Friday, June 09, 2006

Now you can.  The panels on the page now collapse and expand when clicking on the heading.  They used to do this when we were using Virtual Earth's panel implementation, but then we switched to the transparent PNG backgrounds for the sake of a better look and feel, and we finally got around to adding back this functionality.  We hope you like it.

6/9/2006 5:26:57 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 

Here's a list of some of the latest tweaks to the site.  Some are in the behavior, some are in the code.

  • Fixed a bug in the movie list that was loading it once for every movie (oops).  Should be faster and smoother now.
  • If you select a movie in the movie list, and then adjust your search area, you used to have to reselect the movie to see the info.  Now, if that movie is still available in your new area, it will automatically be reselected once the new movie list loads.
  • Instead of telling user's outside of LA and Austin to "come back soon", they now have a link to a page where they can invite us to offer the service in their area.
  • Added an optional email field to the feedback page, so that we can respond back directly to the submitter.
  • Added a link to a verrrry basic "Advertise with us" page.  Don't worry, advertising will not take over this site, the way it has with so many other movie time sites.  We have some cool ideas that will provide some good value to both the advertiser and the user without sacrificing the usabilty of the site.
  • Added google adsense ads to the page.  That will likely be temporary.
  • Pulled out all Virtual Earth-specific code from the main js file.  Wrapped the Virtual Earth api in my own wrapper class, to make it easy to support other map apis.
  • Moved Virtual Earth js and css references into the VE-specific file, so that only one file has to be included to select the map api.
6/9/2006 12:58:35 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Thursday, June 08, 2006

As of today, the movie times for Los Angeles and Austin will be updated daily and include 7 days worth of showtimes!  Ability to buy tix should be available early next week!  If you live in Los Angeles or Austin, it's time to start telling you friends that there's only one place to check movie show times:  www.showtimemaps.com.

6/8/2006 12:30:25 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Monday, June 05, 2006

We've removed the footer blue bar completely, and we've swapped the navigation links and the search bar.  This makes a better use of space, and should provide for a better user experience.  We also got the Microsoft© Virtual EarthTM logo appearing in the bottom left-hand corner.  You can also submit feedback about the site, by clicking on the Help link at the top-right, then selecting Submit Feedback About The Site.  Any second now, we'll have live show time data.  Stay tuned....

6/5/2006 1:57:33 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Wednesday, May 31, 2006

We went through the main js file today and implemented two simple techniques to (hopefully) improve performance.  We traded our javascript concatenation for the Atlas Sys.StringBuilder, and we 'cached' some of our objects.  Here's an example that incorporates both techniques:

We changed something like this:

for (var i=0; i < someArray.length; i++)
{
   var s = someArray[i].Name + someArray[i].Rating;
}

to:

for (var i=0; i < someArray.length; i++)
{
   var s = new Sys.StringBuilder();
   var movie = someArray[i];
   s.append(movie.Name);
   s.append(movie.Rating);
}

5/31/2006 10:04:48 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Tuesday, May 30, 2006

We've added some new pushpin styles that will hopefully match the site a little better.  Favorite theaters show up as stars on the map now.  Also, we've added a Help section to the navigation that provide a Quick Tutorial and a form to submit a missing theater.

5/30/2006 2:54:46 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Monday, May 29, 2006

We've updated the info panels to have a snazzier look and better layout.  Check it out!

Also, look for current LA/Austin data within a week!

Happy Memorial Day!

5/29/2006 12:28:37 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
 Thursday, May 25, 2006

New loading image and logo device have been added.  All assets are now original.

5/25/2006 11:26:22 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
We've cleaned up the favorite theater mapping a little bit.  If you haven't selected any favorites, you no longer have the option to map them or clear them.  Once you add a favorite, those options will immediately appear.  If you decide to map your favorites, only your favorites will be mapped, even if their are other theaters in the resulting map view.  If you decide you want to map non-favorites in that same area, you are now given a link at the top of the theater list to do just that.

5/25/2006 6:04:46 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   | 
  • Now if you search for a location that doesn't list times, but does list theaters, we will map those theaters.
  • If you search for a location that has no theaters, we will still map the location, so that you can zoom in/out and pan around from there.
  • Notice that we're saying "location" instead of "zip code"?  That's because you can type in more than just a zip code.  Here's some other things you might type there:
    • Los Angeles, CA
    • Los Angeles
    • Los Angeles, 90094
    • Los Angeles, CA 90094
    • 7011 Fountain Ave, Hollywood, CA

    You get the idea.
5/25/2006 5:18:48 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |   |