Friday, July 29, 2011

User preferences saved with user account

I did a quick upgrade last night. A few bugs were found immediately after the upgrade and needed to be fixed but no serious harm was done.

The upgrade includes revamped session and preferences storage. The user-visible change is that user preferences are now stored in the server backend and attached to your user account if you're logging in when saving the preferences. They will be used on other computers, browsers and mobile devices as long as you're logged in with the same account.

The preferences can still be saved if you're not logged in, in which case they're attached to a browser cookie.

A less visible change is that the settings and session cookies set in the browser are now much shorter - just random keys, instead of containing the whole settings or session data. This makes the HTTP requests smaller, which improves network performance marginally. On a slow mobile connection it might actually make a difference.

I don't have a related photo to attach, so kittens it is again! Buxus and Brassia, aged 6 weeks.

6 comments:

Demetre Valaris said...

Hi OM,

I think there is a problem with the new APRS, we just can't get rid of the boats if we want to. This is very annoying considering that they are very slow and they clutter the map with their tracks, especially when you live near a port such as Piraeus. Also the county of Attica where Athens belongs, has got many ports around it and many marinas.
I think you should bring back in the preferences menu the ability for a user to make the boats (AIS system) disappear and leave the rest of the stations.

73 de Demetre SV1UY

Demetre Valaris said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hessu said...

Demetre: Please read the previous blog post carefully. The filtering is still there, it's only moved to a different place for quicker and easier access, and it's much better. Enable the AIS filter (to select AIS traffic) and then hide that traffic from view using the red downward-pointing arrow.

Demetre Valaris said...

Hello Keikki,

Thanks for quick reply. Is the AIS filter in Preferences, because I cannot find it!

73 de Demetre SV1UY

Hessu said...

It's "Heikki" actually.

No, it's not, it has it's own tool button on the right side of the map, the one looking like a funnel. Please read the blog post I linked in my previous comment, it's all described there.

Demetre Valaris said...

Thanks Heikki,

I found it. Keep up the good work.

73 de Demetre SV1UY