The server move has not been as smooth as I would have wished... There were some scheduling issues that delayed the adsl line installation for a few days, and then I found out my provider had double their monthly fees. Luckily with the adsl line installed, it was quick & easy to switch service providers. ;-) This meant changing the IP for the website though, and that information always takes a few days to reach every corner of the internet. :) Within another day, the website should be available to everyone again (it's available to most now). Hopefully the server won't be moving again for a few years. ;-)

Thanks,

js.

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The ChessieDB server is being moved (physically) to a new location (again) at the end of the month. The move does not affect the website in any way, except that it will be unavailable for 1-2 days starting on March 30th. Unlike the previous move, there is no existing internet access at the new site - the server is moving with the service. Hopefully everything works out, and the website will only be offline for only a few hours. ;-)

js.

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The server hosting ChessieDB will be moved to a new location this coming week-end. The website will be unavailable for one (or two) days starting this Friday morning, Feb 24th. The website should be back up by the following morning, Saturday the 25th.

Thank you,

js.

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There will be a 2 week delay in submission database imports. Please be patient - all contacts and dog submissions will be imported as soon as possible.

Thank you,

js.

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2-3 weeks ago I changed the power supply in our main workstation. Aftewards Windows XP wouldn't boot properly (go figure). Since changing the HD for an SSD drive was in the plans, I decided to order the SSD and upgrade to Windows 7 when it came in. This has left us without a decent workstation since then, and ChessieDB submissions have been piling up. The SSD is stuck in customs, but it shouldn't be long now. So if you're waiting for your dog / contact info to be imported, please be patient a little longer. Everything should be back to normal in another week or so.

Thanks,
js.

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ChessieDB has been offline on several occasions these past few days. The city damaged our sewer pipe a few weeks ago (unbeknown to us at the time), and the damaged pipe couldn't handle the big rains from last week. Luckily the servers, etc., are up high, so they were saved, but the resulting activities (disaster team cleanup and on-going renovations) have taken their toll. Hopefully things will be a little more stable in the coming days, but there's still plenty of work to do. Once it's done, the servers will have to be moved back down to their usual location, which will cause another outage for a few hours.

So, if you find the ChessieDB website is not responding, a worker might have just un-plugged our ADSL line (as they did a few minutes ago!), and the website should return shortly. :-) Sorry for the inconvenience.

js.

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Last night, the e-mail service was moved from Dent (our old web/mail/dns server) to Stingray. During this move, the mail transfer agent (MTA) was upgraded and the configuration revised / improved. Several spam-related applications and configurations were modified. If you have any problems receiving your submission confirmations, or reaching us by e-mail, you can notify me at jsmorisset at gmail.com.

About the only thing left running on Dent now is the web service. There are several dependencies left to resolve (mostly perl CGI stuff), so it'll be another week or two before the web service is moved onto Stingray.

js.

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One of our regulars reported a problem with picture uploads when submitting a new dog. It turns out a small code change, a few months ago, had un-intended consequences. Picture uploads for existing dogs and contacts still functioned, but not for new dogs and contacts. A big thanks to Veronica for reporting this.

Our current web and mail server is getting a little too old and outdated, so I've ordered a new quad-core beast that should last us another 10 years. Consequently, you can expect some instability in the coming months -- we have to migrate the websites over to a new version of perl, apache, and various other support tools. I don't expect too many problems, but if the website is down, don't worry -- it should be back shortly.

js.

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We've had some performance issues on our ADSL line since moving last summer and it's gotten worse recently. I opened a ticket with our provider a few days ago, and on Tuesday a technician spent a few hours fixing the local street corner box. This seems to have improved the line speed, but we may have to upgrade our ADSL modem as well. A new one is on the way and will be installed shortly. Hopefully you'll notice the website is a bit more responsive in the next few days.

js.

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I took a break from coding new features for the website during the holidays. The contact search and litter submission features were almost done, so I sat down this morning and finished-up the contact search. It's a fairly simple search for the moment, and I'll be adding more advanced search options in the future (to search by state or region, for judges, club members, etc.). The current search page allows you to select a specific kennel from a list, or search for contacts by first and last names. On the results page, you can click on the [View Profile] or [Update Contact] links.

If you have any problems with the contact search, please let me know.

js.

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You can now follow the ChessieDB Weblog on Facebook -- an alternative to receiving a notification by e-mail.

As I work on the Litter Submission scripts, I've also had to improved some of the older code. The Search Results now include a thumbnail picture (when available) and the results should come up a little faster too -- especially when you move backwards and forwards through the result pages.

js.

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I've just made some significant changes to the dog submission script. When you submit a new dog, instead of showing you the full submission form, you'll first be asked for the dog's name, sire, and dam. A check will then be performed to see if those dogs, or dogs with similar names, already exist in the database. If they do, some options will be available on the full submission form to make corrections. The same checks used to be made farther along the submission process, and didn't allow the same flexibility to make corrections. I've run several tests to make sure the submission form is working properly, but it's gotten a little too complicated to test all possible scenarios, so if you spot any problems, please let us know by e-mail and I'll address the issue ASAP.

js.

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The contact database has grown enough to start coding new features based on the information it contains. There are three new items on the left-side menu: Kennel, Breeder, and Owner Directories. If you've specified a kennel name, a state or province, and a country in your contact profile, your kennel will appear in this directory (all three fields are required). If the directory gets too long, I may had a filter to show only kennels with dogs associated with their contact profile. So if you're the breeder of one or more dogs in our database, it would be best if you update those dog records and include yourself as the breeder.

The Breeder Directory is similar to the Kennel Directory, except that first and last names are displayed instead of the kennel name, and the contact profile must be associated with one or more dogs as a breeder. The Owner Directory is the same, except the contact profile must be associated as an owner. In all cases, the contact profile must include a state or province, and country.

js.

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Modifying the Owners and Breeders associated with a dog's record is now a lot easier. I just finished a Contact Lookup feature to locate contacts (by First Name, Last Name, or Kennel Name) and add them to a dog's record. When you're on an [Update Dog] page, you'll find a section titled Associated Owners and Breeders where you can enter Owner and Breeder Contact IDs. The Contact Lookup link (a popup window) in this section can be used to search for contacts, view their profile, list dogs owned and/or bred, and add their Contact IDs to the dog's update form. The Contact Lookup includes instructions in case the contact you're looking for is not in our database. You can also go straight to the New Contact Submission page and search for, update, or add a contact.

As part of the 3rd and final phase of the Contact Database functionality, I still have to code a proper Contact Search page. This will include such features as searching for all breeders, breeders by state, stud down owners, judges, etc.

js.

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Yesterday we surpassed 30,000 dogs in our database.

Today I changed the ChessieDB URL from http://www.chessiedb.org/ to http://chessiedb.org/. Hopefully this won't cause any noticeable issues, except for having to enter your name and e-mail address again when submitting your next dog (previous values are recalled from a cookie, which is based on the URL hostname).

You may not have noticed, but there's "Donate" button on the left side menu. ChessieDB is free to use by anyone, but we do appreciate a little financial help on occasion. :-) A big thanks to those of you who've donated in the past.

js.

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On November 3rd I announced the 1st Phase of a Breeder/Owner Contact database. This consisted of a Contact Profile page that displayed their postal address, phone numbers, website, etc., along with a list of dogs owned and/or bred by that contact. As expected, the reaction to this new feature was very positive -- I already knew of several Breeders waiting patiently for this. :-) Of course the usefulness of these new pages was limited since the Contact Update (2nd Phase) and Contact Search (3rd Phase) functionality was not available yet. It took a lot of hard work, but I've finally finished the 2nd Phase: the Contact Updates. There are a couple of ways to update a contact; On the left-side menu you'll find a new "SUBMIT A New Contact" link, on the Dog Info pages you'll find an [Update Contact] link for associated Owners and Breeders, and finally on the Contact Profile page there's also an [Update Contact] link. I've tried to test everything as best I can, but there could still be one or two bugs left. If you have any problems, even if it's just a page layout issue, please let me know.

Aside from updating the contact profiles, you can also add / change the Owner and Breeder IDs when updating a dog. For now, there's no way to easily find those ID numbers -- that's part of the 3rd and final phase. If you try and submit a new contact using your First and Last Names, you might be able to locate your Contact ID from it's simple name check. The actual search pages will offer many more options, including some small pop-up search windows in strategic locations.

js.

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After you update or submit a new dog, the relationship you selected between yourself and this dog (Owner, Owner of Descendant, Breeder, etc.) will be saved for later recall. When you update this dog's record again, the relationship you declared earlier will be selected automatically.

js.

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I've been working on the Contact database features for the past few weeks, and as a consequence I've had modify quite a bit of old code. Although it may not look like it, the ChessieDB website uses upwards of 30,000 lines of code, in dozens of small and large perl scripts. Some of this code is common to many scripts, and one small change (good or bad) affects the whole website. On occasion a small bug that I didn't catch may make it's way to the website. I rely on you to report any features that are not working properly -- even if it's just a small page layout issue. Once all the Contact features are done, the website should be stable and reliable once again.

As part of the Contact database overhaul, you'll note that submission related e-mails are now in HTML. This should make it easier to review the information contained in the e-mail. The Contact update script (the second of three Contact related scripts) is coming along nicely and should be finished in the next week or two. I may have to code the search script before allowing Contact updates, since Contacts are based on ID numbers, and a search feature will be necessary to locate those numbers.

js.

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The ChessieDB Dog Info, Pedigree, Reverse Pedigree, Breeding, and part of the new contact Profile page, can all be embed into another web page, on a completely different website. The idea is to allow web site owners (kennels, breeders, and dog owners) to use our database information, and reduce the time they spend maintaining the same information on their website. The pages we provide for embedding have been simplified, stripped of their ChessieDB branding (menus, etc.), and provide links to other pages also designed for an embedded window frame.

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A few days ago I finally had an idea on how to add breeder and owner contact information to the database. We could have used a drop-down list with all the breeder/owner names, but this is really not scalable. We could have also used a text box to let people enter contact names, then checked for existing contacts with those names, but this is error prone and complicated, especially for duplicate names. It finally occurred to me that I could use the contact's record ID. Once created, a contact's ID number never changes. This will allow someone to simply enter an ID number to link a contact to a dog. I'll have to provide a small pop-up search box to find those ID numbers, but this will be a lot more elegant and less error prone than using contact names. I still have to rely on the contact's first and last names to import updates to their profile (a small limitation of the Breeder's Assistant application we use), so this means that once a contact record has been created, the first and last names cannot be changed (except if you send an e-mail and we update the database record manually). All other information, like postal address, e-mail address, telephone numbers, etc. can all be modified. I've also found a way to allow duplicate names, which is essential for the number of contacts we expect to maintain (we already have close to 1,000 contacts in the database).

There are three big steps to implementing this, each taking several days to code: creating a profile page to view the contact's information, an update page to allow additions of new contacts and modifying existing contacts, and finally a search page to find contact IDs, breeders by location, etc. I've been working on the first phase (creating a profile page) for the past few days, and finally have something that looks pretty good. You can view Janet Wilson's, Jane Pappler's, or my own profile page for an example. You can also view Pete's Info Page to see how the owner and breeder links will be presented. I know everyone will want to create their own contact page now, and depending on how much time I have available, the update feature might be done in another week or two. After that I'll work on the search page, and then we can finally allow contact changes on the dog [Update] page. I expect everything will be finished by Xmas or so.

js.

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I've spent the last few days writing some new scripts to download and compare the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) database entries. The OFA results will be updated monthly and saved under the OFA Resources Folder as CSV and ZIP files. Another script allows anyone to browse and compare the OFA results with our own database entries. The interface uses a sophisticated configuration file to define and manipulate CSV file content. In the future, this should allow us to verify and import a variety of CSV files from other organizations. The standard user interface highlights the differences between the CSV content and our database, while some admin features also allow us to manipulate and save those differences. I've already started to update our database (starting with 1974), but with over 15,000 entries in the OFA CSV files, it'll take some time to catchup. :-)

js.

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The website will be down for a few days around June 22nd to 26th 2009. We're moving, and the servers will be moved somewhere during that week -- depending on when the internet connection is available at the new place. Hopefully we'll only be offline for a day or two.

Meanwhile, we're shoulders deep in boxes stacked all over the place. :-) We're busy packing, so new submissions might take a while before being imported. Be patient - we'll get around to them when we can. :-)

Thanks,
js.

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You may have noticed a number of changes in the left-side menu over the past few weeks...

• The 'ChessieDB News' section has been renamed ChessieDB Weblog. This change reflects the growing selection of subject matter covered, including the latest Articles category.

• A Weblog Articles link has also been added to the menu. This weblog category page lists all current articles, including an excerpt for each.

• The Reasearch Dogs page was added a little while ago to help locate dogs with missing parents. [Ed: Mention of another website has been removed by request from it's owner]

js.

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There are several controls in place to prevent duplicate entries, recognize typos in dog names, etc., but I've just closed the door on one more. When a blank submission form was used to enter a new dog, and it's name was already in our database, a page would be displayed to compare & verify the old vs the new information. There's nothing wrong with this, except in the case were a different Sire, Dam, Sex, Birth Date, etc. are entered. These fields cannot be modified after their initial entry, unless they were left blank in the first place. This could only be a problem when a blank submission form was used -- the [Update Info] link located on various pages prevents anyone from changing these protected fields. The new protection feature I've just added will warn of the error, and suggest alternative actions; like e-mailing the info to us for a manual database entry, or starting the submission process again with a pre-filled form using the original database record (protected fields cannot be changed on this form).

js.

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Look for a ChessieDB advertisement in the next CBRCC (Chesapeake Bay Retriever Club of Canada) newsletter.

The Chesapeake Bay Retriever Pedigree Database Submit pedigrees online Search and update existing records Download the database for breeding calculations Over 20,000 database records All for Free! www.chessiedb.org

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I've just finished an update of the "Show Info" and "Submission" scripts to allow the upload / display of up to four pictures. You can see a sample on Pete's Information Page. I'll be updating the pedigree page shortly as well. My plan is to display up to four thumbnails vertically for the first dog.

A while back I added some fields for Owners and Breeders. I've done a little work on this in the background, but most of the grunt work is still to be done. Don't worry, it'll get done at some point. :-)

You can receive these News updates by e-mail (many already do) by using our Subscription Page. Every News update e-mail contains an un-subscribe link, in case you want to remove yourself from these updates in the future.

js.

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Not to worry, we didn't go anywhere! :-) We lost our internet connection last Friday and finally got it back this afternoon.

js.

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As part of our wills, Melanie and I had to consider the future survival of ChessieDB. Steve Larouche, a friend of ours who's active in the local Chessie community, has agreed to take over the hosting and maintenance of ChessieDB should anything happen to us. We've created an MS-Word document to outline the import/export procedures for the database, a compressed backup is available for Steve to download, and another backup is located in a bank safety deposit box. Hopefully all these precautions will never be needed. :-)

js.

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I just finished adding a new Network-Attached Storage (NAS) file server with 4 Terabytes of disk to our local network. I've also moved all of our music, video, pictures, websites, documents, etc. onto the NAS, and I'm now fine-tuning the file and directory structure. You'll notice the number of pending submissions has been growing for the past week or two. Hopefully the integration of this new storage will be finished shortly, and we can once again import new submissions.

A little while ago, I started work on a breeder contact database. It's still in the works, and most of the back-end is done, but I have to figure out a good way for website users to connect breeders to dogs. While I'm pondering this problem, I'll probably finish some other features, like searching for breeders, displaying breeder contact information, and a form to change a breeder's contact info.

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If you received an error saying "Sorry, the saved submission information was incomplete. Please re-submit a new form." during the e-mail validation process, please try the link provided in the e-mail again. Hopefully everything should work as it should now. :-) If you have any problems, please e-mail us. Thank you.

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I'm working on a new database to manage breeder and owner contact information. This information will be displayed on the Dog's Info page. You can see an example on Donnett's Pepper Pete Info Page. Don't worry - e-mail addresses are encoded in javascript to protect them from harvesting. :-) If you've submitted a dog to our database, and identified yourself as it's breeder, you're name and e-mail address has been added to our breeder database. An online form will be available in the future to update your contact information. For now, if you find a dog has been attributed to you by error, send us an e-mail and we'll correct the problem. The search page will also be enhanced soon to search and display breeder contact information, including a list of dogs attributed to them.

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FYI - I just finished fixing two minor bugs in the submission process. First, if multiple submissions were made re-using the same submission form (using the back button after submitting a dog, to submit another dog), the original submitted info was overwritten - the submission form contains a unique ID for each submission, and this ID is used to save the submitted info. I've added a check to the submission process that will now protect previously submitted info, even if has the same submission ID. This could only happen if someone used the back button, after submitting a dog, to re-submit another. Hopefully this wasn't a problem experienced by many.

The second bug fixed occured when using the "Update Info" link when viewing a dog's info page. The original photo for the dog was not displayed on the submission form, and updates to the photo may have been ignored.

So, hopefully everything is working fine now, but if you experience any problems, please let us know.

I expect to start work on improving the search form (adding extra fields for sex, dates, etc.) in the next few weeks.

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New submissions have been pilling up for the last few weeks. We're just back from vacation, so we'll be importing them very soon. Our dog broke 2 teeth while we were away - probably gnawing at some chain-link fence at the kennel - so we've been busy doing some research on root canals and crowns since getting back. We're meeting the animal dentist tomorrow morning, so hopefully we'll have more time for the ChessieDB in the coming days.

In the future - probably this fall or winter - I hope to add a litter submission form, a kennel submission form (allowing you to specify the breeding kennel for a dog, search for kennels, etc.), and possibly a classified ads section for breeders and kennels.

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