Tag: Development

Blog Posts

Working on Wait Wait Stats Page Versions 3.3.0 and 3.4.0

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For the past month, I have been working on making a number of changes and updates to the Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! Stats Page to make working on the site’s code a bit easier to manage. The changes won’t change the user experience of the Stats Page in any meaningful way; though, it does optimize how the panelist charts pull the required data and when it is rendered. Although the update will not include any new features (more on that in a bit), the version bump a few, significant behind-the-scenes updates. The biggest updates come from updating the code framework, Silex, to the latest and greatest version, optimizing the code that generates the HTML code, and finally, breaking some of the larger code blocks into separate modules for more efficient code review and fixes. Version 3.3.0 of the Stats Page should go live sometime during …

Blog Posts

Progress Update on Wait Wait Stats Page Version 3.0 Development

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Over the past week, I have been working on adding a few small touches and fixing a few lingering bugs on the soon-to-be-released Wait Wait Stats Page Version 3.0. One of the small touches that I added was to the graph displaying each panelists’s point spread. The graph now includes the count of number of times a panelist has scored that amount above the corresponding score. Below is what the graph looks like for Alonzo Bodden: You will also notice that I have also included the score for each panelist appearance listed below the graph when you view the detailed panelist stats and what position the panelist finished. The other new addition to the each of the show details are arrows next to each host, scorekeeper, panelist and guest that links to their respective details page. I still have a bit clean-up left to …

Blog Posts

Development Update: Show Location Code Written

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Over the past week, I have been working on the last remaining pieces of the new Stats Page and its underlying database structure. Well, I have finally finished writing up the code to grab and display the location in which shows are recorded at. I still have not entered any real data for it yet; but, it is ready for when I am able to get that data in. To verify that I have the code working, I wired it up to the test script that I have been using. The following is a snippet from that script’s output. Note the field called “Show Location”. I still haven’t had a chance to work on the web presentation layer yet.

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wwdt.me Shortened URLs for linking to WWDTM shows on NPR.org

 

In efforts to make linking to specific Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! shows on NPR’s website easier, I have created a simple URL shortening system that anyone can use. In fact, I have already updated the current Stats Page to use the new URLs to reduce the overall page size. There are two formats for the new shortened URLs: http://wwdt.me/s/YYYYMMDD http://wwdt.me/s/YYYY-MM-DD To use either, just replace “YYYY” with the four-digit year, “MM” with the two digit month and “DD” with the two digit day. For example, to link to this past week’s page on NPR.org, the shortened URLs are: http://wwdt.me/s/20120721 and http://wwdt.me/s/2012-07-21. There are some sanity checks to verify that there is a show corresponding to the date in the URL. If there isn’t, it will redirect you to the Stats Page.

Blog Posts

10 June 2012 Sprint: Data Access Code Completed

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Over the past couple of days, I have been working on completing all of the PHP code required to query the WWDTM Stats Page database. Tonight, at the end of my two week sprint, I have reached that all important milestone and have successfully written a test to make sure it works. Warning: this following contains a fair amount of programming talk. If you are not a programmer, please ignore the rest of this post ;) The current version of the WWDTM Stats Page code has grown into a real mess and has become more and more difficult to add new features. The primary goal with version 2.0 is to write almost everything from scratch using proper class objects and breaking up code into manageable modules. First, I also decided to move to the newer PEAR::MDB2 database access API from the older PEAR::DB package. …

Blog Posts

Kicking Off Development of WWDTM Stats Version 2.0

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First and foremost, I would like to welcome you to the new wwdt.me blog! I have started this blog as a means to announce that the design and development of version 2.0 of the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Stats Page has started. This blog will also provide some insights into what will go into the new version and maybe a few peeks behind the curtains. I don’t have any set milestones or timelines for the development and launch of the new version; but, I hope to have something like an alpha version ready by July 26th. What’s so special about July 26th? Well, let’s just say that I’ll be in Chicago that day ;) N.B.: Please note that this blog, like the new version of the WWDTM Stats Page, is still under some development. Not all of the design elements have been finalized and …