Panorama download progress

One thing difficult to do with javascript panorama is the download progress counter. For example, when you try java panoramas - on the bottom of the panorama there is a progress bar saying that 1%, 2%, 3%, ... 10% ... 20% ... 50% ... 99% ... of the image is downloaded.

With javascript that's impossible to do. But, after thinking (hard) about it, i decided to replace the loading.gif image () with the "compressed" thumbnail of the panorama. Now you can see how big is the part already downloaded in your local browser's memory:

But, there is one drawback; now the map will be displayed only after the panorama is downloaded and displayed.

I tried it with Firefox, Opera, and IE6. Try it here.

Panorama stars

Besides the new layout, there is one new feature. Now all panorama can be rated - just click on stars below the map:



From one IP address is possible to vote only once per panorama.

See it in action:

New layout

mi3dot.org is a croatian web development comunity portal. I asked on their forum what they think about panoye and they responded me something like "It's OK... But you need a better design!". Well... OK... I tried hard, and the result is here:

Since I'm a programmer - my web-design skills are very mediocre. So, I know, it could have been better, but... I will leave that for future plans ;)

BTW, just for the archive, the old layout:

Why I hate IE

I simply can't understand why is it that this don't work...

var Utils = new Object();
Utils.byId = function( id ) {
if( document.all ) {
  return document.all[ id ];
 }
 return document.getElementById( id );
}

It is just a utility function which returns me an element by its id attribute. Nothing special. But then... There is a line saying:

panorama = Utils.byId( "panorama" );

It works. Well, it worked in Firefox and Opera. But in IE, there was an error saying something like: object doesn't have that property... I can't remember now (I'm on my Ubuntu linux PC now). It took me half an hour of experiments before I found the error. The error was the word var. The line:

var panorama = Utils.byId( "panorama" );

don't work without the "var".

When I was studying Javascript, in the manual it was said that if I use var for declaring variables -- they were local variables. Without var they are global variables. Since panorama in my javascript is a global variable, I decided to delete the "var". But IE didn't like it.

Why?

Forum post explained

Thanks to Frank, the owner of the Kroatien tipps forum forum who emailed me about my last blog post. I thought somebody was claiming that there are malicious programs on panoye, but I was wrong - it was a friendly message. The forum member said that he misses Croatia.

PS. Google translator don't have a german-to-englesh translation of the word "Fernweh".

Navigation types

When I decided to make a panorama with Javascript I wasn't sure how to make the navigation. Is it better to just move the panorama left when the mouse cursor is at the left side (and, of course same for the right side:). Or make left/right arrow buttons and move the panorama when the user clicks on them?

Here is another option. Click on the panorama, move it left or right and then release the button. The panorama will continue scrolling in the same direction. I know it isn't perfect (there are problems in Internet explorer), but...



My question is; do you like this way to navigate the panorama? Or - do you like the way it is now?

Index page

Now with short descriptions:

Premužićeva staza Premužićeva staza -- Premužić's hiking path, near the Rossi's hut.
Botanical garden Velebit botanical garden -- Velebitski botanički vrt.
Botanical garden Velebit botanical Garden (velebitski botanički vrt), near Zavižan, Velebit.
Veliki slap Veliki slap -- Big Waterfall, near Kršikla, and the Butoniga lake.
Trenta valley Trenta valley (Dolina Trente in Slovenian), and the river Soča.
Dolina Vrata Dolina Vrata -- Vrata (=door, in Slovenian) valley in the Triglav national park.

Virus?

Since I don't speak German I asked google translator help me to understand what this sentence means:

Achtung: nicht anklicken, hier lauert ein Virus und der heißt

This is from a forum post with a link to panoye.com. OK, I understand "achtung", and "virus", but google translator translated me the full sentence:

Caution: Not click, a virus lurks here in the states

Hhhmmm... It seems that somebody is claiming that there is a virus on my site. Am I right? If so -- you have my word that there are no viruses here. The problem is that panoramas need javascript to work, but some versions of Internet explorer will not let javascript run unless the user confirms. But even then -- Javascript can't read or write files on your computer.

If you don't believe me, here is a quote from a 'Security' section in the Wikipedia Javascript article:

Browser authors contain this risk using two restrictions. First, scripts run in a sandbox in which they can only perform Web-related actions, not general-purpose programming tasks like creating files. Second, scripts are constrained by the same origin policy: scripts from one Web site do not have access to information such as usernames, passwords, or cookies sent to another site.

Update: I was wrong!

More to come...

Just another test ;)

First post

Ok, this is my first post. I hope it is not the last one ;)

The site is: www.panoye.com.