MyPrivate Message Improvement (20 August 2005)

After putting this request on hold. I finally managed to find the time to improve the MyPrivate Messaging system. Extra added features are :-

1) Sent messages - now user are able to know who they have sent messages in the past. However, these messages cannot be edited anymore.

2) Auto message prunning feature - i've sent a limit to only 1000 messages per user and 1 year validity. Thus, old messages will be automatically deleted if any of these conditions are met. This will optimize the usage of the messaging system database.

3) Badword list - added a feature to block users from using certain bad words. e.g: "certain so called alternative group which i shall not name." :: The logic to this is, to prevent the misuse / abuse of our well founded services.

Making The Thumbnail Feature (PHP Safemode friendly)

I've noticed that users sending their profile pictures weren't getting their thumbnail pictures updated. After a little investigation, the fault lays within the UID / GID owner of the file. (i'd suspect it's the new security policy of the server). Thus, newly created thumbnail are rendered as "chown" by the apache process rather than the mychub server.

Thus, a quick and dirty solution is to wipe the existing thumbnail file and re-creating a new one based on the file upload. Below is a snippet of the changed code:-

------------- START OF CODE ------------------------

if (file_exists($this->dest)) { $old_size = getimagesize($this->dest); if ($old_size[0] == $this->CalcWidth()){ unlink($this->dest); $exist = false;
}else{ $exist=false;

------------ END OF CODE -----------------------------

~ an optimised version of the code will be released later. Probably freeing the unused file checking procedure.

Minor Fixes for August 2005 (part 2)

A few more minor fixes to the website :-

1) Fixed some broken links to the video server, particularly Mike Prabawa's clips and added 2 new clips of his winning finale performance. Distributed the less accessed files to the slower server and the new ones to our fastest online server.

2) Optimized the backend function of the members modules so that only profiles with pictures will be shown online. This further enhances the overall speed of browsing as the server will only load account with pictures rather than the whole user stacks.

3) Changed the MySMS! service to an internal function so that the overall page loads faster and less dependent on outside servers. Added a security function so that abuses can be tracked and dealt with.

TODO:
~ find a better alogarithm mechanism for database access as the current operations requires 4 - 5 extra access cycles and this translates to a slower server functions. (nb. consider using optimized performance InnoDB engine rather than the current MyISAM)

Minor Fixes for August 2005

The private gallery will be closed for a few weeks as a sign of respect to one of our fellow friend who passed-away on 14th Aug 2005.

As a preventive security measure, mychub will now offer HTTPS - secure transaction services as an added feature to the website. you can use this feature by typing :- https://www.mychub.org
(this is still in the BETA stage)