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PuzzlePicnic Update
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Author Message
Maarten


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Joined: 22/12/2006 20:10:10
Messages: 619
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Dear puzzle fan,

PuzzlePicnic has just been updated! Well, that's nothing new: it happened before. But we decided that it might be a good idea to give our members and visitors some insight into what's happening behind the scenes, and for that purpose each new update will now be accompanied by a post on the forum describing what actually changed.

... which is not altogether too exciting for the current update, since this is mainly a bugfix update. So without further ado, here are the changes.

New Features
  • Clickable histograms
    The bars in the puzzle histograms on our statistics pages are now links to the puzzles page, where the puzzles that were represented by the bar are shown. Also at the top of each statistics page, a bar representing all puzzles on that page has been added.
  • Messages to accepted puzzles
    Judges can now directly post messages to the authors of puzzles that have already been accepted, or are stored in the silo.

    Fixed Bugs
  • Difficulty stats
    The lists of puzzles by difficulty on the statistics pages now show up correctly.
  • Sorting puzzle selections
    Sorting on the puzzles page now works correctly, no matter what combination of selections is made.
  • Profile link
    The username in the top right corner of the website for users who are logged in is now correctly capitalised, and always links to your profile.
  • Estimated difficulty
    The estimated difficulty of puzzles that authors can see on the statistics page of their puzzles is no longer sometimes zero.
  • New genre dates
    When a new genre is added to the site, existing puzzles in that genre that are not yet published no longer get dated to the current date.
  • Maarten


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    Joined: 22/12/2006 20:10:10
    Messages: 619
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    We have just done another update. Again, most changes took place behind the scenes. The most important change is a new communication method, that hopefully solves many of the problems that several users experienced when checking their solutions for correctness. Here is the full list of visible changes.

    Fixed Bugs
  • Warnings for unverified puzzles
    Some puzzles incorrectly had a warning that they had not yet been verified. This has been corrected: now the warning is only shown if the puzzle really has not been verified.
  • Puzzle selections
    The puzzle selections are now not only stored correctly when sorting, but also when going to the next page!
  • Images
    Images attached to judge messages (for authors) now show the right content.
  • New communication mechanism
    The applet now has two communication mechanisms instead of one. It is now possible to communicate (sometimes asynchronously) via Javascript. This hopefully solves the notorious Firefox-bug.
  • Cookie storing
    The puzzle cookies are no longer overwritten by static applets (such as the ones on the page to edit your puzzles).
  • "Discuss this puzzle"-link
    There has been a change in policy for the Puzzle Feedback forum. From now on, only members are allowed to open topics on this forum via the puzzle-page. Naturally, the link to an already open topic is available for all visitors.


  • Thierry


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    Joined: 22/12/2006 20:42:47
    Messages: 578
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    Being unsatisfied with the current prints of the puzzles, the main focus of this update has been a redesign of the puzzle prints.

    New Features
  • Our logo on the prints
    Maarten redesigned the layout of the print page, which now has the PuzzlePicnic logo on top.
  • Multiple puzzles per page
    In the new design, it is possible to put multiple puzzles in the same genre on one page. The BatchPrinter (e.g. the printing-applet on the puzzles page) now automatically assigns puzzles to pages. Up to four puzzles of the same genre are now printed on the same (face of a) page, unless the puzzles themselves are too large. This is sometimes the case with nonograms.
  • MyPuzzles page
    The MyPuzzles page now uses paging within each section, so people with many puzzles won't have a very slow page anymore.
  • Inactive genres
    Judges now have the right to create puzzles in inactive genres. Furthermore, there is a new possible genre state "in development" to indicate that a genre is not yet finalised. The genre portal and studio are changed accordingly.
  • About page
    We now mention the forum as the place to ask questions, and we thank our judges.
  • Links
    There is a new link to cut-the-knot.
  • Current page
    The links in the lower right for puzzles, genres and users (e.g. puzzle | edit | remove | stats) are now shown as normal text for the current page, and only as links for other pages.

    Fixed Bugs
  • Printing from design applet
    There were some problems with scaling when printing from an applet in design mode, which have hopefully been resolved now.
  • Correct number of pages
    The print dialog now shows the correct number of pages (instead of 1~9999 as it was before).
  • Ability to specify page format
    The user can now specify the page format (e.g. A4 instead of letter) before printing.
  • Printing multiple puzzles
    There was a bug with the new communication that caused puzzles not to show up when printing multiple puzzles.
  • Printing cogwheels
    Cogwheels on prints now appear correct (no grey square over the wheels).
  • Thumbnail images
    We now use a better scaling algorithm, so the stored images will look nice no matter what resolution image you feed to the server (as long as it's at least 80x80, of course). We also store the images as png instead of jpeg now.


  • How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
    Maarten


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    Joined: 22/12/2006 20:10:10
    Messages: 619
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    As you probably already noticed from the layout of the front page, PuzzlePicnic has been updated again.

    New Features
  • Redesign
    The front page now features a two-column design, for better visibility of the news entries. The same is true for several other pages, such as the genres page, the news page, and the links page. Additionally, the puzzle page now has a more intuitive navigation system.

    Fixed Bugs
  • Slow loading of puzzle page
    The puzzle page (the most important page of the website) was starting to load very slow, especially for genres with many puzzles. This issue has been fixed.
  • "Solved" mark
    On the puzzle page, the "solved" mark now appears immediately after solving a puzzle.
  • Spokes alignment
    Some Spokes puzzles were shown with too much empty space around them. This does not happen anymore.
  • Thierry


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    Joined: 22/12/2006 20:42:47
    Messages: 578
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    A new version of Puzzlepicnic has been released.

    New Features
  • Redesign of puzzle page. The images in the bottom of the puzzle page indicate which puzzles the user has already solved. Navigating between puzzles in the same genre has been simplified further.

    Fixed Bugs
  • Some users have reported problems starting the puzzle applet. Apparently, the puzzle applet would not load correctly unless a Java 6 plugin was used. Mac users seemed to be affected especially by this problem. This should be resolved now.

  • How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
    Thierry


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    Joined: 22/12/2006 20:42:47
    Messages: 578
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    We've been working hard behind the scenes on some exciting new features! Our main goals were adding nice community features (for instance, seeing who's online) and making Puzzlepicnic more customizable for members.

    New features
  • The homepage shows members that are currently online
  • More intuitive genre selection in the studio
  • Tooltips containing interesting user facts
  • New user preferences. You can customize more pages to your liking. For instance, it is possible to enlarge the puzzle on the puzzle page (useful for bigger screens).
  • A number of interesting facts and trends have been added to the stats page
  • More member information available, such as what genres they like
  • User registration more smooth

  • How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
    Johan


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    Joined: 22/12/2006 20:08:51
    Messages: 1046
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    As a further clarification of what Thierry said: There are now more options in your profile to regulate what personal information you would like to share (on your profile, in the stats) and what you would like to keep to yourself.
    ebar7207



    Joined: 27/10/2010 03:01:29
    Messages: 1
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    It doesn't seem to save your completed puzzles on OSX anymore? Has anyone seen this? Must be an incompatibility with the Java version?
    ERANUS



    Joined: 17/05/2010 11:04:14
    Messages: 106
    Location: Israel
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    I used to use the main stats page to see quickly if there are any unsolved puzzles in the generes that I solve (There are many generes that I've not solved a single puzzle from). Whether I solved all the puzzles of a particular genere was immediately evident form the completey filled/unfilled bars. With the update, you only get info on the larger puzzle, thus I can;y see for instance that I've not yet solved the new walls from today, is there any way to expand the statistics on the geners (By pressing a button), to include all the generes, I don't need it in the temporal graph, just in the bars.
    Forseti



    Joined: 20/01/2010 22:41:50
    Messages: 113
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    I used that view as well.

    And since this is also the suggestions forum, here's one! Maybe the '(xx more)' note at the bottom of the list could be made a link to a page with the full view?
    bartus


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    Joined: 09/03/2008 19:47:10
    Messages: 23
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    I also would like the personal genre/solved statistics back.
    Thierry


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    Joined: 22/12/2006 20:42:47
    Messages: 578
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    We've released a new version of the site. A number of nasty bugs have been fixed. Also, we recreated certain well-liked statistics as requested by Bartus, Forseti and Eranus.

    New Features
  • Re-enabled personal genre/solved statistics
  • Expanded bar statistics to encompass all genres
  • Puzzle removal from sandbox for non-admins
  • Added Eranus to judge list on about page.

    Fixed Bugs
  • Hiding online/offline status from other users did not work
  • Editing puzzles in the studio
  • New authors didn't always gain author status
  • Logging out twice no longer displays error page


  • How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
    valvino



    Joined: 16/04/2008 20:15:15
    Messages: 46
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    Just a quick message to say I am not able to remove puzzles from my sandbox - should I be able to? It has the option to but when I click it - it comes up that only admins have the priviliage to do so.
    Thierry


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    Joined: 22/12/2006 20:42:47
    Messages: 578
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    Hmmm, that doesn't sound right. I'll put it on the shortlist for the next release and look into it. Thanks for the feedback!

    How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
    anurag.sahay



    Joined: 25/06/2009 11:29:52
    Messages: 179
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    The new bars in puzzle statistics have broken links.They are links to puzzles page.some fixed bugs are not fixed.
     
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