The conversion of the Switchbacks.com site to ASP.net is nearly complete (I’m just tidying up a few odds and ends) and in the overhaul I’ve added a couple of new pages:

• Links Page

Often I’m asked about other mapping projects around the country or world similar to the Northwest Trails Project, so I thought I’d start cataloging these other sites on a links page.  I figured it could also be a useful spot for directing folks to other places for downloading custom mapsets, getting information on developing their own mapsets, etc.  Right now the list of links is fairly “bare-bones” but will get fleshed out over time.  If you have a category or link you would like to see added, please send it my way!

• Extras Page

This page is meant to be a repository for downloads and other goodies related to promotion of the site in general and the Northwest Trails Project specifically.  As of now I have a handful of graphical badges (including some specific to geocaching!) that can be used wherever you can embed HTML along with a PDF file of business cards.  The badges link back to the site and help to get the word out about the site and its purpose, while the business cards contain a brief synopsis of the Northwest Trails Project.  These can be printed and cut for handing out to potentially interested individuals encountered on the trails.

There have been numerous other improvements and upgrades to the site as well, including the addition of the Washington Hunting Units mapset and a move to the use of master pages in the site design (think of them as “templates” that allow for a more consistent and more easily-maintained look and feel to the site).  One page that has been significantly overhauled is the Data Upload page, which now strips problematic characters from file names (an issue that was causing some uploads to fail in the past), makes it easier to declare which user types are and are not allowed on the trails in a given submission, and does a better job of presenting feedback to the user on the success or failure of a given upload.

Please let me know what you think of the changes, and where you’d like to see things go from here!