OK - last night I have deployed to small VPS run-n-share code. As I wrote I have no backup so all routes are lost. I have just bumped routes ids to 500 (there were over 300 routes in old site) so old links won’t be to new routes.
Welcome back Run-N-Share!
Hard to believe, but it looks like Run-N-Share is back to life. Even I have thought it is over.
First a bit of explanation. On the begining of this year server where RNS was hosted have died. Unfortunately backup process was planned as a backup not as an backup and restore ;) It have turned out that backup copies are useless. Damn, but it was very low priority project for me so I did not have devoted more time to it.
I was planing to shutdown it completely, but when I got email from GoDaddy with info about run-n-share.com going to expire I can not let it go. Why? It was (it is!) project where I have learned Ruby on Rails and it was event which in result lead me first to start freelancing career and recently to run Arduino related business (shop for now but maybe it will turn into something bigger with time).
As a first step I have recovered this blog (backup was OK in this case, just RNS database went into oblivion). Next I plan to redeploy RNS site into new place.
Today new version of Run-N-Share was deployed. Application was upgarded to current Rails. This should be internal thing, but has impact on features of RNS. Right now Facebook integration is suspended.
Why? RFacbooker gem used to integrate RNS with Facbook does not work with Rails 2.3. As for now features using Facebook does not work. I plan to replace RFacebook with Facebooker gem. RFacebook’s development has stoped, so there is no hope for version compatible with Rails 2.3 and further.
There are two good news. First I did small redesign of route add page and edit page to make them more readable and less cluttered. Second thing - with new Rails multilanguage support I have started translating application interface into second language - Polish. Currently only home page got translated, but work is in progress. You can check home page in Polish.
There was small bug with code responsible for generating GPX files for download. As result newer routes couldn’t be downloaded.
Now this is fixed. And, yes RNS is not dead :)
All users using keep me logged option should notice better behavior when log in from a cookie is really used. Instead redirecting to /home in each case, RNS will redirect to this URL only when You were heading to home page. If You are returning to some particular route page You won’t be redirected.
RNS is currently going internal redesign. Some things not seen at first glance by users need to be fixed, then I will add some new features. So stay tuned, there will be something new in near future.
I can say a little about plans. First, I want to make RNS more social oriented site, so expect to get new features which will enable You to interact more with other RNS users.
Recently I did some simple usability testing on RNS and result was not good - main problem for new users landing on RNS home page was that they don’t know what this site is about and what to do next.
So I did attempt to create landing page more friendly to newcomers - new landing page tries to explain what is RNS about, and how to use it. After You log in You will be redirected to old main page (routes browsing).
I’m waiting for Your opinions about new home page
RNS got small feature update - now RNS can remember You are logged across browser restart (using cookie). So You can be logged in automatically when You return to RNS.
Few minor bugs in layout were also removed (they were seen in Opera), now main page should be rendered in Opera much better.
I have just pushed code update to RNS. From user perspective there is one significant change. HTML code snippet to embed routes in other webpages has changed.
Usage did not changed, just go to page for particular route, there is HTML code snippet to copy and paste it to Your webpage.
First - widget is generated with IFRAME tag only (previous version was generated with JavaScript and IFRAME) so it will be rendered much faster since when processing page browser does not need wait for JavaScript to download and run from RNS server. Browser can advance and render page and iframe will be displayed when all data will be downloaded.
Second - footer for widget now contains link to RNS site as earlier and link to page with embedded route.
Old HTML code (based on JS) will still work, so if You have some embedded routes You don’t need to take any actions (unless You want to speed up rendering - then replace HTML code snippet).
Sharing routes with Run-N-Share become even more simpler! Starting from today each route can be downloaded in GPS friendly format - GPX.
On each page with route there is link called GPS to download GPX file. I don’t own any GPS enabled device, so it is hard to test it, but I was able to upload files from RNS to several applications. Besides, GPX file is generated with excellent GPS Babel, which is definitely must have for each GPS user (and is free since it is open source software).
Here is screenshot of RNS with GPS link outlined:
As I said, I don’t own GPS device to test it in real application - if You have own device and can test it I would like to hear any feedback from You! Leave a comment on blog or write email to info@run-n-share.com.
