Google Maps on DanceWeb now include StreetView

In the Spring of 2010, Google Streetview increased its coverage of the UK to cover around 95% of all public streets. So DanceWeb now has full support for StreetView! As an Editor you can now add a precise Streetview to a Google Venue map, that will show the Venue building to users, and help them to locate it. The DirMan application will usually offer a default usable Streetview, but you can refine this to locate the "Camera" on any nearby street, and adjust the pan (bearing) tilt and zoom to give the best possible view of the Venue.

When users of DanceWeb now view a Venue or Dance Event, they will see both the Google Map and (if available) a small inset Streetview window. They can then swap the windows, or even move the "Camera" around, and the "Camera" will still point at the Venue. In fact they have many of the features that are available on the Google Map website (including a direction route to the Venue).

Enjoy!

John Walton
DanceWeb Webmaster
http://www.danceweb.co.uk

DanceWeb Now Has Facebook Page

DanceWeb now has a Facebook Page! If you are member of the Facebook community (and even if you currently are not), it is now easy to keep up-to-date with all new and updated entries on the DanceWeb site, by becoming a "fan" of the DanceWeb Facebook Page. This new page will automatically be updated daily to show entries for all new and updated Dance Classes, Dance Courses, Dance Events, Dance Products / Services and Dance Community News Items that have been added to the DanceWeb site.

Additionally, all Dance Events are posted as Events on the Facebook Page (use the Events tab to get to them). You can easily invite your friends on Facebook to attend an event with you, and use the other social networking features of Facebook.

To goto the DanceWeb Facebook Page, just click this link (and bookmark it):

DanceWeb Facebook Page

To goto the Facebook Event Sub-Page directly, just click this link:

DanceWeb Facebook Events Page

This is a new feature, and is still undergoing improvements, but is fully operational.

For Dance Club Organisers and Businesses

To get free promotion for your club, studio, school or business etc, just post your information on DanceWeb, and keep it up-to-date. The postings to Facebook are automatic; you don't need to do anything to benefit from this new feature!

John Walton
DanceWeb Webmaster
http://www.danceweb.co.uk

DanceWeb Search Box now supports search of Dance Organisations and Dance Venues

The DanceWeb search box (on the home page, basic search page and most other pages) has now been enhanced to allow you to search entries for organisations and venues by name. You may key in an organisations name (title), web domain, email address, phone number or the surname of one of the contacts. Similarly dance venue searches can now also be made, using the name of the dance venue (dance location). There are some limitations for privacy and performance reasons, but in general you only need to key part of any of the above; the search uses "wild cards" automatically.

This feature is of low precedence, meaning that it is only activated if DanceWeb fails to find a result using the normal location and dance type or service search mechanism. The organisation search is higher precedence then the venue search. But you can force the new search by prefixing the search term with "org:" for an organisation search, or "ven:" (or "loc:") for a venue search.

Here are some working examples:

Search for the entries for pineapple dance studio organisation:

pineapple

Search for all entries for "Polish Centre" venues:

polish centre

Search for the "Arch 197" venue:

ven:arch 197

Search for organisation entries where ms Reis ian instructor:

org:reis

Try out the new feature on the DanceWeb home page.

John Walton
DanceWeb Webmaster
http://www.danceweb.co.uk

Urls in Community News Items Now Automatically Converted to Links

When you add a Community News item to DanceWeb, the editor now automatically attempts to detect links to web pages, and email addresses, and converts them into active links. When a user views your Community News Item page, they only have to click on the link to visit the referenced website or web page, or send an email.

How to Write Links

For links to be recognised, they must start with a space then "http", "https" or "www", or have the structure of an email (e.g. with an @ sign within them). The links may be embedded within sentences, and optionally followed by appropriate punctuation.

Examples of such links are:

www.mywebsite.co.uk
www.mywebsite.co.uk/classes
www.mywebsite.co.uk/?q=this&a=that
http://mywebsite.co.uk
https://mywebsite.co.uk
info@mywebsite.co.uk

How Links Are Displayed

For brevity, links to page are displayed without the http:// or https:// prefixes, and without any optional querystring. However, when the user hovers over the link, the full link (url) is displayed in the tooltip.

Submitting a Community News Item

Any registered user may submit news items. See:

http://www.danceweb.co.uk/help/submitnews.aspx

John Walton
DanceWeb Webmaster
http://www.danceweb.co.uk

Community Bookmarking of DanceWeb Pages now Very Easy

A new feature has been added to DanceWeb, allowing you to very easily bookmark almost any DanceWeb page on the most popular Community Bookmarking sites. Such sites allow you to maintain a portable bookmark file of your favourites websites and pages, and share those favourites with other web users.

The feature is a new bar in the footer of most DanceWeb pages. Just click any of the links to bookmark the current DanceWeb page. If you are not known to that particular bookmarking site, you be asked to register (first time only). With most bookmarking sites you can add a comment to any bookmark.

The currently provided sites are the most popular on the web, namely:

Delicious, Digg, reddit, Facebook and StumbleUpon

A link to the browser's local "Favorites" file is also provided (works with Internet Explorer and Firefox).

John Walton
DanceWeb Webmaster
http://www.danceweb.co.uk

Calendars Now Show Dated Community News Items

The home page and full page calendars have now been enhanced to show entries made in the Community News section, when those entries have a date associated with them. This means that such news items now function more like conventions "Events".

Calendar Page:

http://www.danceweb.co.uk/calendar

John Walton
DanceWeb Webmaster
http://www.danceweb.co.uk

DanceWeb Google Maps Substantially Enhanced

The existing Google Maps, displayed at the bottom of the page for all individual Venue and Class / Events, have now been significantly improved:

1. "Get Directions" Added

There is now a direct link to Google's own map site, that allows you very easily to get directions to the venue, and plot a route, for a journey by car, walking or even public transport (if the data is available to Google).

2. Google Map Search Box Added

There is now a search box near the bottom of the maps. You can therefore search for businesses and map features that are approximately within the bounds of the displayed map. So you could key in "Inn" or "Restaurant" etc.

3. The Map Style Conforms to Google's Own Style

The "user interface" style now automatically tracks the style used by Google on their own map site. You can also use the standard interface: e.g. you can zoom just by rolling the mouse wheel.

John Walton
DanceWeb Webmaster
http://www.danceweb.co.uk