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Board » General Discussion » Public testing new HTML5 client

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Blog post "New HTML5 client"

Today a button appeared above the usual "GO TO RACE" button. This new button reads "New HTML5 client" and clicking it brings you to the new HTML5 client. You may have heard the rumours that this new client was under development and will eventually replace the Flash client we are used to. As Flash is being phased out it is becoming increasingly difficult to use sailonline in new browsers, so it is vital to have an alternative. Let me take this opportunity to thank our SOLer ij, who has been responsible for the existence of this new client, brightening the future of sailonline.

We are now making this new HTML5 client available for everyone to use. Be aware that the client is still in a testing phase and that there may still be some bugs and problems with it. The user interface and general functionality are mostly the same as in the Flash client, but you may notice some differences, for example:
- There are no contour lines indicating wind strength. The client is not completely finished yet and this is one aspect where work is still being done.
- The TWA input field for steering requires a + or - sign. This should prevent some of the accidental tacks we have probably all experienced when we forgot the - sign.
- You can monitor multiple chatrooms at the same time. You can now use the chatrooms English and the one for your native language at the same time!
A longer list of changes can be found here. Use that chat and forum to talk with each other about using the new client and its new features. Some SOLers already have some experience with it and may be able to give you some tips and tricks.

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2020-01-11 18:35:57 ---

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2020-02-19 12:26:10 ---
I have just noticed: if you have not yet registered in the race, to button to go to the new HTML client does not work properly, it will send you to the registration page, which will have forgotten that you wanted to see the new client and send you to the old Flash client. After registration, you can close the page/go back, and click the "New HTML5 client" button again.

I will try and think of a fix for this.
It all looks very nice and promissing - thank you both so far.
I'd like to propose a feature we have discussed a long time ago, and it's a 12 hour predictor line.
Don't know how hard it is to make, but maybe it's worth a try.

Regards,
/SKOVSER
Team,

Nice job and Thank you.
Few points before reading all the inputs on the new client and maybe you already responded but I can't find it in the chat.
1- Chats are not saved on the computer. So we loose earlier inputs.
2- Cannot scroll down the list of boats in the ranking tab.
3- With regards to knobs allowing to change the map display, if we had knobs that could allow us to toggle between wind arrows to wind TWA/TWS from the map screen without having to go to settings each time.

Note that all points above are valid from the computer or the tablet I use.

Voila.
Great job you guys are doing.
Paul

--- Last Edited by Altair505 at 2020-01-14 17:54:24 ---
For the last couple of months I've been using a Samsung Chromebook. Finally got around to trying the HTML client in the last few days. My computer is running Chrome Version 79.0.3945.119, Official Build (64 bit). For the most part I like the new client, but I have a couple of things that bug me.
Mainly the weather slider seems a bit too complex where the weather is loaded in 2 hours to 6 hour increments.
Also I can't seem to get the scroll keys to control the slider in in anything but full auto-play. In the flash client I can easily click on the the slider and and run through the full weather download in 10 minute increments just by using the scroll keys. It would be nice to be able to do the same in the new client.
So far...great work, Devs.
For the most part I like the new client, but I have a couple of things that bug me.
Mainly the weather slider seems a bit too complex where the weather is loaded in 2 hours to 6 hour increments.
Also I can't seem to get the scroll keys to control the slider in in anything but full auto-play. In the flash client I can easily click on the the slider and and run through the full weather download in 10 minute increments just by using the scroll keys. It would be nice to be able to do the same in the new client.
.

Thanks for testing.

The arrow keys (left & right) to control WX slider step-by-step has already been added into the dev version. The WX step size can be configured using the pull down selector (2min-3h range available).

The dev version is accessible by appending ?version=dev to the normal html5 client URL.

--
i.


--- Last Edited by ij at 2020-01-19 20:28:49 ---
Hi guys!
Seems really nice! I don't know if it's just me, or something else, but I've had (more than just) bad luck using the predictor. Unexpected bbqs quite often. It seems to be that my DCs had been set too early every time, i.e. I've trusted them too much. Once, certainly, twice, maybe (sloppy reading/setting DCs), but a lot of times? Some traces are lost, but some are still readable.
Or do I sleep too much at night? Don't hesitate to tell me, if you think so!
Will be great, once I've learnt how to!
Musigny
After some frustrations, I found that the action to center any point, at max zoom, on the comp screen (which I always previously used to check on clearance of headlands, islands etc.,) using a double click with the cursor on that position, no longer worked. I have now accidentally found that it still operates, but with a TRIPLE clicking.
Is it just that I had missed something, or is this new info to everybody else?



--- Last Edited by Rod at 2020-01-26 19:33:32 ---
If it breaks, it's not strong enough--if it doesn't, it's too heavy.
I don't think double (or triple) clicking has been implemented to go to max zoom immediately. But something very useful you may not be aware of is that you can shift-click and drag. This selects a region on the map, and when you release the mouse button, it zooms to that region of the map. Does that work for you, or would you still really like a way to go to max zoom immediately?

In general, there multiple differences with the Flash client. Some things work slightly different, other things are simply not copied from the old client. If you find some feature in the Flash client useful, let us know what you use it for (like Rod did). This really helps. Maybe there is an alternative to achieve the same (or better), and if not. Who knows ij wants to implement it (for this it really helps to know how people are using features, and why they want them).

--- Last Edited by kroppyer at 2020-01-27 20:43:58 ---
This double clicking (and also max zoom thing) came up early into testing. Let me explain some of the history.

The client used to zoom "some" (certainly not to max zoom) when double-clicking a point. It's the default for the map library the client uses and what many other map services in the Internet use. I was pointed out, however, that the flash client uses double-clicking to center the map at that point. So the behavior was changed to match the flash client. Another thing is that ruler tool uses double-click to terminate, disabling the double-click helped also to solve fully the double
effect problem there (I had to workaround the library default otherwise).

You can go into the max zoom (for the current center of the map) by alt-clicking the zoom in button. But for that to be useful, you need to double-click the intented center first as otherwise you end up into middle of nowhere (the limiting precision of 1 pixel on far away zooms may still cause the same headache even if double-clicking first).

The alt-click on zoom out currently zooms out a bit too much, IMHO, but I don't know if the "whole race area" the flash client uses is really what is sought either. Maybe it could be changed to fit the current center and own boats + additional 1 level of zoom out (=0.5x) or something along those lines?

There's one important difference between the breezy and flash client in zooming though. The flash client zooms always at the map center but
mousewheel on breezy zooms at the point underneath the cursor (which is what most people using map-based Internet services should be used to so I'm not very willing to duplicate flash client on this point; a setting is always possible if there's significant demand for it). The top left zoom buttons zooms the map from the center.

And yes, I try to listen what people use and implement them if you let me know what you're missing. It's done with some smallish priority usually given to features that were in the flash client over entirely new features somebody just wants. I have many my own "wants" still on the TODO list too because more important things needed to get done first. So please just let me know if there's a feature in the flash client which you feel is lack (or may even make you unwilling to migrate from the flash to breezy).

And before more people ask, TWS contours are under works and 97% complete already so no need to mention that :-).

--
i.


--- Last Edited by ij at 2020-01-27 22:01:50 ---

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