Version 24-09-2011 is live, and what does it bring?

Well, saying that, it’s the first major front-end release in a while. It’s a pet project, one that I make sure still functions, so recently there have been a few mishaps, both from Trade Me and Google… fortunately, I just needed to upgrade the calls to be all proper in the backend, and with Google I had to downgrade the maps (until they reverted the changes they made earlier this week). Since these changes, things have been working tickity-boo.

One of the first changes you’ll note is the markers have changed colour. Red with a square dot in the middle indicates it’s an open home upcoming, but yellow with a down-facing triangle indicates that it’s coming up in the next… erm… day. There are still time sync issues I need to resolve, one of those issues where I work on the code in one timezone, and the code runs in a completely different timezone. They should be tidied up shortly. The colours should even be distinctive for colour blind users too (even without the symbols).

The bigger change comes in with the info pane. More info, but using less space! Price, bedrooms and bathrooms are all at the top, followed by photos, open home times and the description. The rest of the details (including Agent details) appear at the end. Not only that, but todays open home time appears at the very top so you can quickly glance at it while out and about. The thing you’ll need to look out for is the change of the close button, it’s now a cunningly placed tab on the very edge. This is bigger, and should be easier to hit with your finger on iPad/iPhone/Android.

I had feedback asking for the zoom to stop happening, which is a fair comment as things get a bit crazy confusing when you click on something and suddenly you’re whisked into the middle of no where (a known bug). So, Get a Home will no longer take over your zoom

Meanwhile, if you have it bookmarked on your iPad homescreen, you might want to redo it as it now features a slick new splash screen. No longer do you have to look into the empty white space of no splash screen while the iPad loads in the cached stuff.

I’ve learnt recently that the appcache will take a while to tick over, so you need to either completely clear your cache in your browser, or wait patiently for up to a week (??) before you get it. This shouldn’t be a problem in the future.

• Get a Home for open homes in New Zealand