently :- "Without Jehovah, one week would be: SINDAY, MOURNDAY, TEARSDAY, WASTEDAY, THIRSTDAY, FIGHTDAY, SHATTERDAY 7 days without Jehovah makes one weak"
2010-08-05 16:48:24
Thanks for the comment "buteman". Glad everything has worked out ok with the registration system thus far. Did you have any problems with it?
2010-08-05 22:22:33
No, no problems at all.
2010-08-05 23:08:03
Hi Jamie, Thanks for the invitation. Am glad to be on board with the team! As I've already been dubbed "Cat Lady", thought I'd just run with this, so am trying to think of some interesting cat related info with which to bore you all.... (You've only yourself to blame!) Can I change my username? Chose "cat_lady", but "CatLady" would be better. No suggestions coming to mind, but you really have done a fab job with the site. Going for a nosy round now....
2010-08-05 23:33:11
A question- if I come up with a wonderful, cat inspired piece of prose, where do I put it? A quick, idiots guide to blogging would be helpful...
2010-08-09 00:29:09
I can change it if you like... Use your email address as your username if you can't log in. Unfortunately, the site is far from complete at the moment, meaning I haven't even added the blogs yet. So if you do come up with some cat-prose, well erm... you'll write it down on paper for now. I'll try to get some more work done on the blog front soon, so you can post it then.
2010-08-09 00:35:06
Oh, and er norman. When you're posting your comments, I take it you're not logged in (as I'm having to manually approve your comments which only happens for non-members)? The login link is carefully hidden at the bottom if the page :D (there is a reason, but I won't explain just now.)
2010-08-09 12:41:53
Sorry for the bad grammar and missing words in the above comments. I was typing from my phone.
2010-08-10 08:53:24
Well I have just been trying to reply now and am sure I am logged in right now. Navigation to this page after logging in did not work so I had to use my browser's back button. So let's see what happens!
2010-08-10 08:54:48
Ah I see some punctuation characters are not allowed. Never mind.
2010-08-10 10:56:30
Yeah, adding the auto-redirect to the login form is next on my todo list (it already supports it, I just haven't implemented it properly). I just added some input sanitization code to this form last night, it may be a little over-zealous. Let's see: " ' / \ >
2010-08-10 10:58:58
Yup. I must have it running twice somewhere, it's converting quotes to their ASCII equivalents, and then it's converting the ampersand as well (which is giving you the " instead of the actual quote mark). That's next on my to-do list.
2010-08-10 20:28:50
I think I've fixed it. " ' >
2010-08-10 20:30:21
Yep, seems to be working.
2010-08-10 20:32:53
And as far as I can tell, the login auto-redirect seems to be working too now.
2010-08-19 03:47:47
Thanks, Jamie. Will get you to change my username when you get the blogs up and running. Not that I've come up with anything even remotely exciting yet, but it'll give me some time to produce a riveting blog on cat habits!!
2010-08-19 10:58:55
I'd already changed it for you. :D