Nov 12th, 2007
Data conversion
Today I spent a lot of time working on a system that’ll convert all the existing data to the new site. Obviously with around 250 rides, 50 parks, 50 roller coasters, 1700 photos and 150 articles there’s no way this could be performed manually in any reasonable timeframe, and the huge differences in the site’s programming mean that I can’t just do a direct copy + paste, so I am working on a series of scripts that take the original data, transform it into the new form and insert it into the new database.
What you see to the left is success after plenty of frustrations.
Check out the next page to see a screenshot of how things are going…
So below is how the Wild West falls page currently looks. Still a lot of small things yet to do but the framework is in place and things are, for the most part, doing what they should.
Some time over the summer we will go live. It’s finally getting to a point where the end is in sight.
The Love Button is an especially ingenious touch I think. Wait til you see what it does…
Looks great, I love that fun style it has, very suiting of the mood a site about theme parks should have, though still you can see more sorting needs doing (Harry potter a transport ride and not a walk through?)
With the categorisation, how would you place something like Looney Tunes river ride? Is it a dark ride or a water ride? Are weigand toboggans still considered roller coasters?
I wish there was a way though you could filter out crass ad banners
And haha, just noticed that “Tennis Courts” is one of the rides in the list…whatever park has them is right in competition with WnWs volleyball courts.
There’s a number of bugs still with the system that’ll all be worked out. For now I’m just really happy that rides are porting across correctly and slotting themselves into the right parks!
Yeah, no question there’ll be countless grey areas when it comes to categorising rides. At the end of the day it’ll just come down to the discretion of the submitter and the editor at our end approving the entry. Tomato/tomato… water ride dark ride.
As for toboggans… I’m not entirely sure how they’ll be categorised but for now it’ll be as coasters. Unlike the current site where coasters and rides are two very separate things, all rides fit into the same database structure on the new site, so these sorts of things are never really set in stone.
Looking good Richard! Love the design.