Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Website - Outstanding Developments (2025 - May)
(Work In Progress: output at 07/04/2025 00:12:58)
Rationale for this Document
- My website has evolved over time, and some parts are more active than others. Some parts haven’t been looked at (by me) for years.
- I have known of various problems for some time, and they have been queuing for development awaiting opportunity / enthusiasm.
- My focus has always been content before form. However, it’s form that catches the eye. So, the site needs a makeover.
- I’ve also used rather primitive HTML techniques – whatever’s simplest, quickest and less distracting from my philosophical studies.
- I have started to document my website and the site-generator. The results are currently in a password-protected area.
- The Functional Documentation1 is very rudimentary, but
- The Technical Documentation – in the form of the actual code with hyperlinks between routines, and links to the tables and queries used – is wonderful (even if I say so myself) – something Microsoft should have supplied.
- The Progress to Date2 Document provides a brief functional overview, together with the schedule of past quarterly upgrades.
- Outstanding developments are listed below in two sequences:-
- By Priority
- By Category
- Items that have been “Cancelled” or for which a “Work-around” has been found are included in the lists under these status-codes so they are not lost sight of.
- Own Website: Outstanding Items By Priority:-
- Priority: 1
- Architecture
- Complete XRef-re-engineering project:-
- Ensure all links and link-pages use the new XRef table, and pension off the old tables where appropriate.
- Check all link-types still work and fix any errors.
- Complete the auto-triggering of regeneration of “associated” link pages.
- Fix Bug whereby PaperSummary pages seem to have “Works-” and “Books/Papers-” Citings that refer to the same link-pages.
- Complete Documenting3 the process!
- Authors
- Creep-check for duplicate authors & fix
- Backups
- Determine why flag on directories "not to be backed up" gets reset
- Document and enable regular running of the de-duplication function ('pruning') of the backup disk. Keep a full record of deleted duplicates.
- Enable Backups to be undertaken on both my PC & Laptop and write reconciliation software.
- Incorporate new 5Tb WD Backup Drive into backup system.
- Investigate historic error messages
- Investigate Record-count discrepancies:-
- How do website files work as far as counts are concerned?
- Why aren't they recorded in Backup_History, nor the fact that the website was backed up?
- Different counts depending on whether new or old laptop is backed up. Investigate 63k discrepancy - lower on new laptop.
- Review architecture to improve performance; Need to document4 first
- Sort out the contents of my C:Drives, OneDrive and Emails as documented in my Backup Documentation
- Books/Papers
- For Books and Papers - add link pages - analogous to:-
→ BooksToNotes_
→ BookCitings_
→ PapersToNotes_
→ PaperCitings_
linked to from:-
→ BookSummaries_
→ PaperSummary_
and (maybe) from:-
→ BookPaperAbstracts_
→ Abstract_
But, the links are FROM the Book / Paper, rather than TO
For Books, ensure that all the links from all the Book's Papers are also included
- Import pdfs downloaded from "LRB - London Review of Books" into databases.
- Sub-Topic ID has reached 996: What happens after 999? Research and Fix
- Update LRB_Files table for "LRB - London Review of Books"
→ In Progress
- Documentation
- Education
- Infrastructure
- Fatal Database Errors: ‘Cannot open any more databases: Run-time error 3048’.
- When I then try to compact and repair the database - the first port of call when there's a strange problem - it complains that it is locked by the Administrator. Then the database won’t close and has to be zapped by Task Manager. Only then can I delete the lock file, but this doesn't resolve anything as the problem recurs. I think the 'too many databases' error message is misleading.
- This started on Tuesday 27th August 2024 with Bridge_Web_Generator.accdb on Desktop. I stopped running it thereon and it was fine for a day on my Laptop, then the problem recurred.
- Looking on-line, this seems to be a known Microsoft bug for which a fix is awaited. It looks like the garbage dispoal routines (after set db = nothing) aren't working. It's not just where you're sloppy and don't do this and rely on the system to do garbage collection: I did changes to 'Small Systems' processing, but it made no difference.
- My main 'Thesis' database is working fine - I managed a full Regeneration starting late on 31st August. It may be that the bug was fixed under Windows 11 but not Windows 10. However, I'm not taking the risk of running my Bridge database on my Desktop in case it mucks up my Thesis database. The failure of Compact / Repair of my Bridge database is particularly worrying, but my Thesis databse C/Rs fine on my Laptop (and Desktop). This is a relief, as this database becomes unusable after a few days otherwise as it reaches the 2Gb limit
- Currently I'm waiting and seeing. Re-importing all the elements into a new Bridge database made no difference.
- Migrate from Chrome to Bitwarden for password management
- Notes
- Allow the option to embed blocks of re-usable text in Notes (ie. linearly embed them essay-style) rather than using hyperlinking. Slightly analogous to Note_Snippets or Sub_Notes, but more flexible.
- For use as "disclaimers".
- The identical block of text in the Dashboard26 to that in the Note Thesis - Method & Form27 that describes the Thesis.
- For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
- As a more controllable alternative to 'Printable Notes'.
- Correct processing for 'References & Reading List' section in Thesis - References28. There are over 7,000 but only 7 items appear!
- Determine why all my Status Reports from September 2021 are missing from Notes_Archive. Seek to recover them from backups.
- Develop method for (manually) deleting otiose Archived Notes: ie. ensure links work for remaining Notes!
- Enhance PID Note, Book & Paper Usage29 to include a section listing works cited in my Thesis but not read
- Investigate Note_Links: Section references seem to be incorrect
- Notes_Links: Segment & Provide Jump Table (Eg. For Thought30)
- PID Thesis References - De-duplicate / suppress and / or change sort order / aggregation for non-anthology book chapters
- Update Personal Page31 & Home Page
- Upgrade Auto_Reference_Notes to reference Sub-Notes: Used to only affect one note - Somerset Maugham - but now may be urgent
- When using the '#' reference to Notes, allow the omission of the Note ID for links within the same Note.
- Papers
- Photos
- Process
- Determine why Recalculation & Changed Book/Papers produce unneeded regeneration.
- Spider
- Investigate reduction in size of Web_Generator_Performance database that holds Raw_Links.
- Suppress MsgBox for 'Near to 2Gb' database size check (just use Debug).
- One-off deletion of rather useless links: EMail, TheosStyle.css, TT_ICO.png, #Top, ...
- Remove code that generates these links, and check them.
- Investigate removal of website 'root' (C:\Theo's Files\Websites\Theo's Website\) from Raw_Link and Full_Link. This would save 200Mb, but needs careful checking - especially against the Directory_Structure and related tables and code.
- If the above 'root' change is to go ahead - one-off updates + code changes required.
- Use Edge rather than Internet Explorer for External Links Spider (use Bing AI)
- Status
- WebRefs
- Create a page showing the use of WebRefs more clearly. The pages accessed via Theo Todman's Web-Links Test Webpages are of little use other than as an audit. Also, there are many broken links not picked up by the Spider. Need pages that use meaningful names.
- Documentation & Bug-fixes: Phase 2
- Re-document the procedures in the light of recent changes.
- Resolve issues generated / revealed by the spider.
- Investigate - and fix where possible - broken links.
- Find a way of recording Missing / Unknown Webrefs (eg. Webrefs 8395 and 8342 in Archived Notes 1292 and 1317) other than debug.print: create table, then suppress message for known problems
- Investigate items flagged as defunct. Populate Defunct_Explanation in WebRefs_Table. Consider use of FairUse (Link (Fair Use)) for documents no longer available that I'd downloaded.
- Investigate WebRefs with Issue = 'URL Translated OK': does the translation really work? How?
- Visitor Stats - cmdVisitorStats_Click (and following) - loops and requires 'DAO.DBEngine.SetOption dbmaxlocksperfile,1000000' to be typed in the Immediate window. Re-engineer.
- Priority: 2
- Abstracts
- Ensure some minimal data on Abstracts for Identity Papers Read
→ In Progress
- Architecture
- Document40, repair & update my Website site-map
→ In Progress
- Improve flexibility of password-protected areas (ie. multiple areas, with different log-ons).
- Review effectiveness of hyperlinking method in the light of PhD and Philosophy of Religion experience.
→ On-Going
- Where possible, use ID rather than NAME for in-page hyperlinks
- Authors
- Import Author Narratives from Aeon (and other sources) into the Authors table
- Books
- Further improve the time to regenerate Book Summaries. Took about 11 minutes on 07/04/2025, but should be under 5 minutes!
- Books/Papers
- Bridge
- Correct NGS Recalculation: Incorporate 3-year limit
- Develop auto-reconciliation routines vs EBU results download
→ In Progress
- Chess
- Convert Chess Consolidated Results page to ELO Grading
- Documentation
- Documenter
- Investigate the error reports from the Documenter, especially unused variables & queries.
→ On-Going
- Education
- Infrastructure
- Notes
- Add "Note Alternates" to Note pages.
- Add "Specific", "Contextual" & "General" Notes as an optional footer to all Notes. I think this is important – part of the difficulty in understanding some philosophers is knowing what their background assumptions are, as this influences what they take to be “obvious” or “a given”.
- As part of the Cross-Referencing project, check out the consistent treatment of Note 87552, which should be universally ignored. Recently, links to it appeared on web pages Book_Summary, BookPaperAbstracts and BooksToNotes, as a Note referencing a Book. The critical item was a row on the Note_Book_Links table.
- As revealed by Spider: NotesPrint from Secure_Jen fails for Notes_Jump links. Need to fix the processing of "../"-style links to go back to root and back. Example: Note 51353.
- Bugs in Reference_Notes for embedded Notes in Papers & Books.
- "++ NP ++" links to previously linked note or Note 0 and causes Type Mismatch. Example54! Partly fixed?
- "++ space ++" in Footnotes Loops?
- "++ hash ++" gives Doc_ID missing & Type Mismatch
- Check (in use) that the optional "don't print" feature for specific footnotes doesn't print other footnotes further down the chain. Probably OK.
- Determine why very long printable notes (eg. Level 3+ for Note 17055) are being truncated. Probably suppress them in any case, as they take far too long to load.
- Enable reproduction of archived Printable Notes.
- Enhance comparative Ling database - Replace numerals by words in Vocabulary and Dialogues
→ In Progress
- Fix bugs in multi-level footnoting in Printable Notes – the referencing is going wrong.
- Improve Printable notes processing for "Temp" Notes (ie. produce a "_T" (& include all "_T"s), but leave standard prints free of "Temps".
- Investigate Notes Archiving - see if could re-create re-formatted if required from saved historical versions (but not fixed re directories)
- Investigate the reintroduction of Printable Notes
- Printable Notes: fix the bug whereby the “private” flag is round the wrong way.
- Reading Lists: Fix duplications:-
- Items "cited" and "categorised" (sometimes seem to) appear twice.
- Books and "single papers" of that Book both appear.
- Suppress the publication of the Printable versions of Temp Notes
- Very large printable Notes: eg. for Status: Summary56. Too large to be useful, and to transfer. Suppress for now, but investigate the whole idea and reinstate if possible.
- Papers
- The monthly regeneration process for Paper Abstracts is still taking too long. Monitor! Last run: 1.42 hours on 07/04/2025.
- When "+PnnnP+" reference used in an Object, allow "#Reference" style to be more specific where in the Paper Abstract the reference is.
- Photos
- Timeline software57: Add photos for Holidays & Family History
- Develop software & procedure to make adding more content to the photos pages easier to undertake.
- Process
- Provide 'Quick' option for Recalculation (cmdRecalculate_Click) - exclude unnecessary items on request
- The full Website Regeneration failed in Notes Regen because the first Private Note (13358) couldn't be copied from the Transfer directory as the private note hadn't been created there by then.
- It should have been, from looking at the code.
- Also, the private note itself (116359) is not regenerated until later.
- In the start-December 2019 run, no such problem occurred. So, I flagged it as complete, pending a recurrence.
- It recurred in the October 2023 run, but I didn't copy the error message. It hasn't recurred, so I've down-prioritised it.
- Spider
- Analyse the results of the data collection exercise and design a plan of campaign to fix broken Internal links and prevent recurrence.
- Correct the code so the problems discovered by the Spider don’t recur.
- Delete 'orphan pages' that are never linked to, ie. Use the Spider to prune redundant pages63 automatically where possible.
- Fix the historical data where errors are uncovered by the Spider. An easier task now the site has a full-regen function.
→ On-Going
- As revealed by Spider: Consolidated Site-Hits Test Webpage. Mountnessing\index.htm Link. Should be .shtml.
- Failed 'Printable Note' links not picked up by Spider: Especially in Blog
- Technology
- Change URL for Page names to something meaningful: For Papers and Books. Needs to be short!
- Convert site to HTTPS
- Increase use of CSS Style Sheets
- Look into Sistrix Smart64. Errors and warnings itemised are:-
- Duplicate content: seems to be variants on theotodman.com
- Title Tags: Empty, too long, identical
- Page Not Found
- Filesize in excess of 1Mb
- Meta-Description: Empty
- Few words on Page
- H1: Not used, used multiple times per page, identical across pages
- Pictures: Alt attribute missing
→ In Progress
- Priority: 3
- Aesthetics
- Undertake a trawl through all (categories of) web-page, making aesthetic improvements, and correcting content.
- Architecture
- Add scrolling titles to Lists
- Books/Papers
- Introduce check that if a Book is flagged as "read" so are its Papers. Manual check completed in March 2018.
- Review the effectiveness of the categorised reading lists for both Papers and Books.
- Bridge
- Hand-Dealing:
- Some hands not showing in consolidated lists
- Bidding sometimes missing for SD (maybe connected)
- Documentation
- Documenter
- Investigate & fix “Query Fragments” issue.
- Separate Documenter from the main database & code, then add a parameter so it doesn’t necessarily document itself.
- Undertake a trawl through the code for all functions within the generator – making improvements for efficiency and function. Supply rudimentary functional documentation as a spin-off therefrom.
- Facebook
- Notes
- Allow the option to concatenate Notes in the Printable version (ie. linearly embed them essay-style), rather than treating the hyperlinks as footnotes – but still keep the hyperlink & cross-referencing in place.
- For use as "disclaimers" - eg. for "Plug Notes".
- For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
- Fix problem with broken bespoke links to Printable Notes from Archived Notes.
- Improve flexibility of reading lists attached to printable version of Notes (different sort orders, priority items only, etc).
- Improve reading-lists from Notes (ie. firstly PID, then all starting with topic from Philosophy Papers Full)
- Status
- Check how "YTD Planned %" is calculated - seems incorrect early in the Quarter if the plan varies during the year.
- Technology
- Investigate the use of RTF in memo fields, so that I can get round the 64k character limit.
- Read the Google documentation (Google - How to get your website on Google Search) to investigate where I’m going wrong in the (failure to) use META tags to ensure my stuff sorts correctly in the search engines.
- Use generated Javascript to allow multi-level expandable / contractable lists in Notes and Paper Abstracts.
- Very long pages (eg. Concatenated Notes and Book Paper Abstracts) fail to render correctly in Firefox (mostly OK in other browsers). Investigate whether it’s possible to subdivide them.
- Priority: 4
- Technology
- Priority: 5
- Documenter
- Technical Documenter:-
- Investigate possibilities of retailing the documenter.
- Enhance to document Macros.
- Look at ways of documenting other (MS Access) databases & trial on Northwind.
- Work-arounds
- Books
- Book Comments: if there are explicit internal links to files in Book Comments, they cannot work both in the BookSummary and BookPaperAbstracts, which are at different directory levels. So, don’t put them in the Comments – only in the Abstract.
- Books - Referencing of Notes: The "+NnnnN+" method works from the Book Summary, "++nnn++" from Book Abstract, but neither vice-versa.
- Books by Location: the jump table led to an invalid location. I bodged the data, by deleting an unused location, and didn’t properly investigate.
- Books to Notes: There’s an issue if a Note changes from Secure to non-Secure, but I bodged the data and didn’t try to fix it.
- Cancelled Developments
- Architecture
- Create expandable lists in Abstracts, Notes ("Plus table69" cells? For categorised lists)
- Enable use of Snippets for long Abstracts
- Authors
- Completely re-engineer Authors processing to use IDs rather than Names:-
- CANCELLED: Originally needed because of difficulties transferring special characters in file names. But, this can be achieved by avoiding special characters in Author_Name, and putting them in Author_Name_Display.
- Had been:-
→ Authors' pages to be identified by Author_nnnnn, where nnnnn is the (numeric) Author_ID.
→ Directory-structure in thousands: Author_mm.
→ Use Author_ID in all Tables.
→ Needed because of difficulties transferring special characters in file names.
- Backups
- Copying Errors:
- Investigate & fix directory error when backing up ZoomSearch database.
- This directory structure was set "not to back-up". Determine why this was ignored.
- Books
- Create "Books by Subject" and "Books by Title" lists
- Books/Papers
- Documenter
- Education
- General
- Fix "American" date formats in Electronic Resources page
- Infrastructure
- Move from My Photo Stream to iCloud by 26th July 2023. Not required!
- Notes
- Create "who's who" of respondents (will just be private notes)
- Create Functor to facilitate addition of Audio Files to Music Page (not sure why raised - see ID=348)
- Papers
- Remove all large 'Comments' that have been utilised to expand Paper Abstracts (by moving them to Notes70). Cancelled and replaced by simply appending large (> 5k) Comments to Abstracts, so the work-around looks seamless.
- Photos
- As revealed by Spider: Links failing in NotesPrint_1282_0_P_R.htm. 20 items.
- Technology
- Create own local webserver
- Increase use of Frames71
- Investigate Wiki-technology (inc. Confluence, Plone CMS & Windows Help)
- WebRefs
- Add collection of "non-identity" weblinks.
- Complete investigation and correction of broken “External” Links.
- The Spider was generating WebRefs. Procedurally, this ought not to have been possible.
- The major problem turned out to be because unprocessed72 URLs got added to the end of the last WebLinks_Tester_Brief page, which then got Spidered. I've stopped this happening, so hopefully the problem will not recur. The fix was made in 18Q2.
- However, 4 other creations appeared - dated 18/05/18 - from the run of 10/07/18. The creation date was from the previous spider run, but the IDs show that they were produced in the latest run.
- I've re-opened the case! But now Spider_Ctrl outputs the message 'Check Webrefs_To_Be_Added_By_Spider_Detail and run Webrefs_Add if necessary'.
- The August 2020 run produced a list of 163 items. I think these are all down to fixes undertaken following a full WebRefs check run. I need to check and find out why the lists appear.
- Maybe they come from the 'WebRef Missing' page on WebLinks_Tester, which arises as a result of running Map_WebRefs, which regenerates the WebRef_Maps table, via Map_WebRefs_Mapper, after I've fixed the links on Webrefs_Table. There are 146 such items as of end August 2020, but they had all disappeared by a re-run of early September 2020.
- I assume it's some sort of timeing issue, so I'm cancelling the change.
- Other Websites: Outstanding Items By Priority:-
- Priority: 1
- Bridge
- Priority: 2
- Bridge
- Enigma
- Cancelled Developments
- Bridge
- Create "Small Sites" database for Alaric (if chased)
- Regular updates to the Mountnessing Bridge Club Website.
- Run Eve Goblets - if asked!
Outstanding Developments by Category
- Own Website: Outstanding Items By Category:-
- Abstracts
- Priority: 2
- ID=17. Ensure some minimal data on Abstracts for Identity Papers Read
→ In Progress
- Aesthetics
- Priority: 3
- ID=173. Undertake a trawl through all (categories of) web-page, making aesthetic improvements, and correcting content.
- Architecture
- Priority: 1
- ID=193. Complete XRef-re-engineering project:-
- Ensure all links and link-pages use the new XRef table, and pension off the old tables where appropriate.
- Check all link-types still work and fix any errors.
- Complete the auto-triggering of regeneration of “associated” link pages.
- Fix Bug whereby PaperSummary pages seem to have “Works-” and “Books/Papers-” Citings that refer to the same link-pages.
- Complete Documenting65 the process!
- Priority: 2
- ID=315. Where possible, use ID rather than NAME for in-page hyperlinks
- ID=393. Document66, repair & update my Website site-map
→ In Progress
- ID=68. Review effectiveness of hyperlinking method in the light of PhD and Philosophy of Religion experience.
→ On-Going
- ID=73. Improve flexibility of password-protected areas (ie. multiple areas, with different log-ons).
- Priority: 3
- ID=91. Add scrolling titles to Lists
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=466. Enable use of Snippets for long Abstracts
- ID=90. Create expandable lists in Abstracts, Notes ("Plus table75" cells? For categorised lists)
- Authors
- Priority: 1
- ID=595. Creep-check for duplicate authors & fix
- Priority: 2
- ID=476. Import Author Narratives from Aeon (and other sources) into the Authors table
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=341. Completely re-engineer Authors processing to use IDs rather than Names:-
- CANCELLED: Originally needed because of difficulties transferring special characters in file names. But, this can be achieved by avoiding special characters in Author_Name, and putting them in Author_Name_Display.
- Had been:-
→ Authors' pages to be identified by Author_nnnnn, where nnnnn is the (numeric) Author_ID.
→ Directory-structure in thousands: Author_mm.
→ Use Author_ID in all Tables.
→ Needed because of difficulties transferring special characters in file names.
- Backups
- Priority: 1
- ID=219. Review architecture to improve performance; Need to document67 first
- ID=220. Determine why flag on directories "not to be backed up" gets reset
- ID=232. Investigate historic error messages
- ID=350. Investigate Record-count discrepancies:-
- How do website files work as far as counts are concerned?
- Why aren't they recorded in Backup_History, nor the fact that the website was backed up?
- Different counts depending on whether new or old laptop is backed up. Investigate 63k discrepancy - lower on new laptop.
- ID=494. Document and enable regular running of the de-duplication function ('pruning') of the backup disk. Keep a full record of deleted duplicates.
- ID=582. Incorporate new 5Tb WD Backup Drive into backup system.
- ID=583. Sort out the contents of my C:Drives, OneDrive and Emails as documented in my Backup Documentation
- ID=584. Enable Backups to be undertaken on both my PC & Laptop and write reconciliation software.
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=355. Copying Errors:
- Investigate & fix directory error when backing up ZoomSearch database.
- This directory structure was set "not to back-up". Determine why this was ignored.
- Books
- Priority: 2
- ID=371. Further improve the time to regenerate Book Summaries. Took about 11 minutes on 07/04/2025, but should be under 5 minutes!
- Work-arounds
- ID=221. Book Comments: if there are explicit internal links to files in Book Comments, they cannot work both in the BookSummary and BookPaperAbstracts, which are at different directory levels. So, don’t put them in the Comments – only in the Abstract.
- ID=222. Books by Location: the jump table led to an invalid location. I bodged the data, by deleting an unused location, and didn’t properly investigate.
- ID=223. Books to Notes: There’s an issue if a Note changes from Secure to non-Secure, but I bodged the data and didn’t try to fix it.
- ID=224. Books - Referencing of Notes: The "+NnnnN+" method works from the Book Summary, "++nnn++" from Book Abstract, but neither vice-versa.
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=8. Create "Books by Subject" and "Books by Title" lists
- Books/Papers
- Priority: 1
- ID=508. For Books and Papers - add link pages - analogous to:-
→ BooksToNotes_
→ BookCitings_
→ PapersToNotes_
→ PaperCitings_
linked to from:-
→ BookSummaries_
→ PaperSummary_
and (maybe) from:-
→ BookPaperAbstracts_
→ Abstract_
But, the links are FROM the Book / Paper, rather than TO
For Books, ensure that all the links from all the Book's Papers are also included
- ID=564. Sub-Topic ID has reached 996: What happens after 999? Research and Fix
- ID=593. Import pdfs downloaded from "LRB - London Review of Books" into databases.
- ID=599. Update LRB_Files table for "LRB - London Review of Books"
→ In Progress
- Priority: 2
- Priority: 3
- ID=176. Review the effectiveness of the categorised reading lists for both Papers and Books.
- ID=227. Introduce check that if a Book is flagged as "read" so are its Papers. Manual check completed in March 2018.
- Cancelled Developments
- Bridge
- Priority: 2
- ID=351. Develop auto-reconciliation routines vs EBU results download
→ In Progress
- ID=499. Correct NGS Recalculation: Incorporate 3-year limit
- Priority: 3
- ID=311. Hand-Dealing:
- Some hands not showing in consolidated lists
- Bidding sometimes missing for SD (maybe connected)
- Chess
- Priority: 2
- ID=451. Convert Chess Consolidated Results page to ELO Grading
- Documentation
- Priority: 1
- Priority: 2
- Priority: 3
- Documenter
- Priority: 2
- ID=190. Investigate the error reports from the Documenter, especially unused variables & queries.
→ On-Going
- Priority: 3
- ID=172. Undertake a trawl through the code for all functions within the generator – making improvements for efficiency and function. Supply rudimentary functional documentation as a spin-off therefrom.
- ID=194. Separate Documenter from the main database & code, then add a parameter so it doesn’t necessarily document itself.
- ID=195. Investigate & fix “Query Fragments” issue.
- Priority: 5
- ID=196. Technical Documenter:-
- Investigate possibilities of retailing the documenter.
- Enhance to document Macros.
- Look at ways of documenting other (MS Access) databases & trial on Northwind.
- Cancelled Developments
- Education
- Priority: 1
- Priority: 2
- Cancelled Developments
- Facebook
- General
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=29. Fix "American" date formats in Electronic Resources page
- Infrastructure
- Priority: 1
- ID=477. Migrate from Chrome to Bitwarden for password management
- ID=576. Fatal Database Errors: ‘Cannot open any more databases: Run-time error 3048’.
- When I then try to compact and repair the database - the first port of call when there's a strange problem - it complains that it is locked by the Administrator. Then the database won’t close and has to be zapped by Task Manager. Only then can I delete the lock file, but this doesn't resolve anything as the problem recurs. I think the 'too many databases' error message is misleading.
- This started on Tuesday 27th August 2024 with Bridge_Web_Generator.accdb on Desktop. I stopped running it thereon and it was fine for a day on my Laptop, then the problem recurred.
- Looking on-line, this seems to be a known Microsoft bug for which a fix is awaited. It looks like the garbage dispoal routines (after set db = nothing) aren't working. It's not just where you're sloppy and don't do this and rely on the system to do garbage collection: I did changes to 'Small Systems' processing, but it made no difference.
- My main 'Thesis' database is working fine - I managed a full Regeneration starting late on 31st August. It may be that the bug was fixed under Windows 11 but not Windows 10. However, I'm not taking the risk of running my Bridge database on my Desktop in case it mucks up my Thesis database. The failure of Compact / Repair of my Bridge database is particularly worrying, but my Thesis databse C/Rs fine on my Laptop (and Desktop). This is a relief, as this database becomes unusable after a few days otherwise as it reaches the 2Gb limit
- Currently I'm waiting and seeing. Re-importing all the elements into a new Bridge database made no difference.
- Priority: 2
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=506. Move from My Photo Stream to iCloud by 26th July 2023. Not required!
- Notes
- Priority: 1
- ID=414. Upgrade Auto_Reference_Notes to reference Sub-Notes: Used to only affect one note - Somerset Maugham - but now may be urgent
- ID=458. Determine why all my Status Reports from September 2021 are missing from Notes_Archive. Seek to recover them from backups.
- ID=468. Develop method for (manually) deleting otiose Archived Notes: ie. ensure links work for remaining Notes!
- ID=475. Correct processing for 'References & Reading List' section in Thesis - References108. There are over 7,000 but only 7 items appear!
- ID=498. PID Thesis References - De-duplicate / suppress and / or change sort order / aggregation for non-anthology book chapters
- ID=500. Enhance PID Note, Book & Paper Usage109 to include a section listing works cited in my Thesis but not read
- ID=512. Notes_Links: Segment & Provide Jump Table (Eg. For Thought110)
- ID=543. Allow the option to embed blocks of re-usable text in Notes (ie. linearly embed them essay-style) rather than using hyperlinking. Slightly analogous to Note_Snippets or Sub_Notes, but more flexible.
- For use as "disclaimers".
- The identical block of text in the Dashboard111 to that in the Note Thesis - Method & Form112 that describes the Thesis.
- For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
- As a more controllable alternative to 'Printable Notes'.
- ID=545. When using the '#' reference to Notes, allow the omission of the Note ID for links within the same Note.
- ID=572. Update Personal Page113 & Home Page
- ID=87. Investigate Note_Links: Section references seem to be incorrect
- Priority: 2
- ID=104. Printable Notes: fix the bug whereby the “private” flag is round the wrong way.
- ID=170. Determine why very long printable notes (eg. Level 3+ for Note 170114) are being truncated. Probably suppress them in any case, as they take far too long to load.
- ID=178. Fix bugs in multi-level footnoting in Printable Notes – the referencing is going wrong.
- ID=188. Enable reproduction of archived Printable Notes.
- ID=201. Bugs in Reference_Notes for embedded Notes in Papers & Books.
- "++ NP ++" links to previously linked note or Note 0 and causes Type Mismatch. Example115! Partly fixed?
- "++ space ++" in Footnotes Loops?
- "++ hash ++" gives Doc_ID missing & Type Mismatch
- ID=225. Reading Lists: Fix duplications:-
- Items "cited" and "categorised" (sometimes seem to) appear twice.
- Books and "single papers" of that Book both appear.
- ID=273. Add "Note Alternates" to Note pages.
- ID=385. As part of the Cross-Referencing project, check out the consistent treatment of Note 875116, which should be universally ignored. Recently, links to it appeared on web pages Book_Summary, BookPaperAbstracts and BooksToNotes, as a Note referencing a Book. The critical item was a row on the Note_Book_Links table.
- ID=422. As revealed by Spider: NotesPrint from Secure_Jen fails for Notes_Jump links. Need to fix the processing of "../"-style links to go back to root and back. Example: Note 513117.
- ID=441. Very large printable Notes: eg. for Status: Summary118. Too large to be useful, and to transfer. Suppress for now, but investigate the whole idea and reinstate if possible.
- ID=504. Enhance comparative Ling database - Replace numerals by words in Vocabulary and Dialogues
→ In Progress
- ID=568. Investigate the reintroduction of Printable Notes
- ID=56. Add "Specific", "Contextual" & "General" Notes as an optional footer to all Notes. I think this is important – part of the difficulty in understanding some philosophers is knowing what their background assumptions are, as this influences what they take to be “obvious” or “a given”.
- ID=59. Improve Printable notes processing for "Temp" Notes (ie. produce a "_T" (& include all "_T"s), but leave standard prints free of "Temps".
- ID=64. Investigate Notes Archiving - see if could re-create re-formatted if required from saved historical versions (but not fixed re directories)
- ID=76. Check (in use) that the optional "don't print" feature for specific footnotes doesn't print other footnotes further down the chain. Probably OK.
- ID=89. Suppress the publication of the Printable versions of Temp Notes
- Priority: 3
- ID=180. Fix problem with broken bespoke links to Printable Notes from Archived Notes.
- ID=42. Improve reading-lists from Notes (ie. firstly PID, then all starting with topic from Philosophy Papers Full)
- ID=61. Allow the option to concatenate Notes in the Printable version (ie. linearly embed them essay-style), rather than treating the hyperlinks as footnotes – but still keep the hyperlink & cross-referencing in place.
- For use as "disclaimers" - eg. for "Plug Notes".
- For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
- ID=74. Improve flexibility of reading lists attached to printable version of Notes (different sort orders, priority items only, etc).
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=349. Create Functor to facilitate addition of Audio Files to Music Page (not sure why raised - see ID=348)
- ID=53. Create "who's who" of respondents (will just be private notes)
- Papers
- Priority: 1
- Priority: 2
- ID=228. When "+PnnnP+" reference used in an Object, allow "#Reference" style to be more specific where in the Paper Abstract the reference is.
- ID=372. The monthly regeneration process for Paper Abstracts is still taking too long. Monitor! Last run: 1.42 hours on 07/04/2025.
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=187. Remove all large 'Comments' that have been utilised to expand Paper Abstracts (by moving them to Notes128). Cancelled and replaced by simply appending large (> 5k) Comments to Abstracts, so the work-around looks seamless.
- Photos
- Priority: 1
- Priority: 2
- ID=189. Develop software & procedure to make adding more content to the photos pages easier to undertake.
- ID=330. Timeline software122: Add photos for Holidays & Family History
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=339. As revealed by Spider: Links failing in NotesPrint_1282_0_P_R.htm. 20 items.
- Process
- Priority: 1
- ID=268. Determine why Recalculation & Changed Book/Papers produce unneeded regeneration.
- Priority: 2
- ID=352. The full Website Regeneration failed in Notes Regen because the first Private Note (133123) couldn't be copied from the Transfer directory as the private note hadn't been created there by then.
- It should have been, from looking at the code.
- Also, the private note itself (1163124) is not regenerated until later.
- In the start-December 2019 run, no such problem occurred. So, I flagged it as complete, pending a recurrence.
- It recurred in the October 2023 run, but I didn't copy the error message. It hasn't recurred, so I've down-prioritised it.
- ID=467. Provide 'Quick' option for Recalculation (cmdRecalculate_Click) - exclude unnecessary items on request
- Spider
- Priority: 1
- ID=442. Investigate reduction in size of Web_Generator_Performance database that holds Raw_Links.
- Suppress MsgBox for 'Near to 2Gb' database size check (just use Debug).
- One-off deletion of rather useless links: EMail, TheosStyle.css, TT_ICO.png, #Top, ...
- Remove code that generates these links, and check them.
- Investigate removal of website 'root' (C:\Theo's Files\Websites\Theo's Website\) from Raw_Link and Full_Link. This would save 200Mb, but needs careful checking - especially against the Directory_Structure and related tables and code.
- If the above 'root' change is to go ahead - one-off updates + code changes required.
- ID=505. Use Edge rather than Internet Explorer for External Links Spider (use Bing AI)
- Priority: 2
- ID=182. Analyse the results of the data collection exercise and design a plan of campaign to fix broken Internal links and prevent recurrence.
- Correct the code so the problems discovered by the Spider don’t recur.
- Delete 'orphan pages' that are never linked to, ie. Use the Spider to prune redundant pages134 automatically where possible.
- Fix the historical data where errors are uncovered by the Spider. An easier task now the site has a full-regen function.
→ On-Going
- ID=456. Failed 'Printable Note' links not picked up by Spider: Especially in Blog
- ID=480. As revealed by Spider: Consolidated Site-Hits Test Webpage. Mountnessing\index.htm Link. Should be .shtml.
- Status
- Priority: 1
- Priority: 3
- ID=271. Check how "YTD Planned %" is calculated - seems incorrect early in the Quarter if the plan varies during the year.
- Technology
- Priority: 2
- ID=175. Look into Sistrix Smart140. Errors and warnings itemised are:-
- Duplicate content: seems to be variants on theotodman.com
- Title Tags: Empty, too long, identical
- Page Not Found
- Filesize in excess of 1Mb
- Meta-Description: Empty
- Few words on Page
- H1: Not used, used multiple times per page, identical across pages
- Pictures: Alt attribute missing
→ In Progress
- ID=24. Increase use of CSS Style Sheets
- ID=495. Convert site to HTTPS
- ID=497. Change URL for Page names to something meaningful: For Papers and Books. Needs to be short!
- Priority: 3
- ID=168. Use generated Javascript to allow multi-level expandable / contractable lists in Notes and Paper Abstracts.
- ID=171. Very long pages (eg. Concatenated Notes and Book Paper Abstracts) fail to render correctly in Firefox (mostly OK in other browsers). Investigate whether it’s possible to subdivide them.
- ID=177. Investigate the use of RTF in memo fields, so that I can get round the 64k character limit.
- ID=192. Read the Google documentation (Google - How to get your website on Google Search) to investigate where I’m going wrong in the (failure to) use META tags to ensure my stuff sorts correctly in the search engines.
- Priority: 4
- ID=48. Add page-hit counters
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=23. Increase use of Frames141
- ID=35. Create own local webserver
- ID=37. Investigate Wiki-technology (inc. Confluence, Plone CMS & Windows Help)
- WebRefs
- Priority: 1
- ID=217. Documentation & Bug-fixes: Phase 2
- Re-document the procedures in the light of recent changes.
- Resolve issues generated / revealed by the spider.
- Investigate - and fix where possible - broken links.
- ID=381. Investigate items flagged as defunct. Populate Defunct_Explanation in WebRefs_Table. Consider use of FairUse (Link (Fair Use)) for documents no longer available that I'd downloaded.
- ID=405. Investigate WebRefs with Issue = 'URL Translated OK': does the translation really work? How?
- ID=408. Find a way of recording Missing / Unknown Webrefs (eg. Webrefs 8395 and 8342 in Archived Notes 1292 and 1317) other than debug.print: create table, then suppress message for known problems
- ID=548. Create a page showing the use of WebRefs more clearly. The pages accessed via Theo Todman's Web-Links Test Webpages are of little use other than as an audit. Also, there are many broken links not picked up by the Spider. Need pages that use meaningful names.
- ID=575. Visitor Stats - cmdVisitorStats_Click (and following) - loops and requires 'DAO.DBEngine.SetOption dbmaxlocksperfile,1000000' to be typed in the Immediate window. Re-engineer.
- Cancelled Developments
- ID=183. Complete investigation and correction of broken “External” Links.
- ID=226. The Spider was generating WebRefs. Procedurally, this ought not to have been possible.
- The major problem turned out to be because unprocessed142 URLs got added to the end of the last WebLinks_Tester_Brief page, which then got Spidered. I've stopped this happening, so hopefully the problem will not recur. The fix was made in 18Q2.
- However, 4 other creations appeared - dated 18/05/18 - from the run of 10/07/18. The creation date was from the previous spider run, but the IDs show that they were produced in the latest run.
- I've re-opened the case! But now Spider_Ctrl outputs the message 'Check Webrefs_To_Be_Added_By_Spider_Detail and run Webrefs_Add if necessary'.
- The August 2020 run produced a list of 163 items. I think these are all down to fixes undertaken following a full WebRefs check run. I need to check and find out why the lists appear.
- Maybe they come from the 'WebRef Missing' page on WebLinks_Tester, which arises as a result of running Map_WebRefs, which regenerates the WebRef_Maps table, via Map_WebRefs_Mapper, after I've fixed the links on Webrefs_Table. There are 146 such items as of end August 2020, but they had all disappeared by a re-run of early September 2020.
- I assume it's some sort of timeing issue, so I'm cancelling the change.
- ID=30. Add collection of "non-identity" weblinks.
- Other Websites: Outstanding Items By Category:-
- Bridge
- Priority: 1
- Cancelled Developments
- Create "Small Sites" database for Alaric (if chased)
- Priority: 2
- Cancelled Developments
- Enigma
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnotes 63, 134:
- Note that Backup_Prune_Ctrl deletes (relevant) pages that weren't regenerated in the last full site-regen, but this isn't the same thing.
Footnotes 64, 140:
- See Sistrix
- This used to be called Optimizr. A quick look doesn’t show it to be an obvious scam, but I need to double-check.
- An unsolicited analysis of my site turned up monthly from Optimizr from January 2015 to October 2017, listing a large number of “problems” that I think I know about, but which are in the queue to address.
- It restarted in February 2018, under the Sistrix name (this seems to have been associated with Optimizr since November 2015).
- The free version of this software is restricted to 1,000 pages, which is a very small proportion of my Site, though I may be able to point it to difference base-URLs.
- But I do need to address the problems validly itemised, and a sub-set is still useful.
- Of late, at least since August 2022, the process has failed to access my home page, so the the reports are empty.
Footnotes 69, 75:
- I'm not sure what was intended here.
Footnotes 70, 128:
- Once the size-limitation on Notes has been resolved.
Footnotes 71, 141:
- This is now archaic, and was subsequently largely abandoned, though useful at the time.
Footnotes 72, 142:
- These are URLs that were used in web pages but hadn't yet been converted to the +WnnnW+ format, so appeared at the end with no WebRef ID.
Table of the Previous 12 Versions of this Note: (of 35)
Note last updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
03/05/2025 12:49:04 |
981 (Website - Outstanding Developments (2025 - May)) |
Status: Web-Tools (2025 - March) |
Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note
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Summary of Notes Citing This Note
Status: Web-Tools (2025 - March), 2 |
Theo Todman's Website Maintainance History |
Website - Progress to Date (2025 - May), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 |
Website Generator Documentation - Control Page |
Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
Website Generator Documentation - Recalculation & Housekeeping |
Website Generator Documentation - Thesis Technology, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
Website: Maintenance Dashboard |
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Text Colour Conventions
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