Positive Contact
By: R|A
Alright, A few weeks ago I managed to lose some work I did to the db due to me not backing up some files. I have manged to re-write the majority of the code I lost, most of which pertained to the Items sections.

Right now I have to create some new templates to display the information for the items, and do some testing to make sure I haven't broke anything yet.

I'm not going to give an ETA, but its not going to be long now.

Onwards, Forwards
By: R|A
Busy as shit lately. That's all I got to say.

The Arrival ( Take A Ride )
By: R|A
Life is pretty fucked up for me right now.

I'm working on items and bug-fixes when I can.

Don't expect it anytime soon.

Sorry.

Sometimes life throws a curve-ball at you, and then it pulls another one, and you end up lost and helpless with no end in sight.

Rise from the ashes and decay....
By: R|A
Since I have only just got the General Knoxx addon, I hadn't noticed that there are several other types of items introduced. I am not too sure on how complete the items over on the borderlands wikia page, so items are still going to be a while, since I use most of the informational data for the db structure and whatnot from there.

I am experimenting with a custom user system right now as well, and the possibility of mass uploading files from the new WillowTree locker format that Xander has added to it. I also need to implement a true administration page for myself and possible users to access, since right now I am pretty much doing SQL-Kung-Fu to work with everything that needs to be changed. Although since editing works (so far 100% alright) users can now update their own weapons if they need to.

I may also redesign the front-page and keep weapons & items within their own sections, along with adding user weapon/item ratings and displaying the top 10 weapons on the front-page & 10 newest weapons on their as well.

Sorry
By: R|A
I have been kinda busy playing the General Knoxx addon lately.

So I'm a bit behind on my projected schedule, although once again, I'm trying to do too much coding on different aspects of the db at once as well.

Sorry.

Dumbstruck
By: R|A
This is really strange.

As I've been implementing that javascript form validation system, it only wants to work on the new weapons page, and not the new items page. I don't know why the fuck its not working correctly since I'm using the same code and form layout for it.

I've gone though both scripts line for line, in both template & php scripts. The .js files are included on both, since it's part of the global header files, so its not like the scripts aren't included. So this is driving me crazy.

The script I am using for the validation is JSValidate, if anyone wants to know.
http://www.jsvalidate.com/

Bleh
By: R|A
Man, sometimes I just get too ahead of myself and start trying to add to much shit at once to the DB. I've found a javascript validation class that is very slick, for making sure certain fields are not empty before submitting them, and displaying a nice error message by the required fields, as opposed to using only server side checking which takes up submitting the form, and then telling the users there are required fields left.

I've also began re-writing the new weapons & items submission forms to make use of this checking, so It's still going to be a while before items are done, although I think I'm fairly satisfied with how I have the data stored and displayed for items.

Also editing is fairly polished now, although I'm trying to keep it down to checking and replacing only changed fields, instead of putting everything back which requires a fairly lengthy checking process, since its almost like adding a new weapon.

Lastly I was asked about converting the Weapons DB over to a blogging system. Which after looking at the underlying code, I suppose it wouldn't be too hard to make a blog/CMS system out of it. Although I would like to finish working on my gallery system as well, since the image resizing system and thumbnail generator are fully functional, the only thing to add is a category system for images. On top of that a user system would be required, although I am going to save that for quite a bit later.

Once again, I'm only going to upload all the changes I've made to the DB onto here once Editing & Items are finished, and everything is on my template system.

Looking good
By: R|A
Alright, so I've been really hammering out code lately. I've re-written the way the textual weapon stats are stored, so the exists in their own database, as opposed to a single line that looks like #FF0000:Pew Pew Pew;#CCCCCC:+100% Accuracy and so on. That has also allowed me to take the horrible and noobish coding way of having the colors locked into the database as the info is entered, and allowed me to use color & type references so I have a single array of information such as
$colors = array (0=>"",1=>"FFFFFF",2=>"5AC728");

Minor things like this I am having to change before weapon editing will work as I intend it to, otherwise its just a lot of wasteful extra coding I have to do in order to figure out what a weapons rarity, brand, class, & color information is.

The biggest reason the original code is like that, is due to the fact that I never imagined that this would be as popular as it is, and I had never intended to implement entry editing, or deletion. I kinda thought "Hey, you have a weapon? cool post it up, and that's that". Simplicity is how I designed it, but over time I noticed people wanted to leave comments about a weapon, or edit, and god forbid, delete their creation due to the backend not reading a willow text file correctly.

Now beyond that there is only 2 major features missing from the DB. Editing, & Items ( shields, grenades, & class-mods). I keep putting the Items portion off since I'm still debating how to best store and display the information. I don't know If having 3 different display areas is best for each type, or just having them all inline with each other is best. I also don't know if I want to keep them inline with the weapons on the front-page, or add another section underneath the weapons to display them, or even moving both items & weapons to individual pages, and only showing the most recent 5 weapons & items on it.

I've also been mulling over if I want to open source the code, or keep it private. I know I've read some flak about this DB concerning the fact that it allows people to put up ungodly creations of weapons, or private groups have bitched about people putting their stuff up. If I did open source this, people could keep their own private databases of weapons on their own sites, and keep their creations to themselves. Another option is creating a user-base system, and allowing users to have their own private collections, and giving others access to them, while keeping my code private, but still allowing for private weapons.

The last main thing I have to create is an actual admin page for the db. Right now if there is something wrong, or some fuckhead is putting random ass bullshit on the DB, I have to manually connect to the SQL backend and find each entry and delete it, or modify an entry is a weapon is named wrong, or its not listed as the right type or brand.

If anyone here has any feedback about this (or even reads this), you can shoot me an email at info@zerosubstance.net and tell me what you think.

Making progress
By: R|A
I'm about halfway through converting over the scripts & database for the newer DB schema.
Right now it's mostly the process.php script which I have converted over to use my own user data filtering class, along side of some scripts to convert the weapons & data into more a manageable form. Once this is finished, I believe the weapon editing side should be easier to work out, as my original script was was too messy and poorly coded to be used in a production environment.

However once I do finish converting the newweapon.php, process.php, viewweapon.php, viewbrand.php, & viewclass.php scripts over to the new DB schema, I won't upload them just yet as I wish to get weapon editing down as the next major update.

Finally
By: R|A
So I finally found some time to work on coding again. Right now I've scrapped the existing items portion I wrote, and I'm in the process of restructuring the database & condensing a lot of code.

When I originally created the db, I kept the colors of information inline with the data in the db. So if there was an orange weapon named EQ13 Primal Equalizer. It was stored in the MySQL db as such #FFAE00:EQ13 Primal Equalizer:6. When I first made the db, I saw no problem in this, it kept everything together in regards to coloring and information. Right now, it's a pretty bad way to keep information like that. Rarity level is also kept inline with that, so performance wise, it hits the db kinda hard, when ordering by rarity.

Things like that are what I am focusing on right now. Optimizing how weapons are stored, & read; moving everything over to my custom template system; Adding editing support; re-code the items portion; annotate & provide credit to some of the minor code snippets I use in the db, and possibly open source the whole system and put it up on GitHub.

Editing will be done by email verification only at this point (once I get around to it). Although a user system may be added if I feel up to it.

Hmmm.....
By: R|A
With the amount of work my Cisco classes are taking up, I am thinking about dropping the current code that is powering the Weapons DB onto GitHub and making it open source. Although I do have some code in it that I don't wish to give out as it powers my private CMS system I created for some friends a while back.

I really just don't have a lot of time to work on any of my projects right now.

Fuck.
By: R|A
Yeah, almost all of my time has been spent on school and working with my band. I have literally no time to code, or even game really.

I will get an update on the DB done sometime, but right now my life's a mess and I can't pin down any definitive date for it.

Some Info
By: R|A
I have received a few emails regarding the weapons db as of late, in which some people think I have abandoned the project. This is not true in any sense, I have yet to update the backend system as I have recently moved and have yet to find the time to unpack my desktop system that contains all of the newer code and such for the DB. My time has been taken up with finding a job, and getting the internet turned on at my house. ( I am writing this on my blackberry ).

In short, I am working on it since I know it is lacking in a few areas.

Finals Suck
By: R|A
Alright, I've been busy as hell with finals and getting ready to drive ~2000 miles back home in a week. So I haven't had a chance to do any work on the DB for the last week. Fear not however as I will have plenty of free time to polish up the weapon editing & items when I get back. Hopefully.

Spammers
By: R|A
Although I have only seen two spammers abusing the comments on the DB, I think I'm going to implement an email verification system for adding comments in the near future (after I get the Items ironed out). So you will have to essentially verify your email after you post a comment (only once though), and once your email has been verified you are still free to post comments. I do have a blacklist implemented however, so when I do see a spammer, or a funny guy posting obviously fake weapons, I just add their IP to the blacklist.

As far as editing, I have been playing around with PHPBB3 integration on my gaming clans front-page redesign I've been also working on for a while. This authentication method PHPBB3 uses has so far been very nice and easy to work with. It would require registering for a forum account, although upkeep on a forum isn't something I would care to do, nor do I feel one is truly necessary, the ease of using it for a verifiable account versus writing my own user management system is a much easier thing to take care of. As such the forums would stay empty, and only be used to register an account for editing. Right now this is only something on my lets-think-about-it list. I'm still weighing my options.

Finals
By: R|A
I've been swamped with college finals lately and I have about 2 weeks left until I finish this semester. So while I am working on coding the filtering side, and ripping apart the item side of the db to figure out whats wrong with my nearly identical code from the weapons side, I may not be able to add them to the db as quickly as I planned. However I am still working on it as much as I can, but I can't give an exact date until I can upload the changes. There's also about a 2000 mile drive back home for me at the end of these two weeks so I'll be pretty tired even then.

Comments Added to the DB
By: R|A
Commenting is now enabled on all weapons. So feel free to talk about a specific weapon here if you want, or give the uploader thanks.

About the update...
By: R|A
Well I ran into some problems with the item side of the db, It hasn't been working right after I tried moving the static pages with php mixed in, over to my template system. It just isn't displaying items correctly.

Although when I get some time tomorrow I'll upload the changes I've made to allow commenting on weapons, so the DB will be down for some time tomorrow, but not long.

Borderlands DB Update coming soon
By: R|A
I am currently in the process of rewriting the back-end code that runs the Borderlands Weapon database. As it stands right now there are a few major things missing from it. Namely the item portion, individual weapon comments, weapon filtering, & weapon editing.

The code for weapon comments it totally done, along with the item side of the DB. The weapon filtering I haven't started on yet, but that isn't too hard to code. The weapon editing portion of the DB is the only thing I haven't quite worked out. Currently I am deciding between email only verification for editing & deleting, where you simple verify the email submitted when creating the weapon to delete or edit. Or an account type system where one simply verifies their email if they have a weapon submitted, and they can delete or edit their own weapons from a single page.

However I am currently dealing with some personal stuff right now, and coding has taken a small back seat to my priorities right now.

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