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From WWR

This page is an alternative interface to the Who's Listening 02 page, using the next logical number! I created this page and its template to address a few concerns I had with the previous one:

• The width of the columns was set in stone, making the table inflexible for potentially changing data
• The tables didn't use built in functions of tables such as caption and th (table headers) which do a lot of the presentation work for you.
• The IP addresses and client strings were generally too big/long and stretched the table out
• It was hard to read across one listener, and to tell who it was
• The instructions in the footer made sense, but seemed a bit jumbled up.

I tried to fix what I saw as problems by:

• Using CSS to set the width of the primary table to 100% so it can expand and use the right amount of space for the material dynamically, instead of using fixed sizes that have to be manually changed (see print and web layouts compared)
• Using built in caption and th (table headers) for visual consistency across different browsers, and to reduce the amount of presentation code needed!
• Using thicker lines to separate individual listener entries and making listener names bold
• Using smaller font sizes for the IP addresses and client strings
• Rearranging and rewriting some of the instructions. I tested them on my sister who knows nothing about computers and she said it was a bit easier to understand

Unlike the Choosing a media player page, I chose to stick with regular HTML for the tables instead of using Wiki markup because in this circumstance it really didn't do much to improve readability unlike that other page, plus I know Jim prefers HTML and will probably be editing Who's Listening pages much more often.

Again I'm picky and this change probably really wasn't necessary, that's why I created a new page instead of overwriting the previous one. Would love to get people's feedback. Cheers :-) Ruben (talk/contribs) 09:18, June 13, 2008 (AKDT)

I like your layout, but I do have concerns about your obsession with grilled cheese sandwiches. Kelli (talk/contribs) 10:09, June 13, 2008 (AKDT)

Wow! I am completely blown away! EXCELLENT! Am busy with some other stuff right now so can't reply as long and flowing as I'd like to but wanted to say this: Any of the $wwr variables that you wish would change (i.e. hardcoded HTML in them etc. or if there were new ones you'd like, please let me know. I code them for whatever my immediate needs are as I'm developing. I seldom take into account what other people may want (although I do try to make them as flexible as I can). But if someone is working on a specific page/project and says "Wow - I sure wish there was a variable that counted the number of grilled cheese sandwiches (or even returned a RANDOM number for that)..." well, let me know. I usually enjoy that kind of coding. And, someday, I hope to document all the current $wwr variables. Oh, and since CSS is not something I "think" in naturally, I really appreciate whenever someone who knows their poop comes along and uses it to free my old-fashioned HTML stuff.

Thank you Ruben. Outstanding!

Oh, and we'll probably add this as an optional "skin" like the What's Playing pages. Actually, we'll probably make yours the default and the old one as another "skin". Oh --- and I was thinking the other day that I used to have a way to show "total hours listened" for a user but somehow lost it. If I can, some night for fun, I'll see if I can get that back. Jim (talk/contribs) 10:35, June 13, 2008 (AKDT)

Well done, Ruben! sparx (talk/contribs) 17:43, June 13, 2008 (AKDT)