Late November Release: KML export, Google Earth Inline, Partner Products and some cleanup/bug fixes

We released an update earlier this week with a few cool new features and some cleanup/bug fixes.

New Features

  • KML Export & Google Earth Inline – You can now export a basic KML version of your trips that you can load into Google Earth.  You can also view your trip in Google Earth right on the Tripline site (we call this the inline view).  Just look for the Google Earth links on the Trip Page under the player and trip description.  If you don’t have Google Earth, you can install it here
A  trip viewed in Google Earth (inline)
  • Tripline BrandSpace & Promotion Buttons – BrandSpace and Promotion Buttons are exciting new partner products that you’ll soon be seeing more of on the site. We’ll blog more about these soon.

Trip Page (bug fixes)

  • Times after 8:00 PM are now displaying correctly
  • We’re now displaying all your Facebook photo albums (previously was limited at 25)
  • Photos are now displaying correctly on top of embedded video players

Tripline Mobile (bug fixes)

  • Checkins are now creating activity records (public trips only)
  • New trips created from your current location are now working properly
  • Line breaks are now displaying correctly

Other Items

  • Translation code now loading asynchronously to improve performance
  • Several UI improvements and performance fixes

That’s it for now.  We’re hard at work again, so look forward to another release in a couple of weeks.  As always, contact us if you need help with anything.

– Byron

More new features! Automatic trips from photos, bookmarks, embedded videos, text formatting, page translation etc.

Hi folks. We launched some exciting new features on Tripline today.  Here’s the list:

  • Automatically create trips from geotagged (and non-geotagged) photos – Many of you have asked about this, so we’re excited to announce that you can now create trips just by uploading a collection of photos! We’ll use the date/time and geotags on your uploaded photos to automatically create the locations in your trip. It’s incredibly easy and lots of fun. If you don’t have geotagged photos, we’ll create groups based on date/time and you can easily add the location info manually. Go to Tripline and click [Create] in the header to check it out.
  • Bookmark your favorite trips – We’ve added a [+ Bookmark] button to the trip page so you can easily save your favorite trips. Bookmarks give you quick access to someone else’s trip you’re following as well as trips that you might want to use as a guide while traveling. Bookmarks will show up on your Home Page, on your My Trips page and are also available on Tripline Mobile: http://mobile.tripline.net
  • Videos on the trip page – You can now add videos from YouTube and Vimeo to your trips. All you have to do is paste a YouTube/Vimeo link into a place description and the embedded video will display when you reload the page. Note that embedded videos won’t yet display in the player…that’s something we’ll add in a future release. Oh, and if you add a link to another Tripline trip, it will show up as an embedded player as well. Great for creating trips within trips!
  • Line breaks in trip and place descriptions – Many of you have asked for this. You can now add line/paragraph breaks to your trip/place descriptions and they’ll display correctly.
  • Page translation – You can now translate any page on Tripline into the language of your choice. Just click on the globe icon at the top right of the header and select a language (53 available). It’s page-by-page for now.
  • Other new features and bug fixes
  • We’re now displaying trip distances in kilometers as well as miles
  • We added a confirmation prompt before deleting waypoints in the editor
  • We fixed a bug that was preventing navigation to the second page of a Facebook photo album
  • We fixed a photoviewer bug that was preventing caption entry for panoramic photos
  • We fixed a photo upload bug that was causing uploads to stall when photos were added to the upload list multiple times
Google Chrome users:  If you’re using Adblock, the photoviewer on the trip page won’t get the correct image sizes and will appear a little broken.  This is a known issue with Adblock and they’re working on a fix.  Unfortunately, the Excluded Sites fix we mentioned in previous emails no longer works, so you’ll need to disable Ad Block for the photoviewer to work correctly.
 
Internet Explorer users:  If you’ve noticed that the trip player doesn’t always display updated information after saving your trip, we have a fix for you.  The problem is caused by a flaw in IE’s automatic caching mechanism.  The solution is to disable automatic caching.  This will make some  pages load more slowly, so it’s up to you.  To disable, choose Tools… Internet Options. On the General tab, under Browsing History click [Settings]. On the settings page, click the “Every time I visit the webpage” radio button.
 

Thanks again for all the great suggestions.  As always, if you need to get in touch with us, send an email to support@tripline.net

– Byron

New Features Today! Reorder Photos, Add Captions, 5MB Uploads, Slideshow Mode In Player, Lineless Trips, Static Map Images

Hi folks. We just deployed a new Tripline release with a bunch of new features.  Lots of your early feedback has been related to photos, so we made some big improvements in that area.  Here’s the list:

  • Drag and Drop Photo Arrangement – We know how much photos matter to your stories. Now you can easily rearrange photos and even drag them to other places. Once you’ve added photos, just click the [rearrange photos] link to open up the reordering pane and then drag and drop thumbnails anywhere. More info here: http://help.tripline.net/?p=427
  • Photo Captions – Pictures are worth 1,000 words, but sometimes you need more. Now you can easily add captions of up to 250 characters to individual photos. Click on a photo thumbnail to open the viewer and then click [edit caption]. More info here: http://help.tripline.net/?p=429
  • Automated Photo Slideshows – There’s a new “Slideshow” Animation Style for each place in your trip. When you choose this option, the player will automatically display a nice slideshow of your photos. More info here: http://help.tripline.net/?p=431
  • 5 MB Photo Uploads – We’ve upped the size of images you can upload from your computer to 5MB (previously 4MB) More info here: http://help.tripline.net/?p=447
  • Maps With No Lines – You can now create a map that doesn’t display lines between places. This is particularly useful for the food bloggers and travel guide creators out there who create Top 10 lists etc. Look for this option in the Editor. It’s called “Display Style” More info here: http://help.tripline.net/?p=433
  • Updated Player Experience – We’ve made some big updates to the player, making the play button more visible and greatly improving the display of photos. Slideshow mode is awesome.
  • Photo Bug Fixes – We fixed several bugs related to photos. Most noticeably you’ll be able to open newly added images without refreshing the page and new images/captions will immediately show up in the player.
  • Static Map Images – You can now access a static image of your Tripline map by clicking on [map image] in the stats section of the trip page below the trip description.

A reminder to Google Chrome users: If you’re using Adblock, the photoviewer on the trip page won’t get the correct image sizes and will appear a little broken.  This is a known issue with Adblock and they’re working on a fix.  For now, the workaround is to add “tripline.net” to the Excluded Sites list in Ad Block options.

Thanks again for all the great suggestions, there’s even more cool stuff on the way soon. As always, if you need to get in touch with us, send an email to support@tripline.net

– Byron

Week 4, more new features: import from Gowalla, add photos from Picasa, bio and links on user profiles, automatic links in text fields + bug fixes

It’s been another busy week at Tripline HQ. About an hour ago, we released an update to the site that includes the following:

  • Import from Gowalla – You can now connect your Tripline account to Gowalla and import your checkins and trips. It’s another great way to tell your stories. More information here: http://help.tripline.net/gowalla
  • Import photos from Picasa – You can now import photos from Picasa!   Lots of people were asking for this so we’re happy we were able to get it done quickly.  Just click the camera icon on the trip page and Picasa is the second tab, right in between Flickr and Facebook.  Note that Picasa provides access to very large images, so some of your pics may fill the screen.  We’re thinking about limiting the displayed size, so let us know what you think:  http://help.tripline.net/contact-support
  • Improved photo upload – We were seeing some issues with our photo upload process that were causing incomplete uploads in certain cases and broken trips in other cases.  We’ve fixed the problems and improved the upload process a bit.  Note, you’ll still need to refresh the page before newly uploaded photos will play in a slideshow.
  • Bio and links on profile pages – You can now add a short bio and links to your user profile.  Go to http://www.tripline.net/myaccount to enter a bio.  You can add links right on your profile page.  Perfect place for links to your blog, or your profile on other social networks.
  • Links in text fields – Now when you enter links in trip descriptions, place descriptions comments and reviews, they will be automatically turned into clickable links.

Have fun people, we’re back to work on more stuff now 🙂