Tech: Mudcat Modernization

Subject: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: Max
Date: 31 Mar 26 - 12:08 AM

Hey all. I've taken the time to modernize much of mudcat's backend. Found all the inefficient code and queries and brought them into the 21st century. In addition, I've added a bunch of code to protect us from the bots that have been crashing us for ages. Amazonbot, a TikTok bot, an Apple bot, etc have been at us to download the whole kit and kaboodle and I've put some measures into place to throttle their efforts.

So what I'm saying is that we should be much more stable now, and quite a bit peppier. That said, it's changes to our very core so I'm not 100% sure of the consequences to regular users. That's what this thread is for. Let me know if anything has changed to the negative for y'all and I'll get back in that code and figure it right.

As mentioned prior, the search is working again, with the Child Ballad pdfs included (and 72 additional public domain songbooks coming soon), and much more goodness is to come as I've found some new inspiration to make mudcat the best it can be. And YES, a thoughtful mobile interface is at the top of my list now, and in progress.



And we're aiming to get rid of ads altogether...

y'all can thank Joe and Maggie and gargoyle, who have provided all the intellectual integrity over the years, when/where mine has been absent.

It's time we take our proper place in today's Internet family of things.
Cheers,
Max

Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: GUEST,Jon Bartlett
Date: 31 Mar 26 - 12:20 AM

Well done, Max!

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 31 Mar 26 - 01:13 AM

Yes, bravo.

Observation: On desktop, user message history now displays in ascending order, by date. Old format was descending, ie: most recent forum posts displayed on page one.

Cheers!

fixed

Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Mar 26 - 11:20 AM

Now all we need is a "Like" button . . . (a slippery slope, to be sure). And gotta love gargoyle!

Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: Max
Date: 31 Mar 26 - 11:56 AM

I have the long held belief that popular does not mean good and have always been careful not to build anything into mudcat that'd sort our data such.

Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Mar 26 - 12:47 PM

My tongue was firmly embedded in my cheek when I wrote that. ;-)

I rarely refer to Mudcat using my phone or tablet so I'll have to take a look and see what's up.

On the computer where I'm working now I've pulled up a browser where I'm not logged on to Mudcat and have no adblock software in place to see if a couple of the old features are working. For example, that Share Thread link that appears at the top middle with an orange box with a white plus sign it used to offer a few of the major social media sites to share the thread to. I remember seeing a regular automated run of Mudcat music posts appear on Twitter (back when Twitter was still Twitter). That share button is a dead bit of text now, same as the Share Thread button the right side of the 600px navy table that also has the "add to tracer" link that does work.

AND - I just noticed something I'd forgotten was there but it doesn't work now, it points to Yahoo, but there is a "translate" link that at one time translated English to German, Italian, Protugese, and Spanish and als transalted those languages to English. I wonder if that can be rejiggered to Google Translate? Examining the table with the instructions looks like it was easy back in the day, possibly a lot more work now. Even just having a link that opens Google Translate so people can choose their own languages and work from there would help. What's there now is

<option value="en_de" >English to German</option>
<option value="en_it" >English to Italian</option>
<option value="en_pt" >English to Portuguese</option>
<option value="en_es" >English to Spanish</option>
<option value="fr_en" >French to English</option>
<option value="de_en" >German to English</option>
<option value="it_en" >Italian to English</option>
<option value="es_en" >Spanish to English</option>
<option value="pt_en" >Portuguese to English</option>

If this was rejiggered, would anyone use it? It seems likely the folks doing Gaelic translations might want a setting. Is that an option? (I realize this is offering tall weeds to thrash around in, not adding to the app look that you're working on now.)

rejiggered

Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: DaveRo
Date: 31 Mar 26 - 01:20 PM

Browsers often include built-in webpage translate facilities. Firefox does - if I display a foreign-language page it offers to display it in English. For example on this Android running Firefox this French newspaper has a button in the URL bar to anglicize it.

I expect Chrome does something similar.

Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Mar 26 - 11:45 PM

Interesting, Max! On any thread post if you click on "translate" it goes to that particular message. At the top of that page is the Google translate line - (English detected in what I tried here). You can choose the language to translate to from there and it appears instantly.

Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 01 Apr 26 - 08:10 AM

> As mentioned prior, the search is working again, with the Child Ballad pdfs included

The link from Max's post on the Mudcat Search Now Working thread takes me to PDFs of Bronson, not Child.

Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 01 Apr 26 - 08:40 AM

THANK. YOU MR. MAX ! ! !

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

You have wrot some true wonders ... Smithsonian's loss is the world's gain.

Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat Modernization
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 01 Apr 26 - 11:09 AM

Yes thank you!