Playing with the Test Site

This applies to the project you can't see in the folder you can't open but, apart from those details, hopefully you'll find it interesting.

Maybe something gets weird on uploading files and there's a situation in which there's more than one of them in the admin folder.  What's an artist to do?

I've left some files in the folder to present that problem as they'll give a better idea of how things work.  It'll do no harm to purge them and I've left them there so you can do that and see it work.  You shouldn't have any difficulty recognizing which ones can be deleted:

useless_rubbish.jpg
utter_rubbish.jpg
utterly_hopeless_rubbish.jpg


I had to have a system backup function.  I don't because I already have all the stuff but the Artist might.  Therefore a utility has been added to backup system files to your home system.  They are simple text files that can be opened with any text editor.  Be aware of Unix linefeeds in the text files.  Don't ever restore a system file if you have modified it, even if you only opened it and saved it as even that can bork the linefeeds, add line numbers, any number of screwy things.

The facility is provided so you can restore if something unpredictable happens.  You should never otherwise have to touch it for anything.  You might want to use it after adding paintings so you don't have to re-enter data if something goes wrong on the server side.  My browser is set to use a default download location and presumably yours works the same way.  That's where the downloaded file will go unless your system prompts for a target.  I suggest putting it in the same folder used as the source for the images going online.

Consider the scenario of the server burning to the ground.  I haven't been through that one but I've been through more than one server crash that wound up destroying data and they couldn't restore from backups.  That leaves only one person to do it and you have to put your site together again from your home disk.

Your images are safe as you have them on your disk.  What you do not have is the Art Information File.  Best to download a copy of it as everything else will be on a zip file that can used for a full restore of the basic system.

This will be as close to air-tight as I can possibly make it.  The absolute worst, most withering thing one can say to a systems programmer is 'that was a shallow install.'  Only a beast from the field would have so little mind that it gave so little thought to the depths and implications of any system change.  Those words have struck terror into the hearts of system programmers in at least one bank for well over ten years.

Oh, ladies ... it was a female system programmer who said it.  We had a hard time finding female systems programmers and the closest I ever found in any candidate I interviewed was a guy who showed up in a dress.  Ain't that the story of my sad life.  In any case, there was nothing holding back a woman in systems programming.  I've seen multiple put the fear of death into lesser programmers.  That was a shallow install.  Brrrr.

And one more thing ... COBOL is the biggest business programming language in the world ... yep, that project was driven by a woman:  Grace Hopper.  She is a legend.