Local Sing Developer's Blog

New Updates In Testing

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Lynch) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:53:00 +0000

It's been a long time since first launching the initial beta of Local Sing. Since then I've had the opportunity to add a number of great new features, but mostly, it has been motivating and inspiring to see the feedback coming in from our users.

The latest round of updates are expected to go live this week as we finish testing to ensure that the transition from our development server to our live server will be smooth.

What to expect in this weeks update:

Simplified Song List Uploads. No more need to process your songs. This will be done automatically, and your entire list is searchable right from the get go.
Improved User Search. Users can now create playlists of songs and see nights that have the songs they want. Numerous improvements to the way we display our google maps results.
Sorting by distance. Yes, it's a no-brainer feature, but it missed the initial beta release.
Password Recovery. Again, just something that missed the first release.
Too many bug fixes and small features to mention.

The future will be interesting. Barring any huge problems with this release, it is my hope that this will be a fully usable and stable version of the site, but just to be sure, the patches are now going to come on a weekly basis. We will add small features, improve usability and patch and bugs every Sunday night. So keep that feedback coming!

Local Sing V1.0.3 Patch

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Lynch) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:51:00 +0000

Change Log:

Added top level navigation to our Contact Us Page.
Created a new feature allowing users to look at the database in the style of a songbook.
Patched a bug causing new search locations not to be correctly updated.
Various other small bugs, spelling and grammar fixes.
Gave the gerbils that power our office a one month break.

This update while a small one is significant in that it does mark some needed fixes and also marks the renewal of development activity. Look for more rapid advances over the coming months, leading up to our final patch release for this version on August 1st.

Local Sing V1.0.2 Patch

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Lynch) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:13:00 +0000

Today's patch includes a number of updates to the search and song insertion functions of the site. The main goals were to allow DJ's to have an easier time saving their karaoke song lists, and add some community based song verification.

We've also added a new guide on creating a CSV file in our guides section.

Looking for Karaoke DJs

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Lynch) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Our current focus is to find a few Karaoke DJs willing to help us by being the first to load their information into the site. Doing so will earn the DJ early access to be one of the first DJs to be promoting their karaoke nights. I'm sure we can come up with some other goodies for them as we continue to roll out features.

We're sure there will be a few bugs and a feature or two we've overlooked, but we need user input to help us find those issues.

If you are a Karaoke DJ or know someone that is, please help us grow by directing them out way. If you are interested in becoming a beta tester, contact rob@localsing.com

New Patch

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Lynch) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 01:46:00 +0000

We've patched the live site with some new features today. Top among them is our spiffy new header graphic. It's fairly similar to the original graphic we had up there but with a little more going on to make it visually interesting.

We've also added our first video tutorial, actually, our first tutorial period, to the site. Check it out here. it's a bit rough for now, and some of the features will likely change in the near future but we wanted to at least get something down and start developing our process for disseminating information on our site.

Lastly we've made a number of improvements to the stability of the code and the usability of existing features. One that we are proud to announce is that the CSV insertion routine can now remember what a song looked like the last time you uploaded the spreadsheet, and auto-match it to the corresponding database entry. The benefit to users is that when update their lists via CSV, they will have to process fewer of the songs manually.

We're looking at a major revision of the site's handling of CSV data to make the song manager a more viable replacement to using an offline spreadsheet. More to come.

We've just gotten started...

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Lynch) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Welcome to the first Local Sing Developer Blog. As some of you may know we launched on April Fools Day 2009. We hope to use this space to keep our member's informed about upcoming changes to the site as well as provide an avenue for feedback as we grow.

Currently we are looking for karaoke DJs who want to user the site and help us see where we need to improve, and what we can do to make this site a success. If you are such a DJ please contact beta@localsing.com

We'll post again in the next few days with information on the first patch.