23/01/18 07:12
For about a year, the jammit.ca website was pretty much one page of text exported from Word. Pretty cheesy…
My new Years resolution was to create a brand new site, and gather all the files under one protected area for members in such a way that the files could not be messed with by unwitting members modifying a spreadsheet. I had some wonderful help in assembling the final collection from a couple of members (you know who you are), and this site's completeness owes those folks a debt of thanks.
So to achieve this, I had to buy a copy of RapidWeaver and learn how to use it to create a somewhat more modern website. Then I had to figure out a way to password protect the links to the files to prevent tampering. I tried three packages before I settled on one that worked well and integrated nicely with RapidWeaver. More expensive software… I finally got the first pass of the site up and running on my server, only to discover that the security software would not work my server's version of PHP. Then began the slippery slope. I could not update PHP unless I updated the system on my current server. My server was too old to be able to update to the required OS version. Sooooo…. I have to get a new server machine, download the software updates for the OS and PHP. 3 days later, I have the new server machine running. That's the good news…
The bad news is that my poor homemade server nearly collapsed under the weight of increased traffic! I then had to scramble to find an alternative to provide more robust support to members. That was also a little more expensive than I would have liked! All these expenses (not to mention the time involved) are the reason why I'm charging a small access fee for file downloads. I hope you all understand the reasons why.
The conversion of the website domain to a new hosting provider is now complete. All that remains is finishing the massive upload of all the music files to the server, which is unfortunately painfully slow. The huge catalogue of Dream Theatre tracks is pretty much done!
I'm going to keep updating the progress on this blog as things go on. New features to Crammit. Maybe an iOS player. Definitely a Windows version coming!
Thanks to all the members for your continued support. Without your kind words and enthusiasm for this project, I would have stopped a long time ago!
George
My new Years resolution was to create a brand new site, and gather all the files under one protected area for members in such a way that the files could not be messed with by unwitting members modifying a spreadsheet. I had some wonderful help in assembling the final collection from a couple of members (you know who you are), and this site's completeness owes those folks a debt of thanks.
So to achieve this, I had to buy a copy of RapidWeaver and learn how to use it to create a somewhat more modern website. Then I had to figure out a way to password protect the links to the files to prevent tampering. I tried three packages before I settled on one that worked well and integrated nicely with RapidWeaver. More expensive software… I finally got the first pass of the site up and running on my server, only to discover that the security software would not work my server's version of PHP. Then began the slippery slope. I could not update PHP unless I updated the system on my current server. My server was too old to be able to update to the required OS version. Sooooo…. I have to get a new server machine, download the software updates for the OS and PHP. 3 days later, I have the new server machine running. That's the good news…
The bad news is that my poor homemade server nearly collapsed under the weight of increased traffic! I then had to scramble to find an alternative to provide more robust support to members. That was also a little more expensive than I would have liked! All these expenses (not to mention the time involved) are the reason why I'm charging a small access fee for file downloads. I hope you all understand the reasons why.
The conversion of the website domain to a new hosting provider is now complete. All that remains is finishing the massive upload of all the music files to the server, which is unfortunately painfully slow. The huge catalogue of Dream Theatre tracks is pretty much done!
I'm going to keep updating the progress on this blog as things go on. New features to Crammit. Maybe an iOS player. Definitely a Windows version coming!
Thanks to all the members for your continued support. Without your kind words and enthusiasm for this project, I would have stopped a long time ago!
George