Website Changes - January 2022 - Dingle Hillwalking Club

Introduction

We are happy to announce that we have made numerous changes to the club’s website to improve its usability, responsiveness and appearance. To ensure you can find the information you are looking for, please read the following overview of these changes.

Header and Footer with New Logo

To make the site easier to navigate, we have created a real header and footer that are identical on all pages.

The header contains both a new logo and a new site-wide navigation menu. (This menu replaces the previous conglomeration of menus that displayed different content depending on the page you were on and even on the device you used to access the website with.) In addition, the new menu is automatically optimized for different screen sizes, such as those on cell phones and laptops.

Furthermore, the site-wide footer contains a button you can click to jump to the top of the page, where you can easily access the navigation menu.

Search Functionality

We have also added a search field to the header on every page. This allows you to search descriptions for a specific walk, both those that are coming in the future and those that have already taken place. Just begin typing in the search field and suggestions will start to pop up from which you can select. You can also type in a word and press Enter. This will take you to a list of walks that use the same key word. For in-depth help about how to search, click on the question mark next to the field. This will take you to an explanation page with specific examples.

Membership Renewal Form

At the request of the committee, we have separated the Membership Renewal Form from the page with information for people who are interested in becoming members.

To access the form, click on the Join Us item on the navigation bar. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the button that says “Renew Existing Membership.” Upon doing so, you will be asked for a password. (This is an easy to remember password that will be sent soon to all members.) When you insert your password, you will have access to the Membership Renewal Form for a certain period of time (currently 2 days). After this period, you will need to use the password again to access the form.

List of Upcoming Walks and Their Descriptions

To make editing, managing and displaying walk descriptions faster and easier, the full description of every walk will now be published as a separate blog post.

You can access the blog posts by clicking on or hovering over the Walks menu item and then on and then on the submenu item Upcoming Walks. Doing so will take you to a page that lists all upcoming walks that have been planned to date. The walks are displayed in reverse chronological order, beginning with the most current walk at the top of the list.

(Note that the listing for the current walk will automatically disappear from the page at midnight of the day on which the walk will take place. However, you can always access any walk description by using the search bar.)

Following is a screenshot of a recent entry from the Upcoming Walks list:

Screenshot of the top of the walks list — Recent Entry from the Upcoming Walks list

To read the blog post containing a complete description of the walk, simply click on the image, the title of the walk, or the Show Walk Description button.

Following is an example of a full post:

Screenshot of the walk description — Walk description

New Additions to the Description Page

Notice that the Walk Description blog post has two new buttons: Hiking Grades and Show Maps.

Hiking Grades

The Hiking Grades button takes you to a table that displays the differences between walks rated from A to D. At the bottom of this table is a button titled Hiking Requirements. This takes you directly to the section on the Home page that lists all of the things you need to bring with you on a walk.

Show Maps

This button takes you to a page that enables you to see exactly where each route begins and what the terrain is like. Whenever possible, we plan to display a map of the starting point, a map of the walking route, and an elevation graphic for every walk. In some cases, however, all three maps may not be available. If no map is available, the “Show Maps” button will be invisible.

(Note that the Maps page is password protected using the same password as that used for the Membership Renewal Form. Once you have logged in using the password, you will have access to both pages.)

Following is an example of one of the maps on the Maps page:

Screenshot of the maps page — Google map of start point

On a smartphone, you can click on the link View Larger Map to begin navigating to the start point using the Google Maps app.

Galleries of Walk Photos

Following is a discussion of changes made to the galleries of walk photos.

Walk Photos on the Description Page

The previous gallery page was extremely slow and would have continued to become even slower as more and more galleries were added. To resolve this issue, we have decided to create a gallery for each walk instead and to place it at the end of the Walk Description blog post for that walk. This change also enables you to see the beautiful landscapes you will experience when you go on this walk.

List/Archive Page of Walk Photos

To make it easier for you to find photos from a particular walk, we have created a separate list/archive page that displays one photo from every walk, along with the walk title. To access this page, click on or hover over the Walks menu item and then on the submenu item Walk Photos. (Note that the list is in reverse chronological order, with the most recent walk at the top of the list.)

Beneath the title of the walk on this page is a button that says Show Walk Photos. If you click on this button, it will take you directly to the photo gallery that is located at the bottom of this Walk Description page.

Gallery Menu Item

The Gallery menu item now brings you to a page consisting of one photo gallery that gives you an overview of walks the club has taken over the years. (This gallery, previously called “Over the Years – A Collection,” used to be displayed at the top of the old gallery page.)

New Gallery Format

The galleries are now in a new format that displays nicely arranged thumbnails of all photos. The following screenshot is an example:

Screenshot of walk photo gallery — Walk photos

If you hover over any of the photo thumbnails the mouse pointer changes to a loupe icon. If you then click on the thumbnail, a lightbox displays the full size of the photo and you can browse through all full size photos of the gallery. Alternatively you can click on the slideshow button to have the photos change automatically.

Walk Reports

From now on walk reports can be made available for members only by attaching a PDF document to the walk description. If at least one document has been uploaded, a button named Show Reports will appear in the walk description. By clicking it, a page will open in a new window (you might have to enter the password mentioned before from time to time to access it). Over time it will display all the walk reports for this walk over the years in a gallery similar to the walk photos. If you click on one of them, you can read, download or print it.

News Blog

We have also created a News Blog that will bring you useful and interesting information going forward. (The news item you are currently reading is the first article published via this feature.)

Extras

There is new menu item named Extras, currently with only one submenu item, giving you access to a page with information about Hiking Safety. Currently there are some interesting YouTube videos about this topic on it. You can play them full screen, access it and more information on YouTube or even cast it to your TV for a better experience.

In the future, more informational material on hillwalking can be provided to you by publishing additional pages.

Uploading Walk Photos

Under the Walks menu item you will find a submenu item Walk Photo Upload, which gives you the opportunity to upload some of your best walk photos of the most recent walk.

Out of those photos not more than 30 (there can be exceptions) will be selected, optimized for the website and uploaded to a photo gallery at the end of the walk description. If it is not a new walk, some existing photos could be replaced by newer ones or all of them could just be left as they are.

This possibility will make it easier to get new photos published and will improve the quality of the photos as opposed to getting WhatsApp photos from the phone to the computer and then uploaded. The process for you will be pretty much the same as posting to WhatsApp or Facebook.

By the way the photos are protected from being copied by somebody from the website. Just try to right click for downloading. You will get a message that the content is protected.

Other Minor Changes

In addition to the major changes, various small changes – some visible and some behind the scenes – have been made to improve website appearance, remove redundancies, improve consistency, increase loading speed and improve overall behavior.

The website has also been made compliant with web standards like WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) to make it easier for people with handicaps, such as color blindness, to use the website. In addition, the site has been optimized for performance and now receives a high score on Google Page Insights. (Making improvements in these areas is an ongoing, ever-changing process.) In the near future, the overall page design will also receive a facelift.

The author of a post will also be able to share the post to Facebook, Whatsapp, Email or other social media by using the buttons at the end of the post. This is mainly intended for the author of the article to publish to the Dingle Hillwalking Club Facebook page, the internal Whatsapp list or the Email list of club members to reach as many members as possible.

We welcome your comments about these changes, as well as your suggestions for additional improvements. To share them with us, simply leave a comment on this post.

Website Changes – January 2022