Anselm Lingnau

I just deployed the long-awaited (or long-feared?) extreme makeover of the SCD database user interface. This should now be more in line with best web design practices for the year CE 2014, and work better not just on PCs, but also on devices with small screens (mobiles).

There are a few small glitches to sort out (mostly to do with videos) and I'll take care of those ASAP – I wanted to get the bulk of the update out in preparation for my talk at the RSCDS Teachers' Conference on Friday.

The changes confine themselves mostly to the appearance of the site; there has been only one significant change to its underlying workings, and that concerns dance lists. Formerly, users would have an implicit dance list (called “WORK”, with asterisks around it, if it showed up anywhere) which would receive dances through “drag and drop”, and could then later be edited and saved as a “named” dance list. The drag-and-drop interface looked neat at first but proved to be problematic in various respects, and has therefore been removed. Right now there are only “named” dance lists, and therefore to start a new dance list you need to create an empty one from the dance list overview or “My Dance Lists”. The most recently created or edited dance list is considered “active”, and if you click on the “Add to List” button on a dance's page then that dance will be added to the “active” list. I hope this avoids problems like the one where if you had the “WORK” list open for editing in one tab and then dragged a dance on it in another tab that didn't show the very latest version of the list as per the editing screen, your edited version would be obliterated :^( (If you edit your active list in one tab and then add a dance to it in another, you still need to re-load the list in the “editing” tab, but you won't lose any dances anymore.)

Do let me know if you notice any problems, or have suggestions for further improvement!

· Posted by Anselm Lingnau · 4 November 2014 12:26 (last edited on 4 November 2014 12:27)