Charts and Graphs Update

The solution to the slow loading of visitor data is now in place. Its first implementation can be viewed in the Visit Frequency table in the Graphs and Tables option of the Visitor Profile menu.

In addition to an instantaneous upload it now covers data since January 1, 2019. With an additional CRON job it will soon be automatically updated.

More control also means an accurate display of data. The guess-work of previous data uploads has been eliminated.

Roddy

A Midpoint

We are now half-way through the month of Ramadan, and sometime between yesterday and today there has been a full-moon in the Americas.

In celebration of the occasion I have posted a preview of Grammar Captive’s, not-yet-completed, first Arabic edition of Seven Gates. It is a gift from a former student from Jubail University College, Saudi Arabia. Jaffar and I have known each other since 2007. He recently became the father of his first daughter.

Congratulations, Jaffar, and thank you for your continued support!

Roddy

Matomo: Boon or Bane?

Although it was previously thought that Grammar Captive’s WordCloud functionality had been rendered dysfunctional by a change in Matomo’s reporting API, it has fortunately turned out not to be the case. In fact, it is quite the opposite, the new functionality turns out to be complementary with even more potential than previously available.

Hooray! Hooray!

Roddy

Neglected Credits

Elated by Grammar Captive’s recent success in getting the Mecab parser to work I have updated Grammar Captive’s Credits menu to include a credit to the people at MySQL responsible for the Mecab parser.

To the same menu has been added a section for Technical Assistance with credit going to Chris Barnett.

In order to avoid confusion the section entitled Revision has been renamed Text Revision. Finally, my good friend Prof. Dr. Peter P. Baron was added to this section under the new subtitle German.

The Ex-Macabre Mecab

The Mecab Parser is no longer macabre.

After several months of dysfunction the corrupted newsletter database has not only been restored, but the Mecab parser is now fully functional.

This means that Japanese newsletters can now be searched in the same way that the English, French, and German versions of the newsletter can be searched. Simply type in a Japanese word and the newsletters in which it is contained will appear.

In addition, the search engines for Q&A and Podast queries has also been restored.

How was the above achieved? It was not by magic.

Apparently the Mecab parser will only work when the default language of the entire table is set to the language of the parser. Previously, only the columns were set.

Will other new developments follow soon. It is unlikely, as a stable podcasting environment has yet to be found. Maybe in the fall of 2019.

Roddy

Visitor Profile Dysfunction Repaired

While waiting to rebuild the MySQL data table that houses the Sevengates Newsletter the dysfunction in the Sponsor Overview pages has been repaired. The following panels are now fully functional: Your Data and You, Sponsor Overview, Event Profiles, and Splash Panel.

The Word Cloud functionality will remain dysfunctional until the MySQL data table has been restored, and the lack of correspondence between the number of Unique Visitors and Total Visits in the Graphs and Charts panel remains an unsolved mystery.

The corrupted MySQL data table appears to be related to the overall performance of the site. This problem is currently under investigation.

Roddy

Mecab or macabre?

In an effort to make the multilingual letter data table searchable in Japanese Grammar Captive installed a Japanese language parser built for MySQL. The result has been a corrupted data table and a complete breakdown in one’s ability to view any of the newsletters no matter the language or edition.

It is likely that the entire table will have to be rebuilt.

Roddy

Restoration of RSS Feeds

In “celebration” of the New Year Yahoo closed down a free service that sustained Grammar Captive’s WordPress RSS feeds. A new free service has been found and the feeds have been restored.

Other than the several projects that were still under way at the end of the year, no further development is being planned until a suitable place to podcast has been found and podcasting can begin.

Roddy