With the new season under way, the focus of site development has shifted back to how it keeps up with the chess actually being played! Most of the changes since the last update are about getting results, tables and reports to members sooner, and making it easier to get from one to the other:
- Match results now link to their match reports. Wherever a result appears, in 'Latest Results' on the homepage, or in the fixtures and results tables on the 'League Chess' and division pages, the score opens the report if one has been written, marked with a small page (document) symbol. A score with only the league's own scorecard behind it keeps the little arrow that shows it leads off the site. Wolverhampton & District results, which previously linked nowhere, now link to their reports too.
- The Lichfield Internal has its own page, with the current round's pairings and results as they come in, buttons to look back at earlier rounds, and a standings cross-table. Pairings for a new round should appear shortly after they are published, and the page will carry over from season to season.
- League results, tables and fixtures now update twice a day - overnight and again at 1pm, rather than once. A result entered on a Thursday night is on the site by Friday morning, and anything entered during the morning appears that afternoon. There are some differences with the Wolverhampton League; match cards don't appear for WDCL until the match report has been added by one captain, verified by the other, and approved by a WDCL admin.
- Club Member Quick Links on the homepage give one-click access to the League Ladder, the Lichfield Internal and the club directory, each with a live one-line summary: who is leading the ladder, which round of the Internal is in progress and so on.
- Long pages are easier to navigate. A tabbed section index sits at the side of the page on a computer, or behind a small button in the corner on a phone, and a 'back to top' button appears once you have scrolled down the page.
- Puzzle of the Week. Every Sunday there is now a new post of puzzles shared by club members, with the interactive solutions hidden until you choose to open them. If you have a position from one of your games that would make a good puzzle, send it in and it will appear in a future week.
- Printing works properly, so a puzzle post or a page of fixtures can be printed without losing half of it.
As always, if anything looks wrong, or doesn't work as you think it should, please let me know; I can only test the site on the devices and browsers I have.