The new ADF-Serials Pages, A Major Revamp

[Martin Edwards]

Brendan has been busy working on an alternative front page

http://adf-serials.com.au/alt-front-page.shtml

Any comments are welcome

[Brendan Cowan]

Thanks Martin,

Folks this is a prototype front page which is still being refined and I am also working on revamping the next level of pages.

I am trying to make the site a little more visually appealing, logically laid out, and easier for contributors to maintain.

I am keeping some elements of the original look and feel for simplicity and familiarity.

This is the first major change we have had for a long time and something that we have wanted to do for some time.

There are some elements that will need to be fixed as we progress with the upgrade, so we will keep the old pages live as we transition.

Your feedback and suggestions are welcome and sought.

Please bear with us as we work through the revamp.

As with this whole site, it is a volunteer effort undertaken on a time availabilty basis.

For all of our page authors, there is no change for now to the way that you maintain your pages but I am very interested in your feedback and ideas.

Cheers folks!

Brendan Cowan

[Rod Farquhar]

Nice work BC
It has a more modern feel to it.
Rod.

[Brendan Cowan]

Thanks Rod,

On the modern look front, I have tested the page on different devices and screen sizes from mobiles phones, tablets, standard and wide screens and it seems to be holding up OK.

I might just need to swap the positions of the message board and image gallery icons to keep good alignment in smaller formats.

Cheers

BC

[Martin Edwards]

Latest trial version

http://www.adf-serials.com.au/Alternative%20Front%20Page.htm

[Luig]

Looking good, great work. One niggling question though... is there a reason to have Army ahead of Navy in the Oz Aviation World? If no reason then Navy should be first? Navy, Army & Air Force. ?????? :D :rolleyes:

This post has been edited by Luig on Oct 23 2011, 08:48 PM

[Bruce Linwood]

The new page looks great, and everything works well. Good effort, and thanks.

Bruce Linwood

[Brendan Cowan]

Hi Folks,

Sorry for the delay in getting back - I've been away travelling for a few days.

Phil,

You raise a great topic - whether to use the Military order of precedence based on Service foundation date (Navy, before Army before Air Force), the chronology of the formation of Air Arms (CFS, AFC, RAAF, RAN, Army Aviation) or something else to set out the major page icons.

I must admit, I was not sure how to proceed myself on that score and went round a few mental loops!

I come from the purple part of the Defence world myself - so I try to stay as purple as I can!

Then there are the practical layout considerations given the three series of RAAF plus other categories, and even the text sizes under the photo icons have an effect on the page display characteristics in smaller screen formats!

I moved the icons around many times as I was setting this up - so suggestions on the order are welcome. :-)

Bruce,

Thanks for the kind words!

Anyway, I'm moving through an update of the next level of pages and welcome your ideas and feedback as we go!

Pass the word around!

Cheers

BC

[Brendan Cowan]

There are a few more new pages coming, including one the Article XV Squadrons and other RAAF units equipped by the RAAF during WWII and a placeholder research page.

BC

[Dave Masterson]

Just logged into the new look Adf-serials page. Very nice lads, well done :D

[Dave Masterson]

I'm going mad. Now the new page has gone....oh well disregard my last comment :huh: :huh:

[Brendan Cowan]

Hi Dave,

I can assure you that you're quite sane and the page is here:

http://www.adf-serials.com.au/Alternative%20Front%20Page.htm

We still have the old page in place until we finish revamping the second level pages!

Check out the thread here in the ADF-Serials Websites Update forum:

http://www.adf-messageboard.com.au/invboard/index.php?showtopic=1769

Cheers

Brendan

[Martin Edwards]

The old page is now gone.

The new page is now at http://adf-serials.com.au/

and stll available at http://adf-serials.com./

The remnants of the old "split page" are still there for the time being.

[Luig]

Brendan, fair enough about order of stuff. The way the two rows are organised at the moment makes sense and the page looks great.

[Brendan Cowan]

Thanks Phil,

I am working through all of the second level pages and considering turning the second row of buttons into a third row of photo icons when I get a chance.

Then I will add some additional navigation features to the second level pages to help people move around more easily once they move off the front page.

This is still a work in progress and feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Cheers

BC

[Brendan Cowan]

Hi Folks,

Martin and I have a few more updates that we've been working on over the weekend - so standby for the revamped RAN, Other Australian Military Aircraft and About Us pages.

If you are named in the "about us" page (or we have mised you out :o ) - we would love to hear from to make sure that we have you correctly atributed.

Or, if you would like to join or re-join the team and see you name on the site, we'd be only too happy have you on board.

Cheers

Brendan

:D

[Martin Edwards]

Latest versions now on line

http://www.adf-serials.com.au/home.htm

http://www.adf-serials.com.au/ran.htm

http://www.adf-serials.com.au/other.htm


Updated Caribou page

http://www.adf-serials.com/3a4.shtml

[Brendan Cowan]

Hi All,

Martin and I have been blazing away again and some of the latest changes include new:

- Articles, Reseach and Hosted pages which brings back a lot of lost content
- Series 3 Page
- Army Aviation Page
- Holding page for A43 (Series 3)

Plus:

- Home page updates to simplify the button structure (most are now picked up on the Articles, Reseach and Hosted pages, page)
- We are turing the ADF-Logo into a home page link on all pages as we go through the updates

Thanks too to Batman who is researching the data for the RQ-7B Sentinal 200 UAV.

If you are one of our past contributors to the research page, please let us know if we have presented your material correctly or would like to update it.

If you would like to adopt a page, contribute some research or join the team - we'd be happy to hear from you.

Cheers

Brendan

[Brendan Cowan]

UPDATE

Just to update you all on the updates, Martin & I have recently:

- Reintroduced "Crash Sites & Memorials" as well as the "Links" to the front page. Look out for my corny visual pun on the links page. I have yet to test every one of the links, so sing out if you find that any are broken, or if you want to suggest some more.

- Updated the "Newsletter", "Source Documents", "Crash Sites & Memorials", "Contact Us", "Copyright & Disclaimer", "Team Login" pages as well as most of the other 2nd Level pages behinf the front page photo icons - so that phase is nearly complete.

- We have some special plans in the pipeline for the "Image Gallery" page - so that will take us a litttle longer - stay tuned.

- Made a huge update of the material in the "Articles, Research & Hosted Pages" section. Thanks to Jos Heyman for the update of the NEI page - check it out for yourself!

- We are now working through some of the long neglected aircraft type pages and bringing them up to the new standard - and I am giving all of my pages a work over with new material included in some of them.

Some of the pages updated so far include:

Airco DH-5
Airco DH-6
Avro 504 (Major content workover)
Bristol F-2 Fighter
Bristol Scout
Curtiss Jenny
Handley Page 0/400
Sopwith Snipe
Fairey Battle
Airspeed Oxford
Supermarine Swift

We are going through updating about five or more pages per day as time permits.

Alongside that effort, Martin has been uploading batches of new images to accompany the updated pages.

You will notice for all of these pages that our logo is now a link to the home page to help you move through the site more smoothly.

In short, a lot of progress has been made over the last week or so and there is more to come.

Let us know what you think about the changes - we'd love to hear from you.

Also, if you have new material or would like to chip in - now is good time!

Cheers

Brendan

[Rod Farquhar]

Brendan,
The new team log in has a glitch.
Using the link from the home page brings up the log in box but it does not remember your user name/password or log you in when you enter them manually.
You have to use the log in link along the top then the old log in box comes up, it works.
Rod.

[Martin Edwards]

I must point out that Brendan has been the dynamo behind these changes!
(Sometimes I struggle to just keep up with uploading all his updates ) ;)
With a job of this massive size there will be a couple of hiccups but we are working as hard as possible to iron them out.

[Brendan Cowan]

Rod,

Thanks for poiting that out - we've cooked up a fix which we hope will rectify that that Martin will post up when gets a spare moment.

Let us know if that works for you - and if you spot anything else - you know how to find us!

Poor Martin has been coping a barrage of changes from me and doing an excellent job in keeping quality control, uploading, and keeping the flow of images going too.

I've been rushing this a bit, as I have some overseas travel coming up with work in a few weeks - so that will give everyone a breather.

B)

Martin,

You're too kind - I know that you are putting a lot of hours into this change too!

BTW, I've just sent another few updated pages for:

Martinsyde Elephant + Two Photos
RAF BE.2
RAF BE.12
Sopwith 1 ½ Strutter


;)

BC

[Martin Edwards]

Log in glitch fixed
http://www.adf-serials.com.au/team.htm

[Luig]

Fanks for all the hard work on revamp of the site. One niggly thing on the RAN A4G page at: http://www.adf-serials.com.au/n13.shtml Please scroll to the end to see:

"Articles on RAN Aircraft by Phil Thompson previously here are now located at; http://hosted.filefront.com/SpazSinbad"

This is no longer the case [& 'a4ghistory.com' no longer available]. There have been a few hiccups with my A4G websites over this year - now for forseeable future the main website will be:

http://www.adf-history.com/adf/?cat=7

I might add the webmaster there at 'adf-history.com' (contactable via the website - and it is not me) would be interested in hosting large files that anyone might generate.

Thanks again. Another website with smaller than 100Mb files is at:
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=cbcd63d6340707e6&sa=761824345

Perhaps that info could be added also please? I think the SkyDrive page will last the longest probably but 'adf-history.com' has been going for years now with occasional (now fixed) problems.

This post has been edited by Luig on Nov 12 2011, 10:55 PM

[Rod Farquhar]

Thanks Martin and Brendan, team log in now works as advertised.
Rod.

[Martin Edwards]

Hi Phil
Link changed on Skyhawk page
http://www.adf-serials.com.au/n13.shtml

[Brendan Cowan]

Hi everyone,

We are still motoring along with the site updates.

Martin and I have almost completed bringing the AFC section up to the new standard and have added several new photo galleries (with more to come).

Pages updatde over the last few days include:

RAF R.E.8
RAF S.E.5a
Maurice Farman MF.11 Shorthorn
Sopwith 3F.2 Buffalo
Sopwith F.1 Camel
Sopwith Pup
Sopwith Snipe 4
Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter

I'm quite amazed by the new images from this era which also include many that I had never sighted before.

Thanks to Martin Edwards , Ken Rowland and John Parker for their contributions - I've thrown in a few from the collection too.

Batman's new A43 Shadow UAV page is coming along nicely and we have more to follow.

With Gordon Birkett pumping out the new ADF-Serials Telegraph, we have updated that page with an intro (thanks Gordy) and we have an "Out Now" link on the front page of the website.

If you'd like to join in the effort, please let us know!

Cheers

Brendan

[Brendan Cowan]

Hi Everyone,

Martin & I are still proceeding on our update.

Some current activities include:

1) Batman has assembling some new material for our DH.9a, S.E.5a, Avro 504, Sopwith Pup and DH.9 pages - Thanks Batman!

2) We are hatching some new plans for our NZ Serials pages - so stay tuned.

3) Image gallery links are being added to the AFC Section.

4) I am updating our "Links" page again to remove or repair broken links, add new material and improve the layout - let us know if you would like to see any new websites added!

Cheers

BC

[Brendan Cowan]

Thanks too to Rod for the new images!

;)

BC

[Luig]

Thanks Martin for changing the link to more RAN FAA material.

[Brendan Cowan]

To All,

Today Darren registered a new domain for our New Zealand content at http://www.nzdf-serials.co.nz. Thanks Darren!

The page currently points to our new front page at http://www.adf-serials.com.au/nzaircraft.htm

Thanks to Martin Edwards for the idea and Les Billcliff and Tony McDonald for the input.

We thought that an equivalent domain name would make sense for people looking for NZ content - especially those resident on those islands!

Stand by for further developments!

As ever, your suggestions and contributions are always welcome.

Cheers

Brendan