In an effort to keep the Techgear front page on a 'real-time status,' the news will be updated (most likely) multiple times per day. err0r and Ozzy have been doing it and I'll be doing it the same way. Don't be surprised if your gone for four or five hours and the front page news you were looking at is on the second page. It all depends on how quick/slow the news day is. As always, you can get in touch with one of the admins/global mods through PM's.

I have updated the submission form to check for empty required fields before the page is reloaded. Before it would go to an error page to let you know what you did not enter. Now it will popup an alert and inform you which field you did not enter. It will also change the color of the field and it's border to make it easier to identify what you did not fill out.

If you have any problems are have any suggestions on how to make the submission form better please let me know.

Feel free to test the submission system. If you submit a test file please use the File Queue page to delete the file. Only the member that uploaded the file may delete the file before it's accepted. If you have time to test it out please give me...

I have made a few changes to the IRC information pages. I will be adding more info and doing some updating of the current pages very soon. If you want to get a peek at my new page editing system you can get the info on the new TechGear Dev blog.

View the post about the page editor here.

I have added a lasted dev post script to the right menu on the main page.

I have updated the css files on the site. Hopefully I didn't leave out any needed css classes. There were a lot of unused classes left over so it is very possible i missed something. If you spot something out of sorts just let me know.

I have created a development blog for techgear. Most people will not care but people interested in how techgear actually works can go there to get an insiders view on the functionality of the site. It will not be a help site. It will just basically outline the methods and tools I use to get techgear to look and work the way it does. Also it will serve as a repository of code and ideas for me so I can remember how I did things, as I use them on other projects as well.

I chose wordpress as the backend for the blog. I really can't praise wordpress enough. It makes a really good backend for simple sites and making themes fit into the wordpress scheme is really simple. If you want to set up a wordpress site or a theme for one please checkout TechDesigns007.com

To view the new dev blog check out...

I have added a syntax highlighter for .txt downloads.

You can view a sample of what you will see if the download is a .txt file by clicking here

It won't affect other types of downloads. I haven't decided whether I should keep this feature or not.

Let me know your thoughts.

Main page link to private messages will flash red when you have new pm(s)

File queue link in left menu shows the number of files in queue

Readded open new page for forum links on the main page

Full left menu will only show on the main page. Sub pages will have reduced menu for navigation only.

thanks to x-fusion we are trying to get a lot of our old broken download links fixed.

I've spent the last several hours trying to get tg back into valid validation. At this time the main site should be 99% DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional Valid. I say 99% because much of the data on tg is dynamic so something could through a stray error or two up.

I did this for several reasons: boredom, it needed it, and because validation at least gives you a better shot to get the site working correctly in all browsers and platforms.

Note to php app designers. Make you apps valid. Use htmlentities as needed.

I noticed that the rss feeds I had were no longer working properly. I re-added rss feeds for latest posts and latest downloads from the site.

Just made a few minor CSS updates.

*why i bother posting these things you ask. to help me keep track of what i've done and when.

I have updated the header for the site. Gave it a more rounded look. The old bar menu is still on the forum theme as I haven't quite figured out where to put those links on the forum.

I've had a couple of ppl suggest I should allow users to give just a link to the file instead of uploading the file for special circumstances. I have added a couple of radio buttons to the form that will allow you to select whether you want to upload the file or use a remote url. We prefer you use the upload system as it ensures access to the file, but I also want to give the remote url option to the ppl that need it. While I have tested it if you encounter any problems please post them or use the contact us form.

I noticed attachments code didn't parse out to correctly show the image thumbnail and link. I have fixed it to display correctly.

Per request I have updated the downloads section to include other files by the creator when you view a file to download. You will see links to other files by the same author and the file you are viewing should be left out of the list. See pic below

The only problem I can foresee is that if the name on another file is spelled different or something is added to it then it will not be included. If you have files that aren't connected let me know and i'll fix the author name

*Update: changed the query from = to LIKE on the creator so maybe that will better job at finding other files by author.. still not 100% perfect