BUBO Listing News
BUBO Lists on your own Website
23 December 2009
If you have your own website or blog, or contribute to other forums, you will be pleased to know that it is now possible to include a BUBO badge with list totals updated automatically from BUBO Listing. Up to two lists can be chosen to be displayed in a variety of sizes, and these can be included on other websites by just copying and pasting some given code. For example, a horizontal banner for a forum signature and a vertical banner for a blog are shown here.
To set up lists for use in these BUBO badges, you need to mark these lists as favourites (similarly to setting favourites for your personalised home page). From My Lists, click on the star icon next to the list you wish to use. Under the option "Show this list on other websites and forums?", you can make it display first or second on a badge. You can also choose the size of badge from the list given. Click "Preview image..." to see how the image will look. On the right hand side the code you need to copy and paste is displayed in bold. Two options are shown: "BBCode" which is typically used by forums, and HTML for your website or blog. Select the bold text and copy it (e.g. using Ctrl-C), then you can paste it into the signature field option for the forum you are using, or into your website or blog. If you need more details then just ask in the BUBO forums.
You can also test your signature in the BUBO forum - go to My Profile -> Update Profile -> BUBO Forum tab and paste (e.g. Ctrl-V) the BBCode selected earlier.
Note that the lists you use for BUBO badges do not have to be the same ones that you show on the home page. Also there is no reason why you can't show several different size badges in different locations, e.g. a horizontal banner on a forum and a vertical banner on your website.
The content shown on the badge includes list name, list type, last tick species, date and location. Text will be truncated or omitted if need be to fit the particular badge size. Your latest tick is determined by the date and time it was added to BUBO Listing, not the sighting date. This means that retrospective updates that you make (e.g. from recent taxonomic changes, or record acceptances by the appropriate committee) will be used even if they relate to an old sighting. (The first time you choose a list for a badge you may find no latest tick details shown, or Mute Swan may be shown as default - just use Batch Edit to uncheck the species as seen and then immediately check it back on again, and it will then appear as the last tick.)
Each time a badge is used anywhere the BUBO Listing database is queried for the latest details. Because of the increased load on the BUBO Listing system we do insist on some simple terms and conditions. These are:
- The badge must keep intact the link to BUBO Listing. Hence anyone clicking on the badge on your website, or in your forum signature, will be taken to the BUBO Listing website.
- If you use and like these badges then we would appreciate it if you could consider making a donation towards the running of the BUBO Listing website. There is no obligation but this would help us cover the increased costs of hosting and development.
Note also for forum signatures that you must comply with any restrictions that the particular forum gives regarding image dimensions and file size. Use small badges and the compressed version if necessary and check that it works on the forum in question.
If you have any questions about using these BUBO badges then please ask in the BUBO forum.
Your Personal Home Page
26 November 2009
The latest BUBO Listing change is the ability to display your own favourite lists on the home page. Thus instead of just seeing the rankings for your home country life and year lists, plus the World list, you can have the lists that matter most to you. If you want your local patch year list to appear first on the home page then you can do exactly that, and easily keep tabs on your position related to that of your birding friends!
The way this works is that you can define up to three "Favourite" lists from the My Lists menu option. Just click on the small star next to the list you want and you will be prompted to make it your first, second or third favourite. Existing favourites will be indicated by having a large star instead of a small one.
When you visit the BUBO Listing home page, and you are logged in, it will show all the favourites you have defined, in the appropriate order. Note that if you are not logged in the default lists for your home country (year and life) plus the World, will be shown as they are currently.
Another great feature added is that the top 10 rankings will now always show your own list. If you are not currently in the top 10 an 11th row will be shown for your own lists, and its overall ranking. Now it's easy to see how well you are doing compared to the top listers, and if you are making any progress!
Improved List Creation and Batch Editing
09 November 2009
We have just changed the way that Create New List and Batch Edit work. Instead of checking the various species and then hitting Save at the bottom, now all you have to do is check a species as seen and the update will be saved automatically. This means that it is faster overall and more reliable. Although it may take about a second to check a species (the screen will "freeze" until the update has been made) whereas this was immediate before, the old method of hitting Save could take several minutes to add the records. It was difficult to know whether the update was still working, and some people reported problems with it timing out and therefore losing changes that were in progress. For rarities, where date and location are mandatory, a new dialog box appears when you check the species as seen in order to capture all required information in one go. When you hit Add Record, the rarity record is saved. The new method works out faster overall so it is even easier to add those World lists!
Note that a similar method is used for editing sighting details, i.e. each time you make a change to the date, location, comments or sensitive flag the change is immediately updated in the BUBO Listing database.
A few small performance changes have also been implemented in other areas. If you notice any problems then please let us know, and do let us know what you think of the new batch editing. Also the next change due will be to the home page, so we'd appreciate any suggestions.
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