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PM&M Site Changelog Page

Statistics 2014

Generic

In memory of fellow traveller R.-M. 'RedJack' Marshall. The Good Ones Always Die Young.

Minor alterations (typos, etc.) in 2013 were posted directly to the site, but most of the changes made in 2013 were held back as they used the code base of the new site installation. To see what was changed between 2013-01-15 and 2014-02-01, please take a look at the 2013 history page.

Take care, wherever you are !

PM&M site upgrade (dubbed 'Allergic Albatross')

• The site is now hosted by one of Germany's largest website hosts. As well as a slight increase in overall speed for users, the new provider offers some interesting technical possibilities that I may use in the future.
• This is the beta release of the site code, which automatically adapts to displays on tablet PCs or smartphones. PM&M is the first marks resource site to offer this "Responsive Web Design" functionality from one domain with one code set. Note that many so-called "pro sites" use dedicated domains for each application form and consequently have to use multiple code sets.
• Last-minute addition: two hours before the new code went live, I discovered that it does not run correctly on some devices because some manufacturers ignore the set standards completely. Therefore, auto-switching the Mark Table content section width for smartphones has been disabled (for now), resulting in an incorrect display of those sections. A solution will be included ASAP.
• The very shifty bug in my main database has been removed for good. In other words, the database backend was dropped completely, as the information it contained had become highly unreliable (it's an old Microsoft Access job - go figure).
• A complete design overhaul for a fresh look. Additional functions have been added, such as "Back to top" links on long pages and menus. The CSS stylesheet has been rewritten from scratch, improving the site's scalability (nerd note: the 'px' settings have been changed to 'em').
• All images now have a core size of 200x200px at 72dpi, but are still presented in a 160x160px frame. They will, of course, display at 200x200px when viewed via the browser function Right-click > Show image, for example.
• Last-day addition: due to unforeseeable circumstances, I was forced to leave the images of certain entries unchanged, meaning these are still the old 160x160px images (forced to 200x200). I had two options: either postpone the upgrade until I had finished, or stick to the schedule and leave certain images unchanged. Users will barely notice at first glance, so I decided that the latter would be the better choice.
• Even though the dimensions and quality of the pictures increased, the file sizes themselves were reduced by around 40% per image (by removing unnecessary overhead such as EXIF data). This improves loading speed and reduces bandwidth usage, which is a vital factor for some smartphone and tablet users.
• The Non-Public section is no longer just a password-protected menu page. Once logged in, site members can use the regular site navigation. While normal visitors see non-clickable red text entries and a message at the beginning of the page, members see regular links.
• The complete Changelog section has been changed. All pages now display visitor statistics for the corresponding year at the top, followed by a generic summary paragraph and a group of tables reflecting the additions and changes made.
• The Unidentified Marks and Unidentified Companies sections have been completely overhauled. For example, the Unidentified Marks section now contains pages for marks stating Austria, Czechoslovakia, Bavaria, Germany or both Bavaria AND Germany; the section concludes with a Miscellaneous page for marks that do not match any of the previous categories.
• All Vocabulary entries were rewritten, a few points were changed and one or two additional explanations were added. At the same time, I rechecked all PM&M pages, adding links to the vocabulary wherever necessary. Some people told me that they often missed the links; I only link the first occurrence of each term on each page.
• This is not directly site-related, but still noteworthy: my local (offline) control and collation scripts (for user access control, the To-Do list, the Factory Index and submenus) have been rewritten to create upload copies in a dedicated folder.

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