Recent Changes to the DanceData Web Frontend

September 2007

The current version is, once more, a new implementation in Python (based on the preceding one in Tcl) using the Django framework. The most obvious user-visible change in this version is a way of querying the database by formation, i.e., it is now possible to obtain a list of all the dances containing a specific formation (say, a Schiehallion reel). We're still missing a method of listing all 40-bar reels that finish with a circle, but we're slowly getting there.

The other major change is that we have moved back to a way of referring to database entries that does not make use of URL query strings. For example, when »J.B. Milne« used to be

http://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance?k=3172

it is now

http://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/3172/

which is a bit shorter and allows for interesting extensions in the future.

Incidentally, if there is something after the ».../dance/« that is not a sequence of digits, this will be used as a query, so

http://my.strathspey.org/dd/dance/J.B. Milne/

will get you the same dance (which should be useful to those of you who like to type stuff in their browser's address window). If the search string does not lead to a unique dance, you get a list of matching dances just as if you had entered the string in a dance search form.

(The mechanism is just as stupid about spacing et cetera as with the search forms.)