Technical Bulletin – August 2017

CHANGES TO THE WAY THIS SITE IS CREATED

From August 9th 2017, the pages on this site are generated semi-automatically from information held in an electronic database, rather than being manually created. This significantly reduces the time it takes to amend the site each month, as well as speeding up the entry of new data. There are some side-effects however:

(i) Events on any particular day in the diary are now listed alphabetically by the name of the group performing, rather than being in a seemingly random order (which was, in fact, the order in which the events were added to the page).

(ii) Although the pages are proof-read, there may be some typos that we haven’t spotted (mostly related to accented characters) due to the way data has to be processed between the database and the page. If you see an error, please report it to us and we will make corrections as soon as we can.

(iii) A few works in the Index of Works may be shown with an apparently incorrect performing group. This only occurs when a concert is the responsibility of a group listed on the site, but another non-listed group is also performing. For example, if a listed choir are using a non-listed orchestra to accompany them, and the orchestra are performing a work without the choir, the work will appear in the Index as if performed by the choir. We apologise for any confusion this causes.

(iv) Multiple performances by a group (mostly, opera groups) are now each listed as a separate performance, rather than as one performance with a start and end date. This means that the work(s) performed appear in the Index of Works for each performance date, rather than just once.

Update – 11th August 2017
Thanks to useful feedback from users, a ‘quick-jump’ facility has been implemented on the Groups and Works pages. At the top of each page is a block of buttons to allow you to jump to any letter of the alphabet within the alphabetical lists. Furthermore, at the beginning of each section of the list are up and down buttons that take you straight to the previous or next letter of the alphabet, or straight to the top or bottom of the page. Given the much longer lists that are now produced, this will help avoid excessive scrolling, a problem that particularly afflicts use of the site on tablets and smartphones.

In the chronological diary, there have always been links to jump to the next year, but not between months, or backwards in time. A method of doing this is now in development and should be implemented soon.

Update – 12th August 2017
There has been a large increase this month in the number of choirs whose performances are listed on this site. In the past, the majority of groups listed here were orchestras and concert bands, but the split between choirs/opera groups and instrumental groups is now much closer to 50/50.

As the number of performances on a particular day can now be as many as 50, and some users may be specifically interested in orchestral concerts, whilst others want information on vocal concerts, we have introduced an option to restrict the list, if required, to one type or the other, or to list everything, as at present.

Such filtering will also be available at some future date within the List of Groups and the Index of Works: however, we do not intend to extend this to the Venue Map.

Further into the future, we hope to introduce more selective search facilities, for example to list only performances within a certain distance of a given location. We also plan to introduce some form of personalised filter – e.g. to restrict the list to a particular user-definable selection of groups in which you perform. These new facilities will make concertdiarysoutheast even more useful as a resource for audience members and performers alike.

Project C21:

Although the primary purpose of this website is as a diary of future events, the archived information�on past performances is a useful resource. Whilst priority will always be given to current data updates,�work has now commenced with the aim of filling in the performance history of as many groups as possible back to the beginning of the century, i.e. predating the creation of concertdiarysoutheast. Not all groups have this information on their websites, and some have only partial information, but it is hoped that in due course all the information we can find will have been entered into our database: until then, you will find the data appearing group by group. We will shortly be creating a special ‘Project 21C’ page for latest information on which groups’ data has been entered, and the names of groups where the information is unavailable or incomplete: if you are involved with any of these groups and can fill in the gaps, it would be much appreciated!