SITE UPDATE-20

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V.20- This one is epic. To celebrate my FIVE YEARS of Internetness, this update is the biggest update to the sites since the Super June Updates. It's not a long list of changes, but it's what the changes are about that make them important. Here's what it's all about:

We'll start with the little things...

• FIVE YEARS!!
• All the new Five Years Banners and things have been added. I didn't change anything else. Just whatever said Four Years.
• The Info Section...
• In the menu under Main Stuff, there's the Information section. I rearranged the links in the list and added the Bottom Bar Rant.
• Help Page Update...
• On the Help Pages, I updated the loading time test results. It goes along with the changes I did that I'll talk about at the end of the update round-up.
• The Membership Site...
• I don't know what to do about it. I keep saying I'm planning things out. But, I don't know what to plan. The only thing would be adding my videos. But then, that's an extra step I have to do whenever I upload anything. I already do too many things as it is. I wish things were just added automatically. I'll figure something out.

• Other changes...
• There are many other little things I did. Fixing typos and bad links. But I do those so fast I forgot to write them down. These are the usual behind-the-scenes changes that I do.

• The Back Up Site...
• The Back Up Site got an update. A big one. It now has the Animated Window Loader, the Back-to-top arrow, and the Alert Boxes. Now, the reason why they were cut out was because the Back Up Site was Webs free. It didn't use any .JS or .CSS codes or picture or anything stored on Webs. Just show how much I need Webs...or needed. ;-) There was a reason how I was about to get them to work.

OK!! On to the biggest thing...ever.

• ALL MY SITES ARE SELF SUSTAINING!!!
• Now here what I mean by that is they DO NOT rely on an external .JS of .CSS codes. I'm basically reversing the Version 16 update. In that update I put things into a JS files and stored them on Webs. Well, last week Webs had another crash. And a crash means my sites have issues because the .JS codes aren't there anymore and the sites freak out. After the crash was done, I looked into finding a way to get my codes somewhere else or try something else. I remembered what I did to the snow and lights code in the V.18.5 update and the hover warnings code in V.19. I was able to combine the codes into one. So, tested and was successful at combining the animated window loader, the back-to-top arrow, and the alert boxes codes into an All-in-One code. Then I remembered the V.16 update. If the codes where working out of a file in the first place, then I can take them back out. So, I did that...and it worked. And doing that made everything but the Main Site and the Test Site working without Webs. The reason why I put them into file in the first place was that when I do a change, all I have to do is change it in the file and then it changes on the sites automatically. I don't have to go to each site and change the one code. Like when I changed the Window Load window size, all I did was change it from the file and the rest changed. If I did that now, I would have to test it all on one site and then copy-paste the change on all the sites one by one. Its many more steps to do, but then I realized, I have touched those codes in a long time. They are at the point where they are the best they can be. Unless I change the back-to-top arrow. So, I'm sure I'm not going to change anything and not have to go through all the copy-pasting. So, I had seven sites all cleared from Webs. When Webs breaks and the codes are gone, it won't matter and everything will be fine. The other things that were left were the Menu and the Hover Warnings. The Warnings had two .JS codes and a .CSS code. I looked and the actually HTML section that's on the site and saw there was a CSS section. So, I thought maybe I could put the .CSS file contents and put them there. Like combining the JS codes. It worked! Then, I figure I could combine the last two JS codes like what I did earlier with the other codes. IT WORKED!! Now, the Hover Warnings are working on their own. They are Webs free. But the job that not done. Next was the menu. The menu uses three .JS codes and a .CSS code that are put right about the </head> in the Template Editor. I tried putting the codes from the file onto the site and put them where they were. But Bloggers HTML Template editor didn't like that. So, then I tried to put them in the menu's widget....and it worked. I literally jumped up and yelled "VICTORY!!!". I only did one code though. I did say "them". I only had one in there. It was the main code though. After that, I tried the other .JS codes and they worked...but one. I was sad. All but one. :-( Then, I noticed that I had them all in one <script> section. So, maybe it just needs to be in its own <script> section....and it worked. DOUBLE VICTORY!! Now, I looked at the Hover Warnings again and studied how the CSS section worked and it needs a <style> to work. So, copied it, but I put in the menu's CSS codes. IT WORKED!!! THE MENU IS NOW WEBS FREE!! And that means the Main Site is on its own!! Except for a few things. A few pictures. As in the new Five Year's banners, the site's top banner, the loading GIF when the search box and the RSS feeds load, and the pictures in the Scrolling News in the side bar. So, I used Blogger for that. If I upload a picture in the Post Editor while working on a blog post, it gets stored to Blogger. You see where I'm going. ;-) I only used Webs so that I can have a GIF and the original sizes. I tried Flicker, but they don't like GIF. Using Blogger was the best way. Even though they got downsized. Finally, after all of this...EVERYTHING is now Webs free. This is a good step.
• Now, don't get me wrong, I love Webs. It's where my Membership site is and my codes. It's the only place I could store my codes and have them work. And the file editor they have made editing the codes awesome! I'm thankful for all of that. If I find new things to test that uses external codes, I won't put in into a <script> right away. I'll upload it to Webs first and get it properly tested and working. That's where the test site comes in. It still needs Webs for some of the test I'm doing. The only time I'll take the codes off of Webs is when they are done. I haven't touched the three JS codes for the menu is so long. So, I might as well take them off so that it doesn't break anymore. I will always be a fan of Webs.
• Also, earlier I mentioned updating the load time tests. That because my sites are loading much faster now. They don't have to load the page, see a code on Webs, go to Webs and wait for it to load, come back and load the script. It's skipping all that. I got the site loading time down to four seconds. That double what it was. However, I haven't tested it in a while. So, that is also from the other refinements I did before. But when I added the rest of the menu's code, I noticed it slowed down a bit. The menu code is a HUGE thing. But at least it's all on its own.
• And this is how I got some of the codes to work on the Back Up site. So, I could get rid of the Back Up site if I wanted too!!

Ok, WOW. That was a lot to say. This was a BIG step in the right direction. Looking back a year ago, things where so different. I was updating things like crazy, but they were small. Then, I adapted my monthly update schedule. I would do a main update (Version X) and then a secondary bug fix update for all the new things (Version X.5). This is the first time in a while I skipped the X.5 update and the last update was just two weeks ago. So, it was a fast update. I was going to wait for V.20 to be the return of the Membership site, but it's stuck in limbo. I realized this update was big enough to be two updates into one. V.19.5 can be the things at the beginning of the post. ;-) This was a big day. I'm looking forward to the next year and all the bug fixed I have to do from this update. I'M SURE THERE'S A LOT! See you in two weeks!