FrontierNav Weekly: 26 October 2020
Changes
FrontierNav has a new logo! I'll share more on this in a post later this week.
Page headings are now larger.
The "Up" button in page headings is now a more traditional "Back" icon and is placed left of the heading title.
- It's worth mentioning that this back button still behaves like an "Up" button. It does not go back to the last page you were at, but rather the parent of the current page. For example, when viewing a Map, pressing Back will take you to the Map List.
- The reason why it was changed to a "Back" button was to match recognisable interface layouts. The "Up" button is not something most people are familiar with nowadays.
- You can still use your web browser or phone's back button for the more expected universal "Back" button behaviour.
Autosaves are now run in the background to avoid freezing the page when compressing large amounts of data.
Various fixes to sidebar layout on some pages.
The website now preconnects to the assets server (images, data, etc.) for a noticeable improvement in load times.
Interactive Maps
- Fixed bug causing custom markers to be placed when pressing buttons overlayed on map (e.g. zoom).
- Notes button overlayed on map no longer shows "0" count.
- The Back button now correctly takes you to the Map List.
Data Tables
- Removed tab-based navigation in favour of using consistent page heading.
- Often there are so many tables that tab navigation becomes tedious and misleading. It's faster to search for the table.
- Added Table List page to easily see all available tables without searching.
Final Fantasy XVI
- Added known data from the official website.
- Added interactive map.
Patreon
- I've simplified the tiers on Patreon in accordance to recommendations. There are now 3 tiers instead of 6.
- Benefits aren't very different right now anyway so this doesn't change much. All patrons regardless of tier and contribution amount get the same benefits, with the option to be more visible in shout-outs (these posts, sponsors page, etc.).
Maintenance
- Upgraded to React 17 and new JSX API (TypeScript not yet supported).
- Upgraded to Node 14 (newest LTS)
- Removed recompose usages.
- Removed some legacy uses of prop-types in favour of TypeScript.
- Preparation for Webpack 5, still waiting on some third-party plugin support.
Support the project
This week, FrontierNav has 1 new anonymous patron!
Thank you to this month's patrons!
Michael Rademakers, cd, Sebastian Tasto, Chuang Sing Kee, 777, Aloftheabove, Roadrunnerto, Nightshade, Mario Carmona, Pussel W, yeili, Ghil and 3 anonymous patrons.
If you would like to support FrontierNav, please consider donating on Patreon. Doing so helps fund development and keeps the project going. Thank you.
Breadcrumbs
It's been a bit difficult to find a nice design for presenting Breadcrumbs. I don't want it to take up too much screen space and it needs to seemlessly work on mobile too.
The solution right now is to increase the height of the page headings a bit to increase visibility and provide a conventional "Back" button. This is essentially following the trail of breadcrumbs backwards without making the crumbs explicitly visible. The downside is that it's not always obvious where "Back" will take you before pressing it.
There's definitely more to think about but overall I'm happy with where it's going. Last month's goal on improving navigation is on the right track for future iteration.
Next Up
There's still some breadcrumbs and navigation improvements to finish off. I've also had some requests to add data for Xenoblade 2. So I'll get those out of the way on the odd day.
Completion tracking will be the main focus this month. It'd be nice to finish polishing Custom Lists and better integrate it into FrontierNav's flow. I'll have more details next week.
Thanks for reading.