Site Update Dec. 19, 2012

[Corfman Clan]

Well, I wasn't planning on another update so soon since the last, but I was browsing through the site logs and noticed several error reports that ended up being from a bug I introduced with the Nov. 29 update. Anyway, I tracked that down and have a fix along with some fixes to a few other issues I noticed while going through the logs. There's also a lot of other nice changes too.

• Fixed bug where clicking on the Geocacher link in the FDF Leaderboard summary on the RegionPage didn't work (redirected to an error page stating the resource no longer exists or was removed).
• Added a row to the bottom of the Loneliest table (both home page and RegionPage) to view either a member's top found/owned or not found/owned. This is a member feature, so you have to be logged in to see it.
• Updated the Hides page and the Finds page to show both the current cache points and the next find cache points.
• Afer logging in, you will now be redirected to your Geocacher Page.
• On the Log in page, the Log in button is now the default button instead of the Search button.
• When initiating a search from the Log in page, when not logged in, the error, The current user is not allowed to access the previous page, will no longer occur. Instead you will now be properly redirected to the search page where a message stating no search string was found is output. This situation occurred a lot because the Search button was the default button instead of the Log in button
• After logging out, you will now be redirected to the log in page.
• When canceling out of changing your password, you will now be redirected back to your Profile page instead of the home page.
• The View Statistics For table at the bottom of the home page, has been added to the bottom of the RegionPage and the bottom of the GeocachePage. It has also been reworked in such a way that it is very simple to add it to any other page as desired.
• Added some maintenance routines to run each day after the stats are updated: Remove any Geocachers that no longer have any hides or finds in LonelyCache; Remove site performance statistics that are over 90 days old.
• I noticed the database query for retrieving nearby caches had timed out several times. This results in no results being shown. I personally have never seen this, but from the site logs, I know it has happened. To alleviate this, I upped the query timeout value to 60 seconds from the default 30.
• I created a generic paging mechanism to use for the various pages. Now instead of links to to to the next or previous pages, there are also links to go to the start and end of the list, along with jumping forward or back ten pages. All pages that had paging now use this mechanism. Also, paging was added to the TopCaches page.
• I improved the auto update a user's finds feature by stream lining the database calls that were used to check whether a find was already part of LonelyCache or not. Basically, instead of 25 to 50 DB calls for 25 finds, we now have one or two.

Enjoy

[Corfman Clan]

• I created a generic paging mechanism to use for the various pages. Now instead of links to to to the next or previous pages, there are also links to go to the start and end of the list, along with jumping forward or back ten pages. All pages that had paging now use this mechanism. Also, paging was added to the TopCaches page.

There seems to be a problem with the paging for the FDF leaderboard. Paging is working properly for all the other pages that have paging. I've been struggling with trying to figure out what is going on. Some of you may have noticed the site going up and down this morning. That was me trying various things, all to no avail. I do know what is wrong now, I just don't know why.

To implement paging, I created a paging control and insert two on each page, a top paging control and a bottom paging control. For some reason, on the FDF leaderboard, these two controls are not being instantiated when the page is loaded. Until I can fix this, paging with the FDF leaderboard is disabled. My apologies.

[Corfman Clan]

Until I can fix this, paging with the FDF leaderboard is disabled. My apologies.

Alright, it's fixed. It appears when I updated the site last night, the file FDF.aspx was not updated (I don't know why that is the case, all changed files should automatically be copied to the site). So the FDF leaderboard page didn't match the code file. I manually copied the file over and it is working now.

[desert dawg]

I have a question about point totals?

Today My Combined total points earned (19192) is a differant figure than the lonely cache wide, Best all around leaderboard figure..( 19186)
I have never seen these two figures the same amount .. is this correct? They usually vary DAY TO DAY between 2 and 8 points.
thanks CC...~

[Corfman Clan]

I have a question about point totals?

Today My Combined total points earned (19192) is a differant figure than the lonely cache wide, Best all around leaderboard figure..( 19186)
I have never seen these two figures the same amount .. is this correct? They usually vary DAY TO DAY between 2 and 8 points.
thanks CC...~

That's actually a really good question and I've been wondering when someone might ask it. I even know why that occurs and will explain what is going on next year.

[Corfman Clan]

Jusk kidding. Actually I'm practicing for next April 1st.

Basically, everyday at 4:00 AM Eastern time, the site statistics are updated. The update usually completes around 40 minutes later. During the update, the point totals for all caches are computed along with all the leaderboards. So all the point totals and such in the leaderboards are a snapshot of what the site had at 4:00 AM. At the bottom of each page, is a line that shows what time the statistics update was last completed. The leaderboards will not change until the next morning when statistics are again updated.

Now throughout the day (except from 4:00 AM ET for about 40 minutes), the site is using the Geocaching.com Live API to update the LonelyCache DB. It will update any changes made to the cache and retrieve new found logs. Since the Dec. 12 udpate, the cache's points are also recomputed and this is what causes the discrepancy.

When you look at a Geocacher's page, the values displayed in the top table for hides, finds, and combined are computed on the spot. Those values are as up to date as the data in LonelyCache. The values displayed farther down in the LonelyCache Wide leaderboards is a bit stale, depending on how long it's been since the statistics were last computed and what caches' points values have changed since then. If any of the caches that you own or have found have been updated since the statistics were last updated, then it is expected that the points will differ by some amount.

[desert dawg]

CC thanks for your prompt answer .. it totally makes since.
glad you never waited until April 1st to explain it .. as the world is expected to end sometime later today the 21st..
it was really nice to get it all down before it happens.. dawg ~

[Corfman Clan]

CC thanks for your prompt answer .. it totally makes since.
glad you never waited until April 1st to explain it .. as the world is expected to end sometime later today the 21st..
it was really nice to get it all down before it happens.. dawg ~

I heard today that the Mayans weren't predicting the end of the world, just the end of Twinkies. They were off a bit, but still pretty close.