Travel Mapping

Web Design Discussion => General Web Design Discussion => Topic started by: Jim on June 05, 2016, 04:29:13 pm

Title: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 05, 2016, 04:29:13 pm
Our pages are pretty inconsistent in styling, so I decided that during the refactoring of the HTML/PHP code I'd also try to implement a simple but consistent design.

I've done just a few pages so far:

http://tmtest.teresco.org (http://tmtest.teresco.org)

http://tmtest.teresco.org/credits.php (http://tmtest.teresco.org/credits.php)

http://tmtest.teresco.org/devel/datacheck.php (http://tmtest.teresco.org/devel/datacheck.php)

The main thing so far is a consistent title/header/"link bar" at the top and another "link bar" across the bottom of all pages.  I'm OK to change fonts and colors later.  I'm no web design expert.

I'm especially open to suggestions about other things that can go on the main landing page.   I just threw in a couple sections of text for now.

We're very short on instructions for new users.  I suppose we can continue to point people at CHM's instructions, but at some point, we should have our own.


Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 05, 2016, 10:20:16 pm
The rest of the site (on the test server only for now) has undergone styling updates and some file rearrangement.  In particular, the highway browser and mapview.php have moved, but I believe I've managed to update all of the links.

Please browse around http://tmtest.teresco.org/ to see if everything looks OK.

Unless I hear strong objections, this version will go onto the tm.teresco.org site soon.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 06, 2016, 12:31:40 am
Jim,

Everything looks great, but I did find one problem.

It may just be my browser, but every time I click on Project Forum, my browser freezes and crashes. I'm using Microsoft Edge, in case it's just my browser.

Thanks,
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 06, 2016, 12:33:55 am
Jim,

After further observation, a message pops up for a brief second before crashing saying 'HTTP 404 error'.

Thanks,
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 06, 2016, 09:07:27 am
The links to the forum won't work from the tmtest site.  They'll work when the new style goes over to tm.teresco.org.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: theFXexpert on June 06, 2016, 10:48:13 am
I like that a link to Github was added.
Assigning the width to be 100% on the menu/title classes causes the pages to stretch horizontally in Chrome.
Not sure about the 5px of whitespace above the title. I'd rather have it filled with the dark blue (or whatever color ends up being used there)
Eventually, responsiveness for mobile devices would be a plus.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 06, 2016, 01:58:16 pm
Jim,

Thanks for getting back to me and thanks!
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: vdeane on June 06, 2016, 08:10:51 pm
I like it.  It'll be nice to consolidate all my Travel Mapping bookmarks down to one; I've been waiting for the more stable design before doing so.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 06, 2016, 09:38:18 pm
Thanks again for the feedback.  The new design is up and running on tm.teresco.org.  I don't consider this in any way final, just a big step in what I hope is a good direction.

I'm continuing with code refactoring and will make various fixes on the tmtest site but wanted to get this much live on the main site now.

Please let me know if it looks like I broke anything.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 06, 2016, 09:41:17 pm
Everything looks to be good, just clicked on random things to make sure everything worked.

Thanks,
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 06, 2016, 09:46:20 pm
After further investigation, maps don't seem to work on Chrome or Firefox, but they work on Google Edge.

Thanks,
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 06, 2016, 09:56:48 pm
After further investigation, maps don't seem to work on Chrome or Firefox, but they work on Google Edge.

I haven't found any pages not working so far.  A couple possibilities: you have a mix of old and new pages and JS code in your cache, which would mean try clearing cache or doing a shift-reload, or you hit it during the critical part of the site update process while the database itself is being updated (seems to take 30-60 seconds) during which nothing will work correctly.

If that's not it, please send specific examples of pages that don't work and I'll see if I can reproduce.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 06, 2016, 09:59:13 pm
That worked, thank you.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: yakra on June 07, 2016, 09:55:38 pm
Sorry if this isn't the best thread to report the issue, but:
On the new hb/index.php, I don't get any waypoint markers, whether "Show Markers" is checked or not.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Markkos1992 on June 07, 2016, 09:58:57 pm
 
Sorry if this isn't the best thread to report the issue, but:
On the new hb/index.php, I don't get any waypoint markers, whether "Show Markers" is checked or not.
I am able to toggle them on/off though when using the "view associated routes" feature (http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=markkos1992&rte=I-176) for some reason.  (I used I-176 as an example.-There may be other issues here as well.)

-Mark AKA 74/171FAN
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 07, 2016, 10:25:39 pm
Sorry if this isn't the best thread to report the issue, but:
On the new hb/index.php, I don't get any waypoint markers, whether "Show Markers" is checked or not.

I wonder how I broke that.  I'm working through the "user" pages now and will finish that up before moving on to improve the hb, at which time I'll probably revamp that feature anyway.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: yakra on June 07, 2016, 11:11:07 pm
Different page though.
user/mapview.php vs hb/index.php
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 08, 2016, 12:21:26 pm
Dear Jim,

I'm not sure if you fixed the issue yet, but the markers seem to work for me just fine.

Thanks,
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: michih on June 08, 2016, 02:16:41 pm
I'm not sure if you fixed the issue yet, but the markers seem to work for me just fine.

It's fixed on http://tmtest.teresco.org/ but it doesn't work on http://tm.teresco.org/.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 08, 2016, 02:38:37 pm
I'm not sure if you fixed the issue yet, but the markers seem to work for me just fine.

It's fixed on http://tmtest.teresco.org/ but it doesn't work on http://tm.teresco.org/.

At the moment, both of those should be identical, so this is a good clue.  I won't have a chance to look at it until later tonight but I am confident I'm just missing a file somewhere or something like that.  For now, I guess those needing the "show markers" functionality can point at the tmtest site.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 08, 2016, 04:07:09 pm
I'm a bit confused, I used http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=quidditch33&rg=WI and the markers seemed to work fine, not on the test site.

Thanks,
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: michih on June 08, 2016, 04:19:53 pm
I'm talking about the highway browser though ;).
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: michih on June 08, 2016, 04:22:15 pm
The main thing so far is a consistent title/header/"link bar" at the top and another "link bar" across the bottom of all pages.

All pages except the forum. Unfortunately, there's no link from the forum to (minimum) start page...
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 08, 2016, 05:25:50 pm
I'm talking about the highway browser though ;).
Ah, I see. It doesn't work on the Highway Browser after an investigation.

Thanks,
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 08, 2016, 06:39:33 pm
The main thing so far is a consistent title/header/"link bar" at the top and another "link bar" across the bottom of all pages.

All pages except the forum. Unfortunately, there's no link from the forum to (minimum) start page...

The forum is its own thing (an SMF instance).  If we want a link there back to the main project page, I'll leave that to our expert forum admin, @rickmastfan67.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 08, 2016, 08:37:32 pm
"Show markers" should be back on the HB.  Somehow, I missed one file (the icon used for the markers) when I moved devel/hb.php to hb/index.php .
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 08, 2016, 09:38:12 pm
Markers work now. Thanks Jim!
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 08, 2016, 09:53:37 pm
Check out the new sections on the main site index.  Continued feedback is welcome.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: bejacob on June 09, 2016, 07:28:09 am
One piece of functionality that used to work but no longer seems to is the link from the region page to a specific route. In the past when looking at a regions (for example my travels in Ohio http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=bejacob&rg=OH (http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=bejacob&rg=OH), I could then click on a route such as I-80 on the table and get the highway browser showing my progress on clinching that route. Now it gets a "404 Not Found" error http://tm.teresco.org/devel/hb.php?u=bejacob&r=oh.i080 (http://tm.teresco.org/devel/hb.php?u=bejacob&r=oh.i080).

 I can still get to the proper page by clicking the HB first and then selecting the route http://tm.teresco.org/hb/index.php?r=oh.i080 (http://tm.teresco.org/hb/index.php?r=oh.i080), but I liked being able to drill down to a specific route from the regional mapview page.

All the other enhancements seem to be working fine.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Jim on June 09, 2016, 08:13:23 am
One piece of functionality that used to work but no longer seems to is the link from the region page to a specific route. In the past when looking at a regions (for example my travels in Ohio http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=bejacob&rg=OH (http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=bejacob&rg=OH), I could then click on a route such as I-80 on the table and get the highway browser showing my progress on clinching that route. Now it gets a "404 Not Found" error http://tm.teresco.org/devel/hb.php?u=bejacob&r=oh.i080 (http://tm.teresco.org/devel/hb.php?u=bejacob&r=oh.i080).

 I can still get to the proper page by clicking the HB first and then selecting the route http://tm.teresco.org/hb/index.php?r=oh.i080 (http://tm.teresco.org/hb/index.php?r=oh.i080), but I liked being able to drill down to a specific route from the regional mapview page.

All the other enhancements seem to be working fine.

I found that last night as I was working on the mapview code, and already made the fix in the code.  That fix will be rolled out with the new version I hope to finish up today or tonight.  Thanks.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: Ib3kii on June 09, 2016, 01:08:28 pm
One piece of functionality that used to work but no longer seems to is the link from the region page to a specific route. In the past when looking at a regions (for example my travels in Ohio http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=bejacob&rg=OH (http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=bejacob&rg=OH), I could then click on a route such as I-80 on the table and get the highway browser showing my progress on clinching that route. Now it gets a "404 Not Found" error http://tm.teresco.org/devel/hb.php?u=bejacob&r=oh.i080 (http://tm.teresco.org/devel/hb.php?u=bejacob&r=oh.i080).

 I can still get to the proper page by clicking the HB first and then selecting the route http://tm.teresco.org/hb/index.php?r=oh.i080 (http://tm.teresco.org/hb/index.php?r=oh.i080), but I liked being able to drill down to a specific route from the regional mapview page.

All the other enhancements seem to be working fine.
That same error happened to me, I thought it was just my web browser.

Thanks,
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: mapcat on June 11, 2016, 11:11:36 am
Excellent work Jim. http://tm.teresco.org/shields/clinched.php?u=mapcat (http://tm.teresco.org/shields/clinched.php?u=mapcat) is one of the coolest Easter eggs ever. And the "blank" map option is a nice addition too.

Testing this on Chrome (Win 10), there are a few problems. The problem bejacob mentioned a few days ago seems to still be there. The links from the tm.teresco.org pages are coded incorrectly: clicking on I-270 from the table on

http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=mapcat&rg=OH (http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=mapcat&rg=OH)

sends you to

http://tm.teresco.org/devel/hb.php?u=mapcat&r=oh.i270 (http://tm.teresco.org/devel/hb.php?u=mapcat&r=oh.i270)

which doesn't work. It should go to

http://tm.teresco.org/hb/?u=mapcat&r=oh.i270 (http://tm.teresco.org/hb/?u=mapcat&r=oh.i270)

which works, and which is what the link from http://tmtest.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=mapcat&rg=OH (http://tmtest.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?u=mapcat&rg=OH) does.

On the http://tm.teresco.org/user/region.php?u=mapcat&rg=OH (http://tm.teresco.org/user/region.php?u=mapcat&rg=OH) page, clicking on HB in the table opens the link in the current tab as well as a new one.

On http://tm.teresco.org/user/region.php?u=mapcat&rg=OH (http://tm.teresco.org/user/region.php?u=mapcat&rg=OH) is there a way to sort the table numerically (1, 2, 3, ...) instead of alphabetically (1, 10, 100, ...)?

Other suggestions:

Allow a ctrl-click in the table on http://tm.teresco.org/user/?u=mapcat (http://tm.teresco.org/user/?u=mapcat) to open the page in a new tab.

Color-code the lines in the "Stats by route" table on http://tm.teresco.org/user/region.php?u=mapcat&rg=LA (http://tm.teresco.org/user/region.php?u=mapcat&rg=LA) according to whether the route is clinched, travelled, or not travelled. Darker blue, lighter blue, and white would go well with the overall theme and not be confused with the colors already in use for active/preview/development.

Farther out, it would be nice to have an easy way to change system or tier colors in the browser. I forgot the code to add manually to the url, so if someone could re-post that here, that would be great.
Title: Re: Trying a new style
Post by: yakra on June 12, 2016, 01:44:15 am
On http://tm.teresco.org/user/region.php?u=mapcat&rg=OH (http://tm.teresco.org/user/region.php?u=mapcat&rg=OH) is there a way to sort the table numerically (1, 2, 3, ...) instead of alphabetically (1, 10, 100, ...)?
I think CSV-order would be most sensible. 1, 2, 3, 3BusFoo, 3ABar, ...

Allow a ctrl-click in the table on http://tm.teresco.org/user/?u=mapcat (http://tm.teresco.org/user/?u=mapcat) to open the page in a new tab.
Seconded. I can right-click and hit 'T' to Open Link in New Tab, but Ctrl+click would be simpler.

Color-code the lines in the "Stats by route" table on http://tm.teresco.org/user/region.php?u=mapcat&rg=LA (http://tm.teresco.org/user/region.php?u=mapcat&rg=LA) according to whether the route is clinched, travelled, or not travelled. Darker blue, lighter blue, and white would go well with the overall theme and not be confused with the colors already in use for active/preview/development.
I like this idea. Another option would be to use a gradient, different shades of lighter blue for travelled routes, based on the %age clinched. Similar to what CHM did.

Farther out, it would be nice to have an easy way to change system or tier colors in the browser. I forgot the code to add manually to the url, so if someone could re-post that here, that would be great.
http://tm.teresco.org/user/mapview.php?rg=NS&u=ua747sp&colors=tier1:rgb(128,210,255):rgb(0,160,255);tier2:rgb(128,210,255):rgb(0,160,255);tier3:rgb(128,210,255):rgb(0,160,255);tier4:rgb(128,128,128):rgb(64,64,64);tier5:rgb(224,144,86):rgb(224,0,0)

New Business:
I think before the revamp, the HB used to display what user's travels were being displayed, right?
http://tm.teresco.org/hb/index.php?r=nh.nh003aman initially showed me... someone else's travels other than mine, dunno whose, until I manually added &u=yakra to the URL.
Though my preference would be, if no user is specified, to just have a blue polyline that doesn't show anyone's travels (a la CHM), I still think adding a caption to the page that says whose travels are being shown would be a Good Thing -- even if it's apparent by looking at the URL.