VegaNova
02-03-2011, 11:55 AM
Wanted to give a heads up about what's coming down the pipeline at SP.com in the months ahead. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I've been sorta AWOL when it comes to updates - I was recently held captive by an evil entity known as Facebook and it's thuggish goons (Farmville, Zoo, and other waste-of-time apps). LOL
However, I've been getting my hands back into coding and I actually miss it. :)
So, in a roundabout way, what I'm saying is that I've broken ground on the newest additions to the website. In the back of my head I knew I was going to have to learn new code to bring this site into the 21st century. But in the test pages I've put together, it's definitely going to be worth the extra effort. Getting HTML, CSS, PHP, SQL, and Java to all play nice together and interact on the same webpage is pretty cool.
The next sections to debut will be the "Collectibles Museum" and a "Restaurant Locator". Both are pretty much what they sound like on the surface, but will have some neat features to make them a little more unique than what you might expect. B-)
The Collectibles Museum will bring everything under one roof. It will combine the current 3 partitions (SPP collectibles, CEC collectibles, & token museum). This sounds like it might be an organizational nightmare...which it is, but the way to fix that is to eliminate the need to organize it in the first place. The plan is to still break it down into sub-categories (or groupings that make sense) for those who want to casually browse what kinds of items are out there, but the real power is that all the items will be entered into a SQL database making them searchable. So if you wanted to, say, know all of the items featuring Dolli Dimples, you could search the term "Dolli" and pull up any matching results. Or maybe you wanted to see all lunchboxes produced over the years, you could type "lunchbox" and see all the ones from ShowBiz, to PTT, to the modern CEC items. Estimated values will still be displayed, and thumbnails will expand to display larger, more detailed photos of the items.
This will take months to compile the items into the database, but it will be amazing once it gets off the ground.
The Restaurant Locator will be what it sounds like. Of course the official CEC website already has one of these and it works great. Ours will be similar, but the information included in it will be a little different and (we hope) a little more appealing to the hardcore fans. Store information will include the usual state, city, address, etc, but will also display what show they have. Other pertinent info such as store #s and interesting tidbits might be added as well. Our listing will also include business that have the Rock-afire Explosion, and those on display in private homes - for those who want to be included in the list of course. And though it'll take a mountain of research to accomplish, we want to also include all stores that have closed though the years - PTTs, ShowBiz, Looney Bird's, etc. Like with the Collectibles, this will be based on PHP/SQL and searchable.
As mentioned, both of these sections have ground broken on them. I wanted to make sure the code was going to work before I made any announcements. I'm hoping these changes will make for two valuable & educational additions to the website. However it will take time and I'm looking more towards a "spring" debut so it'll be a few months. There's still a few things I need to wrap up with the other parts of the website (RAE, CEC character sections, radio, CV8, etc).
In the meantime, we will be presenting a carbon-copy of the show locator here on the forum - and we need everyone's help! The best way to figure out what show is in what store is from your input. If you've been to your local stores recently and know what shows are in your area, that's going to be a huge help. Keep an eye on the forum and you can help us fill in the information we're looking for. Announcements and details will be coming soon!
However, I've been getting my hands back into coding and I actually miss it. :)
So, in a roundabout way, what I'm saying is that I've broken ground on the newest additions to the website. In the back of my head I knew I was going to have to learn new code to bring this site into the 21st century. But in the test pages I've put together, it's definitely going to be worth the extra effort. Getting HTML, CSS, PHP, SQL, and Java to all play nice together and interact on the same webpage is pretty cool.
The next sections to debut will be the "Collectibles Museum" and a "Restaurant Locator". Both are pretty much what they sound like on the surface, but will have some neat features to make them a little more unique than what you might expect. B-)
The Collectibles Museum will bring everything under one roof. It will combine the current 3 partitions (SPP collectibles, CEC collectibles, & token museum). This sounds like it might be an organizational nightmare...which it is, but the way to fix that is to eliminate the need to organize it in the first place. The plan is to still break it down into sub-categories (or groupings that make sense) for those who want to casually browse what kinds of items are out there, but the real power is that all the items will be entered into a SQL database making them searchable. So if you wanted to, say, know all of the items featuring Dolli Dimples, you could search the term "Dolli" and pull up any matching results. Or maybe you wanted to see all lunchboxes produced over the years, you could type "lunchbox" and see all the ones from ShowBiz, to PTT, to the modern CEC items. Estimated values will still be displayed, and thumbnails will expand to display larger, more detailed photos of the items.
This will take months to compile the items into the database, but it will be amazing once it gets off the ground.
The Restaurant Locator will be what it sounds like. Of course the official CEC website already has one of these and it works great. Ours will be similar, but the information included in it will be a little different and (we hope) a little more appealing to the hardcore fans. Store information will include the usual state, city, address, etc, but will also display what show they have. Other pertinent info such as store #s and interesting tidbits might be added as well. Our listing will also include business that have the Rock-afire Explosion, and those on display in private homes - for those who want to be included in the list of course. And though it'll take a mountain of research to accomplish, we want to also include all stores that have closed though the years - PTTs, ShowBiz, Looney Bird's, etc. Like with the Collectibles, this will be based on PHP/SQL and searchable.
As mentioned, both of these sections have ground broken on them. I wanted to make sure the code was going to work before I made any announcements. I'm hoping these changes will make for two valuable & educational additions to the website. However it will take time and I'm looking more towards a "spring" debut so it'll be a few months. There's still a few things I need to wrap up with the other parts of the website (RAE, CEC character sections, radio, CV8, etc).
In the meantime, we will be presenting a carbon-copy of the show locator here on the forum - and we need everyone's help! The best way to figure out what show is in what store is from your input. If you've been to your local stores recently and know what shows are in your area, that's going to be a huge help. Keep an eye on the forum and you can help us fill in the information we're looking for. Announcements and details will be coming soon!