RECENT
UPDATES
| May 9, 2008 |
There were many changes and updates to the database this week. First, keywords have been added to most of the listings in
the countries beginning with A and B. All records for which I have images or the actual stamps have had keywords added. No
keywords have been added for the listings in which I do not have images. The keywords added mostly relate to soccer such as:
goalie, goalkeeper, player, players, net, ball, gloves, referee, cleats, corner kick, penalty, pitch or stadium. Keywords have also been added
indicating the action which is taking place such as kicking, dribbling, diving, tackling, heading or throwin. I've also added
names for specific players and teams such as Pele, Bobby Moore, Lothar Mattheus, Italy, Argentina, New Zealand, etc. Finally,
keywords have been added indicating competitions such as logo or mascot. I've added as many keywords to each listing as I can
find on the images. I've also changed the denomination values for these same records. Previously, in sets, I would list the
denominations as 5Fr-400Fr. Now, for each item in the set, I've begun listing each denomination such as 5Fr, 60Fr, 125Fr, 300Fr, 400Fr.
Approximately 25 new listings have been added to the database, all in the countries of Austria and Gabon. Austria has
issued or will issue many items for the 2008 European Soccer Championships and most of those have now been added to the
database. I also found a source for stamp information from the country of Gabon. This allowed me to expand the Gabon listings
in the database. In addition to all of the previously mentioned changes, I searched through each of the countries beginning
with A or B and updated the listings with any new issues that I found. Other than Austria, I think that Bosnia and Herzegovina
was the only other country where I found a new issue that was not on the database. No scans were uploaded to the website this
week.
|
| May 1, 2008 |
The update for this week is a programming update. Earlier in the year I listed certain features that I wanted to implement
for the website throughout the course of the year. Here is the list: 1) catchup on scanning the new issues I acquire,
2) Streamline the process for checking for new issues and getting the database updated, 3) Improve the database search
capabilities (much of this deals with adding keywords to the listings in the database), 4) Update the search page by
integrating the 3 different searches on one form, 5) Create an Exhibit page to display the exhibits of soccer stamp collectors,
and 6) Create an Want To Help page for those of you who would like to help on the website. I had already completed #'s 5 and 6.
The update for today completes #4. The search page has been retooled to allow for a broader range of searches. All
three of the previous search boxes have been integrated into a single search engine so that any combination of searches
can be done. I've also added "OR" search capabilities among all the searches. The default search will return all items. I
hope that this is an improvement over the previous search page. Let me know if you have any comments or can think of additional
searches that you'd like to be able to do.
|
| April 10, 2008 |
The update for this week consists of new scans added to the database. Approximately 70 new scans were added to the countries
of Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Bhutan, Bosnia Herzegovina, Cayman Islands, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Ghana,
Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, North Korea, Kuwait,
Laos, Latvia, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Macedona, Maldive Islands, Mali, Mauritania, Mayotte, Mexico, Monaco, Montserrat, Morocco,
Nepal, Nicaragua, Portugal, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, and Yemen PDR. I've worked a little on modifying
the Search Page, but am not ready yet to release it. I am also hoping in the near future to upload more items to the auction.
|
| March 18, 2008 |
The update for this week consists primarily of cleaning up the code for the website. The one major addition was the completion of the
Want to Help page. If you want to contribute to the website, visit the page to find out
how. Your contributions can be anything from writing articles or reviews, to using the auction, to providing stamp scans and
data that is lacking on the database. If you want to help with the data or scans, I'm currently focusing on the countries that
begin with the letter A or B. The other visible change this week was the archival of the 2007 updates. No scans
were uploaded to the database and no changes were made either. Most of my time was spent streamlining the backend code
hopefully making it easier to work with and also improving the security a bit.
|
| March 11, 2008 |
Throughout the course of the week, many changes were made to the website, both behind the scenes and to the database. Here
is a list of the changes. 1) A new banner, visible on the main page only, was created for the website. 2) The auction software
has been updated. One of the new changes is that gallery pics are now free. To be honest, they were free before, but if you
set up an auction to be automatically relisted, the gallery pics would not show on the relisting because certain websites may have
charged a fee for the pics. It's not a big change, but it really does enhance the look of the auction. Just as a reminder,
the auction here at SoccerPhilately.com is completely free. Feel free to list any of your extras! 3) Much of my focus this
week has been on creating the Exhibits page. There are now 2 exhibits available for viewing. If any of you do exhibit at
shows and would like to display your exhibit online, send me an email. Also, feel free to comment on the overall Exhibits
page by letting me know what you like or would like changed. 4) About 10 new stamps were listed and 33 new scans
were added to the following countries: Armenia, Bosnia, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Dominica, Fiji, Finland, Gambia, Greece,
Korea (North), and Paraguay.
|
| March 3, 2008 |
Here's the first update for 2008, after a long 2 month hiatus. The updates this time consist primarily of of new scans. A total
of 59 new scans have been added to the following countries: Antigua, Argentina, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Bhutan,
Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Central Africa, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark,
Dominica, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Paraguay, Turkish Cyprus, and Zimbabwe. Approximately 15 new issues have been added to the database.
The sources that I use for updating the database are usually about 4 to 5 months behind with regards to new
issues. I feel the list is fairly complete through September of 2007. I'm aware of some very late soccer
issues in December that I have not yet added to the database though. I still have some "new issues" to scan
and upload to the database so for the next few updates I will be focusing on getting those scanned and
uploaded.
There are still many improvements to be made to the website. Throughout the course of 2008, here are some of
the things which I hope to implement in no particular order. 1) catchup on scanning the new issues I acquire. 2)Streamline the process
for checking for new issues and getting the database updated. 3) Improve the database search capabilities. Much of this
deals with adding keywords to the listings in the database. 4) Update the search page by integrating the 3
different searches on one form. 5) Create an Exhibit page to display the exhibits of soccer stamp collectors.
6) Create an Want To Help page for those of you who would like to help on the website. There have been many
of you who have asked if there was anything you could help with, and there is quite a bit. Because the database
is currently not set up to be updated interactively, I will need to design a process which will enable all of us
to work together to update it.
|
|
