Upgrading the server: Test site

With the site a bit over 3 years old now, unfortunately, some of the software running is out of date. I've been testing the upgraded software, but I think I've hit the limit on what I can find myself, and so I'm looking for your help!

For any of you willing, I'd love for you to try out the new server and see if you can find any errors. It's an exact duplicate of the server as of about 6PM EST on Dec 29, 2016. If you do check it out and find any errors, please post a new thread on that server. On that server, you can mess around as much as you want, as when we're done with the testing, I'll be upgrading this server and deleting that one.

To try to test site just go to http://test.gamersplane.com.

Also, of you are checking out the test site, let me know here so I can track who is looking?

Once I've added the IP addresses, do I enter them as the URL in a browser window?

Yeah, I very rarely mess around terminal as I usually have no fucking clue what I'm doing here and basically have to trust the person/tutorial...

Nope. By entering them in your host file, it tells your browser when you ask for gamersplane.com, go to this ip instead.

I'm really sorry the steps to use the test site are so technical. I couldn't think of a better way to do it :/ I know it'll mean most people won't be able to access the test site; I'll continue to test on my own, and hopefully once I'm comfortable with it, I can release with minimal impact.

Okay, hopefully I'm hitting the test site. Is there a convenient way for me to tell that I'm there?

Well, if you can see this thread, then you're still on the production server. The test server has the word TEST blasted across the logo.

I guess it didn't work, then. I did have to sudo as root to edit the hosts file, but after restarting I still hit production.

Is there a way to test it using just the IP address? Right now when I visit based on IP I see some sort of event log for a gaming convention.

That's really weird... I tested it via hosts file before suggesting to you guys...

CancerMan, are you using a private browser window?

And szemely: sounds like you're hitting the AcadeCon site, but that's at acadecon.gamersplane.com...

I guess maybe this didn't work. Donno why it's working for me. Maybe I'll just have to do all the testing and hope nothing major breaks on release.

Yeah, I was using a private Firefox session. My hosts file only had an entry for localhost so I added the two IP addresses and hostnames at the end.

Editing /etc/hosts worked fine on my part (on a Mac). For the non-tech savy people out there, please note that you'll need to comment out those lines to get back to the non-testing version. ;)

I tested some basic stuff, found some bugs. Sending them to you on a PM, Keleth.

I thought so as well, partly why I hate messing around in Terminal...

So I ended up swapping a lot of code and set it up as http://test.gamersplane.com. Hopefully any errors we find are due to the upgrade and not the test setup.

Nice, can get on it straight away using that URL. I'll spend some time poking around tonight and tomorrow and see what I can break. :-)

test.gamersplane.com looks good. I see the same stuff I saw when I modified the hosts file :)

I wanna bump this again. An upgrade is something I'd like to release when possible, and getting more eyes on it always helps. I'd hate to release it then get a flood of "everything's broken!" bugs.

I've looked around a bit, but from a cursory look, I have failed to notice anything different. Not sure what am I missing here...

If the logo on the top left says Test across it, then you're on the test site, and if nothing is different, fantastic! It shouldn't be different for you, except maybe slightly faster.