Help:About/archive/2007 migration issues

Status as of 2007-11-18

• Things are basically working! The new internet arrived on Friday -- and promptly started displaying more or less the same symptoms as the old one. At first I thought it was just DSL, and we were too distant from the delivery point to get good bandwidth, but after some back-and-forth discussion via Speakeasy's very nice trouble-ticket system, I narrowed the problem down to one of our wireless hubs. Unplugging the hub consistently made the problem go away -- and then after a couple of tests, it didn't come back again. So I have no way of tracing the problem further at this point.

Data migration is still underway, but with the internet no longer losing packets on a regular basis, the ordering database isn't as cranky about pulling its data from the remote server. It shouldn't take much more work before I have enough data on the remote server that I can process orders via web browser (using an internal web server; significant security work remains to be done before I allow the ordering data to be accessible from the outside via web browser).

In the meantime, a Ghastly Error occurred which I would have spotted much sooner if I hadn't been wrestling with the data issues: a customer actually tried to use our fax number to send in his credit card information, and it turns out I never updated the fax number posted on the orders page! ACK!! So his credit card number got received by an unknown party, and he had to cancel it to be on the safe side. He was Not Happy. Complete details (no identifying information about the customer, just our email dialog on the subject) is here: 2007 Fax Incident

This is, however, the only significant non-fixable customer upset I have had in at least 5 years (possibly longer). One is still too many, but it's not a bad record.

Status as of 2007-11-15

• The problem - summary: The order management software appears to be working now, but as a result of our gradually deteriorating internet connection each step in the process takes a ridiculously long amount of time when it doesn't lock up altogether. In between having to wait minutes or hours for processes to complete, I was able to process exactly two orders earlier this week.
• What I am doing about it: We are getting a new high-speed internet connection tomorrow (11/16) from Speakeasy DSL. I've done all the prep work (holes drilled and wires run) so that it will be up and running as early as possible. Although processing will probably still be a little slow, experience has shown that the database speed is tolerable when the internet is working properly.

Status as of 2007-11-07/08

• The problem - summary: I am in the process of reconfiguring the order management software so that most or all of the order data is stored on the web server instead of on a single machine. Problems with Microsoft Access's interface to the web server's database caused order processing to suddenly stop working towards the end of October. The problem is taking longer to fix than I had expected.
• What this means: I can't easily look up order information (without taking large chunks of time away from fixing the problem), and I can't process orders at all. The data is still there, but it takes forever to load and sometimes locks up the computer (a problem compounded by our lousy internet connection, because of which I am switching services -- the new service is scheduled to be installed Nov. 13).
• What I am doing about it: I've dropped every other technical project and am now spending every available hour working on the problem. Normally, a data migration is something which would be done by a team of IT people working 8-12 hours per day; I have myself, working maybe 4 hours on a good day (in between transporting kids and running errands). I have now migrated about 3/4 of the affected data, and I have a plan which I hope will allow order processing to start working again once the data is all copied over.

I apologize to all the customers whose orders have been delayed, often past their requested deadlines; I will provide complete refunds (including shipping both directions) for any orders which need to be returned due to being late.

No data has been lost or compromised; this is purely a design/programming problem. As usual, no credit cards will be charged until orders are ready to ship, and orders may still be canceled at any time.

This is not a normal situation, and this is not how I like to do business. On the up-side, the data migration should allow me to add a lot of requested services, such as automatic email notification of shipments and online order management, when it is complete, but this is not how I had planned for the conversion process to go.

Again, my apologies to everyone affected by this.

-- Nick, 2007-11-07

2007-11-08 updates

• 09:59 Technical stuff: I've moved the last two major tables over, and am now working on some minor tables.
• 18:52 Some things working: Found a way to make those tables unnecessary, yay! And rewrote the order import routine (which securely downloads orders from the web server) so it's working again, yay! Now I just have to see which other parts need fixing...
• 19:50 More things working: The list of order items in stock now works, and I can bring up orders to package. Still working on the package-creation process, and management of shipments.