Hi All

It has been over a year since I formally took over supoprting FODFHT. There have been various distractions and I have been doing some planning and testing of options to replace the base software of FODFHT.

There is increasing urgency for this as the Joomla version we use is no longer supported. Upgrading Joomla would change many of the ways in which the site is constructed. Some of the pages are already not working as expected. I propose to replace Joomla with Wordpress.

Some of the key features of FODFHT are provided by other software, including this Forum, the photo Gallery and the key searches of our databases.

My plan is therefore to have 3 stages:

1: To build the new site using wordpress and accessing all the existing software. I would be grateful to have some people helping to test that once it is sufficiently advanced.
2: To allow the sites to run in parallel (there may be some dangers in this!) and invite wider testing, especially on the content and look and feel.
3: to go live with the new site and close the old one.

I would welcome any initial thoughts from anyone, either about what you value in the existing site and what you would like to see restored (we have lost some aspects) or what might be improved or added..

For the moment my intention is:

• To retain the overall look and feel but to revise the navigation to be a little easier.
  
• To remove the need to register simply to access the databases. These will be freely searchable (provided that there can be sufficient security to prevent mass download). It will, of course, be necessary, to register for the Forum so that access and email replies etc can operate.
  

All comments welcome. I hope the new site will be available for stage 1 testing in between 4 to 6 weeks time.

Regards

Paul

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Admin 2

Paul

happy to assist in testing

keen to understand how the Forum will be preserved / migrated

Slowhands co founder with David Watkins

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

Thanks - I will let you know when there is anything worth looking at!

At the moment I can see no easy way of migrating the Forum to new software without a high risk of losing items. Stage 1 is simply to make it visible as it is now within a wordpress page.

Regards

Paul

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Admin 2

Hi Paul

When the site for FHT was "conceived" there were to be two key aspects - the repository of information/transcriptions/pictures from various sources, and a place for researchers to exchange Q&A ( the Forum as we know it now)

I believe that there is significant "value" in the Forum going back maybe 16 years or so , more than happy to look at how that might be preserved in a searchable format. Of course a "modern" Forum for future Q&A exchanges is welcomed.

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

Happy to help with testing at any stage.
I have only basic awareness of Wordpress though understand the principles but that is probably irrelevant at most stages of testing.
I have used SQL-based databases over many years (literally decades) so am familiar enough with the testing required for those datasets, which covers the Parish Records and a number of others.

Regards

-Colin

I am not from the area but this forum is absolutely brilliant. I hope it never has to close.

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C E Francis