Topic: We are back - sort of

[pnegyesi]

As you can see the site is back.

UPDATE 20 August: out of 56,000 coded pictures about 47,000 have been matched! We are now making those visible. For the rest we will need your help!

Thanks for your patience and support!

Just to recap what happened: on 9 August, the server crashed. Our hosting company replaced the server for free. But when the site was restored it turned out that there was no proper backup. Sad, but true. So we need to rebuild the database. And we are putting in place methods so there will be auto backup of the database from now on.

Regards,
Pal

[faksta]

I think I can post... I believe...

[pnegyesi]

Well, I would like to encourage you not to post. As the images are not visible at the moment it would be pointless.

Let me know if you have any other issues. Right now the focus is on rebuilding the site.

[SACO]

In the list of pictures , how are classified photos and how to find one ?

[pnegyesi]

Photos are not classified. We may provide thumbnails but right now the only way is to click on them

Once you make a connection, that picture disappears from the list

One more thing, which could make the process of getting back on track easier.

You can upload your pictures again to your puzzles!!! So if you have a puzzle, which is not solved yet, you can upload the picture again, like this:
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=28802.msg335604#msg335604

If we populate the existing Rookie, Expert, Pro etc. boards, we may start puzzling again real soon!

[sixtee5cuda]

Simple enough to re-attach images to unsolved puzzles, as mentioned in reply #4.  Is it OK to use the same method for solved puzzles?

[pnegyesi]

Yes, it is ok to re-upload all of your images - whether it is a solved or un-solved puzzle

One more thing. I hope I was okay with the settings, but just for a few days, please don't add/deduct points.

[oko94]

Glad to see the site back online ! I was suffering from a severe case of AutoPuzzles deprivation during the last ten days.

I'll re-upload all my images soon, there are only a dozen of them so it will be fast. I feel sad for the members who posted hundreds or thousands of pictures, but as someone who works in IT I know that usually the question "where is that damn backup ?" arises only when it's too late !

[oko94]

Unfortunately there was no proper backup available, and for the last 3 years, picture names have been randomly selected so there is no way to match current forum topics with the pictures in the database. We need to rebuild the whole site - the connections between pictures and topics.

So it means that all pictures posted before 2011 will be automatically re-connected to their topics ? That would be quite a good news.

[faksta]

Is there any way to sort all forum messages in a chronological order somehow, regardless on the topic they belonged to? If yes, it could be easier to find a connection with pictures by just browsing through the messages and pictures from the first posts with no pictures and on.

[als15]

I too am re-uploading my pictures. But are they removed from the bulk of the unsorted ones with some automatic software looking for duplicates?
Otherwise, it doesn'help reducing the number of pictures to be relinked.

By the way: it's a nightmare!

[als15]

Is there any way to sort all forum messages in a chronological order somehow, regardless on the topic they belonged to?

I've noticed that the pictures looks numbered in somehow a cronolocial order. A crazy guess (by a non-IT guy): is there any chance to match the image file date and time when it was uploaded on the server with the message date and time?

[Tom_I]

So it means that all pictures posted before 2011 will be automatically re-connected to their topics ? That would be quite a good news.

From what I can see, puzzles originally posted before the middle of September 2010 still have their pictures attached (assuming they were posted as attachments, which most were). They are currently not displaying on the page, but if you click the attachment filename they can be viewed.

Puzzles originally posted after mid-September 2010 have lost their pictures, so they are the ones which need to be fixed, if possible.

[pnegyesi]

Let's see!

als15: no, images will not disappear from the bulk. That is a burden, which I currently don't have the solution to. But there will be no duplicates.

Tom_I: yes, it's a sort-of relief.

Faksta: I don't know how to order topics chronologically, but it does not matter (I just looked at a couple of pictures)

Our next task is to display the pre-2010 images and to make the matches which you do visible

[nicanary]

Welcome back everybody!

I noticed nobody had yet thanked "pnegyesi" for all the work he has put in to get AP back on track. Salutations! As the saying goes - s**t happens. Let's all work together to get things back to normal.

(I'd like to thank Allan Lupton for his help in letting me know as things progressed - I had contacted him through the PM board of another forum.)

I'm sorry to say that the images of my solved puzzles have been deleted from my desktop files - it's my habit to do that, and this time it's backfired on me.

[grobmotorix]

First of all: thank you, Pal and Karoly!

Iīll try to contribute whatever I can. I have saved almost all my solved puzzle photos in a special file. But I changed their names to the original, so I cannot really match them by an ID like grob#01, #02 etc.

So this will be hard work.

I am not sure if I really understood how to match the saved photos with the puzzles, but Iīll try.

Letīs do it, guys!

[serra]

Hi all I'm very glad that Autopuzzles is back autopuzzles again. Sorry but I've been on vacation last week and when I left my home I did not know what was going on, now I know and I'm wasted, so many years of work almost lost. Now there is a big job ahead to rebuild Autopuzzles unfortunately I know nothing about computers but I will try to help as much as I can.

I think I can hang pictures again of my unsolved puzzles, but do not really understand the process to recover my old puzzles. If if possible to get thumbs for the pictures it would be much easier and maybe It could be possible help others to restore their puzzles.

Of course thanks to all of you who have kept the forum all these years and especially to those who are working so hard these days to recover Autopuzzles.

[Allan L]

For years I've been saying how wonderful it is that we can post pictures here directly, whereas most other places require you to have a web address to quote.
Now, of course, it's the photos not posted here that we can see and it's going to be hard work to recover the rest.

Doing what we can may help us get over the withdrawal symptoms which were beginning to bite.

Is all the work that has to be done by Pal and Karoly being paid for, and if so by whom? A few years ago Charlie (Ultra) passed the hat round for donations and I think it may be time for that to happen again.

[Iluvatar]

Thanks a lot for bringing back AP!!! 
I will check all my previews puzzles and posts as soon as possible...

[serra]

For example I have found this photos I posted in two Carnutīs solved puzzles how can they be atached to the puzzle?

79437_1f8298009da1e90e252b4ba4c2884123093bd99d.jpeg  in NEH 3581 Crawford Wolseley 6/90 Special at Bathurst 1956; or an MG special?

79424_972bf3a52980fa11bc4f3b48f7a9ce3d31e09363.jpeg NEH 3613 Autodesk Rallier Roadster blt by TechShop San Francisco using 123D computer softw

[pnegyesi]

For example I have found this photos I posted in two Carnutīs solved puzzles how can they be atached to the puzzle?

79437_1f8298009da1e90e252b4ba4c2884123093bd99d.jpeg  in NEH 3581 Crawford Wolseley 6/90 Special at Bathurst 1956; or an MG special?

79424_972bf3a52980fa11bc4f3b48f7a9ce3d31e09363.jpeg NEH 3613 Autodesk Rallier Roadster blt by TechShop San Francisco using 123D computer softw

NEH 3581 is this one:
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=28692.0
Your comment was this:
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?action=post;msg=336168;topic=28692.0
So the picture ID is: 79437_1f8298009da1e90e252b4ba4c2884123093bd99d.jpeg 
The optional message ID is: 336168

NEH 3613:
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=28678.0
I can't decide which comment you posted the photo. Either this one:
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?action=post;msg=336038;topic=28678.0
or
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?action=post;msg=336171;topic=28678.0
Therefore
picture ID is: 79424_972bf3a52980fa11bc4f3b48f7a9ce3d31e09363.jpeg
Optional message ID is: 336171

Is this clear?

[serra]

Sorry I dont know how to find the the forum ID number is ... (for example NEH 3581 = 28692)  and the message ID... (336168)  where can I found this numbers?

[pnegyesi]

forum ID number
I used Google: NEH 3581 site:.autopuzzles.com
and it gave me the link. The link is:
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=28692.0
looked the end of the URL - forum ID number is 28692

Inside there is reply no3 from you. If you click on modify you get this
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?action=post;msg=336037;topic=28692.0
msg=336037 - so the message ID is 336037

I hope this is clear now

[pnegyesi]

Is all the work that has to be done by Pal and Karoly being paid for,

I wanted to mention this later. Now, we are not paid. And the reason it took so long to get our site back is we can't pay my brother. Once he was flown to Munich (from Vancouver), put in a 5-star hotel, all expenses paid for a 2-day job. It's because of me, he does a few things for us in his free time. Therefore I wanted to suggest that we discuss the possibility of finding a system administrator. But more on that tomorrow.

[serra]

forum ID number
I used Google: NEH 3581 site:.autopuzzles.com
and it gave me the link. The link is:
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=28692.0
looked the end of the URL - forum ID number is 28692

Inside there is reply no3 from you. If you click on modify you get this
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?action=post;msg=336037;topic=28692.0
msg=336037 - so the message ID is 336037

I hope this is clear now

I thinks so i will try and We can see what happens.