


5:48 am
August 18, 2011

Greetings!
This is just a quick update on activities. Having had less than expected time over the Holidays, coupled with some bad days, has pushed everything out further. Spigot 1.11 update are moving along and the community is busy helping with debugging and testing. The 3-day +/1 day expiry on the main jar file was giving control scripts a hard time. The expiry is intended as a frequent reminder to update Spigot builds. Currently, patch code is still being updated at least once every other day. Control scripts have been suitable tailored to optional expect expiry notifications.
As feared, certain changes to the API, required updates; mostly to the Shoppe plugin. They have also pushed back the deployment of a MobDrop-like plugin (i.e. cash for kills). The announcement that deprecated API methods will finally be removed in version 1.12 has spirited me to perform a general code clean up on all older plugins to ensure no dependency on such methods. That itself, caused a few more unanticipated tasks.
It is clear that once worlds have been updated to 1.11 (i.e. Arda, Eden) there is no way back. Given that, I am being overly paranoid, testing plugins, more specifically plugin interactions, to the max in order to uncover any pitfalls that could require a rollback.
I will be starting the final testing of 3rd-party plugins (i.e. Grief Prevention, Essentials, etc.) tomorrow. I hope to update the test server no later than Friday night to include most of the major plugins for everyone to hack away at. I hope that actual live tests will alleviate any remaining upgrade woes that I might have. We’ll see.
5:02 pm

Viceroy
February 21, 2013

Hehe, when is there ever as much time as we expect over the Holidays? Thanksgiving is one of those black hole holidays that sucks all your free time into a void.
The progress so far sounds great. There is a lot to be expected when doing the work for 3 updates and planning for future ones. Just remember to take a break every once and a while!
I look forward to all the nifty features to come, and thanks for the update!
If we don't study the mistakes of the future, we're doomed to repeat them for the first time.
8:47 pm

Viceroy

Senior Mod
June 1, 2012

12:46 pm

Knight
Members
November 23, 2013

12:07 am
August 18, 2011

I have a sneaking suspicion that test server updates will slide into Saturday. I fell down a rabbit hole today while updating VC's configuration management system. All-in-all positive results, but a serious draw on free time.
5:40 pm
August 18, 2011

This is one of the reasons why I don't generally provide blow-by-blow progress reports - good or bad - since Murphy apparently loves to throw few more monkey wrenches into the mix A mischievous deed by some dull-witted, unthinking teenagers around our company's corporate facility yesterday afternoon, has triggered a series of events involving several state and federal agencies requiring my undivided attention. I hope that all will be said and done sometime tomorrow. Back to collecting data and filling out reports.
Sorry, I know everyone is anxiously waiting.
10:22 pm

Viceroy

Senior Mod
June 1, 2012

11:09 pm

Viceroy
February 21, 2013

That darn Murphy, always toying with progress. Murphy always follows me around, but more in the form of my dog, and mostly when I have food in hand. Think more drool and fewer monkey wrenches.
Good luck with all that is remaining! Hopefully, that other Murphy doesn't have too many more ideas for you.
If we don't study the mistakes of the future, we're doomed to repeat them for the first time.
7:54 pm
July 21, 2015

2:46 pm
August 18, 2011

Looks like I should be wrapping up most of the activities concerning the situation at work by tonight and, hopefully (crossing finger), be minimal for the rest of the week. That said, I'm going to try to take time off for the rest of the week to get back on track with the updates.
The good news is that MD5 announced that Spigot 1.11 is considered stable, earlier this morning. Not bad on their their part, only about 2 weeks from update to stable release. While the risk of a rollback still exists, it should be no more than other major releases.
I was able to test GriefPrevention and it appears to be working as expected. I'm certainly we'll discover minor anomalies, but that is to be expected. Toothpick also release a much awaited 1.11 update to McMMO on Sunday, Its only a major bug fix for 1.11. Tests hopefully will highlight what other "undocumented features" still remain within it.
Best,
Frelling
5:40 pm
August 18, 2011

A lot of grunt work is underway. My local test server (here at the office) is configured and running and slowly populated with plugins for final test.
The 1.11 update broke my unit test system. Changes to the JavaPlugin class removed a critical constructor used by my unit test library. It is not the end of the world; after all, I have source code. However, I don't relish having to maintain a distinct branch of Spigot for something that should be supported by Spigot in the first place. Mudwog and I are meeting tomorrow to look at this in more detail and identify solutions that will not break or cause problems later. Hopefully, we can use that info to champion an official patch of Spigot.
I'm testing a "quick solution" tonight, which I can use to continue moving forward, should we not find a better approach tomorrow. In other words, we've got a ladder in this rabbit hole letting us get out quick.
9:40 pm

Viceroy

Senior Mod
June 1, 2012

3:45 pm
August 18, 2011

That was easier than expected. It only took two large subs, a six-pack of Coke, and about two hours to find a reasonable solution to serve our unit testing needs that should last for a long time. Even though this solution also depends on a deprecated method, we're sure that it won't be removed anytime soon - the constructor for the JavaPluginLoader class. Even better, we didn’t have to tweak any server files directly and have no need to consider proposing an official patch of Spigot.
Once we fixed the downstream effect of this change in our plugins' code, unit tests once more worked as expected. Most plugins passed with flying colors. Shoppe, Tally (voting plugin), and TapeMeasure (region selection and measurement) didn't pass completely, but that was to be expected. The good news is that the errors are the same as they were in 1.9 and 1.10, thus nothing new was introduced.
Mudwog and I are going to take a break and visit with a few friends he hasn't seen in a while. I should be getting back to the "regularly scheduled program" later this evening and continue applying 1.11 feature support to those plugins that need it and all that other testing stuff.
4:03 pm
July 21, 2015

5:39 pm

Knight
Members
November 23, 2013

8:45 pm

Viceroy

Senior Mod
June 1, 2012

9:58 am
August 18, 2011

Good Morning. Things are going well. No emergencies at work or elsewhere, have allowed me to focus on server updates this week almost full-time (well, I haven't yet opened up my work email today ). Most of the work now is integration and configuration. That has its own pitfalls, which fortunately, are only time sinks rather than serious issues. Now, if I could only get my time estimation skills working again.
11:29 pm
May 10, 2015

9:49 pm
August 18, 2011

It was such a cool and great idea, but... Yeah, that about sums it up. The great idea was use Citizens2 NPCs along with some custom code to create Stewards that would replace our quirky MultiVerse Portals. Those of you that visited the test server in the past saw them in action providing inter-server teleportation between the Hub server and Spigot 1.9 test server.
We used a very small plugin, NPC Joiner, that worked in tandem with Citizens to provide actual teleportation. We knew this was just a proof of concept and that we would design our own plugin to do all the heavy lifting, since NPC Joiner code looked like it had been designed on the back of a paper napkin. Matter of fact, that plugin isn’t even available anymore as a Spigot resource.
Citizen2 had a much steeper learning curve than expected. Using it to create and configure NPCs from the command line was relatively easy and we were spawning dozens of NPCs easily in no time. However, doing the same programmatically and using its traits concepts took a bit longer. Fortunately, Citizens2 is a well-designed plugin, even with no documentation, lack of details code comments, and sparse Wiki descriptions, we could grok its inner workings and all its dirty little secrets
Stewards come in three different types. Server Stewards will teleport players between different servers within the same BungeeCord network eliminating the need to log off one server and on to another. These guys will become more important later on as we add additional servers (e.g. Events server).
World Stewards provide warp-like abilities. They can teleport player to any accessible location in any world available on a single server. In essence, they are just make better looking warp signs
Portal Stewards are essential two joined World Stewards that provide a controllable bi-directional portal between two locations. The benefit is that setting up portals between two locations is way easier. Just plop one NPC at each location and linked them up, that is it. Future airship and ship portals will become a breeze. Doing the same with Multiverse would take many, many more steps and time to avoid costly mistakes that could only be undone with a server restart.
Okay, I think that is enough. I just needed to do something different than look at Java code, hence this blurb. I’ll keep everyone posted.
Most Users Ever Online: 442
Currently Online:
8 Guest(s)
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)
Top Posters:
Emulated: 3206
ryanpitts: 1300
Dalferes: 747
Pherian: 660
Okarim: 594
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 10
Members: 14540
Moderators: 3
Admins: 2
Forum Stats:
Groups: 8
Forums: 45
Topics: 6229
Posts: 27412
Newest Members: RonaldBramy, BillieSit, TommieClove, glenmm2, MichaelGasHy, ninasw4, Samuelsoymn, lvubum, Heatherequib, AboGB, kerryjr16, Larryexcex, florizgirl, joannamz69, sondrayo11, ChuckFrirl, Jamesbrera, amieaj11, Michaelmot, stavremontws
Moderators: terrorisly: 424, mudwog: 127, LightWarriorK: 2154
Administrators: meatbawllz: 2475, frelling: 3264