Server switch

Saturday, October 27. 2007
You might have noticed slight interruptions of the availability of MobMap's website yesterday and today. This was due to the whole site as well as the backend processing system being transferred to a new server with more cpu power and memory.

Worldwide DNS records might still take up to one day to be updated to the new IP address, but otherwise everything should be running smoothly now.
Posted by Slarti at 04:18 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

MobMapUpdater v1.62

Tuesday, October 16. 2007
There's a new version of the updater program online for automatic download.

This version fixes a startup problem that could occur on certain systems in automatic upload mode when the uploader was started with Windows. Besides that, it introduces the ability to download the MobMap databases from multiple mirrors. Though you won't see any part of this in the software itself (the mirror selection is handled automatically and fully transparent to the user), it allows me to spread the download load and traffic over multiple servers.

An immediate result of this new system and the addition of another download source is a decrease of the automatic database update interval from 14 to 7 days. So if you're running the MobMapUpdater in automatic mode you'll be able to automatically get a database update if your installed database is older than seven days now.

Oh, and I included a little bit of subtle advertising for SpeedyDragon that's being shown if the client is running on a german computer. But don't worry, it's just a little clickable graphic in an unused edge of the Updater's window, nothing more.

[edit] A server side error has prevented the new version of the Updater from uploading data in a correct way. This has been fixed, sorry for the inconvenience.
Posted by Slarti at 23:24 | Comments (22) | Trackbacks (0)

Reprocessing finished

Thursday, October 11. 2007
The reprocessing procedure I talked about in the last blog entry has finished now. The database update intervals should return to the usual "one every two hours" shortly. And all this "new" loot data that's in the system now definitely improves the accuracy of the drop chance numbers in the MobMap database.
Posted by Slarti at 06:13 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Database updates delayed

Sunday, October 7. 2007
I stumbled over a serious error in the data processing software that caused parts of the data uploaded during the last 7 weeks not to be included in the main database. Fortunately I can fix this by reprocessing these parts, but since that's a whole lot of information it'll take some time.

I have suspended the regular data parsing and database update process. Don't worry, nothing uploaded right now will get lost, it'll just be processed and included a little bit later.

[edit] The reprocessing procedure will take way longer than I expected. I will therefore try to run both processes in parallel. There will probably still be delays in the database updates, but there will at least be any updates during the next days.
Posted by Slarti at 23:45 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

MobMapUpdater v1.61

Saturday, October 6. 2007
This version corrects the crashing bug that caused problems with v1.60 if you had a very specific setup with multiple WoW accounts (and MobMap enabled only on some of them).

You should get the new version the next time you start the Updater (in case you're using the automatic mode you'll see a notice about the update the next time you end a WoW session).

[edit] I have stopped the distribution of v1.61 for the moment, as there might be another bug in there. I have to run some tests to determine if there's a problem. If there is one, I'll fix it and release v1.62, if there isn't I'll re-enable the update from v1.60 to v1.61.

[edit2] All right, it was false alarm. v1.61 seems to be fine and stable now.
Posted by Slarti at 20:05 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

MobMapUpdater 1.60

Thursday, October 4. 2007
I've just finished a major overhaul of the MobMapUpdater program and put v1.60 up for download. You'll get the new version as soon as you run the program the next time.

This update fixes a few very minor glitches, but the main reason for it was the addition of an optional automatic mode. This mode makes it even easier to contribute to the MobMap database on a regular basis: once it's been enabled, the MobMapUpdater will automatically come to life each time you've finished a WoW session and upload whatever data you've collected while playing.

The automatic mode also allows you to update your local MobMap database copy on a regular basis. A new copy can be downloaded automatically every 14 days (I have set this interval to 14 days to prevent people from updating their database automatically too often - it all costs traffic, and someone has to pay the bills). The version of the MobMap addon will also be checked at every upload, and if there's a new version online you get a message.

Of course you can still open the MobMapUpdater main window at any time if you enable automatic mode - just right-click the tiny little systray icon. From there you can start manual uploads or database updates, just as you would do in manual mode, for example to immediately get a database update after a content patch has hit WoW. And of course: the new automatic mode is completely optional! The standard setting after a fresh istallation is "manual mode", you'll have to explicitly enable automatic mode in the new "Options" window in case you want to use it.


Please tell me if there are any new issues with this new version, especially if they're somehow related to the new operating mode.
Posted by Slarti at 20:48 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)
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