Rendering Refactor and Custom Jump Maps

One commonly requested feature is now live: Custom Jump Maps

Just as the Poster API supports HTTP POST, the JumpMap API now supports the same capability and there's a demo page that lets you upload files or copy/paste your own sector data into a form. Note that neighboring sectors appear empty if your jump map is extends past the edge of a sector.

I've also done some substantial refactoring of the guts of the rendering and styles code, which may help site stability a little bit. I found/patched a bug in the PDFSharp rendering library along the way. Ideally this hasn't changed anything, but please let me know if something suddenly renders differently (color, position, style) or has disappeared - it's not intentional! 

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Making a Dent in the To-Do List

I had a little bit of time today so I decided to make sure the To-Do List was updated on Trello. This should cover everything that's been mentioned in comments here and sent in private email. If I missed anything let me know - or even better, sign up to Trello and I can let you add it to the list yourself.

I knocked off a handful of easy items:

• Subsector names will once again show by default at 64 pixels/parsec (although dimmer than before)
• Subsector names will NOT show by default for Poster.aspx-generated images, although this can be turned on via options
• Decoding of "packed" base codes (2 = N+S, A = N+S, B = N+W) now handles per-allegiance specific packing: Vargr: H = C+G, Aslan: U = R+T, Hiver: F = L+M
• Allegiance code "--" doesn't render. (Perhaps it should show as "Na" so it isn't assumed to be Imperial, but -- is usually only used far away from the Imperium so I don't think it's an issue.

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Sector Data Additions

A handful of new sectors have popped up on the map.

First, Katoonah, a sector rimward of the Hive Federation. Katoonah was explored by Dale Jenkins and his sons over the course of a year of gaming. They completed the exploration of the sector a scant two months before the tragic death of Dale's son Thomas. The sector is dedicated to the memory of Thomas W. Jenkins and his love for Traveller.

A brief summary of the sector polities and species, provided by Dale:

The Geanak Republic is populated with Geanaks. They resemble the minions in the game Overlord, except they are more intelligentand far less suicidal. The Human League is a Solomani extremist union. The Sylvan Alliance is a melting pot of Sylvans (Space Elves), Drea (Space Dwarves), Suerrat (Space Halflings), Kkang (Space Knolls) and Griznak (Space orcs). The Draconian Empire is based off a Solomani Asian Dynasty, and for the most part peaceful. The Reaver Bands are a mottley collections of Psycopathic Space pirates much like those found in the Hardtimes Data provided by GDW.

Thank you for sharing, Dale, and my sincere condolences to you and your family. I hope others can enjoy the sector as well, and keep Thomas in their thoughts.

Elsewhere on the edges of charted space, prolific explorer 77topaz (and nitpicker!) has opened up explorerbase and provided details for the following sectors

• Amderstun - a busy looking sector rimward of the Solomani Rim
• Tar'G'kell'p and Grikr!ng - on the Vargr edge of the Lesser Rift
• Harea and Tlyasea - to Spinward, in the Great Rift

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Data Updates

I've finally had a bit of time to make a minor dent in the backlog!

• Corrected spelling of "Capitol" => "Capital" in Far Frontiers sector remarks so that Harantz and Alzenei are properly highlighted (c/o 77topaz)
• Updated data file for Empty Quarter (c/o Alvin Plummer and Don McKinney)
• Added subsector names for Gzaefueg (c/o Alvin Plummer)
• Added subsector name for Ilelish subsector O: Zagrab (from the Zhodani Base, c/o Alvin Plummer)
• Credited Greg Videll (HIWG) for Zarushagar sector work
• Corrected Corridor 2006 Tamilaa's base "G" => "N" per Atlas of the Imperium (c/o Dan Holmberg)
• Renamed Gelath/Gn'hk'r 0704 "X!'kib'grikr" => "Aat Nokr K'ng" per GT:AR2 (c/o Alvin Plummer)
• Fixed names of Dagudashaag 0236 "Kinhe" => "Feym'n", 0739 "Hanas Soujourn" => "Hana's Soujourn" and 0840 "Uusjar" => "Uushar" per Signal GK #11 (c/o Art Gorski)
• Fixed name of Reaver's Deep 1224 "Roikhoi" => "Roakhoi" per the Reaver's Deep Sector Sourcebook (c/o Dan Holmberg)

There's a lot more to do, of course, in terms of data corrections and feature work. And, of course, overall site stability.

Also, the LBB generator ("sector.htm") now uses a more print-friendly layout and should automagically print in landscape mode with correct margins in modern browsers. (It will look best if you have the Optima font available on your system.)

NOTE: Some of the search indexes don't appear to have updated for the above changes. I'm investigating.

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