Integrating The Visual Design

One of the most exciting moments in developing a web site is when you take the "bones" and apply the "skin." After working on the ugly but functioning version of the site for so long now, I decided to do just that, and today began implementing the visual design the I recently wrapped up.

From a technical standpoint, the design is completely CSS-based now, so performing the actual integration is simple. I do need to go back through and clean up the markup a bit, but the pieces for the look-and-feel are essentially in place.

The home page, map browsing and map detail sections were already largely functionally complete, so this change REALLY made a huge difference in how the site appears to be progressing.

I also did some work on the administrative tool set — the behind-the-scenes pages that help me manage the site. Version 1.0 never really had a complete set of tools and unfortunately this has forced me to do a lot of manual database work. In addition to making management much easier, the new administrative section will also make it possible for me to allow other staff members to help with things they've not been able to in the past (map approvals, user-management, adding game systems, etc).

It's slowly becoming painful to use v1.0 of the site :) Can't wait to show the new site to you all.

Speeding Along

Since my last post, I've crammed a bunch of development into the site and things are moving along at a very nice pace. If I were to give an estimate, I'd say that I'm right on the cusp of having an alpha version of the site ready for some preliminary examination on the whole. No promises, but perhaps in a month or so I'll be soliciting for beta testers.

Of course, I like everything about the new site, but now that things are actually functioning a bit, my favorite new features have to be the revised browsing and search functionality and support for map packs and multiple authors.

The new browse/search system is fast, efficient and flexible. It just simply "feels" cool to use. And after having added/edited thousands of maps on the existing site, I can't tell you how excited I am at the fact that multiple authors and map packs are now going to be natively supported by the site. No more manually listing the multiple authors or maps in the pack in the description as a "duct tape" fix!

There's still a bit more work to be done yet (the overhauled map submission process being the biggie), but Mapraider 2.0 is quickly becoming a working-replacement for the live site — even in its current, unfinished and unpolished state.

I'm planning on eventually putting together a checklist of to-do items and publishing it here on the blog so you can see exactly how things are progressing. I'll be excited when that happens, as I'm sure you will be.

Quick Update

Wow, it's been a while! But don't let that fool you. I have indeed been working on 2.0 all this time :) and wanted to post a quick status update.

As I mentioned previously, the database design has been finished. But since then, it's actually gone through a number of refactorings. Mostly with how the maps are stored while still accommodating for map packs. It may sound trivial, but it's surprisingly complicated and I wanted it to be simple for the user without being a hack like it is now.

I've spent many, many hours trying to decide on a direction for the new visual look of the site. I even dug out some old layouts I did for Mapraider 1.0 years ago (it'll be 7 years this November if you can believe it) to see if they had some ideas. The site has been stuck in a post-1999 design flavor that was "hacked-together" for so long, I really wanted this new look to be up-to-date, well designed and thought-out. Last week I finally had the creative energy and inspiration I needed and was able to put together something that I feel is nearly perfect.

Best of all, the initial production work to translate my Photoshop layout into HTML/CSS is nearly complete and awaiting integration into the back end. No sneek-peeks, sorry ;)

In all seriousness though, getting the visual design done is an awesome milestone to have reached! Putting the new site design and the old site design side-by-side is both invigorating (because it looks so awesome) and depressing (because it makes the old design look like a mess) all at the same time.

The back-end is roughly 50% complete. Because of the refactoring of the database I did, I had to re-work portions of the code to accommodate and that was completed last night.

I'll be doing my best to continue the focus I've given to things over the last couple of months and my goal is that the site will be done, tested and live before the anniversary this fall.

It's really just a matter of cranking through it all now. More soon.

Milestone-ish

Finally. I feel like it's slowly starting to come together.

This may seem trivial, but given the amount of time I've had to work on the site and the fact that I'm doing a complete rewrite, it's not.

Today, I nearly wrapped up all of the login/logout/sign up/validation/security functionality of the site. The simplicity and elegance of the new site as compared to the old one is really motivating.

I think I've said before how amazingly hard it is to resist the urge to start tearing apart and changing the old site :)

Other than that, browsing and searching through maps is incredibly awesome and fast now. The Map detail pages are coming together. Nearly all of the user profile/preferences stuff is complete. Some of the "social goodies" are in place. Rating maps needs tweaking, but it's working and is awesome. The home page, which includes news/commenting is just about complete. And much, much more is halfway or a little more than halfway done.

Development is at a point where so much is partially complete that it's sometimes hard to focus.

My next major hurdle is the revamped map submission process, which I have been putting off because it's so daunting. I've designed an elegant submission tool that takes away a lot of the burden of submitting, but that means that the software will be doing more heavy lifting than ever — some of which is a bit "fancy."

Pulling it off will be a pretty good (and fun) challenge.

What I'm still on the fence about is opening up the submission process so that members can submit maps from anyone.

In the past it was my belief that only the original authors should be able to submit their stuff, and I occasionally do get an email from a mapper asking how his map got onto the site when I've submitted them. But the acceptance of social networking and sharing over the last few years has changed my opinion a bit.

All things considered, there are really only two issues I have with this:

1. Someone will have to monitor the submissions and make sure nobody is taking credit for someone else's work


2. Someone will have to editorialize the submissions as the quality will suffer more than it already does

And by "someone" I really mean myself :)

Feel free to share your thoughts.

Real Life Getting In The Way

Yeah, it's been a while. I've got a handful of drafted posts for the blog, but haven't had time to post any. Work on the site is still progressing, but for the past few months I've been stuck dealing with significant events in my real life -- all positive, just time consuming :)

More to come.