wikiloops v14 release notes

Here's the list of changes & improvements,
the due contributor credits and
some note-worthy things about this new release of wikiloops.com.

We have been working on this release for over 200 days, starting in October 2022.
This is definitely among the largest updates ever made to the wikiloops engine,
as we have literally turned over every line of back-end code in a full refactoring overhaul.

We deliberately did not change too much on the surface in this release,
so it might be hard to anticipate that you are now looking at an entirely changed wikiloops.
Let me underline that with some details before going into the technical stuff.
One of the "improvements" was to put the wikiloops code under version control (a way to keep track of changes - I do not know how I managed to live without that for a decade), and with that at hand, it is now quite easy to shed light on how much has been changed since October.

My favorite screen is this one:
[img]https://wloops2.r.worldssl.net/blog/deletions.png[/img]
I guess 4.300 touched files gives a first idea of "this wasn't small", and looking at the 444k deletions vs. 127k additions, it seems a bit miraculous how the house is still standing.
Mind, we did not delete any tracks, images or user-entered text like comments, this is about the code only!

Truth is, a lot of cleaning up had to take place after twelve years of continued amateur development, and the gained expertise on my end leads to a much more condensed code.
I guess one does not have to have any coding knowledge to anticipate that less code is most likely much easier to maintain than loads of more or less unorganized code that piled up over the years.

In technical terms, here is what we did:

• put wikiloops under version control
• upgraded from php version 7.4 to php 8.1
• restructured the code-base from "spaghetti-code" to an MVC-structure with dependency injection
• separation of concerns by migrating html to twig templates & sql to database repositories
• updated all third party plug-Ins via composer, including the package used for track and image uploads
• setting up a fully automated deployment-pipeline to roll out updates without any manual actions

Whilst the above will not make much of a difference to you as a user, here are some things you may notice:

• the whole radio page has been overhauled to look a bit better on smaller devices
• smoothed upload experience with a less error prone upload script & improved part-markup creation
• added image cropper when uploading profile / avatar images
• improved safari browser experience
• added sharing options for whatsapp and telegram, improved sharing endpoints for all social media platform
• smaller visual changes, with a focus on highlighting the more relevant functionalities

On to the due credit notes:

This update is a true collaboration, as our fellow member Karuma has played a major part in what has been done. You may have noticed his name & little avatar in the online users section in the past months, but he has managed not to upload a single track so far, so, don't feel bad if the name does not ring a bell right away. To tell the long story of how the two of us ended up collaborating on wikiloops code would exceed this posts scope, but I'll try to give you a feeling of what Karuma has contributed to wikiloops version 14.

When I got to know this guy, he was introduced to me as "a 'nations-league level' senior developer", which I kindly doubted, since the person saying that had little to none idea about coding, and I have by now met my share of senior developers, that's a wide field as I've learned.

Turns out, that statement is something I'd totally support today, as I have not met anyone more sophisticated about good code, or more experienced in what works and what doesn't.
Talking about code with Karuma is inspiring like a jam with a seasoned musician who knows all the tricks.

I still have a hard time understanding why on earth he decided to volunteer as my mentor in restructuring wikiloops, as I've seen him happily decline to work on code which wasn't half as bad as mine.
If I can't tickle him to answer that right here, it shall remain a mystery, fact is:
We spent a lot of time discussing stuff, he pointed in the right directions, smiled about my lack of expertise and the crude hacks most of wikiloops code consisted of and laid some groundwork to showcase the direction things would need to go.
At times he managed to annoy the shizzle out of me with his consequent smart-assing, but somehow it dawned on me that he was most likely right (as always), so I gave up rebellion and fiercely refactored one file after another.
Dear Karuma: A big thank you for these hours of tutoring me & working on wikiloops, it has been a wild ride, and you know best how big of a milestone this update is, for me, and for wikiloops as well!

Credit also goes out to Shi, wjl and TeeGee who tended to the community as we were busy working in the engine room, and also to
LittleWing, FrankieJ, rootshell, ivax, Ernie440, BooDoggie, Krasimir, kmoon235, GBD, ROBJOL, mySounds, titi, Andri, jampikus and Wade, who helped BETA-test the release in the past two weeks.

Also, I'd like to once more include all of you who are supporting wikiloops.com monetarily - it would all not work without that support, and I'm especially grateful for those who silently send some funding - including some people who are not actively using wikiloops, but support our idea of collaboration.
wikiloops version 14 would not be around without these people, you know who you are - thank you very much.

If you feel we delivered well, please do head over to the donations page and send us some backup some time - and should you come across anything that doesn't seem to work right just yet, please do let us know via the forum!

Long live wikiloops :)