theSnowSite – new ‘release’ of theSnowSite

A new version of theSnowSite has been posted.

It is odd working on such a website as it is really like working on a fully fledged program – you go through the same design, code, test, debug, and write again cycles.

So, what is new on theSnowSite ?

Up front:

The site now contains a ‘menu bar‘ which contains two tabs:

Tab 1 – Map: This tab, when clicked, displays the map. It is possible to navigate from country to country using the list of countries on the left. Clicking the country name moves the map to that country and displays a list of ski and boarding areas in the country below the map. This list is in two parts: mapped resorts (i.e. known location), and unmapped resorts. Clicking on the resort name displays a list of information, to the right of the map, on the resort. The details contain the address of the resort, web address, e-mail address, a link to a piste (ski/board) map, as well as the ‘vital stats’ for the resort (number of lifts, runs, run type etc.). The map also shows the location of the resorts and moving the mouse over the markers displays the name of the resort (clicking a marker brings up the resort details in the same way as clicking on a resort name in the list).

Tab 2 – Search: Clicking tab 2 brings up a search page. In the box provided start typing the name of a resort you wish to find (handy if you know the name of resort but not the country) and once you have entered a few letters the system will ‘guess’ the full name and display a list of possibles below the search box. Each suggestion comes with two links: Link 1, Show Details – clicking this will display the resort details on the right of the page; Link 2 – Map It! (only displayed if the resort has mapping details), clicking this link will return you to the map page and display the location of the resort and the resort details to the right of the map. The list of search results will be displayed below the map.

Adding these tabs was surprisingly difficult as there were the usual browser-to-browser variations and problems.(Actually that is not true, it was relatively easy to get the menu working with Firefox, Safari, Netscape, Camino, and Opera, the problem was getting it to work with Internet Explorer and the other browsers at the same time!).

There are also some changes to the map. The map now has ‘map type controls’ which allows you to select different map types (funny that!) such as ‘Map’, ‘Satellite’ (handy for areas in that don’t have ‘road map’ coverage in Google) and ‘Hybrid’ which combines the road map and satellite data.

In addition, large map zoom and pan controls have been added and ‘mouse-over’ pop-up information added for the markers.

Under-the-hood:

The Google map system has been updated to version 2. This is not obvious from looking at the site but it adds additional functions to the map system which will be used later on the site. As a result of changes in version 2.0 of Google maps some ‘in code’ changes had to be made and also some data in the database, which controls the map display, had to be tweaked.

Browser Compatibility:

theSnowSite has been tested with the Windows versions Netscape, Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer, and on the Mac with Safari, Camino and Firefox.

For best viewing results Firefox (Mac or Windows) is recommended. To get Firefox visit http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/. The theSnowSite domain and website is hosted at UK2.net