Author: Sergey Chernyshev

Code update (invisible)

In preparation to next development phase (remember that preprocessing configuration interface?) I rewrote large chunk of code in more object-oriented way then it was originaly done (release early makes it’s evil deed).

So it’s quite possible that some functionality got broken even though I tested the code after the change.

Please let me know if you notice some sudden problems with the service.

P.S. I’m also preparing a new hosting for the service so I hope for significant performance increase.

More In-feed controls

I’m working on configuration manager for Feed Preprocessor to give you more control over your feeds.

Some time ago I’ve added an interface for global configuration (I never posted about it because only I can see it) and today I changed how one of preprocessing modules work and changed some global preprocessing configuration that you’ll start seeing in your feeds (that’s why I’m posting about it now).

Shortly, I rewrote a module that inserts “In-feed controls” (sister project for Feed Friends and Feed Preprocessor) directly into new items so now in addition to “Share” button (that changed it’s appearence to Share Share with Feed Friends), you can see so common Add to del.icio.us Add to del.icio.us, Digg it Digg it and Search on Technorati Search on Technorati links.

Now you don’t need to depend on blog author to insert these links into posts – you can use Feed Preprocessor (which is part of Feed Friends’ feed management) to add them to all feeds you’re using.

P.S. interface to configure preprocessing is on it’s way and you’ll be able to do more preprocessing for your feeds relatively soon.

Click-click

Apparently some browsers (e.g. IE) perform a clicking sound on each URL update and this begavior wasn’t really pleasant when map URL was constantly updated when map was dragged. I tweaked a code a little so it updates URL only when dragging is over (link on the right updates in real time) so now you should here reasonable amount of clicking if you use those clicking browsers.

As a side effect URL stays the same when you originally load the page as http://www.sergeychernyshev.com/maps.html

Persisting location attributes in URLs hash

I noticed that new Flash Yahoo! maps interface uses location parameters using URLs hash (text that you can see after # sign).
Apparently it’s quite known way of storing page state when developing AJAX applications and I see several reasons to use it in application like GvsY:

  • It can be updated without reloading the page and therefore can be made always up to date
  • It removes a need for separate permalink because you can bookmark the page at any moment and always get working link (you can click “del.icio.us” link at any moment to store specific location)
  • It helps keep the page in the browsers cache without re-requesting it separately for each location
  • Geographical location fits anchor paradigm pretty well since anchor is a “location within a document” and since this document is AJAX page representing the world map, this location can be geographical too

I liked the idea and that’s why I replaced passing parameters through query string with passing them using hash (or anchor if it sounds better). Enjoy!