After a huge amount of work, the update to Social Hiking is finally live!
Here is a brief run down of the major new features and changes.
Site update this weekend!
If everything goes to plan, the new version of the site will finally be going live this weekend (on Saturday).
You do not need to do anything during the upgrade, but there are a few things to take notice of:
Sometime on Saturday morning, login to the existing site will be disabled and the media and location imports will be disabled – all existing maps (including those embedded on your websites) will still work, however no new maps will be created
For about an hour or so, the database will be upgraded and transferred to the new site. Although this is quite a major process, backups will be taken in case there is a problem. Once completed, the media and location imports will be switched back on (and will collect any new data sent during the transfer) – and finally the domains will be transferred. Within 24 hours (at most) you should start to see the new site and be able to access the new features.
The domain for the new site will be http://www.shareyouradventure.com – however all existing web addresses and links will continue to work for the foreseeable future.
During the transfer, automatic map sharing will be disabled – this will be switched back on as soon as possible once the transfer is complete.
One of the new features is the ability to set an activity for each map – by default all maps will be transferred as hiking maps, however if you want all your maps to be set as another activity by default during the transfer, please let me know!
The feedback from the testers has been really positive, so please bear with me during the transfer – it will be worth it! Once the site has been transferred, and I am happy everything is working, I will post a series of articles on the new features!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Share-Your-Adventure-Social-Hiking/250030038360410
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/socialhiking
Get Satisfaction: http://getsatisfaction.com/shareyouradventure
ViewRanger adds premium maps to my.viewranger.com
ViewRanger have added a major enhancement to their web-based route planning tool on my.viewranger.com. You can now plan a route using any premium maps (including Ordnance Survey) that you have previously purchased on your phone. You can also pay for an annual subscription to access all the maps in your region – and if you have previously bought maps using their map-creator they are offering a free six months subscription.
Compatibility problems linking your Twitter account to ViewRanger
Whilst I have been running tests on the new version of Social Hiking (it will be live soon I promise!), I have finally put my finger on an issue I have been noticing over the last few weeks on my own Social Hiking maps with extra data appearing. This is being caused by ViewRanger’s recent addition of Twitter support.
T-shirt Competition
About a month or so ago I posted out a limited number of Social Hiking t-shirts to a few lucky Social Hikers. At the time I made some mention of a prize for the best photo of a t-shirt wearer, but I have since been reprimanded for not making the competition official (with an official closing date etc.). With that in mind, here are the details:
ViewRanger / InstaMapper battery usage tested (on Android)
Battery life is a pretty critical issue if you are using Social Hiking with an app on your phone. One of the most frequent questions I get asked is which is better on your battery when used with Social Hiking – ViewRanger or InstaMapper. So I decided to find out (on Android)!
Handful of updates
Today I rolled out a number of fairly minor updates to the site – here is the full list (in the order I did them rather than in order of excitement!):
Continue reading →
ViewRanger’s Update to My.ViewRanger Site
As some of you may be aware, ViewRanger have recently released an update to their My.ViewRanger site including the ability to include tweets and photos to BuddyBeacon maps (read their blog post). As some users have been in touch about the similarities with Social Hiking, I thought I should probably try and put everyone at ease.
New feature: Live updating media browser
Back last year when I had built Social Hiking as a personal tool for my charity walk, my map page, as well as having a live (ish) updating map, also had automatically refreshing media (in those days just twitpic, audioboo and twitter). Being able to replicate this has been on my to do list for ages, so I am pleased to announced that, after resolving a few issues relating to the number of accounts Social Hiking supports, this new feature is now live!
GPX Track Imports
The ability to import tracks has been in development for ages, but I am pleased to announce that this highly requested feature is now live!
Martin Free: Looking forward to it :-)...
daylightgambler: Sorry you can't make it. Sure we will arrange another one some time....
Barney: Great idea ! love to meet u guys trouble is im working that weekend !!...
PilgrimChris: Monsal Head gets my vote mate....
Andy Bryant: Great idea!...