New site layout

Ken Wang

Hi All,

As you may noticed now, after almost 10 years, Airport-Data.com has a new site layout now. Finally!

All front-end pages are changed, member and forums section remain the same.

I also upgrade aircraft photo numbering system from 6 digits to 9 digits, as we are approaching 1 million photos very quickly. All old image links should be redirected properly without you noticing it.

The change is quite big, over 200 pages are modified. So there must be some places that I missed. If you see something weird, or a function does not work anymore, please report here. In the report please include:

URL of page

Browser name and version (i.e. Firefox 17)

Brief error description

Please note the new layout has a few issues with IE version 6/7/8. I developed using Firefox 17, did some brief tests on IE 8. Many new functions commonly found in modern browsers (such as firefox, safari or google chrome) are lack in IE, and tweaking/fixing layout for IE is a VERY painful and time-consuming task. So if you are still using IE, I strongly recommand that you move to Firefox or Chrome.

I hope you enjoy the new layout. If you have any suggestion or complaint, please feel free to leave a message here.

Thanks,

Ken

DougRobertson

Ken,

Before seeing this input of yours I entered just previously a message in the Forum General Section re getting a new message after editing an N5588N photo caption. The message was -UPDATE FAILED-tried twice after saving, both times no joy. Character count was not exceeded. Is this a bug related to new format? The Member upload/edit section appears to be the unmolested same.

Ken Wang

Doug,

Could you provide a URL on which you experience the error?

Ken

DougRobertson

Ken

Now I can't even find the Forum message about the UPDATE FAILED message. I will try to edit the N5588N caption again and record the URL.

DougRobertson

Ken,

I am using Firefox.

URL is www.airport-data.com/member/aircraft_photo.php?SID=12eo5e1a453f89e62c103842eaa63&search=1&kw=Ns

This URL seems slightly flawed. I have to sign off, sorry.

THoff

I understand the desire to want to update the site after having used the same design for so many years and I appreciate the amount of work involved, but I'm disappointed by what is seems like broken support for the #2 browser. Internet Explorer's market share on non-mobile devices is almost 10% larger than Firefox's, which is at #3.

Personally, I don't feel like embarking on a browser switch over this. Compatibility testing should have been done during the development phase before committing to the new design.

Ken Wang

URL is www.airport-data.com/member/aircraft_photo.php?SID=12eo5e1a453f89e62c103842eaa63&search=1&kw=Ns

This URL seems slightly flawed. I have to sign off, sorry.

This doesn't involve the new layout.

While I cannot edit N5588N, I did a quick test modifying caption text for one of my photos. It worked fine. I even copied caption text for N5588N over and it still works fine.

Ken

FloridaMetal

I like the new layout however...

I can't upload pictures from my aol browser anymore...

It does work from Google Chrome though for me.

L-5jockey

Ken

The new format looks very nice. Works very well w/ firefox 17.01 on Windows 7x64. Also seems to behave behave nicely with IE 9.0.11

The font size in the forums are about the correct size (for me) using a 21 inch monitor at native Rez 1600x900. I realize the forums are still old format.

Looking at an aircraft profile; the fonts seem rather large, taking 3 or 4 scrolls w/mouse wheel to navigate from top to bottom on a profile.

Still looks good, guess I'll have to get used to it.

Below is a screen cap side-by-side comparison- forum post/aircraft profile, again using 1600x900 res (16 ration) 21 inch monitor.

John

-------

Ken Wang

Ken

The new format looks very nice. Works very well w/ firefox 17.01 on Windows 7x64. Also seems to behave behave nicely with IE 9.0.11

The font size in the forums are about the correct size (for me) using a 21 inch monitor at native Rez 1600x900. I realize the forums are still old format.

Looking at an aircraft profile; the fonts seem rather large, taking 3 or 4 scrolls w/mouse wheel to navigate from top to bottom on a profile.

Still looks good, guess I'll have to get used to it.

Below is a screen cap side-by-side comparison- forum post/aircraft profile, again using 1600x900 res (16 ration) 21 inch monitor.

John,

Glad to hear that it works fine in IE 9. One of the few glitches I found with IE 8 is that on site home screen, the dropdown menu was blocked by the big carousel unit. I tried more than an hour without any luck.

The new layout use a lot more white spaces between elements, to make it easier to read. Larger fonts will also benefit those who use large monitors such as 24" with high resolution.

Thanks for the feedback.

Ken

MalcolmClarke

Ken.

Whilst I can appreciate the amount of work you will have put into introducing these changes, I have some doubts about some of the revised content.

Function.

I exclusively use Google Chrome with no problems with access to other websites.

Frequently, either when opening the front page or changing pages, the layout regresses to script only (no images), all of which is set against the left hand margin.

Large numbers of images fail to open including those in the front page film show, recent uploads and film shows.

Layout.

My view is that font sizes generally are too large with a great deal of wasted space which results in a significant increase in scrolling.

We have for example 39 pages of photographers which with a layout change and smaller type face could be reduced in number by more than half. I would also like to be able to carry out an alphabetical search.

The new slide show index has 20 pages. Would it not be preferable to have a simple index of titles to make it very much easier for someone to pick out subjects of their particular interest?

On the front page, whilst it is quite deserving to 'push' the sites achievements, I find it to be excessive for the main picture and site facts to utilise two thirds of the space with the important access index pushed to the bottom. Most visitors will come to the site searching for aircraft and airport data and to have the search fields on the front page in obvious display as we had previously is clearly beneficial.

Malcolm.

Ken Wang

Function.

I exclusively use Google Chrome with no problems with access to other websites.

Frequently, either when opening the front page or changing pages, the layout regresses to script only (no images), all of which is set against the left hand margin.

Large numbers of images fail to open including those in the front page film show, recent uploads and film shows.

When did you experience this issue? The CDN service was down, which caused all CSS and front page images failed to load. I have disabled CDN since, please check again and let me know if there's still problem.

Layout.

My view is that font sizes generally are too large with a great deal of wasted space which results in a significant increase in scrolling.

We have for example 39 pages of photographers which with a layout change and smaller type face could be reduced in number by more than half. I would also like to be able to carry out an alphabetical search.

Are you referring to an alphabectial index? Or an autocomplete search box? Those can be added for sure. Currently there's a simple search function on photographers list.

The new slide show index has 20 pages. Would it not be preferable to have a simple index of titles to make it very much easier for someone to pick out subjects of their particular interest?

The idea of added a few thumbnails for each slideshow is to give visitors a quick glance of what to be expected. I think I can add a switch later to let visitors turn off this function.

On the front page, whilst it is quite deserving to 'push' the sites achievements, I find it to be excessive for the main picture and site facts to utilise two thirds of the space with the important access index pushed to the bottom. Most visitors will come to the site searching for aircraft and airport data and to have the search fields on the front page in obvious display as we had previously is clearly beneficial.

Point taken. I will think about that.

Thanks for the input.

Ken

MalcolmClarke

"When did you experience this issue? The CDN service was down, which caused all CSS and front page images failed to load. I have disabled CDN since, please check again and let me know if there's still problem."

Immediately prior to my posting. Currently it's not happening.

One other point.

'Go to forums' , under 'Recent Forum Posts' on the front page, takes me to 'Articles - Home'.

Malcolm.

Ken Wang

'Go to forums' , under 'Recent Forum Posts' on the front page, takes me to 'Articles - Home'.

Fixed. Thanks.

Ken

DougRobertson

Ken,

With the new format, I find a web link in one of my early articles no longer works. The Custer Channelwing article has a web link in the text to www.custerchannelwing.com which no longer works. Perhaps a font/change problem?

When I go to my Home page of Firefox and use Google to enter www.custerchannelwing.com it does work to bring up the site. And, that address does work in this message. So, the site address is still valid.

I believe I also have a web address in a caption of an airport photo or two, but haven't check those yet and expect no problem there as you state those areas are unchanged.

Ken Wang

Hi Doug,

It's fixed.

Ken

DougRobertson

Thank you, Ken!

Bluedharma

I really like the look! Well done!!!

TimothyAanerud

On the home page the log in link takes you to the forum's login instead of the member's login. That's not helpful since the Members login is the one that actually works.

TimothyAanerud

Does the slide show on the new home page randomly pick a slide show and then cycle through just the first six slides? If so, I'm re-arranging some of my slideshows.