Early Lent Notes

As those of you who check my other blog will already know, my computer has finally given up the ghost meaning that error corrections may take a little longer than usual. I did download an ftp client for my phone yesterday evening. I hope to spend some time with it today and figure out how to upload and download files to the breviary site. One of the changes I need to make is including a link to the Litany page fom the main page. There’s a mobile version of the Great Litany here and a desktop version of it here. Also, Psalm 95 is currently set as the standard invitatory for Lent as opposed to the Venite–that’s a feature, not a bug. However, I will work on including an option so that you can go back to the Venite if desired.

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Changes under the Hood

I’ve made some changes to the breviary. Hopefully they won’t cause any disruption and will instead make things more convenient. Two main changes have occurred.

GET not POST

I’ve changed the way that the breviary as a web application does its work. In the past, I used a POST protocol as a way of transferring information around the site. The upside here is that the url is a lot cleaner, isn’t long , and doesn’t look messy. The downside is that it’s impossible to either bookmark or copy/paste the url of a particular office. If you want to refer someone else to it, you were out of luck.

When I coded the site for Forward Movement, Scott Gunn made sure that I used GET rather than POST because it could be hooked into social media offerings. I did, and have found it so much easier to work with and maintain, that I’ve moved the regular breviary over to it as well. The key advantage for you, the user, is that now you can visit the index page and make your selections, push the button and head into the office—or you can go directly there and bypass the index page altogether! this is the new static link for the breviary:

haligweorc.org/breviary/office.php

Now—you’ll not once you get there that it’ll add more material after the “.php” part. That automatically gives you the office based on the day and time you’re using it. If you want to bookmark the site, make sure that you add it just as you see it above and don’t add the “?d=…” or any of the other stuff after “.php” or your bookmark will always and only show you that day and office!

Index Page Options

If you do end up bypassing the index page, you’ll never notice my second upgrade which is a change in the index. I added a permanent link to the mobile version, but more importantly added back in the ability to select any of the “pre-set” options even if you have a cookie saved. I’ve received requests for this and have wished for it myself—so there it is.

These changes are available in both the desktop and mobile versions.

I tested these as thoroughly as I could in my test environment and was not able to break it. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impervious or guarantee that I accounted for everything. If you run into any problems, please let me know!

Preference Issue Fixed

I think the new Linux parser is a bit more strict than what my host keeps on their Windows servers… In any case, the preferences do work again.

Preferences Problem!

There is an ongoing issue with preferences. 

I don’t know exactly when it happened but it occurred recently. My initial reaction is that it had something to do with the shift to a linux server—but I don’t have any idea why that would have made a difference.

One of my issues is that I’m not experiencing it.

If you are, please leave a comment here about when it you noticed it first, your Operating System (Windows or Mac, generally) and your browser (Safari, Chrome, etc.) That may give me a clue as to what’s going on and how I can fix it…

Thank you all!!

The response from the renewal appeal has been very good. Together we raised enough funds to secure the domains and hosting for the next three years! Thank you very much to all who gave.

While the breviary started as my hobby, I experience it now as a community project. It continues and improves through your suggestions, ideas, and—of course—corrections. Thank you for being part of it with me!

Back-end Migration

I just talked to my hosting folks. They were checking in to see how things were going; I noted that sometimes performance in the morning is sluggish. After looking into it they agreed and said that migrating me to a different box, a Linux box, would increase the speeds quite a bit. So–they’re doing that. It shouldn’t break anything, but if the breviary becomes unaccountably unavailable that will be why.

It’s set to happen within the next 24 hours or so—we’ll see what happens…

Renewal Appeal

The birthday of the Breviary is coming up soon.

For people, this means cake, ice cream, embarrassing stories, and photos of your hair from the ’80’s. For websites, it means renewing domain registrations and hosting plans and such.

Currently the breviary is limping along on a month-to-month hosting plan.  My hope is to do a long-term set of renewals to kick the can as far down the road as possible. Thus, I’m launching a modest appeal for donations to keep things running smoothly.

If the breviary is of value to you, please consider making a donation to help defray its expenses.

(Of course, if you’ve already donated recently, please disregard!)

Ember Days

You may be wondering why the breviary isn’t identifying today, September 19th, the first Wednesday after the Feast of the Holy Cross as an Ember Day.

I am too…

Hopefully we’ll get this sorted out shortly.

 

Update: Ok—things seem to be sorted out now and the next few days should run as properly scheduled.

More Tweaking

While I was in there today, I put in some additional fixes and additions.

First, I noticed that the evening canticles following the BCP table—didn’t follow it very well. Too, they often duplicated what wa going on in the morning which doesn’t make much sense. Those have been changed back to reflect what the BCP says for the first reading; the second canticle remains the Magnificat.

Second, I added a new reading pattern which allows for an OT reading at Morning Prayer, followed by the NT reading and Gospel at Evening Prayer.

All of these changes worked out fine in my test environment, but do let me know if you see any oddities in or around these options!

OT Reading at Evening Prayer!

There’s been some discussion concerning the OT reading at Evening Prayer when only three readings are used during the day instead of four. Formerly, the OT reading at Evening Prayer was that of the off-year rather than the current year. This is now fixed. So—if you choose the 2/2 option, you will get the regular “on-year” OT reading in the morning and the “off-year OT reading in the evening; if you choose the 1/2 option, you will get the “on-year” OT reading as the first lesson at Evening Prayer.