Updates 2006
Dec 28th
- Created a new Tails Plushie Gallery for TailsChris with 1 pic.
- The Wii Virtual Console RSS Feed is currently broken. Nintendo changed the path to the list and also requires authentication with https://, which I don't know how to duplicate with PHP at the time.
Dec 24th
- Megaman X2 Password Generator
- A new javascript include file has been made for handling forms. It is currently handled in this page only but it will be used for the other generators and other pages that depend on checkboxes and select boxes. This include builds upon the prior DOM include as it uses the functions created there.
- Removed and renamed the functions for reuse. The page is now about 0.5kb (10%) smaller.
- The CSS file has been moved to the parent directory and renamed with plans to share it with the other X generators.
- Site files have been moved to http://xfox.110mb.com successfully, but the files are not as up to date as here.
Dec 15th
- Beta Tails Sliding Puzzle
- The puzzle can now be scrambled with the server-side method when it's in its win state. Before showing the win screen, the puzzle now makes a clone of the <div> node and containing images that the win image node replaces. Prior to scrambling, it now checks to see if it is in thate state. If it is, then the clone exists and is replaces the win child node (fully solved but that doesn't matter since it's going to be scrambled afterwards).
- The server-side scramble now sets the empty block to 15 (as that's where the empty block will always be with the current primitive scramble the server does). This means both scramble methods can be used together without interfereing.
- Created the Wii Virtual Console RSS Feed. This took all day to do due to my lack of PHP and HTTP 1.1 knowledge and it's not yet fully standard or fully featured. More info is blogged.
Dec 10th
- Beta Tails Sliding Puzzle
- The AJAX feature now works. The object had to be sent with send(null). Lack of documentation made me think it was to reply to the server that the response was received.
- The request now uses POST instead of GET due to cache issues with IE and Opera. It fixed it with Opera but IE still caches the page. IE even ignores the 'expires' field in the recieved page's header. As a result, IE7 works with the server-side scramble, but only once per page refresh. It sort of defeats the purpose if you plan on scrambling it again.
- A known issue is that because the win screen replaces the 16 images and links with a single new image, scrambling again will caues an error due to there being less than 16 images on the page. The client-side scramble simply checked for a win flag and refreshed the page if it were the case. This will be redesigned later, but for now the client and server-side scramble options co-exist for speed comparison. Another issue is that the client and server scrambles dont't work together as the empty variable doesn't update with the server scramble yet.
- A change of web hosting is being considered. Files are being transferred to http://xfox.110mb.com/. Advantages over the current host: Free, Faster server, PHP5, 2gb of space (contrary to the name's likely assumption), 10gb monthly bandwidth, and supports domain names (that means no more URL forwarding). No permanent changes will take place until atleast the start of 2007. If everything is moved, this current domain will still have a copy of the site for some time to transition.
Dec 3rd
- Added a test button to the Beta Tails Sliding Puzzle. It uses a new function in the main script file and attempts to fetch an XML version of the random PHP result file. But so far, no luck with it in IE or FireFox using the native XMLHttpRequest object. I'm convinced so far that FireFox actually doesn't support AJAX. The onreadystatechange and readystate properties don't don't exist. More research is being done.
- Updated the Project Page on the current plans for the Beta Tails Sliding Puzzle.
- Added a save file for YS 6: The Ark of Napishtim to the Game Save Page on the Downloads Page.
Nov 26th
- Downloads Page
- This page is now an index page for 2 sections: Theme Page and Game Save Page. They now have their own pages.
- Added a PS2 game save section to the Game Save Page.
- Added a save for Klonoa 2.
- Cleaned up some of the CSS class names as it is still shared between pages. Using CSS2, it will show 'Blocks' or 'KB' for saves.
Nov 12th
- Tails Archive Message Board
- Battle Cards
- Created an external javascript file for DOM functions to be shared between pages. It will be used for XHTML pages as well HTML pages with quirks. The Battle Cards will be the first to use them.
- Linked to the above script and modified all of the Battle Card scripts to take advantage of them. The most noticible differences were that the cards and pereferences scripts each dropped 0.4kb
- Test Board
- Moved the Debug Skin button here rather than being shown all over the board. It's not often used.
- Enabled an alert by default for this board to specify the parse time. I would have used window.status, but that doesn't seem to work in any browser anymore. I wanted to make a button but then the board's headers also apply to non-thread areas and the script would break just by using an if() to test if a variable exists if it doesn't exist.
Nov 2nd
- Updates are delayed as I will be away from home until next week.
Oct 29th
- Fixed the bad link to a DTD on the Project Page for the Character Agent page. IE would hang due to the file being missing. This project has made no progress though, but may be started again in the future with sprites.
- XML Tutorial
- Converted Page 1 to XHTML
- Made a copy of the tutorial.css file and moved it to the /css directory. It will be shared by the other tutorials when they are updated.
- The shared CSS file has been cleaned up. Some unneeded classes have been removed (different names that do the same thing). Other tutorials that depended on the old CSS file for the other names will still use them until they are redone.
- Fixed the page markup layout. There's no longer paragraphed line breaks after every fieldset. CSS handles these margins now. Removed some unneeded whitespace inside each <pre> to balance the padding too.
Oct 22nd
- Removed the link to the IRC room. I've been told it has 'deregistered'. No more IRC rooms until I can learn how to maintain one myself.
- Web Development Page
- Converted the index pages to XHTML 1.1 with PHP.
- Cleaned up the lists on the index pages too. Each page listing per page now has it's own list rather than nesting one big list. They also now shares the same CSS file as other pages.
- Fixed a few typos and bad links on the Tails Adventures Password Spec Page.
Oct 15th
- Downloads Page
- XML Game Catalog
- The Game Collection XML Template is now known as the XML Game Catalog. The filename has also changed.
- Per platform, the names of each game are sorted alphabetically.
- Added version history and changes to the readme file.
- Added a save file for Baten Kaitos Origins.
Oct 8th
- Links Page
- Removed Sites
- Removed The Tails Domain (Gone along with Digibase hosting).
- Removed SWS2b (non-affiliate).
- Cleaned up and synchronized the hosted images.
- Affiliated with Sonic Cage Dome.
- Created functions to handle frequent DOM methods for the Battle Cards.
Oct 1st
- Tails Sliding Puzzle (Beta)
- Commented out the conditional return of "application/javascript" and "text/javascript" in favor of "text/javascript" for now. It may not be fully correct, but otherwise Opera would only work with it at Version 9 and higher, and Safari wouldn't work at all.
- Created a new function that would return createElement() or createElementNS() if supported. Now that I know a function call and return can shorten all the "document" method calls, scripts should be alot smaller in the future.
- Deleted the puzzle-specific CSS file, as all it did was set the varying background per puzzle and added another external resource to be loaded. Instead, now the main <div> uses both an ID and class. The shared CSS file does everything now.
- Downloads Page
- Added a Tools section and directory for the page
- Added the Game Collection XML Template. See documentation for more details.
- Changed the green text back to white for staff with the Battle Cards. The blue style has been favored with white.
Sep 24th
- Tails Archive Message Board
- Added a new color feature to the Battle Cards. Staff cards are displayed in another color now. See this blog post for more info.
- Updated the headers in all the blog and other new boards to support the Battle Cards.
- Added a save file for ChaosField to the Downloads Page.
Sep 17th
- Fixed the Tails Sliding Puzzle (Beta) up a bit more. The layout is perfect in FireFox now. It's still a mess in IE. The cause is unknown since it's the same CSS and nodes are used. The only difference from the non-beta is how they are created. The Beta uses DOM while the non-beta uses innerHTML.
- Tails Archive Message Board
- Created a conditional font color for the Battle Cards. Admins are now distinguished with green font.
- We learned how to create sub boards now. Some organization is in progress.
- Created an airport board for member introductions, vacations, etc.
- A blog board was created for admins with sub boards per admin.
Sep 10th
- Added a new pic to Kogen's Tails Plushie Gallery (1 new Tails plushie).
- Links Page
- Added The Tails Fortress.
- Removed Sonic Zone. No longer an affiliate. The owner sold the site and the new owner took down our link.
- Removed Angel Cabbit. Site changed and link doesn't exist on the new layout (was probably the bad link to Digibase anyway though so I wouldn't blame her).
- Deleted the Tails RPG Board from Tails Archive Message Board. The board was a mess from the beginning and the source of a few complains and members leaving the forum.
Sep 4th
- Tails Sliding Puzzle (Beta)
- Fixed the PHP randomization. It now gets it right but it's slow and always makes the last piece as the empty piece.
- Changed the type attributes of the script tags to application/javascript since recent documents on standards say it is more correct than application/x-javascript. IE supports neither though so content negition will be used.
- Created a new PHP function that will echo different attributes for the script tag in the content negotiation. The page now loads for IE but it's a mess of padding and margins. The non-beta puzzles don't have this problem but seemingly every possible solution to match them up doesn't bring upon a happy medium.
- Added a new pic to Odin Safe Person's Tails Plushie Gallery (1 new Tails plushie).
Aug 27th
- Created a new Tails Plushie Gallery for FastFeet with 1 Tails plushie pic.
- Links Page
- Removed Sites (cleaning up dead sites, removing a non-affiliated and non-Tails sites)
- Removed Zack's Comic Domain. It was also a Digibase site and no new URL exists at this time.
- Removed Prower Power. Another Digibase site without a new location.
- Removed Kawaii Kitsune. No longer exists.
- Removed Tailman Team. The site is gone. The creator is too stuck up to tell me why he lost interest. I have asked repeatedly.
- Removed Tails' Place. It didn't return afterall.
- Removed Dirty Power (non-affiliate).
- Removed Flying High (non-affiliate).
- Removed NetRaptor (non-affiliate).
- Removed SRB2 (non-affiliate).
- Removed Team Artail (non-affiliate).
- Affiliates are currently being contacted in order to update the URL they have to the new domain here.
Aug 20th
- Battle Cards
- Created a way to temporarily enable Battle Cards. You can now add "&cards=1" to the parameters in the URL. This will work for guests as well without using a cookie.
- In footers of all boards, replaced the if(Go) condition with a link to an external script that tests this. The Go variable is first initialized in an externally loaded script that is appeneded to the head of the page through DOM. IE doesn't wait for the external resource to load before parsing upcoming inline scripts. This causes an "Object expected" error and the script fails upon the first execution (would work afterwards once cached). This should be fixed now as long as external and internal resources that depend on each other don't mix.
Aug 13th
- The Tails Archive now has a new URL ^_^. It can be accessed through www.TailsArchive.net. The remaining hosting problems are expected to be fixed soon too.
- Tails Fanart
- The CSS for the Battle Cards have been set to use local paths rather than absolute. It cut the size of it down a bit.
- The link to the RSS Feed on the Main Page has been fixed. But the new host's PHP has no support for the Simple XML functions and the page will appear as broken for now.
Aug 6th
- Hosting Problems update
- Almost bought a domain, but learned that it wouldn't do any good without a name server or something like that. So still waiting for the subdomain thing to work with DarkShadow's site. It's been over a week already and the support of his host is horrible.
- As many files were being moved, some more optimizations were made. I made a batch that automates all my png compression programs. So far, all GIF images benefited in filesize by being converted go PNG. In the past, GIF was smaller in very rare situations, but with the script brute forcing all possible compression routines, this probably won't happen again. These conversions are lossless. The most benefited area was the Fanart Page.
Jul 30th
- The Tails Archive will soon be hosted by DarkShadow of the Sega of America Boards. Once the subdomain is created for the server, I'll look into buying a domain name to use.
- Battle Card Optimizations
- Added semicolons to the Battle Card scripts. I've read that doing so eliminates the guesswork of the auto-insertion the script family uses.
- Resaved all the gif images with lossless optimizations. Some were up to 70% smaller, but most were under a single kb to begin with. There's not much else to do with the site being in the current state it's in.
Jul 23rd
- Hosting Problems
- My home PC is now set up as a webserver to host The Tails Archive temporarily since Digibase has been down for a whole week now.
- Fixed some PHP scripts to work with registered_globals disabled.
- Fixed the <base /> tag on all the Updates pages. They were making all links on the pages prefix with the Digibase domain for relative links. PHP is now used to write the correct URL, such as the current domain name used, an IP, or localhost.
Jul 9th
- Tails Plushie Gallery
- Megaman X2 Password Generator
- The updates are now complete. The old generator will be left up for and marked as old for now.
- A bug was fixed that allowed the Sigma stage to be set while mavericks were still alive (if set and then unchecked a maverick).
- Fixed the confirm boxes for setting the X-Hunters as beaten prior to having 2 mavericks beaten. It wouldn't uncheck if you declined.
- Fixed the CSS so that only label tags inside tables would be displayed as block. It was too easy to accidentally click the newgame button (although the newgame button now also uses a confirm box).
- X-Hunter checkboxes now use labels.
- Some text was changed a bit in favor of MMHP's X2 Generator, changing Heart to Heart Tank, etc.
Jul 2nd
- Added a new Tails plushie pic to Odin Safe Person's Tails Plushie Gallery.
- Megaman X2 Password Generator
- Fixed a problem with the Sigma Stage select form. It now resets properly when told to.
- MMHP's X2 Generator has been updated with the changes here. They have yet to test the results with but everything should be fine now.
- Beta DOM Megaman X2 Password Generator
- Posted a link to this on the Reverse Engineering Page.
- The layout has been fixed with CSS. It matches the looks of the Megaman X1 Password Generator.
- Some functinos were simplified with more conditionals.
- Some function argument combinations resulted in duplicate results. The functions have been redone.
- Function calls are being condensed into one large function for functions that are all called in order once and never re-used individually.
- Various functions referenced form indexes with the document.forms collective array. Indexes had to be divided into input and select tags. I can't say it's fully stable yet.
Jun 18th
- Fan Stuff
- Created a new Tails Fanart Gallery for Odin Safe Person.
- Changed all titles, headings, and meta tags to display "Tails Fanart Gallery" in each fanart page. This is now consistent with the Tails Plushie Gallery.
- For those that have both a fanart and plush gallery, each page now links to each other at the bottom of the pages.
Jun 11th
- Created a new Tails Plushie Gallery for SullMaster with 1 pic.
- Copied Headers and Footers in order for the Project Board to work with the Battle Cards at Tails Archive Message Board.
- Links Page
- Sites in languages other than english now use the hreflang attribute in the links, which are styled as italic with CSS2.
- Created confirm box scripts that warn visitors if a link leads to a site with mature content. Affiliates that have fallen under this category didn't have this content at the time of affiliation. Artwork etc is no reason to dishonor an affiliation on my part.
- Updated the URL for Tails' Place. It's currently down but the maintainer says it will be up within the day.
- Removed Sites
- Sonic Ultimate (non-affiliate).
- TheTails Fan Web (went down).
- The Sonic Info Page (non-affiliate).
- Added a Site Counter to the main page with a count equal to the Bravenet counter. I'm undecided if I want to change counters or not.
May 21st
- New Projects Page created on the Main Page. It shows a few big Tails themed projects being worked on.
- Created a directory to store common javascripts. This will be shared for common things.
- Fixed the problem with the insertion of the modified date on the Sonic Advance 2 Walkthrough. It still used document.write(), which does nothing in XHTML. It now uses a shared javascript that inserts the date. Although the script has to be loaded manually and a tag has to exist have a specific ID, it's better than being on-the-fly with inline depricated javascript.
May 14th
- Updated the Sonic Mega Collection save file on the Downloads Page.
- Created a New Tails plushie Gallery for ShadowTails with 3 Tails plushie pics.
- Removed the Fox Power topsites link from the Main Page. The domain is gone. No new address is known.
May 7th
- Updated the Megaman Anniversary save file on the Downloads Page
- Added Mr. G as an admin since one of our older ones left.
Apr 30th
- Tails Archive RSS Feed
- Added a filtering option to sort by category. At the end of the URL you may add "?show=Forum" (or any other category) and it will show only the items matching that category. Currently there's no documentation for this feature and also no documentation for category names I've been using. A limitation is that there can only be one "show" variable in the URL. Better filtering options may exist later on.
- The new page replaces the old page as the index page. The old page is still a fully functional stand-alone Feed but without the filtering option. It is only loaded by the new page. Updating it will be the same procedure and the URLs of the Feed will not change (although if you want to use filters, you may change the URL to fit your customization).
Apr 23rd
- Fixed a few typos, wording, and markup in the Sonic Advance 3 Walkthrough
- XHTML Tutorial
- Removed some sections about tags and organization. The XML Tutorial now covers this.
- Added a new section about HTML compatibility.
- Corrected some missing section entries in the index page.
Apr 9th
- PC problems again, among much more with this current streak of bad luck. I don't have immediate access to my backups files at this time, limiting updates this week.
- The RSS Feed now passes validation. Read about it there for more details.
- Specified a default font-family and size for the Updates Page with CSS. I don't have even the factory Windows fonts on this system, so I can't see the difference myself. But others say it looks better.
Mar 5th
- Updated the Sonic Riders save file on the Downloads Page.
- Added 2 new pics to Odin Safe Person's Tails Plushie Gallery (1 new Tails plushie).
- Tails Archive Message Board: Battle Cards
- Fixed a Battle Card bug. The script would abort after a guest post because the non-existent username has no child nodes.
- The script now reads avatar text (personal quote below your avatar) but doesn't output it yet. If all goes as planned, this will be used in the panel area of the Battle Cards. But length judgements, font-size adjustments, and overflow preventation have to be taken into consideration in order to prevent the panel body of the cards from stretching. Certain BBCodes such as Tables may have to be filtered out too.
Feb 26th
- Added a save file for Sonic Riders on the Downloads Page
- Megaman 2 Password Generator
- The project has been totally redone and moved to a new directory.
- The script no longer updates in realtime. It had cache problems.
- The graphics were changed and layed out differently.
- The generator now can work with E-Cans without locking the form's existing values (which was also a cache issue). However, there's no reset button, but you can refresh the page and not have to worry about the form values disagreeing with the image output.
- Fully XHTML 1.1 and DOM compliant.
Feb 12th
- Tails Plushie Gallery
- Created a new Tails Plushie Gallery for Kaos Jay with 7 pics (1 plushie).
- Created a new Tails Plushie Gallery for Sammy Doll with 3 pics (1 plushie).
- Updated the Megaman X Collection save file on the Downloads Page
- Fixed a few corrupt files and pages again. Apparently the server is experiencing bad sectors on their hard drive and don't have any RAID backup system set up. I posted about it on the Digibase forums.
Feb 5th
- RSS Feed
- Renamed the page to become an index page of the directory. This will make linking to it easier rather than a static link to an odd filename.
- Styled the top <hr> divider to have a height and background-image with CSS.
- Downloads Page
- Updated the XP OEM Logo on the Downloads Page with the specs of my rebuilt PC. It took 2 days from the week putting it together and formatting the hard drives.
- Uploaded a save file for Megaman X Collection. Now that I'm away from XP Media Center and back to Pro, the memory card drivers are supported again.
- Helpd The Sonic World get rid of a script that loaded a WMF virus.
Jan 29th
- Megaman X Password Generator
- Moved to a new directory.
- Added label tags for accessibility
- Made the labels have a background color and empty cells have their own style class.
- Script and CSS are now external.
- Fully XHTML and DOM compliant.
Jan 22nd
- Tails Plushie Gallery
- This area is now called the Tails Plushie Gallery rather than the "Plush Page." The new name lives up to the popularity of this section better. However, "Fan Stuff" seems to have a better ring to it than "Fan Area", so no changes have been made for that.
- All user pages now have the above Gallery change in their navigation footer.
- Created a new Tails Plushie Gallery for Fox Logic with 1 pic (1 plushie).
- Created a new Tails Plushie Gallery for Zupertails with 3 pics (3 Tails plushies).
- Added a new Tails plushie pic to Shane Prower's Tails Plushie Gallery
- Fixed a background-color bug with the Battle Cards. For each post, a variable increments. Being even or odd, that determines whether the background-color will be gray or black, to match the body of each post. Members who set the option in their profile to be skipped from the transformation were also skipped from the portion of the script that handled the increment and background-color change, resulting in a checkberboard mixup of colors for transformed posts following.
Jan 15th
- Added a new Tails plushie pic to Tails997's Tails Plushie Gallery.
- Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst Section ID Calculator
- Moved to an index page rather than the odd filename.
- Page now uses the PHP includes of the other fully XHTML 1.1 pages, but calculation is still javascript.
- All javascript now conforms to the W3C DOM.
- The script now changes the length of the name field from 10 to 13 and back depending on which mode you're using, while preserving the value of the field.
