Graphic set auto-downloading may be temporarily non-functional

[namida]

I'm going to be working on some code to allow people to update their graphic sets on the NeoLemmix website themself, rather than relying on waiting for me to do it manually (which I often don't, because I don't always get informed when a set has been updated, unless I manually go and check the posts they originate from).

During this, it's possible that auto-downloading of graphic sets may stop working for a short period of time. I'm not sure exactly when; probably not today, as I tend to take my time on these kind of things.

It is also possible that afterwards, an update to NeoLemmix may be required in order to use this functionality. If it is, I'll release hotfix updates for all affected NeoLemmix apps ASAP. This will depend on what exactly I find to be the most optimal method of implementing the new system.

If you wish to obtain an auto-downloadable graphic set during this time, you will be able to do so by going to the following url: http://www.neolemmix.com/styles/[insert graphic set name here].dat - please note that URLs on the neolemmix.com server are case-sensitive; all graphic set filenames are all-lowercase.

I'll post again once the new system is up and running.

[namida]

I also have another question, regarding logging into such a system:

Would people prefer that neolemmix.com accounts and lemmingsforums.net accounts are seperate, or that they're shared (ie: if you're registered on the forums, you use the same login for neolemmix.com)? There's no huge advantage for me in either system, so it really comes down to which the users would prefer.

I'm 99% sure it's not possible to have a system where "keep me logged in" works across both sites, but simply using a single registration with a shared username / password across both, will be completely possible.

[Nepster]

Would people prefer that neolemmix.com accounts and lemmingsforums.net accounts are seperate, or that they're shared (ie: if you're registered on the forums, you use the same login for neolemmix.com)?

It really depends on how this would be implemented. How would neolemmix.com check whether my username and password are the correct ones for the forum? Does the forum use a separate service to store (hashes of) passwords and check the login data, which allows access by neolemmix.com?

[namida]

The forum and the NL website have seperate databases, but within the same MySQL process, so (after adjusting permissions as nessecary for the MySQL "users") it would be very little work to check the forum database to validate the login. This could either be referenced whenever nessecary, or copied across to the NL website database on first login (and maybe updated either via a daily refresh, or just each time the user logs in). I don't think there'd be a particularly huge difference in performance between the two; the former would be a bit lighter on storage (but the difference would be almost negligable). As an added layer of security, since this would be my own code rather than widely-used open source code, I'd give neolemmix.com's "user" read-only access to the forum database - if possible, only to the relevant parts (which would pretty much just be the "users" table, I think).

Even if they were in seperate databases, this would not be a huge obstacle. The way Nearly Free Speech (the hosting provider both the forums and neolemmix.com are hosted with) works for MySQL, is that the MySQL processes are tied to the user (in this case, me), not to any specific website. Even a completely unrelated site could theoretically access it as long as it was hosted on Nearly Free Speech - if you overlook that they'd need to know the "server" name, the username and the password for it.

Passwords have the standard SMF hashing, which IIRC is an MD5 of the password, the username, and a salt value. I've successfully replicated this before, back when I made the short-lived and not-very-widely-used replay database.

[Nepster]

Ok, thanks for the information. Then I don't have anything against reusing the forum login data.

[namida]

Okay, while logging in doesn't actually do anything yet (beyond show a "Logged in as <username>" message), it's now possible to log into the NeoLemmix Website with your Lemmings Forums username and password.

Shouldn't be too far behind until I've got the ability for users to upload graphic sets themself sorted. (Of course, this is me we're talking about, so it's hard to say how long it'll actually be.)

[namida]

Since the new formats version probably isn't much further away, I've decided to put this on hold until it's ready. Otherwise, I'd just have to modify it again for the new formats anyway.