DCU Guide
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The NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
http://tenzel.net/dcuguideboard/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1704		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Tenzel Kim [ Sun Aug 02, 2009 3:37 pm ]
Post subject:  The NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
Welcome to the NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe.

As you might have noticed the look of site has changed.

During the last month we have been hard at work at testing out a completely redesigned version of the site. Please take a look and let us know what you think.

Here's a brief overview of what has been done.

Instead of covering the entire width of the site a margin of 5% has been added to the pages. This is merely cosmetics. I felt something new needed to happen and felt that the pages would look more appealing this way. What do you think?

The topbar has been removed and a sidebar has been added instead. The reason for this is that it gives us the option of having more features on each page and a lot more flexibility.

Just below the new DC Guide logo (can you identify the images?) you have a site Category listing which will appear on ALL pages.

Below that you will have a search bar which will appear on most pages. A new advanced search page will later be introduced (I hope) which you will also be able to gain access to from the Search bar.

Next you will see features that will vary depending on which pages you are viewing.

Who's Who pages will have a Page Contents width links to the character's Personal Data, Overview, History, Powers and Weapons and finally his/her Chronology (even though it is on a different page). Below that will be a list of the color codes used for the Who's Who profiles.

The Character Chronology pages will have the same Page Contents as the Who's Who pages.

The Series indexes will list and link to the stories and features of the issue you are watching.

We are currently deciding what to do with the History section so for now it won't really have any features.

Aside from these additions most of what has been done are things that automate the design so that less coding has to be done when adding stuff to the site. The coding automatically calculates the last and next issues for instance.

As you can see the new layout has some similarities to Wiki's. The simple explaination for this is that I am trying to figure out if it might be possible to set up the pages so that it will be easier for users to help cotribute to the site. For now though that is still in the testing fases as there are still quite a few things I need to figure out how to do.

As a new addition we have added an updates page in order to keep you better informed about the changes to the Guide. We will try to update the page every time an issue is added or changes is made to a character's profile or chronology. Note: Smaller changes, such as fixed spelling and smaller additions to the chronology might not always be noted.

A couple of final comments on faulty pages:

Do you have any suggestions for improvement? Do you see any pages that look like they don't work properly and so on then please let us know so that we can fix it right away.

Certain elements in the User Panel on the board are not working properly. I am still trying to figure those out but the main boards should be working fine.
Author:  FrankFlynn61 [ Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
I like the new format, especially the update chronology - very useful.

However, the heroes spread on the intro page is covering the Categories on the right side from view.

Some character links are empty or not working.
Author:  Tenzel Kim [ Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
FrankFlynn61 wrote:
I like the new format, especially the update chronology - very useful.

However, the heroes spread on the intro page is covering the Categories on the right side from view.

Some character links are empty or not working.


Hi Frank. Thanks for the feedback.

Just became aware of the front page problem yesterday. I must admit I forgot to check the site on lower screen resolutions than the one I'm using myself so everything looked fine on my part. I've just resized the front page image so hopefully everything looks fine now. Sorry about that.

I made some last minute changes in some of the character names and had some problems with the A-Z pages so I might very well have accidentically downloaded a bad copy on top of the updated ones I made because I got a bit stressed as I only discovered the fact that the pages weren't working properly after I had uploaded the entire site. I will look into this as soon as possible and change the links that aren't working.

If you run across some character links in the comic indexes that don't have character pages please let us know so that we can create some though.

Thanks again.
Author:  datalore [ Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
Looks good, as always, all the work done is appreciated!

Odd question (and probably a TON of work...)

But would it be possible to have the month of the comic
(example - November 1995) in an index be linked to the
month index? (or, at least the year?)

I KNOW this would be a huge headache, but would help
a ton with cross-referencing characters.

And, also a headache, but a thought, would it help to list the titles by week published?
Author:  Tenzel Kim [ Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
datalore wrote:
Odd question (and probably a TON of work...)

But would it be possible to have the month of the comic
(example - November 1995) in an index be linked to the
month index? (or, at least the year?)

I KNOW this would be a huge headache, but would help
a ton with cross-referencing characters.


Not a bad idea and with the new coding of the pages I actually think that can be done fairly easy. I'll look into this to see if I can whip up something.

datalore wrote:
And, also a headache, but a thought, would it help to list the titles by week published?


Been considering that myself but not sure how much help it would be especially now that stories are seldom self-contained and run over several issues AND a bit too often these days the actual publication date of some books comes a month or two later than the rest of the books sporting the same cover date.

Having the publication date listed somewhere might be an idea though. Let me give it some thought. If you or anybody else have some suggestions along these lines please let me know.
Author:  FrankFlynn61 [ Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Alphabetical Title List
Could we have an alphabetical total title list combining all Family titles? No thematic clusters for that one - some DC Universe Family titles are difficult to find if you don´t know the thematic connections to the Crisis titles, for example.
Author:  Tenzel Kim [ Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Alphabetical Title List
FrankFlynn61 wrote:
Could we have an alphabetical total title list combining all Family titles? No thematic clusters for that one - some DC Universe Family titles are difficult to find if you don´t know the thematic connections to the Crisis titles, for example.


Am I understanding this right. You'd like a big alphabetical list that includes ALL books despite connection?
Author:  Tenzel Kim [ Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Complete but ...
FrankFlynn61 wrote:
OK, I just did a check-up which indexes (indices?) have five issues or less before getting a 'complete' designation. I will post the resulting two lists (mini-series and regiulars eries) elsewhere, but ...
--snip--
Is this any help for the new Guide?


Thanks for the post. I'll take a closer look tomorrow and get designations on the completed series and see what the problem is with the rest.
Author:  FrankFlynn61 [ Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Alphabetical Title List
Tenzel Kim wrote:
Am I understanding this right. You'd like a big alphabetical list that includes ALL books despite connection?


Er ... yes. If that´s not too much to ask. :D
Author:  FrankFlynn61 [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 10:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Alphabetical Title List
FrankFlynn61 wrote:
Tenzel Kim wrote:
Am I understanding this right. You'd like a big alphabetical list that includes ALL books despite connection?


Er ... yes. If that´s not too much to ask. :D


... not instead of the existing Families (DC [Mainstream], Batman, Legion, Superman, Vertigo), but in addition to them - as the sixth Family.
Author:  Tenzel Kim [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Alphabetical Title List
FrankFlynn61 wrote:
... not instead of the existing Families (DC [Mainstream], Batman, Legion, Superman, Vertigo), but in addition to them - as the sixth Family.


Don't worry. THAT part I got :)

Not a bad idea. I'll see if I can come up with a way to make such a page so that it draws the information from the other pages instead of having to remember to update two pages every time, cause as you can see I already suck at updating the ones that are already there :oops:
Author:  Tenzel Kim [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
Tenzel Kim wrote:
datalore wrote:
Odd question (and probably a TON of work...)

But would it be possible to have the month of the comic
(example - November 1995) in an index be linked to the
month index? (or, at least the year?)

I KNOW this would be a huge headache, but would help
a ton with cross-referencing characters.


Not a bad idea and with the new coding of the pages I actually think that can be done fairly easy. I'll look into this to see if I can whip up something.


Ok. The whipping is done. Now the cover dates link to the releases pages. Well, almost. I haven't quite figured out how to make books that have an "Early" and "Late" September issue for instance both to link to September. As soon as I figure that one out I'll make the link underlined so that everyone knows it's a link. Please feel free to test it to see if you run into any other problems than Early and Late. Titles that don't have a month cover date will only link to the year.
Author:  skeets [ Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
There's a glitch in your code to go to the previous issue. If I'm on issue #10, and I want to go back to issue #9, it doesn't account for the lost digit. Example:

.com/Out/Out3_010.php

sends me to :
.com/Out/Out3_09.php

when it should be:
.com/Out/Out3_009.php

Also, almost all the links to Superman/Batman from the yearly releases index are broken, though this is an old problem. Just thought I'd call your attention to it.
Author:  Tenzel Kim [ Fri Aug 21, 2009 8:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
skeets wrote:
There's a glitch in your code to go to the previous issue. If I'm on issue #10, and I want to go back to issue #9, it doesn't account for the lost digit.


Thanks a lot. I had completely missed that in my testing. I'll fix that later today.

skeets wrote:
Also, almost all the links to Superman/Batman from the yearly releases index are broken, though this is an old problem. Just thought I'd call your attention to it.


Darn. I still haven't fixed that? Shame on my. Will be fixed later today.

Thanks again.
Author:  FrankFlynn61 [ Fri Aug 21, 2009 2:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The NEW Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe
IT terminology is a foreign laguage to me, but anyway ...

At the very bottom of the issue pages, the final issues of a given title show still display, to the right of the TITLE field, the arrow sign for the 'next Issue' - which, of course, is not there.

Same thing for one-shots.
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