News from Anselm Lingnau

Anselm Lingnau

The dances in the user-rated ranking list now display the usual dance type, set shape, and source information. This was a five-line hack that I just added, prompted by a query in the SCD teachers' Facebook group where somebody asked for the »top 20 Drewry dances«. It is now easy to find these according to the user ratings (or indeed the top 20 dances for any dance author) simply by putting the author's name into the »filter« box at the top right of the table. (Although to be sure this will also catch dances where the search term occurs in the title, like Tribute to John Drewry, so if any of these are popular enough you will need to exclude them yourself.)

For our more technical-minded readers, the reason why this hasn't been added before is that the rating system implementation is generic and supports ratings of any database object (not just dances). It can generate links to the detail pages for all of these objects but so far didn't include supplementary info. On the other hand, adding that info is important for dances (a) to enable tricks like the one mentioned above, and (b) because some dance names have been used more than once, and it would be inconvenient to have to check the details page to see which dance was actually meant. So a special case is warranted here.

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 23 April 2014 12:21

Anselm Lingnau

just released an optical make-over for »crib sheets«, both on the »Cribs« tab of a dance list and in the corresponding PDF output. This should look a lot less ragged, and the weird issue with the descriptions of a crib showing up before a page break and the bar numbers after should also be fixed.

In the PDF output, it is now possible to select whether all items should be numbered, none, or whether just dances should be numbered and non-dance items, like »Interval«, not (in which case extras are numbered separately, as in »16, 17, E1, E2, 18«).

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 12 March 2014 17:45 (last edited on 13 March 2014 0:04)

Anselm Lingnau

fixed the state-saving issue for dance list detail pages (and others). This is the problem where one would enter something into the search box on the big dance lists overview screen, and the same search term would then be used to filter the list of dances on a dance list's detail page.

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 6 March 2014 19:27

Anselm Lingnau

added support for displaying dance lists from the database on foreign (non-Strathspey) web sites. By means of a very small JavaScript program, administrators of these sites can include »dynamic« dance lists to their sites, for social functions, workshops, and so on. All dances, publications, etc. are linked to their corresponding entries in the database, and there are convenience links to download a crib sheet or diagram sheet or to view videos for the dances on the list (or those that actually have videos, anyway).

I have written a more in-depth article about this, with more details and examples. Do check this out and let me know how you get on!

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 28 February 2014 1:13

Anselm Lingnau

just added »tags« to status updates on my.strathspey.

When you post (or edit) a status update, there is now another field called »Tags« that lets you enter one or more tags to be associated with the update. For example, I have now retroactively added the »database« tag to all my status updates that deal with changes to the Strathspey SCD Database. This makes it easy to retrieve just those status updates using the URL, http://my.strathspey.org/s/anselm/database/.

You can add multiple tags if you separate them with spaces or commas. If you want a tag with a space in it, put it in "double quotes".

I'm deliberately using this »out-of-band« version because it is more versatile and easier to program. If you want Twitter-style »hashtags« you know where to get those.

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 14 February 2014 13:03 (last edited on 14 February 2014 13:19)

Anselm Lingnau

launched the new club-neutral web site for the Rhein-Main mini socials (German only, for now), a cooperative project between the dance groups in the Rhine-Main area where once a month we visit one of the groups to dance a short programme of dances (with a walk-through but no explicit instruction). Part of the programme is replaced every month. We've been doing this for half a year now and it is quite successful if I say so myself.

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 11 February 2014 11:14

Anselm Lingnau

posted the newest version of MiniCribs to the Strathspey SCD Database earlier today.

I also changed my automatic notifier to check the new MiniCribs web site, so we shall hopefully see new versions in the database much sooner after they appear on the official site.

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 10 February 2014 21:29 (last edited on 14 February 2014 12:52)

Anselm Lingnau

We moved our mail server to another machine last weekend, and since then Hotmail refuses to talk to the new one. This means that Hotmail-based subscribers to Strathspey mailing lists (including the Strathspey list itself but also lists like dancedata-friends or scddb-issues) will not be receiving mail from these lists (or indeed from myself) until this issue is resolved. I'm working with Hotmail to get this sorted but the experience is very close to kicking a dead whale along the beach.

Hotmail is currently pointing the finger at Symantec (another whale of a company), who, on behalf of Hotmail, seem to operate something called a »Brightmail Filter« – apparently messages from our server aren't bright enough or something. Hotmail promises to get back to me in at most 5 days. I'm not holding my breath. Sorry for the inconvenience.

(PSA: You really don't want to use Hotmail. Their being a Microsoft subsidiary should already tell you all you need to know about Hotmail. If e-mail providers were cars, Hotmail would be a broken-down Yugo. If e-mail providers were movies, Hotmail would be Heaven's Gate. If e-mail providers were places, Hotmail would be that unsavoury area around the train station where the drunks, petty criminals, and hookers hang out and respectable people don't like to stay for longer than they absolutely need to. If you're a Hotmail user, then do yourselves and the rest of the world a favour and find an e-mail provider that actually knows how to do e-mail.)

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 15 January 2014 13:43

Anselm Lingnau

In other news, registration for the 46th Frankfurt Spring Ball & Day School on 26 April is now open. Daphne Scobie will be teaching during the day, Dagmar Suhm will lead the afternoon walk-through, and Christine Moos and yours truly will be scraping the catgut/pounding the ivory on the night. See you there!

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 15 January 2014 12:59 (last edited on 14 February 2014 13:21)

Anselm Lingnau

just added a feature to the »Complex Dance Search« form in the dance database which lets you filter the results by lists. In other words, you get to enter the name of a dance list and the result will only contain dances that are in that list and also match all the other criteria that you specified.

What makes this really useful is that the »list name« can actually be a regular expression that matches a number of lists. Hence if you want to see all the reels on (recent) Frankfurt Spring Ball programmes, select »Reel« in the »Type« drop-down and enter »Frankfurt Spring Ball« into the »Lists« field. If you want to see all the three-couple set dances that the Frankfurt SCD Club did in 2013, set up the »Couples« and »Set shape« drop-downs accordingly and put »FSCDC.*2013« (note: »dot-star« – this stands for »any number of arbitrary characters«) into the »Lists« field. Enjoy!

(This feature was suggested by Sir Toby.)

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 15 January 2014 12:54 (last edited on 14 February 2014 12:52)