Ultimate McLaren F1 website
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cabrio92
07-10-2005, 03:26 PM
Hello,
F1 Monster > do you want pics of GTR 06R ?
Ciao
Phil
F1 Monster > do you want pics of GTR 06R ?
Ciao
Phil
F1 monster
07-11-2005, 12:54 AM
Hello,
F1 Monster > do you want pics of GTR 06R ?
Ciao
Phil
Hi, thanks for the offer, but I don't really want any pics at the moment. In a short while, you will be able to upload them to the site yourself. Please hang on to them.
Thanks!
F1 Monster > do you want pics of GTR 06R ?
Ciao
Phil
Hi, thanks for the offer, but I don't really want any pics at the moment. In a short while, you will be able to upload them to the site yourself. Please hang on to them.
Thanks!
F1 monster
07-13-2005, 12:04 AM
Hi,
just wanted to give everyone an update. Things might seem to have bogged down, but there is progress behind the scenes. I had initially thought that I could define 5 pages or so, and use them as templates for each of the different types of data. What I mean is, if I define a page for adding pictures of cars, then it could also be used for adding pictures of parts.
This seems to hold true in only some of the cases. In other cases, I have to come up with new templates for the same operation, if the data is significantly different. For instance, to add a multimedia file, the page needs to be a litte different.
We have built a grid of what pages need to be defined, and there's a good 150 of them, with only some overlaps.
I hope to launch the site with an initial 40 pages or so, and then build it as we go along. But getting to the 40 pages is taking a lot of time, and there's some back end functionality that still needs to be ironed out--namely, logins and user tracking. Also, initially, it will take some time to enter all the data for each of the pictures I do have. Until that is done, I will enable it as a site you can browse, but not search, as it would be useless to search against no data. There's about 3,000 pictures, I think, so it should take a week or so to get the data in for them.
Strangely, the old site seems to be working a bit oddly...at least on computers with dual monitor setup. I am aware of the problem, and so is my programmer, but we don't want to spend time on it. The rest of the pages after the main one seem to work fine, and we have the new website to focus on.
We are all constrained by our day jobs and family lives as well. Still, it's coming along. Thanks for the patience.
just wanted to give everyone an update. Things might seem to have bogged down, but there is progress behind the scenes. I had initially thought that I could define 5 pages or so, and use them as templates for each of the different types of data. What I mean is, if I define a page for adding pictures of cars, then it could also be used for adding pictures of parts.
This seems to hold true in only some of the cases. In other cases, I have to come up with new templates for the same operation, if the data is significantly different. For instance, to add a multimedia file, the page needs to be a litte different.
We have built a grid of what pages need to be defined, and there's a good 150 of them, with only some overlaps.
I hope to launch the site with an initial 40 pages or so, and then build it as we go along. But getting to the 40 pages is taking a lot of time, and there's some back end functionality that still needs to be ironed out--namely, logins and user tracking. Also, initially, it will take some time to enter all the data for each of the pictures I do have. Until that is done, I will enable it as a site you can browse, but not search, as it would be useless to search against no data. There's about 3,000 pictures, I think, so it should take a week or so to get the data in for them.
Strangely, the old site seems to be working a bit oddly...at least on computers with dual monitor setup. I am aware of the problem, and so is my programmer, but we don't want to spend time on it. The rest of the pages after the main one seem to work fine, and we have the new website to focus on.
We are all constrained by our day jobs and family lives as well. Still, it's coming along. Thanks for the patience.
F1 monster
07-21-2005, 06:07 AM
OK, some more updates:
In order to have a more structured approach, we changed our approach a bit:
First step was to create a site map. From that, we figured out what the pages and menus ought to be.
Next, we created the directory tree, and decided what pages would be stored where, as well as where the code and data and pictures and media files would go.
For each page, we decided what actions a user could perform, eg. browse, upload data, search, modify data, etc. Since each of these would display the information or act upon it differently, I had to design each of these sub-pages. I have five actions for most pages, so with 40-odd pages I ended up with close to 200 pages.
Now I didn't want to create 200 pages (maintaining them would be a nightmare), so I checked to see which ones would be similar and created templates for those. For instance, all the delete pages need the same look and the same "Delete" button, so I just created a Delete template.
I then created all the elements for each type of page, so that I could just refer to the elements instead of putting stuff in manually on each page. This way, if anything changes, I just have to make the update once, and each template and therefore each page containing the element changes immediately. For example, if I wanted to change the greeting from "Welcome [user]" to "Happy New Year!", then I would need to change it in just one place with this method, and all the pages that refer to it would change their greeting message.
Along with all this, we created a naming system, so that the code would not just blindly look for a file in a location, but also match it with the name it should have if it really belongs in that location. This catches a lot of errors and leads to a much tighter website when there's more than one person working on it, as there will be from time to time.
I just got done with all of the above templates and common elements, for the most part. I now just have to generate the pages that are based on the templates. That will probably be done in under two hours. I just have to create new files, attach the right template, then put them in the right folders with the right names. So, this should all be complete by Thursday afternoon, California time.
In the meantime, my programmer has been working on the login and picture databases as well as the code to manipulate and present the data and images. He should be far enough along to have something to show by the end of the week (I am hoping), and I will try to reveal at least a partial website by then. Putting the data and pictures in will take some time after that, and the rest of the site will be coming along at the same time--I hope that it is all complete within a month.
In other words, less than a week to launch (fingers crossed), and under a month till it's up and running in "production mode".
In order to have a more structured approach, we changed our approach a bit:
First step was to create a site map. From that, we figured out what the pages and menus ought to be.
Next, we created the directory tree, and decided what pages would be stored where, as well as where the code and data and pictures and media files would go.
For each page, we decided what actions a user could perform, eg. browse, upload data, search, modify data, etc. Since each of these would display the information or act upon it differently, I had to design each of these sub-pages. I have five actions for most pages, so with 40-odd pages I ended up with close to 200 pages.
Now I didn't want to create 200 pages (maintaining them would be a nightmare), so I checked to see which ones would be similar and created templates for those. For instance, all the delete pages need the same look and the same "Delete" button, so I just created a Delete template.
I then created all the elements for each type of page, so that I could just refer to the elements instead of putting stuff in manually on each page. This way, if anything changes, I just have to make the update once, and each template and therefore each page containing the element changes immediately. For example, if I wanted to change the greeting from "Welcome [user]" to "Happy New Year!", then I would need to change it in just one place with this method, and all the pages that refer to it would change their greeting message.
Along with all this, we created a naming system, so that the code would not just blindly look for a file in a location, but also match it with the name it should have if it really belongs in that location. This catches a lot of errors and leads to a much tighter website when there's more than one person working on it, as there will be from time to time.
I just got done with all of the above templates and common elements, for the most part. I now just have to generate the pages that are based on the templates. That will probably be done in under two hours. I just have to create new files, attach the right template, then put them in the right folders with the right names. So, this should all be complete by Thursday afternoon, California time.
In the meantime, my programmer has been working on the login and picture databases as well as the code to manipulate and present the data and images. He should be far enough along to have something to show by the end of the week (I am hoping), and I will try to reveal at least a partial website by then. Putting the data and pictures in will take some time after that, and the rest of the site will be coming along at the same time--I hope that it is all complete within a month.
In other words, less than a week to launch (fingers crossed), and under a month till it's up and running in "production mode".
81911targasc
07-26-2005, 12:48 PM
give info about all specs of car
coffeym
07-27-2005, 07:31 AM
Hi Gents First time out here.
I have some pictures i have taken of late that may be of interest that i will post from time to time.
I have some pictures i have taken of late that may be of interest that i will post from time to time.
bucciali
07-27-2005, 09:22 AM
Hi Gents First time out here.
I have some pictures i have taken of late that may be of interest
He Coffeym, welcome to the world's centre of F1 knowledge, the AF F1 forum.
Some pictures, ey? Well, you've got me excited. Of what? Where did you happen to see an F1? Don't leave us in anxiety and dump some pics please :D.
/Bucciali
I have some pictures i have taken of late that may be of interest
He Coffeym, welcome to the world's centre of F1 knowledge, the AF F1 forum.
Some pictures, ey? Well, you've got me excited. Of what? Where did you happen to see an F1? Don't leave us in anxiety and dump some pics please :D.
/Bucciali
coffeym
07-28-2005, 08:29 AM
Sorry Bucciali im having trouble with the up load of my pictures.You can see some pics on my web site if you want www.maranellomotorsport.com
peter i
07-28-2005, 11:39 AM
Everyone love to check on the chansis number ,right ? Collect all the picture and history about it .(even the one crashing badly) this website will create the best resouces for future F1 owner....
bucciali
07-28-2005, 03:23 PM
... my pictures.
I'm not sure about the Papaya GTR, but pictures of the LARK one, I'm seriously doubting they are yours. :-)
I'm not sure about the Papaya GTR, but pictures of the LARK one, I'm seriously doubting they are yours. :-)
drewwtms
07-28-2005, 05:13 PM
Maybe an F1 with clickable sections of the body to see in-depth pictures and specs? McLaren has something like this on their website but I think it stops short from being "in depth".
For instance, you could click on the nose piece and an image of the nose compartment would appear along with pics of the tools, explanation of the various things within the compartment, etc.
I didn't see anyone else suggest this. But for me the packaging and details of the chassis are fascinating.
For instance, you could click on the nose piece and an image of the nose compartment would appear along with pics of the tools, explanation of the various things within the compartment, etc.
I didn't see anyone else suggest this. But for me the packaging and details of the chassis are fascinating.
F1 monster
07-28-2005, 05:19 PM
Interesting, and pretty easy to do as far creating the picture with different links is concerned (it's called an image map). But what do you suggest for the angles/items that can't be seen? Have several pictures?
Also, it does not fit in easily into the overall site plan, so it would have to be an "extra" page that leads back into the depths of all the information. Still, I am willing to look into doing it.
The thing is, the whole site is going to be database driven. To get to any section, you have to execute a query ie. show me all pictures of the storage side compartments. So, clicking on the image map would have to somehow execute such a query. That might be a bit difficult, figuring out all the queries that people would want to do, and then linking them to various portions of the picture(s).
Also, it does not fit in easily into the overall site plan, so it would have to be an "extra" page that leads back into the depths of all the information. Still, I am willing to look into doing it.
The thing is, the whole site is going to be database driven. To get to any section, you have to execute a query ie. show me all pictures of the storage side compartments. So, clicking on the image map would have to somehow execute such a query. That might be a bit difficult, figuring out all the queries that people would want to do, and then linking them to various portions of the picture(s).
F1 monster
08-02-2005, 03:27 AM
OK, I don't have an answer to the above yet, but I imagine that it is possible. So it will be there at some point, but not from the beginning.
We are getting close now.
It took a while to get the upload feature working, so that everyone could add content. That is now complete. You will be able to add 10 files at a time, and then you will have 30 minutes to add all the information about the file. At that point, a moderator will review it, and if all is in order, it will become public. This is to stop people from posting junk or duplicates, obviously.
The login functionality is complete, but I am telling the programmer to integrate it with the login for a bulletin board. Even though I don't intend to have one from the beginning, there's no harm in being ready, and if we decide to have a bbs later on, there will be no need to register again.
We are now putting the finishing touches on the main stuff. That is, the pages where you can browse the information or search for specific things. The upload page is pretty much complete.
I hope it's just a couple more days. But I have said this before...so no false promises this time! It won't be long, I can assure you of that. :)
On a bright note, all the professional programmers I have shown my design to said they really liked it. It is very very easy to understand the whole site and move around in it, even though it is quite large and likely to grow larger.
After the site is up and running, I am going to devote some time to making it look really good. This means some flash, music, etc. And then, once it is stable and we have a good amount of core content, I will start adding "special" treats--watch for those.
We are getting close now.
It took a while to get the upload feature working, so that everyone could add content. That is now complete. You will be able to add 10 files at a time, and then you will have 30 minutes to add all the information about the file. At that point, a moderator will review it, and if all is in order, it will become public. This is to stop people from posting junk or duplicates, obviously.
The login functionality is complete, but I am telling the programmer to integrate it with the login for a bulletin board. Even though I don't intend to have one from the beginning, there's no harm in being ready, and if we decide to have a bbs later on, there will be no need to register again.
We are now putting the finishing touches on the main stuff. That is, the pages where you can browse the information or search for specific things. The upload page is pretty much complete.
I hope it's just a couple more days. But I have said this before...so no false promises this time! It won't be long, I can assure you of that. :)
On a bright note, all the professional programmers I have shown my design to said they really liked it. It is very very easy to understand the whole site and move around in it, even though it is quite large and likely to grow larger.
After the site is up and running, I am going to devote some time to making it look really good. This means some flash, music, etc. And then, once it is stable and we have a good amount of core content, I will start adding "special" treats--watch for those.
F1 monster
08-05-2005, 01:49 PM
OK, progress!!!
We got a forum section up and running. Why have a forum, when I had said that I wouldn't? Read it all there. It's at
www.mclarenfreak.com/forum
The forum is open for registration right now, but things will be changing as everything is under development.
I am beginning to load the data onto the site itself. When that is done, I will give a sneak peak, and if no major bugs are encountered, I will open it up to the public. It is just a few more days now.
Explanation why there is a new forum when this one already exists (http://www.mclarenfreak.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2)
We got a forum section up and running. Why have a forum, when I had said that I wouldn't? Read it all there. It's at
www.mclarenfreak.com/forum
The forum is open for registration right now, but things will be changing as everything is under development.
I am beginning to load the data onto the site itself. When that is done, I will give a sneak peak, and if no major bugs are encountered, I will open it up to the public. It is just a few more days now.
Explanation why there is a new forum when this one already exists (http://www.mclarenfreak.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2)
Stratoraptor
08-05-2005, 03:48 PM
I registered for your forum, but I can't get the validation email. It's not in my inbox nor spam folder. Maybe if you get me the email address of the validation so that I can add to my contacts if that'll work. Just PM me in this forum.
PatrickT82
08-05-2005, 04:48 PM
I am now registered at your forum but I dont have permission to reply!? :uhoh:
cabrio92
10-04-2005, 09:22 AM
Hello,
It lack a case called "observations" or a similar word where we could add some stuff on the cars like, sell, dates of sighting color changes, etc...
It lack a case called "observations" or a similar word where we could add some stuff on the cars like, sell, dates of sighting color changes, etc...
F1 monster
10-04-2005, 10:55 AM
Yup, that's in there. It should be up within a month now, but I don't wnat to make any promises I can't keep. I am sorry it's taken so long, but it's being done right so there was a lot of planning involved. I have gone through three programmers. I have finally found the person who can really make it happen. Hang in there.
F1 monster
12-29-2005, 01:06 PM
I wanted to give everyone an update...
It's taken a couple of months longer than the one month I had estimated because
- my friend who could program the site didn't want to
- another friend started, then dropped out
- the third programmer lied about his abilities and couldn't do squat
All of this took weeks and weeks, between advertising and searching for a good programmer, doing interviews, checking portfolios of work done, etc., etc.
So then I finally found and hired a really experienced guy. After a lot of discussion, he convinced me to do it really right...which meant starting again and doing it in Java and using real industrial strength technology with exotic names (Struts, Hibernate, etc.).
This required a complete redesign of everything, and a new platform to host it on (Tomcat is required for running Java). So, when it really goes live, I have to get a new host, as my ISP does not support Java.
OK, so it took a long time for this guy to do the back-end work of creating databases, etc. He is also terrible at aesthetic design, so the site is growing, but looking pretty ghastly. On top of that, it's a LOT of work. Finally, he works another job full-time and has carpal tunnel syndrome. So he only squeezes in a few hours each weekend on this project. To help him out, I have hired a second programmer, who will join in once she understands the project requirements fully. Right now, though, she is not contributing.
To keep the project manageable, we have split it up into phases. I then moved all the things that needed to be in place for a launch up to the beginning phases, so we could have a basic site to look at while the more advanced stuff continues to get done behind the scenes.
We are in the middle of the phase before the launch. You should see all the huge sheets with data flows and data diagrams it has taken to get this far! It's cool stuff, but really it took so long because of the other time commitments. In addition, we ran into two unexpected problems, that turned out to be quite difficult to solve. One was display-related, and the other one was how to resize pictures into different sizes without losing quality. Both are fixed now. At the same time that anything gets built, we have to build the tools to administer it, and that is also slowing things down.
So, we will first have a soft launch with a lot of the features disabled. The soft launch will be more of a beta test program. You will not have your own accounts to log in, and you will not be able to upload material until that gets done. So you will have to be content with my pictures and videos and information. You will be able to browse the site and see how it works, and that's it for this phase (which should go live pretty soon).
The forum I have set up will also not be tightly integrated, but you can certainly access it to talk about the site and issues/bugs/feature requests, etc. In a later phase, it will be integrated into the website a whole lot better.
I hope this pre-launch phase is done pretty soon. I have a commitment from the programmer to churn it out since he is on holiday this week. So you should be seeing it soon.. I was hoping for a New Year's launch, but it might be sometime in early January. I should know by the end of today when the programmer thinks he will have it done by.
It will take some time to load up all the material I have, and then I will be depending on you guys to give me feedback. Once user accounts are working, you can load up any stuff you want to share.
I know there's a few people who collect models, and I have not saved any pictures of models, or even any info on manufacturers. In the beginning, I will talk to people privately to ftp the images and send me information and I will load it up. Later on, when user accounts are functional, you can load up the model and toy pics and info yourselves.
BTW, one cool feature--After a later phase, you will each be able to maintain your own gallery, so if you are traveling or at some other computer, and you see something new (picture, info, multimedia, whatever), you can snag it and upload it to the site and put it in your own gallery!
It's taken a couple of months longer than the one month I had estimated because
- my friend who could program the site didn't want to
- another friend started, then dropped out
- the third programmer lied about his abilities and couldn't do squat
All of this took weeks and weeks, between advertising and searching for a good programmer, doing interviews, checking portfolios of work done, etc., etc.
So then I finally found and hired a really experienced guy. After a lot of discussion, he convinced me to do it really right...which meant starting again and doing it in Java and using real industrial strength technology with exotic names (Struts, Hibernate, etc.).
This required a complete redesign of everything, and a new platform to host it on (Tomcat is required for running Java). So, when it really goes live, I have to get a new host, as my ISP does not support Java.
OK, so it took a long time for this guy to do the back-end work of creating databases, etc. He is also terrible at aesthetic design, so the site is growing, but looking pretty ghastly. On top of that, it's a LOT of work. Finally, he works another job full-time and has carpal tunnel syndrome. So he only squeezes in a few hours each weekend on this project. To help him out, I have hired a second programmer, who will join in once she understands the project requirements fully. Right now, though, she is not contributing.
To keep the project manageable, we have split it up into phases. I then moved all the things that needed to be in place for a launch up to the beginning phases, so we could have a basic site to look at while the more advanced stuff continues to get done behind the scenes.
We are in the middle of the phase before the launch. You should see all the huge sheets with data flows and data diagrams it has taken to get this far! It's cool stuff, but really it took so long because of the other time commitments. In addition, we ran into two unexpected problems, that turned out to be quite difficult to solve. One was display-related, and the other one was how to resize pictures into different sizes without losing quality. Both are fixed now. At the same time that anything gets built, we have to build the tools to administer it, and that is also slowing things down.
So, we will first have a soft launch with a lot of the features disabled. The soft launch will be more of a beta test program. You will not have your own accounts to log in, and you will not be able to upload material until that gets done. So you will have to be content with my pictures and videos and information. You will be able to browse the site and see how it works, and that's it for this phase (which should go live pretty soon).
The forum I have set up will also not be tightly integrated, but you can certainly access it to talk about the site and issues/bugs/feature requests, etc. In a later phase, it will be integrated into the website a whole lot better.
I hope this pre-launch phase is done pretty soon. I have a commitment from the programmer to churn it out since he is on holiday this week. So you should be seeing it soon.. I was hoping for a New Year's launch, but it might be sometime in early January. I should know by the end of today when the programmer thinks he will have it done by.
It will take some time to load up all the material I have, and then I will be depending on you guys to give me feedback. Once user accounts are working, you can load up any stuff you want to share.
I know there's a few people who collect models, and I have not saved any pictures of models, or even any info on manufacturers. In the beginning, I will talk to people privately to ftp the images and send me information and I will load it up. Later on, when user accounts are functional, you can load up the model and toy pics and info yourselves.
BTW, one cool feature--After a later phase, you will each be able to maintain your own gallery, so if you are traveling or at some other computer, and you see something new (picture, info, multimedia, whatever), you can snag it and upload it to the site and put it in your own gallery!
cabrio92
05-15-2006, 05:11 AM
Hello,
I am quite disapointed. The website is not updated :( no new pics or informations. The site will be finished soon or not ?
Phil
I am quite disapointed. The website is not updated :( no new pics or informations. The site will be finished soon or not ?
Phil
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