Alaska Boating Information Web Application
The goal of this boating information web application is to provide a centralized source of information to assist boaters in the planning of their next excursion. It gathers information from a variety of sources on the web and displays it in an easy to navigate interface. The layout of the interface has been designed for the iPhone's Safari browser with large buttons for easy finger taps and minimal graphics for faster load times over a cellular network. Though the application has been optimized for the iPhone's browser, it can be viewed in other mobile browsers with varying functionality.
The application currently contains information for the Alaskan communities listed below. If your community is not currently covered, please send a request using the contact page. New locations will be added as time allows.
- South Central
- Anchorage
- Cordova
- Homer
- Kodiak
- Seward
- Valdez
- Southeast
- Juneau
- Kake
- Ketchikan
- Petersburg
- Sitka
The following is a list of the available information:
-
Current Conditions
- Air Temperature
- Sky Cover
- Wind Speed and Direction
- Visibility
- Tide Level and Direction
- Water Temperature
- Sunrise and Sunset
-
Weather Forecast
- 7-Day Forecast
- Marine Forecast
- Southeast Inside Waters
- Southeast Outside Waters
- Buoy Observations
- Webcam Views
- Tidal Predictions
One feature that you may find useful and is not obvious, is the ability to cache tidal predictions to your device. When you view a tide for a certain day, that information is automatically saved to your device. This allows the application to display the tidal data much fast since it doesn't have to retrieve it from the server every time you want to view it. An example of when this feature would be very useful would be if you were going on a weekend fishing trip and were going to be in an area with limited or no cellular service. Viewing the tidal predictions for everyday of your trip before you left would ensure that they were available on your device even if you end up in an area with no cellular service. (Note: Tidal predictions for past days older than two weeks are automatically purged from the device as a space saving measure.)
To access this mobile boating information page, enter the following into your mobile browser: m.mickletech.net
How to add the Boating Info icon to your iPhone
Adding the Boating Info icon to your iPhone's home screen will give you quick access to the application. It will also allow the application to run in full-screen mode which will give you a larger viewing area and reduce the need for scrolling the screen up and down. The following steps will guide you through this simple process.
Step 1
Open the Safari browser and enter "m.mickletech.net" into the address bar at the top of the screen. Then, tap the "Go" button in the lower right corner.
Step 2
Once the Boating Info page has loaded, tap the middle icon in the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.
Step 3
Tap the "Add to Home Screen" button.
Step 4
Tap the "Add" button at the top of the screen.
Step 5
The Boating Info icon will now appear on your Home Screen.
Step 6
Tapping on the Boating Info icon will now present you with a loading screen while the application prepares the interface.
Change Log
- Enhanced offline support.
- Other minor changes.
- Fixed a ordering issue with tidal data displayed from cache.
- Updated jQuery library (v1.7).
- Other minor changes.
- Added the Southcentral Alaska communities of Anchorage, Cordova, Homer, Kodiak, Seward, and Valdez.
- Added 2012 tidal data for all locations.
- Updated jQuery library (v1.6.4).
- Other minor changes.
- Added the National Data Buoy Center data for southeast buoys.
- Updated jQuery library (v1.6.2).
- Other minor changes.
- Added the FAA's Kake webcam to the Webcam Views section for Kake.
- Added the FAA's Hawk Inlet webcam to the Webcam Views section for Juneau.
- Removed the automatic opening of the Current Conditions area when opening the app.
- Added weather icons to Current Conditions and Weather Forecast areas.
- Added additional items to the Current Conditions area.
- Improved load times by adding the ability for tidal information to be cached locally to a database.
- Improved load times by implementing a cache manifest which added the ability for image and script files to be cached locally.
- Many user interface enhancements.
- Removed whitespace from the outside of each section to allow for slightly more usable area.
- Moved loading indicators to the left of the section titles.
- Changed loading indicator from two arrows to a circle.
- Added 2011 tidal predictions for all communities.
- Added the communities of Kake, Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Sitka.
- Added red flashing backgrounds to Weather Forecast and Marine Forecast section titles if a weather advisory is detected in the last viewed location.
- Added water temperature, tidal level, and tidal direction to the Current Conditions section.
- Added ability for the app to remember the last master location and Marine Forecast location selected by the user.
- Initial Release