Showroom Page Overhaul, Aircraft Sharing, and Documentation Plus bug fixes and optimised mobile views! The last month has seen the Aircraft Management pages go through a pretty significant change. The Showroom page has been completely redesigned to incorporate design elements from the My Aircraft pages and now looks equally as good on high-resolution displays as it does on mobile devices. The other big feature I've been working on this month is the ability to share access to your aircraft to other players, but more on that later.



As of the upcoming 0.4.0 beta release, I'll also be starting to roll out draft versions of the documentation to the beta site, so feedback on that is also welcome and encouraged! Overhauled Showroom & Aircraft Pages The Showroom page has been completely overhauled to use a more logical layout and to better use the space available. The mobile-friendly styling applied here will be used across the site for all tables and similar content. The new Showroom page can be toggled between list and card view when viewed on a larger screen. When viewed on a mobile, the view will default to card view. Filters, sorting, and searching functionality have also been redesigned to be more responsive and easier to use whilst being much lighter on the back end, allowing more efficient filtering of aircraft. The aircraft can currently be filtered by Range, Passenger Seats, Cargo Volume, and/or Price, and can then be sorted by any metric from wingspan to prestige level! It's not just the Showroom page that's been receiving a bit of TLC! The Catalogue page for each aircraft has also had a bit of a spruce up with aircraft descriptions and a Recent Flights map for that aircraft type. Aircraft Sharing The majority of the new functionality that will be included in the 0.4.0 release is the ability to share your aircraft with other users. You can grant access to your aircraft for a specific amount of time or indefinitely to any user, and the aircraft will then be available in their My Aircraft Page. Sharing aircraft to other users is currently just a nice-to-have, but it is a crucial piece of logic and will underpin the virtual airline functionality. Owners of aircraft can manage access for other users. Users can view all of their pending invites and accept or decline the invitations. If the user accepts the invitation, then the aircraft is visible in My Aircraft with a Granted Access badge. Bug Fixes & Optimisations The bug fixes have been coming thick and fast over the last month. Here's a list of the ones worth mentioning: FIX: Tooltip arrow misaligned in aircraft pages

FIX: Re-word context buttons

FIX: Searching on showroom pages less resource hungry

FIX: Search for showroom pages takes model, manufacturer and variant into account

FIX: Image and description copyright notices load correctly

FIX: Aircraft types can now get their number of engines again

FIX: Maps center on POI and render correctly

FIX: Recent flight map not shown if there are no flights for the aircraft

FIX: Make list view default for the showroom on high-resolution displays

FIX: 767-300ER price was too low

FIX: Missing fonts

FIX: Font weight on extremely high-resolution displays

FIX: Selecting text boxes now shows the keyboard on iOS Pre-Alpha 0.4.0 I was hoping to release 0.4.0 to the beta branch at some point in April, but a few of the features are taking much longer than expected. I'm hoping to get the release rolled out in May/June, assuming everything else goes to plan. The Aircraft Sharing feature required a re-write of some core logic but the end result is a much more robust way of handling aircraft permissions.



Before 0.4.0 is released, I need to implement the following features: Aircraft financing

Re-worked notification center

Global aircraft search Join the community on r/fscharter As FSCharter is a one-man-band, developing the platform is my number one priority. I've set up a subreddit that will give users a place to communicate and help each other out, rather than relying solely on support from me. I will monitor the subreddit, but I will also be on the lookout for moderators in the coming months, so hit me up if you're interested in joining the team! I'm on Twitter! Give me a follow to stay in the loop between newsletters! It's where I'll post updates, polls and screenshots of new features and it's the best way to get hold of me if you have any questions! <Bits For Nerds/> This is the section of the newsletter where I go into the nuts and bolts of developing FSCharter. Here I’ll cover everything from automated pipeline deployments, software testing, server infrastructure, and other behind the scenes activities required to develop, deploy and maintain a modern SaaS application. Calling All C++ Developers FSCharter is a huge undertaking, especially for one developer. Not only is the web platform required to be developed from the ground up, but I need to write multiple plugins for each of the supported simulators. I plan on supporting XPlane at launch and rolling out to FSX and P3D at a later date. If there are any C++ developers out there looking to pitch in on the plugin side of things to move things along, please get in touch with me via Twitter! Apologies for the brief nature of the newsletter this month. I'd rather spend time developing the platform than writing a detailed writeup of progress! If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line or post on the subreddit.



Until next time,



Alex.



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