Well, I guess there is a lot still to learn. A lot that I would like to learn but I am being blocked from. You know what I mean. I want no more of that...

Anyways it feels weird to even type on a keyboard so I will make the message as short as possible.

My main goal right now is to get a handle on whats going on around me. Still without what I have earned, and not getting what I deserve (what I want - you know), nothing feels right. There is no way to turn me either direction.

For the time being this will be a side project just to keep me busy (burn dead time).

Right now I really just want to overhaul how statistics are collected and the users online system.

Above all this is a side project just to stay busy, and sort of remember, and keep this if anything else - solo.

This website is nothing really but my member management script (and a couple of addons). Because the website has no content, and the scripts need work, there is really no reason to browse around. It might be kind of a waste of time. Here is an explanation of kind of where the script is going now.

I really am going to try to make something out of this website.

I stopped working on the main project, which is the member management script, about two or three months ago.

A huge problem arose when I realized that there is a limit on the amount of columns you can fetch information from at a time when querying the database. This is a problem because the usergroup system is based on adding a new column to the usergroup table for each and every privilege - very specifically. I had another table which kept track of all the privileges, so that the additional columns could be managed and kept track of.

In the middle of working on one of the addons/ enhancements for the script - I hit whatever that limit is, and things stopped functioning properly.

I finally know what I am going to do with it, and damn, the solution is so simple I should have done this from the start. Instead of having a column for each and every privilege, the privileges will be generalized (right now into 4 categories), and every addon installed will add its own column for privileges specific to that addon.

Then instead of the privilege column just acting such as "yes this usergroup has this privilege" or "no they dont" (marked with a 1 or a 0); the privileges will be considered flags, and the column will store a sum of flags which mark what the usergroup can and cant do.

With the main privileges generalized into 4 sections, it will be so much less confusing. Less confusing... lets leave it at that... its still confusing right now.

There will be less privileges available to configure as well, that is because those privileges are going to turn into assumed privileges. For example main administrative powers are only available to users in the default Administrative usergroup (ID 1). Powers such as: Create/Edit/Remove usergroups; Clearing account information, resetting account passwords & removing accounts; Likely mass removal options (mass delete anything); viewing error logs etc...

There are countless little things I need to add to the script, and did not before because of how confusing and tedious the usergroup system was.

In all this is going to simplify everything enormously if I can complete it.

There is a ton of work ahead of me... but it should be worth it, and it will likely make the script run a wholeeee lot faster. Even better, a lot of the sloppy headers can be done away with. Script files can once again be simplified to starting with require_once "scripthead.php"; without naming privileges to fetch beforehand.

For sure I now have the usergroup system planned the way I wanted it originally. There is so many files though, and with assumed privileges, a lot will have to be changed throughout every file. There will be a lot of consolidating, and breaking things apart. I know what to do though.

All in all, either it will work and all come together the way I want; or I will get so lost making changes to all different files in the script and the usergroup that it just plain becomes a mess beyond repair (in which case I have backups)... but yeah, this has become an enormous puzzle. I really should have at least organized the file structure a little better.

Eventually though, everything will work as intended. Then I will be able to speed up development on anything else.


Next update will be in a month or so.

And again, I am not uploading any changes until I have finished work on at least the entire member management framework plus the news addon.