Major Site Update Archives - 2005

For the newest updates, please click here.

12.18.05

• New Look and Feel
  • Updated every page with new code and removed some old, unnecessary code
  • New page layout
  • New logo
  • New headers
• Medieval Forums
  • Minor updates to the look and feel because of new logo
• Medieval Glossary
  • Updated links to make it easier for search engines to crawl through this section of the site

11.22.05

• Upgrade
  • Upgraded gallery software from version 2.0.3 to 2.0.4

11.17.05

• Upgrade
  • Upgraded IPB SDK from version 1.6 Beta 2 to 1.6 Beta 4

11.14.05

• Medieval Forums
  • Added thirteen new emoticons

11.13.05

• Medieval Articles
  • Added an author biographies page
  • Added support throughout the articles section for the author biographies (the names of authors who have biographies are now clickable)
• Medieval Forums
  • Added a leper emoticon
• Minor Edits
  • Edited a few minor errors

11.07.05

• Site Search
  • Fixed a major bug preventing searches of the glossary and timeline from completing due to a change in the structure of the database
• Medieval Wiki
  • Clarified instructions on two of the wiki's pages and fixed a minor bug
• Login Page
  • Minor update to change layout and improve functionality

11.03.05

• Upgrade
  • Upgraded the forum software from version 2.1.2 to 2.1.3

10.30.05

• Upgrade
  • Upgraded the gallery software from version 2.0.2 to 2.0.3

10.16.05

• Form Updates
  • Fixed several minor bugs
  • Added the ability to preview medieval timeline submissions
  • Added the ability to preview medieval glossary submissions
  • Added the ability to preview medieval quotations submissions

10.14.05

• Upgrades
  • Upgraded the forum software from version 2.1.1 to 2.1.2
  • Upgraded the blog software from version 1.2.0 to 1.2.1

10.06.05

• Site Reorganization
  • Removed the Medieval Pages section
  • Moved much of the site's content into direct subdirectories below the main site
  • Reorganized the site's navigational menu
• Upgrade
  • Upgraded the gallery from version 2.0.1 to 2.0.2

10.04.05

• Miscellaneous Updates
  • Updated the link pack with new banner/button images
  • Updated the affiliates page

10.03.05

• Blog Change
  • http://blogs.shadowedrealm.com/membername now redirects to http://forums.shadowedrealm.com/blog/membername for blog users with friendly URLs enabled
  • This change fixes a bug in which scripting was not working for the content blocks on the blogs

10.01.05

• Structural Reorganization
  • Changed the name of the "Medieval Period" section to the "Medieval Pages" section
  • Added the wiki to the Medieval Pages section
• Wiki
  • Removed "Medieval" from the title of the wiki
  • Upgraded to version 1.1 - bugs fixed, upgraded security
• Search
  • Fixed a bug in which searches using multiple keywords resulting in "More Results" resulted in an error when after clicking the "More Results" link

09.24.05

• Upgrades
  • Completed gallery upgrade from version 2.0.0 to 2.0.1, allowing the gallery to reopen after temporary closure (due to bugs in version 2.0.0)
• Glossary
  • Added and updated dozens of terms
  • Glossary now contains over 1,000 terms
• Search
  • Fixed bug that prevented new searches from working from individual search pages

09.23.05

• Upgrades
  • Completed forums upgrade from version 2.1.0 to 2.1.1
• Random Medieval Header Images
  • Increased the quality of the 99 previously uploaded images
  • Added 89 new images

09.21.05

• Upgrades
  • Completed gallery upgrade from version 2.0 RC3 to 2.0 Final
• Updates
  • Reorganized the major update archives

09.20.05

• Upgrades
  • Completed gallery upgrade from version 2.0 RC1 to 2.0 RC3
• Forums
  • Fixed a few display errors
  • Uploaded old avatar galleries and images

09.17.05

• Upgrades
  • Completed upgrade of the forums from version 2.0.4 to 2.1
  • Completed upgrade of the gallery from version 1.3.1 to 2.0 RC1
  • Completed upgrade of the blogs from version 1.1.2 to 1.2
  • Completed upgrade of the IPB SDK from version 1.5 to 1.6 Beta 2
• Shadowed Realm's Look & Feel
  • Changed the main site's template to lighten up the site a bit
  • Applied new skin to the forums
  • Removed scroll graphics from the main site
  • Changed the random images that appear in the header to make them bigger and to match the new template's background
  • Many of the random images that appear have changed - there are now 99 random images instead of 40
• Medieval Wiki
  • Removed the http://wiki.shadowedrealm.com/ subdomain, mostly due to a bug preventing authentication from working with upgraded member database
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed problems with the announcements display on the front page of the site and the announcements page itself
  • Fixed a problem with the site map

09.04.05

• Submitted Articles
  • Added "Usama and William of Rubruck: Creating Ethnic Separation" by Jason Colman, the runner-up winning article of the Grand Medieval Historian Competition - Summer 2005
  • Added "The Order of St. Lazarus in the Latin East" by Natalie Kohout, the grand prize winning article of the Grand Medieval Historian Competition - Summer 2005
• Submissions Forms
  • Added a form field for source information to the timeline event, glossary term, and quotations submission forms
  • Updated many of the submission forms to include more information to confirm the visitor's or member's submission
• Grand Medieval Historian Competition - Summer 2005
  • Announced the winners
  • Updated the contest area with prize winner information

09.03.05

• Glossary
  • Added a new category: Christianity - General
  • Added many submissions

09.01.05

• Glossary
  • Added a new category: Places
• Timeline
  • Added new submissions
• Template Changes
  • Completed some changes to lighten up the template a little bit to make it more easily viewable on different types of monitors
  • Completed changes to the front page of the site - removed the right sidebar ads

08.26.05

• Glossary
  • Added a great deal of member-submitted content over the past couple of days
  • Changed the name of 'The Church' cateogory to 'Western Christianity'
  • Added five new categories: Architecture, Art and Literature, Eastern Christianity, Islam, and Universities and Education
  • Minor changes to the term display settings
• Timeline
  • Added member-submitted content over the past couple of days
  • Fixed a bug in which the links for the first half of the eleventh century for three of the different browse actions was creating a 404 error
• Articles
  • Fixed a minor display error on the main listing of the exclusive and submitted articles page
• Graphical and Color Changes
  • Slightly changing colors and modifying graphics over the past few days for a better look to the site and increased readability
• Contests
  • Reorganized the contests area

08.22.05

• Medieval Forums
  • Added a new blog feature to the forums
• Modified Site Structure
  • Removed the subdomain http://medieval.shadowedrealm.com/
  • Modified and reorganized many of the site's navigational menus
• Contests
  • Reorganized the contests area

08.20.05

• Forums
  • Added a new gallery feature to the forums
• Graphical Improvements
  • Added a new background image to the site
  • Modified the graphics on the front page of the site
  • Modified other miscellaneous graphics throughout the site

08.17.05

• Site Search
  • Updated the search to perform searches limited to certain areas/sections
• Timeline
  • Added a search function directly to the index page of the timeline and placed all of the original options to view the timeline under a browse heading
• Glossary
  • Added a search function directly to the index page of the glossary and placed all of the original options to view the timeline under a browse heading
• Forums
  • Peformed minor modifications to the forums, including slight changes to some of the forums' descriptions and categories

08.09.05

• Status Bars
  • Slightly changed the colors of the status bars for the glossary, timeline, maps, and quotations areas, as well as the Medieval Wiki
• Template Changes
  • Changed the look of the right bar on the main page of the site to make each ad look like a scroll attached to a wooden post
  • Changed the front page of the site to include "Welcome, Membername" (when logged in) or "Welcome, Guest" with some links (if not logged in)
  • Slightly changed the color of some of the text on the site
• Miscellaneous Page Updates
  • Updated the donations, about, and legal information pages

08.08.05

• Forums
  • Purchased a license for the forums
  • Upgraded the forums from version 2.0.0 to 2.0.4
• Graphical Updates
  • Slightly modified header images
  • Updated the link pack

08.06.05

• Glossary
  • Added new terms
  • Fixed a bug with terms containing apostrophes in their titles
• Timeline
  • Added new events
• Site Search
  • Fixed a bug with the search: prior to this update, searches containing apostrophes resulted in errors
• Miscellaneous Page Updates
  • Updated the glossary submission form
  • Changed the look of the index page of the links area slightly

08.04.05

• "Shadowed Realm" Logo Change
  • Changed the text of "Shadowed Realm" in the header images to a typeface of my own creation
  • Updated the link pack
• Glossary
  • Added new terms over the past couple days
• 404 Error Page Update

08.01.05

• Site Search
  • Updated the search script to work properly with phrases in quotes and multiple terms - for real this time
• Articles
  • Added new submitted article: Catholicism and the Medieval Church by Lori M. Netahlo-Barrett
• Glossary
  • Added new terms
  • Removed the 'Places' category
• Links
  • Added new link
  • Fixed error with connecting to the database
• Small template updates

07.27.05

• Site Search
  • Updated the search script to work properly with phrases in quotes and multiple terms
  • Removed advanced search upon discovery that it was not working properly
• Glossary
  • Added quite a few new terms
• Timeline
  • Added events
• Miscellaneous page updates

07.26.05

• Template
  • Changed the main site's template to make it more medieval looking (stone borders, parchment, cobblestone under menu, color changes)
• Glossary
  • Changed the name of the Vilages, Towns, and Cities category to Village, Town, and City
  • Added new categories: Dynasties and Groups, Heraldry, Places, and Troop Types
• Timeline
  • Changed the name of the event categories to match others on site
• Miscellaneous page updates

07.22.05

• Medieval Wiki
  • Published Medieval Wiki version 1.0
  • Shadowed Realm members can add and edit pages
  • Stats, updates, and history pages included
• Search
  • Updated search scripts to include support for the new Medieval Wiki
• Shadowed Realm Member System
  • Updated header bar to allow member to login/register or logout
  • Updated header bar with new, personalized quicklinks
  • Added new login page
  • Added new logout page
• Miscellaneous page updates

07.09.05

• Glossary
  • Renamed the Medieval Period Index (MPI) to the glossary
  • Added and updated several terms that are related to polearms
• Timeline
  • Added new events
• Quotations
  • Added new quotation
• Miscellaneous page updates

06.29.05

• Maps Area
  • Redesigned the area to contain three different categories of maps: political, military, and other maps
  • Added 23 new maps
  • Updated the site map

06.28.05

• Miscellaneous Site Updates
  • Added and updated MPI terms between over the past two days
  • Fixed an error that prevented most of the exclusive articles from displaying
  • Updated a few pages with minor revisions

06.21.05

• Medieval Period Section
  • Performed miscellaneous updates
  • Fixed problems with the maps area, quotations listing page, and links index
• Miscellaneous Site Updates
  • Shadowed Realm will no longer be known as Your Guide to Medieval History - the name will now be accompanied by the phrase Medieval Content and Discussion
  • Changed the images in the link pack to reflect all of the changes to the site since January
  • Updated several pages

06.15.05

• Changed Web Host
  • Performed miscellaneous changes for pages to work on new host
  • Fixed some bugs

06.06.05

• Search
  • Added a new advanced search option
  • Changed search pages to reflect this change and allow visitors to perform simple and advanced searches
  • Fixed several major bugs
  • Modified the search bar in the site's header
• Forums
  • Added an RSS feed for announcements
• Miscellaneous Site Updates
  • Slightly changed the template of the site and added a new header graphic

05.31.05

• MPI
  • Added new terms
  • Fixed spacing on listing pages
• Miscellaneous Site Updates
  • Updated the about the site and affiliates pages

05.24.05

• Site Search
  • Fixed a bug in which visitors were unable to search when pressing 'enter' or 'return' on their keyboard instead of the 'go' or 'submit' buttons on the page
  • Moved and slightly reformatted the search bar
• Articles
  • Added a new exclusive article entitled "Richard and Saladin: Warriors of the Third Crusade"
  • Added additional author information all of the article pages
• MPI
  • Fixed the spacing of output of terms
• Forums
  • Fixed the spacing of the header
• Miscellaneous Site Updates
  • Added another ad - this new ad appears in the header of the site's pages

05.20.05

• Maps Feature
  • Added a new maps feature to the medieval section
  • Includes 35 maps
• Site Updates
  • Updated the site's search script to include the new maps area
  • Revised the legal information page
  • Miscellaneous updates

05.16.05

• Search Feature
  • Added a new search feature to the site
  • A search bar is now included at the top of every page
• Site Updates
  • Added dozens of new images for the site's header
  • Miscellaneous updates

05.09.05

• Medieval Squared Section
  • Removed due to inactivity and visitor confusion
• Site Updates
  • Fixed lingering broken hyperlinks
  • Fixed quotations index so that it displays properly in IE
  • Updated the legal information page
  • Updated the about the site page

05.01.05

• MPI Update
  • Added 37 new terms
  • Fixed a display bug
  • Modified/updated some terms
• Site Updates
  • Fixed some broken hyperlinks
  • Added new images to display in the header

04.23.05

• Template updates
  • Added a randomly changing graphic to the site's header
  • Fixed bugs such as bad URLs throughout site
  • Changed colors of parts of template
  • Added graphics to main/home page of site
• Forum updates
  • Added Medieval Workshop forum
  • Changed the header to match the main site's new header

04.21.05

• New site published
  • Includes main site and the medieval section
  • Entirely coded in XHTML 1.1 Strict
  • More streamlined than the old site
  • Few graphics for faster load time
  • No longer includes any Flash
  • Removed unnecessary sections (the help section, for example) and reduced the number of links
• New Medieval2 (Medieval Squared) Section
  • Based upon the old site
  • The hi-fi version of the medieval section
  • Contains the same content as the medieval section
  • Completely re-coded in XHTML 1.1 Strict

01.28.05

• MPI
  • Modified CSS code of status bar to support more browsers
  • Added updates feature that allows visitors to view all additions and/or modifications by month
  • Edited MPI database for consistency
• Timeline
  • Modified CSS code of status bar to support more browsers
  • Added updates feature that allows visitors to view all additions and/or modifications by month
  • Modified 'Previous' and 'Next' buttons to display correctly in Firefox
• Edited and updated Shadowed Realm link pack images for consistency with new site header
• Updated the site information links on the main page
• Added two new submitted articles since last update: one on King Alfred the Great and the other on Charles the Bald
• Various other small improvements, updates, and bug fixes from previous version

01.14.05

• Articles
  • Added a new submitted article about King thelwulf
• MPI
  • Added support for two more related topics (up to six)
  • Rewrote the status bar in CSS code to better integrate it into the site's design
  • Added functionality to the status bar to display the four newest additions to the MPI, providing visitors with a direct link to these terms
  • Changed the name of the topic search to the term search
  • Added new functionality to the term record display that allows visitors to move through the entries alphabetically by clicking a 'previous' and 'next' button
• Timeline
  • Added a new option to allow visitors to view the entire timeline
  • Rewrote the status bar in CSS code to better integrate it into the site's design
  • Added functionality to the status bar to display the most recently added event, providing visitors with a direct link to it
  • Added support for two more regions (up to six)
  • Updated all of the regions currently contained in the database to be more specific
  • Fixed the category page view
  • Changed the listings available in the search options
  • Fixed an error in the display script that would incorrectly display some events twice on the timeline
  • Updated the browse by century to use the new 'previous' and 'next' buttons designed for the MPI
• Quotations
  • Rewrote the status bar in CSS code to better integrate it into the site's design
• Links
  • Added two new links
• Medieval History Submissions
  • Updated the timeline submissions form
• Front (Home) Page
  • Slightly increased size of red text to make it more readable
  • Modified text in the medieval quotations box to more accurately display in non-IE browsers
• Fixed Flash components (quick links and updates)
• Added scripts and a new page to direct visitors in the event that the site's databases once again go down while the site's Web server remains up
• Cleaned up scripting throughout the medieval history section
• Performed some graphical improvements and alterations
• Added code in an attempt to make user input more secure
• Improved MPI topic search function so that it can now look for singular forms when plural forms are entered (in some cases)
• Rewrote the CSS code for the site information box on the front page of the site
• Joined a history Web ring and added it to the site affiliates page

01.02.05

• Added a new quizzes area to the medieval history section
  • Area includes three quizzes: General Medieval Knowledge, The Carolingians, and Vocabulary Quiz 1
• Added a quiz question submission form
• Added recently coded PHP validation to forms
• Added an archival area that contains older version history information and some older site content
• Added an updates area to the top banner (accessible through a link in the quick links area)
• Updated title header with a new (more realistic) tower design
• Removed title header's holiday snow effect and holiday banner
• Changed the name of the resources and links section to the links section
• Updated all of the site's forms once again
• Removed JavaScript hyperlink effect
• Darkened cobblestone background image for easier viewing of pages
• Changed pages to full justification throughout the site
• Fixed forums' registration page
• Fixed date scripting issue in the quick links header area
• Updated the site affiliates page and the forums' site affiliates dropdown