Captain Jordan

Mahz's Dev Journal

Hider

I don't like the new button color. Contrast is needed.

@Awson

I think the whole point was to reduce the contrast. Originally it was somewhat glaring. The editor buttons generally don't need to be very contrasting.

@BBeast

But now we're left with just a bunch of different shades of grey. It's dull. There must be like 40... 45 different shades of grey.

@Awson

Try 50.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Hider

I don't like the new button color. Contrast is needed.

@Awson

That's the eternal struggle. How to make a theme useful for low and high contrast users. I agree with @AngelNoire that a theme option might be the best way to resolve it.

@Captain Jordan

It's not even my screen contrast. I just find it ugly

@Awson

Sometimes it's a user's particular vision capabilities, not necessarily their screen. Screens are easy to adjust, eyes are hard.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Hider

I don't like the new button color. Contrast is needed.

@Awson

That's the eternal struggle. How to make a theme useful for low and high contrast users. I agree with @AngelNoire that a theme option might be the best way to resolve it.

Mahz's Dev Journal

<snip>

@Mahz

I downloaded the Node, and once installation was complete, it resulted in a folder, among other files. The Node.exe (or something to that extent) opened up a window similar to command prompt, and that looked similar to the screenshot. Though, I believe the usage will be radically different for our Operating Systems.

@LegendBegins

NOTE: The Windows version of PostgreSQL does not include an extension that the guild requires. I don't remember if this only limits functionality, or makes the site unusable. If you are not comfortable with compiling a .dll file from source code, then keep in mind you may not be able to connect to your local build even after following these steps. You have been warned.

Instructions

I recommend that you set up your cmd.exe to be able to use node commands – if you choose not to, I believe that is fine. First, you might as well try node --version in command prompt, to see if it is already set up or not. If so, skip this part. If not, continue. To do it, you'll want to go to My Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings. From there, go to Environment Variables as shown below. Select 'PATH' and hit Edit.

Screenshot

'PATH' might not be there, I don't remember from when I tried to set up my dev environment on windows (I decided to install Ubuntu in dual boot and set up there instead; you will see why later). If not, then create it. Find where node.js is installed - probably one directory in Program Files, and another in %appdata%. Set 'PATH' to point to them; it should look similar to this:

C:\Program Files\nodejs;C:\Users\Jeanyves\AppData\Roaming\npm

Now, open command prompt and type node --version to make sure that node is working correctly. It should tell you what version of node you are running. If instead it says "'node' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." then something went wrong while setting up the PATH. Okay, so that is done (or you skipped it, alternatively). Now, you will need to set up the database. If you haven't already, install PostgreSQL. Once installed, launch PGAdmin III. Right click on 'Login Roles' and create a new role. Username and password (set password in 'Definitions' tab) don't matter, just remember what they are. After the role has been made, right click on 'Databases' and create a new database called 'guild'. Make sure the owner is the user you just made. Now comes the fun part. The guild uses the 'plv8' extension for PostgreSQL. For reasons unknown to us, this isn't included in the Windows version of PostgreSQL. I don't remember to what degree the site runs without it - I'd like to say that latest post, topic count, etc don't work, but the site itself does, but don't quote me on that - but if you are comfortable doing so, it is strongly recommended that you download the source code for the version of plv8 corresponding to your version of postgres, and compile the .dll from it. If you are not comfortable/aware/willing to do this, then skip this part, but be warned: we cannot guarentee how well the site will function, if at all. If you are continuing, then find the source code on google, it isn't hard to find. Next, compile the .dll - I will not be telling you how to do this; if you don't know how yet for some reason are trying anyway, then look it up. Put the .dll in PostgreSQL Install Location\version.number\bin and if all went well, you are good to go. Continue to the next step. At this point, it is assumed that you have already forked and cloned a copy of the guild's github repository onto your computer. Again, I will not tell you how to do this; if you don't know, google it. Go to where you downloaded the repository to, and navigate to the server folder, and open config.js. If for some reason you do not have an editor capable of opening .js files, then install one (for Windows, I recommend Notepad++ or Sublime Text). This is where you need your Postgres login credentials: find 'postgres://localhost:5432/guild', and add your credentials, as shown; afterwards, save the file:

postgres://{USERNAME}:{PASSWORD}@localhost:5432/guild

Now, go back to command prompt and change the directory to the repository. Enter: npm install then npm run-script reset-db and lastly, npm start (or alternatively, npm run-script start-dev for slightly better stack traces) and wait for it to say 'listening on 3000'. If it doesn't say this (or an error occurs afterwards) then something has gone wrong. If it does, then congratulations, you are almost there! Open your browser and go to http://localhost:3000/. If the site loads, then success; you are done! If not, something has gone wrong (obviously), which you can probably figure out to some extent by reading the error that almost definitely appeared in the command prompt. If, after all this, you still do not have the site working, and have no idea what to do, then the following is all I have to say: No offense, but you probably just aren't cut out for this. Development of any sort requires the ability to problem solve, and if you are completely lost then I don't know what else to say. Don't feel bad; Mahz didn't expect anyone to be able to help with the site, so anyone who can is a bonus. Sorry!

@TheMaster99

Thank you; I appreciate that. While I assume the last message was geared toward anyone who might be reading this, for all intents and purposes, the previous steps on GitHub were rather cryptic. I appreciate you taking the time to write this, and I look forward to assisting the progress of the Guild.

@LegendBegins

You could fork the Readme, add what steps worked for you, and submit a pull request. ;)

Mahz's Dev Journal

The exact colour doesn't really matter to me. I only mentioned blue because it's used sparsely in the Guild's colour scheme (reply and preview buttons, notably) and, as such, stands out more. Facebook does the same thing with red, which is used exclusively for notifications. ... so red is probably a better choice. What am I saying?

@Hank

You've come to see the light. Embrace it. Relish in it. You are home.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Minor gripe: profile URLs no longer contain our user ID? Damn you, Mahz. How am I supposed to boast about being the 14th registered user now? Minor suggestion: make the notification counter (not the bell icon itself) a different colour. Something brighter. Blue, perhaps? _{yes i'm taking a page from facebook's design ethos, sue me}

@Hank

Gold or red would look better, IMHO.

Mahz's Dev Journal

@Mahz, I noticed the ↑ Top link is actually a full-width div. I just mention this because sometimes I click under the posts to re-focus the window, and found myself launched up to the top of the page. It might be better for the bottom of topics to be more compacted by reducing the click area of the ↑ Top link to a smaller space (or to the text itself), and perhaps moving some other elements in the center space to the right of it.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Etherpad is great. @Mahz did you hear it's now in Sandstorm.io?

@Captain Jordan

Haha that's how I heard about it. Until then I'd only heard of EtherPad from people on the Guild using it off-site. I assumed it was some proprietary but freemium SaaS. When I saw it on Sandstorm (well, which I saw on HN), it blew my mind that it is open-source with a simple API. I could immediately see how I'd integrate it after skimming through its docs. Has session support and everything to integrate into the guild's system.

@Mahz

Mahz are you telling me you could implement a multi-person Etherpad into the actual RPGuild website

@Mercenary Lord

I think he is

@BBeast

It's pretty fantastic, considering the only other RP-centric system I know of (Nova, formerly SMS) has a post collaboration system that is functionally the same as passing a word processing document back and forth. Unfortunately, the main dev of said system seems violently opposed to incorporating third-party libraries or extending to allow them, so the Guild will probably remain alone in this feature if it gets implemented. Although, @Mahz, I can't guarantee I won't steal this idea for other BB software. ;)

Mahz's Dev Journal

Etherpad is great. @Mahz did you hear it's now in Sandstorm.io?

Mahz's Dev Journal

I also noticed that on the list of users viewing a page, if I manually logout I stay on the list even after a fifteen minute interval. This might be a bug you might want to check.

@Kirra

It likely follows the same logic for the main Who's Online, which also tracks users in the past 15 minutes. Perhaps a small designator, same as the XX Users Online (within 15 min) label on the main page, would be useful.