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New version of web-client available for testing Seeking your feedback and bug reports!

#1 User is offline   fred 

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Posted 2009-September-23, 11:40

We are hoping to officially release a new version of the BBO web-client soon, but we thought it might be smart to give Forums regulars a chance to see the new version and send us their comments before we announce an official release.

You can try the new version by clicking the yellow link on this temporarily launch page (but please read the next several paragraphs at some point!):

Link to temporary web-client launch page

Please post feedback and bug reports in this thread:

Link to feedback thread

Alternatively, please feel free to send me your thoughts by e-mail (fred@bridgebase.com).

The main reason we are announcing this to Forums before making an official release (something we don't normally do) is because the new version contains a relatively dramatic change in the user interface. We want to know your reaction to this as well as how best to explain the change to the general BBO membership.

This change tries to address the number one complaint we get from users of the Windows client who try out the web-client: the cards are too small. This problem is especially serious for people with at most 1024x768 screen resolution (a big % of our members).

The main reason the cards appear smaller on such computers is that the web-client's equivalent of the Windows client's "MOVIE window" was always on the screen in the default configuration of the web-client. This meant less horizontal space for the cards and thus smaller cards in the web-client.

The default configuration in the new version of the web-client is different - now the table surface takes up the entire horizontal extent of the window that the web-client resides in. The cards are much bigger as a result.

However, we are a little concerned that some people may have trouble figuring out how to get the list of results to appear. There are actually 2 new ways to do this:

1) A "tab strip" at the very right side of the screen replaces the buttons that used to be at the top-right of the screen (for toggling between "who's online" and "my results").

2) A "results" button below the table surface toggles between results appearing or not.

We are interested in knowing: Is this relatively intuitive? Do you think we have to try to make it more obvious (perhaps by making the new "results" button below the table stand out more)? Is the way I explained how to show/hide the results area sufficient? This last question is important because we will want to try to explain this to all web-client users (in the lobby news for example) in a concise and clear way.

If you prefer the old configuration where the results are always displayed (as I expect most with high screen resolutions will), there is no need to panic. The web-client will "remember" your preferred settings so you don't have to change them every time.

I don't think you have to worry about the new version ruining your BBO experience (by crashing a lot for example). We have already done plenty of internal testing and this version appears to be stable. Still, it is entirely possible there are some new bugs that we have not found. Please let us know if you spot any!

Some other changes to look out for in the new version:

• A square containing your user ID will always appear at the very top-right of the screen. You can click on this square to edit your profile.

• Score totals now appear at the bottom of the lists of results on both the right side of the screen and in "My BBO", "Hands and results".

• "My BBO", "Hands and results", "Recent hands" now allows the user to select between IMPs/MPs/All (via a control at top of the window). If IMPs or MPs are selected then totals/averages are displayed at the bottom of the list of results.

• The "Options" button below the hand diagram in both "My Results" (at right of screen) and through "My BBO", "Hands and results", brings up a menu with a new item for "Analyze suit". This will launch a facility that makes it relatively easy for the user to do some complicated math-related analysis of suit combinations.

• Constraint specifications in the "Deal source" dialog box ("My BBO", "Hands and results", "Hand Editor", "Deal source" is one way to access this) have new buttons for "Odds" that compute and display the probability of the specified hand type being dealt.

• The hand editor ("My BBO", "Hands and results", "Hand editor") now allows you to specify the names of the players by right-clicking on their respective direction labels.

• If, from the hand editor, you try to exit the screen (by clicking "Home", "Back" or by closing the window) and you have not saved your changes, you will be given a chance to do so.

• When a TD joins a table in one of his tourneys and the chat input area is empty, the chat target will automatically change to ->table.

• System-generated TD calls now appear at the bottom of the list of TD calls (before they appeared at the top). In theory this will prevent the list from jumping around under the user's mouse.

• All TDs now have the ability to use GIB to do double dummy analysis on hands that were playing in their tournaments (apparently some TDs think this is helpful in deciding how to adjust scores).

• Several other minor TD-related changes (and probably some other changes not related to TDs that I can't remember right now).

Thanks in advance for your help testing the new version and for whatever feedback and bug reports you feel inclined to provide!

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com
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