Code Tour: week of 7/6-7/13

[denise]

mark is doing the weekly updates this month, so I should be able to do weekly Code Tours of what got committed all month! This week, we resolved 56 bugs; 46 of them were RESOLVED/FIXED (the other 10 were duplicates or otherwise invalid). Two were security fixes that we decline to describe publicly, to give other sites running the code a chance to patch the bug.

All of these fixes are now live with tonight's code push.



Bug 19: Change console-only "set" commands to an Advanced Options tab
Category: User interface
Patch by: kareila
Description: This bug has been an ongoing patch to get more options out of the Console and into the site settings GUI. This week, we finished off the conversion with the last option: synlevel, which affects what level of text gets shown in your journal's RSS feed.

Bug 137: Strip ad-related code from the codebase
Category: Code cleanup
Patch by: denise
Description: When we ripped out all the code to support ads, we missed a few functions in one of the libraries. This patch removed those functions, for general code-cleanup purposes.

Bug 163: Remove LJ::Search
Category: Code cleanup
Patch by: denise
Description: A while back, LJ started work on a journal search module that never went anywhere because the implementation turned out to be harder than deflatermouse expected. The basic stub of the search module had been committed, though. This patch removes it, since it didn't do anything.

Bug 224: Implement suggestions generator
Category: Site administration
Patch by: denise
Description: This patch adds a Suggestions generator, which takes user input, does some light formatting, and posts it to the dw_suggestions community. We'll play with it for a few weeks to make sure it does what we want it to do, and then link it on sitemaps. In the meantime, though, you can add dw_suggestions to your reading list to vote and comment on suggestions!

Bug 282: Kill journaltype N support
Category: Code cleanup
Patch by: denise
Description: This removes support for the journaltype N (for 'news'), which has more or less been replaced, function-wise, by closed communities. We don't use it, so out it goes.

Bug 326: Add current subscription count to manage/settings/?cat=notifications
Category: User interface
Patch by: afuna
Description: This patch pretty much does what it says :) It informs you at the bottom of your subscriptions list how many you've used, out of how many you have available.

Bug 420: Add separate 'email address to display on profile'
Category: Privacy
Patch by: denise
Description: This patch adds a new field on the Privacy tab of the Manage Settings page: "Email to display on your profile". If you add an email address here, you can also choose, on your Manage Profile page, what email address to display on your profile: your actual, system-level address, or the address you specified for your profile.

Bug 482: Restore previous statusvis after undeletion instead of forcing it to V
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: LiveJournal
Description: This patch fixes an edge-case bug where, if someone's journal is Read-Only, Locked, or Memorial, deleting the journal and undeleting it would cause that status to be cleared.

Bug 502: Allow community maintainers to cancel community invites
Category: Community tools
Patch by: LiveJournal
Description: This patch lets a community maintainer cancel outstanding community invites from the community management pages.

Bug 545: Entry preview does not include metadata, including tags
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: afuna
Description: This fixes a bug in entry previewing that was preventing metadata (like tags, mood/music/location, etc) wasn't showing properly, winning afuna this week's "Bugfix For A Bug That Really Annoyed Denise" prize.

Bug 611: linebreak quoted material in private messages at 80 characters
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: denise
Description: Of course, Denise also wins this week's "Bugfix For A Bug That Really Annoyed Denise" prize -- so much that I fixed it myself! Now, when you reply to a private message, the system will "lazy linebreak" the quoted material -- linebreak at the first space after the 70th character -- so that replies will get the > quoted-material indicator at the beginning of every line instead of just at the beginning of the paragraph. (This will also make it easier for you to intersperse your reply in between the quoted material, preventing top-posting, which is the tool of the devil.)

Bug 803: stray link to unscreen on screened comments
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: denise
Description: This patch fixes the situation where even people who couldn't unscreen a comment would see the (Unscreen to reply) link at the bottom of the comment. Now it just shows (Comment screened) if you don't have the privs to unscreen the comment.

Bug 806: Improve CSS for displaying regular mini-calendar in sidebar (negatives)
Category: Styles
Patch by: av8rmike
Description: This patch fixes up the mini-calendar in the Negatives style if the calendar is placed in the sidebar instead of at the foot of the journal.

Bug 814: Tropo: <q> needs to be re-added to the CSS definitions
Category: Site display
Patch by: denise
Description: This patch adds styling for the <q>, <big>, and <small> tags into Tropo Red and Tropo Purple. (The styling is stripped by the utility we use to strip all CSS to make cross-browser functionality better.)

Bug 821: Provide some way to remove deleted accounts from your subscriptions
Category: Display
Patch by: foxfirefey
Description: The bug name is a slight misnomer: this patch hides deleted and suspended users from the profile lists that you don't have control over: Non-mutual subscribers, for both users and communities, and non-mutual access givers. It doesn't include mutual subscriptions or access, people you subscribe or give access to, posting access lists, or membership lists, since you have control over those. You can see the whole list by adding ?mode=full to the end of your profile URL.

Bug 848: Add reply link to message notification emails
Category: Usability
Patch by: yvi
Description: This patch adds a "reply to this private message" link to the email you get when someone sends you a PM, to save you a step if you want to reply to it.

Bug 938: crossposter stripping LJ code
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: allen
Description: This finishes up the crossposter's rewrite of site-specific markup, translating our versions of <lj-raw> and <lj-template> into the LJ version on crossposted entries.

Bug 947: crossposter: editing doesn't allow enabling comments
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: allen
Description: This patch fixes a problem where editing a crossposted entry to enable comments locally wouldn't enable comments on the remote site.

Bug 967: Transmogrified reply page textarea can go behind the sidebar
Category: Style bugfix
Patch by: dani_the_girl
Description: This fixes a display bug in the Transmogrified layout where the comment text box would run underneath the sidebar.

Bug 1098: Update the privacy policy
Category: Site documents
Patch by: denise
Description: I've been meaning to do this for a while, but finally got around to it: this patch removes mention of Google Checkout from the privacy policy, and adds a section on the crossposter/importer saying that we'll only use your authorization credentials for the purpose you gave 'em to us.

Bug 1143: clean up no_mail_alias console command
Category: Code cleanup
Patch by: kareila
Description: This patch cleans up the console command to disable your forwarding email address, making it use functions instead of changing the database directly.

Bug 1182: Link to advanced customization
Category: Styles, usability
Patch by: cesy
Description: This adds a link to the Advanced Customization area to the Customize pages.

Bug 1213: integrate payment system with console/finduser
Category: Admin tools
Patch by: denise
Description: "Finduser" is the console command that lets site administrators look up an account's verified email. This patch adds payment information to those results, so we'll also be able to see at a glance whether an account is paid or not, which is useful in a bunch of administrative workflows and saves me tons of time.

Bug 1262: Div on DayPage has multiple IDs defined
Category: Styles backend
Patch by: afuna
Description: This patch fixes a mistake in the CSS in the S2 core that was causing a specific section to have multiple IDs defined, which is Not Allowed.

Bug 1265: RTE insert image popup "Link" tab purpose unclear
Category: Usability fix
Patch by: afuna
Description: This adds some explanatory text to the "insert image" popup in the Rich Text editor.

Bug 1284: comment notifs not marked 'read' in inbox when acted upon
Category: Usability
Patch by: kareila
Description: This changes the inbox javascript so that if you click on the reply link, it automatically marks the comment notification as 'read'.

Bug 1291: another LJ::get_friend_group rabbit hole
Category: Code cleanup/bugfix
Patch by: kareila
Description: kareila appears to be aiming for our title of Code Cleanup Monkey. This patch fixes up the Email Post management page to remove references to 'friend groups', which we don't have, and change it to trust groups instead.

Bug 1301: Update/Edit pages show text they shouldn't in Safari
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: afuna
Description: afuna wins this week's "Bugfix For A Bug That Really Annoyed Denise" prize twice over! This patch fixes a display issue with the Update Journal page in Safari that was causing things to show when they shouldn't.

Bug 1309: Mark and Janine are married now
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: kareila
Description: Mark and Janine's marital status on the staff page was incorrectly listed. This patch updates it.

Bug 1311: Transmogrified margins too wide
Category: Styles bugfix
Patch by: kareila
Description: Okay, so, this one has history! A while back, we made a change to the navstrip CSS, which caused the margins in Transmogrified to suddenly widen. A lot of people complained that we'd screwed up their journal, so we put in a fix to put the margins back the way they had been. A lot of people are now complaining, proving that sometimes, we just can't win. :) (We'll be adding a property in the customization wizard soon ...)

Bug 1314: Transmogrified generates navstrip outside of body tag
Category: Styles bugfix
Patch by: afuna
Description: This patch fixes up the HTML generated by the Transmogrified style so that the code for the navstrip goes inside the body tags.

Bug 1327: Navigation formatting glitch in Negatives
Category: Styles bugfix
Patch by: av8rmike
Description: This removes an extra (unnecessary) | in the Negatives layout if you're viewing a "second page" of a journal, such as with ?skip=20 or whatever.

Bug 1345: Tropo purple 'create account' button unreadable
Category: Site layout fix
Patch by: rho
Description: This changes some of the colors in the Tropo Purple scheme for readability.

Bug 1348: /login.bml uses legacy LJ icons
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: sophie
Description: This patch fixes a HTML glitch on the login page from a bugfix a few weeks ago to change around some of the icons from the LiveJournal version.

Bug 1360: Remove hacks for obsolete browsers from layouts
Category: Styles cleanup
Patch by: av8rmike
Description: This patch removes some CSS that was put into Negatives to cater to IE 5.5, which we don't support.

Bug 1368: delcomments.bml has missing translation string
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: yvi
Description: This adds back some missing text on the Delete Comments page.

Bug 1377: add confirmed email to register.bml
Category: Privacy/security enhancement
Patch by: denise
Description: When you confirm your email, this patch adds the confirmed email to the page that displays, so you can double-check it's the proper email. It also adds the new email address value to the email that's sent out by some pages where you can change your email address.

Bug 1381: add account level to the manage settings page
Category: Shameless money grubbing
Patch by: denise
Description: As part of our shameless quest to part you from your hard-earned cash, this patch adds your current account level to the Account Settings page, along with a link to upgrade your account if you're a free or paid user, or a link to extend your paid time expiration if you're a premium paid user.

Bug 1382: Give-a-gift page
Category: Shameless money grubbing
Patch by: denise
Description: This patch adds a new page, the Gifts page, that shows all of the people in your circle who have free accounts or whose paid accounts are expiring within the next month. Maybe you'd like to buy them some paid time. Hint. Hint. Hint.

Bug 1383: remove /tools/friendlist.bml
Category: Code cleanup
Patch by: denise
Description: You know how on LJ, if you have over 500 people friended, it forwards to a "view your friends" page that shows your friends' names and userpics, instead of listing them on the profile? We decided not to do that, so we removed the page it forwards to, especially since it didn't work after we did the access/subscribe split.

Bug 1409: fix autovivification error in AccountLevel.pm
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: denise
Description: It wouldn't be a code push without at least one stupid error, and this week it was my turn. In my defense, this is something that was well beyond my current code knowledge. This fixes a bug where Perl tries to be clever and does what it thinks you want it to do, which is not actually what I wanted it to do.

Bug 1410: fix xpost footer messages for people without the userprop defined
Category: Bugfix
Patch by: denise
Description: I had not one but two stupid errors this week, and this fixes the other one. When introducing the new customizable crosspost text and letting people choose when to add the footer text on the remote site, I forgot that not everyone would have the userprop set, which is why anyone who made a crossposted post in between the code push and my fix didn't have the text added. This changes things so that if you don't have the userprop saying when to add the text, it assumes you want the old behavior. (There's another bug in there that means that the text on the remote site no longer knows whether comments are disabled on DW to be able to change the message appropriately, but I don't think that one was mine.) And yes, this means that you can now set your custom crosspost footer text.

Comments

7,000 lines of code

[babysprite]

Hi Ms. D =)markinformed that 7000-something lines of code went through!

That's a lot of data and it zoomed on by without a hiccup from the client side.

There was a lot of minimally- or non-functional "stuff" with the old code base that probably should have been cleaned up by it's previous owner.

It's good to know people are paying attention to, maintaining the code base and keeping it "clean" instead of playing kindergarten cop to the user base and trying to woo advertisers.

/\__/\
(='.'=)
(")_(")

Music: Aimee Mann - Make a Killing

[afuna]

Shameless money-grubbing is one of the most awesome categories ever :)

[the_shoshanna]

top-posting, which is the tool of the devil

*toasts you with holy water*

you can now set your custom crosspost footer text

YAY! Thank you!

[cesy]

That gifts page is a brilliant example of the kind of shameless money-grubbing that is actually also useful, in that when I have money and want to give accounts to friends, I don't have to open up everybody's profile in tabs because I can't remember who already has a paid or seed account. So yay.

[denise]

That was my reasoning! I mean, we want to make it easy for you guys to keep us in in the luxury to which we are accustomed... ;)

[torachan]

I posted on this elsewhere, but I don't think 967 actually fixed anything? Nothing has changed on my end. The comment box in transmogrified still goes under the sidebar on the reply page. :-/

[torachan]

Never mind. It looks like it was a transmogrified-based custom style, so the change didn't fix it.

[blnchflr]

Thanks for the code tour, it was very informative and interesting.

[ciaan]

Death to the console!

[thirdblindmouse]

And yes, this means that you can now set your custom crosspost footer text.

Rockin'. Things like this are why I love this site.

Is there a way to turn off the inbox notifications that arrive every time I crosspost or edit a crosspost?

[denise]

There isn't right now, but there will be a way in the future to turn off notifications of successful crosspost. (Failures will always be sent, though.)