Author: byron

Hi folks, Byron here with an exciting announcement. We’ve replaced our old Flash player with a new 100% Javascript version. Here it is:

I released it late Monday night, and it was just in time. Google shut off the Flash maps API right on schedule on Tuesday the 2nd. If you were using the IFRAME embed code for the old player, the new player will display automatically in its place. If you were using OBJECT embed code, you’ll see an error message in the old player…you’ll have to grab updated embed code from your map page.

Cool new stuff

Here’s a short summary of what’s new and some helpful hints.

1. 100% Javascript, will display on mobile devices
2. Styled maps with a nicer blue for water
3. New control bar, step next/previous, first/last, zoom, full screen
4. Keyboard controls!! Use the left/right arrows on your keyboard to navigate place to place, [enter] to open/close the photo gallery, left right arrows to navigate photos, [esc] to close the photo gallery and reset the map
5. New photo gallery with super simple navigation and larger photo display
6. Fully responsive (grab the responsive embed code on the map page to get the responsive/fluid map on your own site)

What’s not there (yet)

1. Line animation
2. Soundtrack/audio

Overall, I’m happy with it as a first release. I really thought I’d miss the animation dearly, but I’ve actually found the keyboard controls and manual skipping from place to place to be more engaging. I think the animation was fun for the first few waypoints, but it wasn’t the most engaging experience. I still do miss the coolness of the moving line, so I’m thinking about ways to build it in to the new player in a smarter way. I know lots of you loved the animation (and the soundtrack option), so let me know what you think in the comments. Bonus points if you find a bug.

Enjoy!

Byron@Tripline

Hi folks. Byron from Tripline here with an announcement of an upcoming change to the Tripline player.

As of September 2nd, Google is turning off their Maps API for Flash. This means I have no choice but to retire the current Flash-based Tripline map player and replace it with a Javascript version. I’ll be deploying a release with those changes at the end of August.

The Javascript version will have limited animation capabilities at first. I’ve been working on a new animation framework, but haven’t been able to get the experience as smooth as it is in Flash, so I’ve decided that the best approach is to release a simplified experience first, and continue developing the animation until I can get it working well. You can expect a series of releases this fall with those changes and more.

If you’re using our embedded maps on your own website, I’m working on a fix that will allow iframe-based embeds to display correctly without any changes. Object-based embeds may not work, so if you’re using those, you’ll need to replace your old embed code once we release the update at the end of August. I’ll share more info on that in the next few weeks.

I realize that changes like this can be frustrating, but we’re dependent on Google’s maps platform in this case, and we have to roll with the changes they make. Longer term, there are quite a few benefits from migrating to a pure Javascript framework (e.g., visibility of Tripline maps on mobile devices), so I think the net difference will be a positive one.

Also, in case you didn’t know, it’s just me working on the product at night and on the weekends, so please be patient as we go through this change. It’s going to be good.

Thanks for understanding, and look out for more updates over the next few weeks.

Safe travels,

Byron@Tripline

tl;dr: Google is turning off their Maps API for Flash on September 2nd, so Tripline is retiring their Flash-based map player at the end of August and replacing with a Javascript version. More info soon.

Check out the video below from the Institute For Transport Studies @ The University Of Leeds

Newsmappers has created a great map of the Space Shuttle Endeavor’s final journey to Los Angeles, including photos and videos from the cross-country trip, the epic flyover of California landmarks and details of the overland route from LAX to the California Science Center next month.  Check it out:

We just launched a small release tonight with a few notable features:

1. We added the Facebook friend map to the main site (previously it was only available in our Facebook app).  If you’ve connected your Tripline account to Facebook, you’ll now see a [Load Friend Map] button on the logged in home page.  Click on this to display a map of your Facebook and Tripline friends, including:
   • Latest checkins around the globe
   • Tripline maps in progress
   • All Tripline maps with friends
   • Where your Facebook friends live now
   • Where your Facebook friends grew up
2. We changed the activity feed on the home page to load asynchronously (you know, the “Loading…” text with a spinner).  Our activity feed is getting pretty active these days, so loading asynchronously will speed up initial page load time quite a bit.
3. The mobile app now loads your past 25 maps instead of 15
4. We also fixed several other small bugs

That’s it for now.  We’re continuing to work on more features, so as always, email support@tripline.net if there’s something you’d like us to do, or if you’re having any trouble.

Byron