Inara updates, bug reports, requests
When you try to link your accounts, you may receive the http error 400 about expired tokens. It's an issue on Frontier's end that I cannot solve on Inara. Fortunately, the solution is simple - please give it a few days and it will start to work later (probably when the access token on their cAPI server expires). If the error 400 appeared later and it worked before, try to reauthenticate as said in the error message (may be just a regular reauth forced by Frontier). Alternatively, you can try to use the workaround below. If even that won't work, it's the problem described above.
Please vote for the issue on the official bug tracker: https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/21258
Possible workaround: Try to connect the account while you are in the game. It may work.
Game data and imports not available for console commanders and PC players with Legacy game version
Inara supports only the Live game version (so PC Horizons 4.0 and Odyssey) since game update 14, thus all the game data on the site and the commander data imports work only for those game versions.
02 Aug 2022, 1:25pm
02 Aug 2022, 2:41pm
NumaI'm sorry to say this Artie, but the new Inara design is terrible. I have unused side space due to the fixed format on a FHD monitor already, but on my home 3840x1600 screen it looks beyond ridiculous. A small narrow band in the middle which is the site, and empty spaces big as the milky way to both sides of it. 4K screen at work is even worse.
Yes, I decided to limit the width to improve scannability and readability of the content (amongst other). It's quite a standard approach across the various websites.
02 Aug 2022, 2:45pm
02 Aug 2022, 2:51pm
MeowersSeeing a single 'Elite:Dangerous' header at the top of the new layout version. And a wide grey area to the right of it. Makes me think that INARA will become more than 'Elite-only' website over time. Thank you, Artie, from the very heart. I don't want to leave this place after E:D closes, it have come to mean something for me.
Yes, that's the plan. I will definitely merge mmorpg.space site there later on and will very likely add a support for Starfield. I am even considering adding a support for Star Citizen closer to the release or once it turns into stable beta versions (or so). Generally, I would like to keep the community here together, even if some members will switch to another game. I don't suppose Elite will close the servers anytime soon though.
02 Aug 2022, 2:52pm
ArtieNumaI'm sorry to say this Artie, but the new Inara design is terrible. I have unused side space due to the fixed format on a FHD monitor already, but on my home 3840x1600 screen it looks beyond ridiculous. A small narrow band in the middle which is the site, and empty spaces big as the milky way to both sides of it. 4K screen at work is even worse.
Yes, I decided to limit the width to improve scannability and readability of the content (amongst other). It's quite a standard approach across the various websites.
I know, and it makes the internet as a whole more and more unusable for me. The basic design is nice, but without scaling to fit the monitor......
02 Aug 2022, 3:23pm
- Added various extra options for nearest searches like exclude minor faction presence, specific station owner, etc.
- Added nearest compromised nav beacon search. Also added Restore and Mining missions finder for the nearest search (under Misc), it's been there for a while, but I am just mentioning in case it wasn't noticed.
- Added body material overview into tooltip for the nearest body search
- Added an option to limit trade route searches to just a specific minor faction, the trade route search and market were merged (they were providing the same outputs before anyway).
- Enhanced commodity search, added more options like search just for better than average prices, limit the search just to anarchy black markets, and so on. It will also keep your options set across the sessions (when logged in), so you don't need to set it all the time.
- Added a general overview of all engineer unlock requirements and your progress.
- Added filters to the components page, engineer page, outfitting, etc. to help you find things more easily.
- Added all medal tiers overview to the CMDR profile page.
- Ship modules and stored modules overview were merged (with the respective option in the filter) and added an estimated discount level to the module values.
- Changed the "Components by type" tab in the Inventory overview to provide a clearer picture of what components are missing.
- Improved crafting lists, so you now see all the components required and you can also set custom tags for each of the blueprint/upgrade sets and filter by them.
- Refactored game data imports to make them more user-friendly.
- Improved conflicts list for the minor factions.
- Customizable CMDR profile header background for active Inara supporters.
- Various general improvements and tuning across the site.
The old one is quite friendly on my Galaxy S20+02 Aug 2022, 4:19pm
Edit: Meh. Line feed doesn't work in the new 'short biography' and table BB-codes are broken. My bio page is an example. Had to put those dots between text and the table, and the table itself doesn't show stuff.
Last edit: 02 Aug 2022, 4:25pm
02 Aug 2022, 4:28pm
MeowersSo, how can I switch to the older version to copy-paste some stuff? Main link is leading to the new now.
Edit: Meh. Line feed doesn't work in the new 'short biography' and table BB-codes are broken. My bio page is an example. Had to put those dots between text and the table, and the table itself doesn't show stuff.
https://inara.cz/?betaopt=2
It is an item under profile
P.S. It would be nice If I could switch that orange to blue or something different.
02 Aug 2022, 4:30pm
MeowersSo, how can I switch to the older version to copy-paste some stuff? Main link is leading to the new now.
Edit: Meh. Line feed doesn't work in the new 'short biography' and table BB-codes are broken. My bio page is an example. Had to put those dots between text and the table, and the table itself doesn't show stuff.
Ah, there was supposed to break the text after a new line. Fixed, please adjust your biography accordingly (and you can remove those dots).
02 Aug 2022, 4:39pm
Numa
I know, and it makes the internet as a whole more and more unusable for me. The basic design is nice, but without scaling to fit the monitor......
I'm sorry Artie but I must side with Numa on this one. The new layout should be limited for use on mobile devices. Here's why:
Right now the new design adopts bad UX practices (for desktop) that stem from the proliferation of mobile devices.
Two biggest offenders:
- Fragmented navigation. Hiding menus is useful on mobile since you're limited in space. However it's a bad practice for desktop.
- Limiting width (a lot) and a 1-2 column layout. Again useful on mobile but wastes a ton of usable space on monitors. It looks very poor on desktop.
Mobile and desktop have to be seen as two different beasts, one solution can't really fit both. Navigation and content has to change a lot to scale well.
Navigation usually collapses and hides as you go smaller (old Inara does some of that).
Information has to be prioritized, chunked up and partially hidden on mobile, while desktop favours minimal amount of clicks.
On a monitor, the old Inara design is far superior in usability. I love the old layout's 3-4 columns. The side menus with nested options are very accessible as well. Submenu always visible in the main bar.
Hence why the new navigation/fragmented information is a good fit for mobile, while the old navigation/information mine is excellent on desktop. I hope you can CSS your way in getting the old design to morph into the new design as screen size decreases.
My two cents, hopefully you'll find this feedback is useful. Thanks for the hard work you put into this!
02 Aug 2022, 4:50pm
I am asking because the new menu was actually designed to get the information in less clicks. For example, a way to get crafting components information in the old version was: click Data > page load > click Engineering > page load > click Components. In the new menu you just click Components and that's it, one click instead of three. That applies to many other site sections as well. Although not everything is one click away, it just be generally reachable with fewer clicks and page loads than before.
02 Aug 2022, 4:55pm
ArtieshuffleQSo first impressions are very good, just one thing:
the custom menu bar was such a timessaver and I do not want to miss it, would it be possible to get that back?
Very likely not, or at least not in the previous form. Are there particular things that are now much slower to reach for you?
So, I mainly use Inara for BGS/faction management and occasionally to look at my CMDRs general stats, fleet etc.
The missing custom links are the biggest offender to me - it's such an ingenuous idea, I get direct access to what I frequently use.
On top of that comes the fact some of these custom links aren't even there in the new version apparently. The most important one being the shortcut to the squadron factions. Now I apparently have to go Squadron - About - click one of the factions - land on the faction page. And if I want to switch to one of our other supported factions, I now have to go back one page so I can select it, instead of it just being there ready to click on the left hand.
From my short testing, this seems to be the general problem - more things are hidden behind extra mouse movements and clicks, which makes navigation more bothersome. Example again from the faction overview page. So much information I must manually select. The assets used to be right below the system list. Now they're a separate tab to click, yet even with that separated I still have to scroll just as much before to see everything from the current page, even though the information displayed is less.
But I don't want to sound only negative. The new design looks cooler and is refreshing to see - perhaps implementing the colour scheme on the old layout could work?
The new design should also work pretty well on mobile devices with this (gonna test later). Which would be awesome.
But on desktop I'll want to stay on the old version - on a "normal" website you might see it as information clutter, but on my PC it just makes for an easier, more convenient display of information, along with simpler navigation.
02 Aug 2022, 5:54pm
ArtieDo you see the top megamenu in full?...
I am asking because the new menu was actually designed to get the information in less clicks. For example, a way to get crafting components information in the old version was: click Data > page load > click Engineering > page load > click Components. In the new menu you just click Components and that's it, one click instead of three. That applies to many other site sections as well. Although not everything is one click away, it just be generally reachable with fewer clicks and page loads than before.
Yes I have the full width menu (not collapsed) and can see all 1st level items.
You did a great job with the sub-menu by combining 2nd and 3rd Level.
Problem is the need to hover (counts same as a click, it's a collapsible menu).
Hiding the menu also removes the visual feedback from the 2nd and 3rd level location (sub-nav and side-nav highlights on the old website). Breadcrumbs alone don't provide enough feedback to the user about their location and what else they can access.
Example:
User hovers DATA > Click search Nearest
DATA Search Nearest page - Very well laid out BTW because of the quick search and 4th level items displayed.
User doesn't know they can switch to "Trade Routes"
User doesn't know where they are once hovering the DATA menu because there is no highlight.
The sub-menu you get when clicking on the breadcrumb DATA should be visible at all times. You got enough room on the sides. In addition, it should also provide the user some information as to where they are at the moment.
Old website has more clicks to access a page from home, true. But generally less clicks and movements to navigate between pages, and so much more feedback.
The 2nd level and 3rd level navigation are always visible and provide all that by simply being there.
The result is the user never feeling lost (feedback), always knowing what's available (displayed) and very efficiently switching between parallel pages at the 2nd or 3rd level with a single click, no hovering required.
Again, I hope that'll prove useful!
Last edit: 02 Aug 2022, 6:40pm
Link to Inara Discord: https://discord.gg/qfkFWTr