Great Lakes Water Level/Hydro-Climate Dashboard Version 1.2

An HTML5 Beta has been released, you will find it here:

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/dashboard/GLD_HTML5.html

Release notes for the HTML5 version are here: http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/dashboard/releaseNotes/v1HTML5ReleaseNotes.txt

Flash version notes below

1.2 Edits (Week of 07/14/2014):

- GLWLD, GLHCD, GLD were moved onto a single web directoy and point to same data. Clear your favorite browser's cache which you use to view the dashboard to ensure changes render properly.
- If you have the dashboards bookmarked, please use the following links, noting no trailing slash '/':

'W'ater 'L'evel 'D'ash'b'oard -----------------------> http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/wldb
'H'ydro-'C'limate 'D'ash'b'oard ---------------------> http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/hcdb
'G'reat 'L'akes 'D'ash'b'oard -----------------------> http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/gldb
'C'umulative 'I'mpact 'A'ssessment 'D'ash'b'oard ----> http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ciadb

The portal is at http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/dbportal

- New data download page -> http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/dashboard/data
- If you download the data, please note that the data you're looking for is in a different relative location and possibly a different format.

1.1.2 Edits (03/13/2014):

- Speed improvements

1.1.1 Edits (03/10/2014):

- I added a bit more guidance on how to manage the series in the pop up boxes that appear after clicking the '?' button
- The forecast bars are now 40% transparent
- Info buttons in each section are highlighted in yellow and their text enlarged a bit.
- release notes pop up disappears after 10 seconds
- Timespan button in a slightly brighter color
- GLHCD: axis management issue fixed

Changes from the original versions, 1.0:

- modified front end: less saturated colors, gray, unrounded border instead of bright blue with rounded corners; top buttons laid out for
 symmetry. For side-by-side comparison, see http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/dashboard/releaseNotes/Beta_v_11Diffs.png
 and http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/dashboard/releaseNotes/WLBeta_v_11Diffs.png
 
- no introductory waiting indicator, the charts just load when the app opens

- There is, however, a waiting indicator when series are activated, or summary views are being activated (triggered by a time span of 100
 years or more). Once activated in a session, you shouldn't see an indicator if you de/re-activate them.
 
- Individual lake series menus are gone. Aside from that, original interface remains intact with few changes.

- Version 1 had a bug that occasionally resulted in series not lining up properly.  This has been fixed.

- zoom/pan controls are smoother: instead of having a fixed range, users can zoom and pan as much as they want. The sliders will return to
 neutral after each use, allowing for repeated zooming and panning in one direction or another.
 
- equalize vertical scale tool is now a numeric stepper tool: either fill it out or hit the arrow buttons to equalize scales. Note: 
scales will be equalized for the axis in control (where the top center yellow button points),  Scales 
will also equalize according to units set by the user

- color pickers for data series have a full menu now, instead of a small list of colors

- larger, thicker scroll bars everywhere (the legend and menu, information boxes, etc) should improve ease of navigation

- data series management is slightly different for speed and background organization reasons: each added series will be overlayed on top of
 already active series. So to 'unbury' previously activated series, a new feature to flip series positions relative to the front was added,
 and can be used by simply clicking the 'Flip Series' button at the bottom of the legend box.
 
- However, if you just want to bring one series to the front, turn the target series off and on again (as each added series is overlaid on 
top of already active series)

- Instead of being able to make the background either black or white, a small selection of colors have been provided to change the 
background to. This will also change the color of in-chart axis ticks and tick labels to one contrasting that of the selected background

- pressing the '?' button will reveal some floating help tips, pointing to features

- for initial use, the available timespan is 1800 to 2105. This resolves a difficulty that many users had in precisely setting a year with
 the slider due to the high number of years between 100 A.D. and 2105

- for years prior to 1800: click Timespan -> Toggle Centurial View. Charts transform showing a greater time range of data. You now can view
the full paleoclimate reconstruction sets going back to 3000 B.C. Hit the toggle centurial view button again to return to present day

-- It should be noted that some of the multi-decadal level forecasts may appear slightly different in 
 the centurial view. They do, however, compare to the normal view. I strongly suggest viewing the series in a span of 80 years or greater, 
 regardless of view.
 
- Edit 3/4/2014, Addition: Data tips follow a more generic format. Loosely, they follow the format of description, the date your mouse 
 cursor is on, followed by the data.

Thanks!

-Joeseph Smith
Dashboard Developer
joeseph@umich.edu