...and another one..

Again and again. New version of Panoye is online. The biggest change is that now the urls look a different now.

Before:

www.panoye.com/panorama.2134.my-panorama.html
www.panoye.com/user/1234

Now it is

www.panoye.com/panorama/my-panorama.html
www.panoye.com/user/nick

Other than that - the bug in the orientation process should now be resolved.

More to come...

New version rolled out

The beta-testing phase of the new version of Panoye is now finished. There are only a few minor updates:

• The "Panorama uploaded" date for every panorama,
• "Google Earth" link (with the KML) file now opens in GE (Content-Type error),
• Link to the tutorials (autostitch, hugin and AutoPano Pro) for users who like panoramic photography but don't know how to stitch photos together,
  
• + few minor technical issues

More to come, of course :)

October 2008 upgrade

New month, new upgrade... So, let's start:

Alexturisme asked me:

But I just want to inform you that a link for "abuse" or "send a mail to the webmaster" is missing under each panorama.

Good point. I did my homework, and now the link "Report abuse" is online (below the map).

On another email someone asked me why there are no Flash and/or QuickTime player for panoramas. Well, there was, but most people didn't see it. And, it is not the only visibility question:

- It's hard to tell who posted a panorama - the only information about the user is their image

Another question was:

- It's hard to tell who posted a panorama - the only information about the user is their image

Here's my try (icon-based flash/javascript player links, and bigger panorama author link):

The upgrade is now one week old. Nobody complained, so I hope you liked it ;)

Online

The upgrade is online now!

Test new features

Yesterday I introduced the first of the new features on Panoye. Here is a full list:

• Import from URL,
  
• Six stars to rate panoramas,
• Uploads of non-orientated panoramas,
• Anonymous users can now comment on panoramas, but not rate them. Comments are (re)CAPTCHA protected so spamming will not be a problem (I hope ;),
• Better algorithm for "popular panoramas",
  
• Bigger image uploads: now max image size is 9000x3000 pixels and 2megabytes in size,
• Server cacheing for pages, so now most pages should load faster,
• + many more minor bug fixes...
  

The new Panoye version will be online soon. But, for those who can't wait, here is a secret link where you can temporarily switch to "test mode" and try it all.

Import from url

Due to popular demand, I'm currently working on a few new features. One of the most important is "Import from URL" feature on Panoye.

If you have a lot of panoramas somewhere on the web and want to share them on Panoye - You had to download to your PC and then upload them. Two steps for something that should be one step.

The new feature is called "Import from URL". It will be available in your user menu:

All you have to do is to enter the URL of your JPEG image:

 

And then the magic happens... Panoye will retrieve your panorama directly from the URL!

This new feature will be online soon. Stay tuned!

Flickr revisited

I wrote that the import of panoramas from flickr don't work for users without PRO accounts ("PRO" on flickr, not panoye :). At first I thought not to continue the development of that feature, but Padalofilo suggested to let users upload their panoramas even if they aren't PRO users.

OK, I did it and it works. Even for ordinary users. But if you are not a flickr-PRO user - you will not be able to upload the original-size images. For example, I (with my non-PRO flickr account) uploaded a 5000pixels wide image on flickr. But, when importing to panoye - I was able to upload only a 1024x254 version of the image:



This new feature will be online tomorrow is online now... Hope all you Panoye/flickr users like it!

Panoye upgrade, flickr...

I'm preparing for a new upgrade of panoye. It includes:

• "Suggest" a new/better location/orientation for panoramas
• Better upload wizard (no need to upload image twice if you forget some text field)
• Widget with user's new panoramas
• + a few minor bug fixes...
  

But I had to give up the idea of import images directly from Flickr. There is a problem I haven't been able to solve...

Listing all user's panoramas, importing data (title, map position, description and tags) was easy to implement. But the problem is with image sizes. When you upload an image - flickr creates five different versions of your photo (see example). With Flickr API - it is possible to get the url of each of those five different images (and then import it on panoye). But the biggest is only 1024 pixels wide - still to small for panoye...

It would be ideal if it is possible to locate the original image (instead of those five versions). But it is not. Or, to be precise - sometimes it is, sometimes it is not - it depends on the type us user ("pro" or "normal") and the licence. But for most images - only the 1024 pixels wide images are available :(

Anyway, the new version will be online tomorrow. Just upgraded! ;)

Redesign

Before:



Now:



Tested on Firefox/Linux, IE6/WindowsXp, IE7/WindowsXP. Let me know if you have any problems...

Flash panoramas

You all know panoramic images on panoye can be viewed in two ways: default and java viewer (thanks to Helmut Dersch's ptviewer applet).

But, since java is becoming less popular - more and more people couldn't use the second option. Thanks to Denis Chumakov's flash player, after today's upgrade you can use flash player to see all 360° panoramas.

Here's an example, Marvic's "Muela De Urbion";



To move - click on the panorama and move the mouse arrow left or right.

Search panoye

Samer is right:

Wish list: a search box. Strangely abscent.

He is not the only one to complain about the lack of search on panoye. This is something I'm been thinking for some time... Is it better to make search by coordinates, by tags, by description, by technical description, by user name, by... ?

I admit, we programmers tend to complicate things... Sometimes ;)

My girlfriend told me today morning:

Why don't you make something simple -- something like Google search.

...and she is right. So I did it... Not only like Google search, but exactly Google search for pages on www.panoye.com. The search box is on the main page below the latest comments:


Or here: http://www.panoye.com/search-index.html

PS. You all probably noticed that the development of the site slowed down in the last few weeks. I'm moving to a new home... But weekly upgrades will return soon :)

Popular panoramas on homepage

Just added a new feature on the homepage: the list of the most popular panoramas in the last 30 days. This list is calculated not only on votes but also with the number of pageviews and comments.

PS. Older homepage layouts

Weekend upgrade

Just a few changes, but it took me two three days to upgrade. Here they are:

• SEO friendly links (for example, panoye.com/panorama.356-libourne-bridge-hdr.html instead of panoye.com/panorama-show.356.html)
• Images for java applet viewer (see the forum post for more info)
• ...and a few more minor enhancements...

Also, I changed the max file size to 1mb (from 2mb).

2mb images were too big for javascript viewer -- the image had to be resized after uploading. Since there were problems even with java viewer -- now four image resizes have to be made after uploading your panorama... One for javascript viewer, and one for java/applet, one for the thumbnail, and one for the mini-thumbnail. And that takes too long -- for some images 10-15 seconds!

Forum updates

The new forum layout is here:

I changed position of the "Reply" textarea (from bottom to top-right). Also, now it have a "Preview" button.

For all early adopters of new technologies (like RSS readers ;) - panoye.com now have two new RSS feeds: one for the latest panorama comments and one for forum posts.

That's all folks (for this week ;)

Forum, profile images, orientation

Profile images

Maybe you already noticed it, but now you can upload a small image that will be shown on your profile page. Here's mine:

Forums

Added the forums section on panoye.

I wanted them to be as simple as possible. Without too much (rarely used) fancy features. It sill lacks a few options (RSS, basic formatings), but it will be online soon. (here is a sample thread)

Partial panorama orientation

Now orientate partial panoramas should be easier. Instead of locating two hotspots on the panorama -- you have to find the directions of the panorama's visible field; first the left side of the panorama's visible field, and then the right side. I'll write a HOW-TO article on the forum about this (when I find time).

Features, updates, bugs...

A quick post on few new features and resolved bugs:

1. Google maps copyright-bug:

Sometimes the GoogleMap's copyright information just "went out" of its predefined space. This is now solved. Thanks to Bernie who found this bug.

By the way, Bernie have a very nice panoramic site.

2. Added a "Remember me on this computer" checkbox:

...and now you don't have to login and re-login again every time you come on panoye.

3. Added the list of the most active users (i.e. users with most panoramas) on the main page.

4. Added the "Latest panoramas" list on the blog. If somebody want to try it you have to copy-paste this code:

<div id="latest_panoramas_widget"></div>
<script src="http://www.panoye.com/feed-json-new.10.json"></script>
<script src="http://www.panoye.com/js/latest_panoramas.js"></script>

...on your web page.

PS. I'm still waiting Amazon S3 to start working normally :(

PPS. Finally ;) It works now...

Private messages

More than one user asked if there is any way to send a private message to other users on panoye. Now there is, go to any user's page, and you will see a small form on the right side:

This feature is only for registered users (register now!).

Email on comment

Just upgraded ;) There is only one new feature -- email notifications on new panoramas. If you don't like it, you can switch it off in your preferences page.

Panorama location

Are you tired of selecting the location of your panorama (when uploading one)? I admit, I hate it:

• Zoom in the map
• Drag the map to the left
  
• Zoom in the map
• Drag the map to the right
• Zoom out the map
• Zoom in the map
• Drag the map
• Select "Satelite view"
• Zoom...
• ...and so on, and after half a minute:
• Click on the position.
  

But not any more ;) At least for locations near to some existing panorama on panoye.

If you want to upload your panorama near some other panorama - go to that panorama, and then select 'This panorama -> Add neighbour panorama' from the menu bar.

Jpeg compression

As you probably already know, when saving jpeg images - you must decide jpeg's compression rate. That's because the jpeg image format has a lossy compression rate. And the less the compression rate - more image quality is lost. But, with compression rates of 85%-100% - this loss is very small.

I just recreated all thumbnails and panorama-versions of panoramas with the compression rate of 90%. The difference shouldn't be visible, but image sizes are now 20-40% smaller than before.

...and now the panoramas should be loaded 20%-40% faster.