A little speed never hurts

You should notice 2 things, IE compatibility improved, and tikiwade is a whole lot faster. I finally got around to optimizing some of the code to greatly reduce page load times and it really increased the performance of the code as well. I also have been working to finally hammer out those annoying IE problems once and for all. I wish someone could explain why they (IE) are so against fully supporting open web standards. Anyhow, I also spied some Wii Fit's for sale on tikiwade too, you might want to hurry up and get one. 

Finally...

Sorry for the delay in updates, but I have been hard at work. I replaced the entire communication layer from the browser to the server, I also added the "beta" badge (thanks to Ben for making it so quickly and awsomely), and I took the opportunity to re-write almost all of the javascript, and fix a few bugs. This may have introduced new bugs, and needs a lot of testing, but I wanted to get the update put on the server so that we can all test it together. If you find problems like things just not working, or working not as you expect, then please drop me an email so that I can fix them.

I also added the "Party Supplies" category for Marigale, and can add any other categories that are needed. Please just let me know.

I do know of a few things that are not working. 1) auctions, the live updating of the auction amount is not working at the moment, I did not have enough time to test it so I left is disabled. 2) category name on item listings, when viewing an item listing (not the quick view) the title will not have the category name.

Note that a BIG change that went in with this is that the login credentials are handled completely differently now. It is much more secure. This may however cause some errors/problems and needs a lot of testing. Please let me know if you notice anything odd or not working properly when you are logged in.

Thanks for being patient with me!
Wade

I Remember!

I added memcached to the server and implemented it in tikiwade for caching searches. I also fixed a bug that caused tikiwade to loose its location on the initial search, and also where tikiwade would "forget" what type of search it had done when using the next and previous links. (this is only in the web version, not the iPhone version). I also fixed a spot on the email a listing page where the word will was being repeated (thanks Marigale!).

Sorry it took so long to get an update out. It has been a busy summer.

Wade

Apple comes through

Apple has finally fixed the Safari bug in Safari 4!! Now I just need Apple to release Safari 4. Anyhow, in other developments, I am sorry that it has been so long since my last post. Been enjoying the summer and waiting for some other things to come to a close. I think that we are getting close to releasing tikiwade to the public. Stay tuned as this develops.

On the development side, I added memcached to tikiwade so that I can cache common db calls in memory to speed up tikiwade. I also noticed that 2 of the video tours are not showing up correctly, I will fix that ASAP.

Wade

Safari Bug is Back

Oh how I wish I could have been at WWDC this year. I was there is 2007. It was great. Anyway, the Safari bug has resurfaced. Please use firefox. I also fixed some rendering problems with IE and the quickview, it should now display properly for everyone. I also made the area where the listings appear longer, as well as the standard ads area, so we can show an extra listing or two.

Safari Bug Workaround

I found an implemented a fix for the Safari rendering bug!! Yay!! I did open a bug with Apple, and they did respond to my bug, so they are aware of it. In case you are a developer and wondering, the bug was that a div within a div was not properly rendering when the inner div had style via a style sheet and the outer div did not (or had its width and height defined in the HTML). Hopefully Apple with fix this soon, but it does seem to be pretty minor as tikiwade was the only site that I found that had this problem. 

Logs

I have been working on getting better logging functionality to help with creating better analytics. I also found a problem in the new Safari 3.1 where is does not redraw the window after an ajax update. I am trying to figure out what is going on with that. If you are using Safari 3.1, on either Windows or Mac, just grab the lower right corner and resize the window a little, this will cause it to refresh its view.

Video tours!

We just finished doing a first run at creating some video tours of tikiwade. Please let me know what you think of them. You can view them from the Tours link at the top of any page on tikiwade.

Testing

Well, most of the major surgery is done, and it is time to test. I would like everyone who is interested to start testing tikiwade. Create an account, find some stuff that you want to sell, and create listings. Lets put tikiwade through its paces and see if it is good enough to make it.

Become a Tiki Pro!

I added the ability to upgrade to a tiki pro. Being a tiki pro gives you the ability to renew listings with the click of a single button, and to copy listings (everything accept the media) for a quick start to creating a new listing. These services will be offered with a monthly fee and can be added to advertiser accounts. I did not have enough time to do a whole lot of testing with these. There is still a little more to do with adding the ability to auto send an email to the tiki pros letting them know when listings are about to expire.

I also got some great notes from my friend Brian from his initial experiences.

Ready, Set, Go...

I updated the text (copy) on several pages. Thanks Brad and Mike. I also finished up the major groundwork on the stats collection/display for advertisements. Next to do is work on the video. Also, we put out a flyer to try to gain some testers as the goal is to make March the month of testing for the site. We'll have to wait and see how that works out. A little extra tidbit, tikiwade is now official, we became an LLC on Tuesday, Feb 19th.

The Weekend Update

I was able to steal some time this weekend while I was away to get some stuff done. The big one is that I moved the budget from being an overall budget for advertising to being a per ad advertising budget. So each ad will have a dollar limit for spending. I think this makes sense. I also added the ability to renew a listing. I currently have this active for all listings, regardless of user status, this will change to be just a function for tiki pro users, yes we are going to revive the pro user. The user will pay a monthly fee and get some enhanced features to automate some processes.

Added Bens new graphics

I added Bens new thumbs up/down and RSS graphics. They look AWESOME. I also added tooltips to some of the elements on the main page, mostly to see how well they work. I also use the tool tips on the display pages to describe about the thumbs up/down buttons. I stopped displaying the total number of votes. This is easy enough to stick back in when we want to.

I think that I am going to vote right now that Ben create little square buttons just like these for email/contact/Flag/Facebook and Digg;-)

More to come...

Total Re-Design

I am really liking how this is coming along. I still see a few issues with IE, but I think that overall it is looking pretty darn nice. The new colors are implemented throughout, and all the color and style is coming directly from the stylesheet. Please let me know if you come across any problems, or places where the style just plain falls apart.

Another quick update

This was a rather quick update, but a pretty good one

- I reduced the image size on the new main logo (I know I still have to change the community tag line)
- I fixed that flashing thing that happened at the top of some of the pages.
- I set it up so that if you are logged in, and looking at your listing, you will just see an "Edit" button instead of the other stuff like vote and so forth.
- If you are looking at an ad, you will just see vote/social buttons.
- I played around with the new colors a little again
- Ask lister a question now put the reply-to email address of the person asking the question into the email.
- Fixed a bug in ask lister/email friend forms.

New Look!

I went ahead and updated the server. This update was a biggie. The database schema had to change to accommodate for the new advertising model, so I had to drop and re-create the database. Which means that your account and any/all listings that you had are gone.

I also added the new graphics from Ben, they look awesome, and changed some of the colors on the site. I am not sure how they work, I will wait for input before doing anything else with that.

Unfortunately, my to do list has grown quite long, and so I now have more work to do than ever before.

Making it pretty

Ben gave me some great notes on little details that end up making a big difference and making it look more professional looking. Being a developer, I don't have that great of an eye for details like that, so I really appreciate his input in this area!!

So this update is all cosmetic. I added padding in various areas, added a thumbnail on the listing pages to show what the no photo image will look like. I think that we are going to implement a few default photos for each of the listing types, and allow the user to select which one they would like to use, or just upload some of their own media ;-)

I also added the new no photo photos that Ben gave me.

More to come...

Another update

This one is kind of lame, cause there is very little to test, but here goes...

- I added a thumbnail to the "create listing" pages that shows the default graphic (Ben)

- I implemented separate ad tables for the various listing types.

- I re-implemented advertising in the search results, you won't see anything different though.

- I add ads to job and service listings.

What's coming next you ask... well. quite a bit of stuff, but it will all be focused on advertising, so you should not see too much for a while, but you should keep testing to verify that I don't accidentally break something.

Just a quick one

We are always getting closer... This round includes:

- Fixed Rosie, she will now properly handle ending auctions and listings. You should get emails

- Fixed page sizing issues. This was driving me crazy

- Added Facebook integration. You can share listings.

I did do some more work on the ads, but they are not ready for prime time yet. Please continue to ignore them as we work out the details of advertising on tikiwade.

Another Update

We are plugging right along here with updates and all kinds of stuff. New to the site is the form for creating an advertisement. This still needs much more refinement and should not be used yet, but you can take a look at the form to see what it entails. It is most likely going to change though. Bug fixes that went in to this are:

- If there is no history at login, redirect goes to home page (Dani)

- Added live link for digg(ing) a listing (please do not use)

- Setting item to the free category now disables the auction and price

- Added '(max characters n)' to some of the text entry fields

As I said we are still working on the advertising part, and this will change. Please don't make yourself into an advertiser yet.

What is TikiWade?

Hmmm, What is TikiWade... The URL www.tikiwade.com just brings up a strange picture