Introducing Captive Reefs Showcase - Reef Info

[jimsflies]

CR Showcase: My Reef[coverattach=1]

You may have already noticed the "Showcase" menu item on the navbar which appeared almost about a month ago. I would like to introduce CaptiveReefs newest feature: CR Showcase.

CR Showcase will be a fun and useful tool for members here on CR. Besides providing a place for members to show off their tanks, this will also provide a strong database that will be usefull to members. For example, one could search for any member with a tank less than 30 gallons and find out what skimmer they are using. Or search for anyone keeping a hippo tang and see what the smallest size tank they are keeping it in (watch out for tang police).

[coverattach=2]Post Bit Links

You will notice a link in my postbit (right under the gameroom cash) which has a popup to my "Reef Info". Members who have filled out their showcase will have that link in their post bit. This will be very handy and enable members to provide better help without the need to repost all of your tank information. A couple clicks and someone will have a good idea of what system and filtration you are using.

Add Reef Info

[coverattach=3]To get started, click on Reef Tools on the navbar menu, then select "Add/Edit Reef". You can also access this information in your UserCP (found under Member Tools). There is a lot of information to enter and you don't need to do it all at once. Just click save and you can come back and add info at your leisure. Try if you can to upload at least one nice picture of your tank so it will display in the list of reefs. You of course, can also change information as you change things in your tank.

There are drop downs for various attributes/components. If you see a brand or something we missed drop me a line and I will try to get it added. There are also areas that call for a value (for example "x" gallons per hour). There are areas for a simple text string...like a link to your controller website. There are also areas to write whatever extra information you need to in order to describe your reef tank. When you enter information in the template you can use bbcode. Here is a link to the codes that can be used here on CaptiveReefs. Of course lots of photos can be included with your showcase. Just click on add photo in the Reef Component Template and the software will walk you through it. You can even include captions.

[coverattach=4]Search Power

When enough members have completed their showcase, the true power of the system will shine and become a tool for our community to use. In the picture to the left you can see the search functionality. You can select as many items to search on as you want. This search page is accessed through the CR Showcase menu on the navbar. You can also browse through you friends showcases using the various searches built into the CR Showcase menu on the navbar.

Thanks

A special tanks to Team CR and CR Staff who helped put Showcase together. Specifically the following members provided an enormous amount of help with this effort: ReeferRob, Schminksbro, Sir Patrick, Rabid Goose, Tom@HasslettMI, Tankster, and Argent.

Feel free to ask any questions or make suggestions. We do need to be careful as we go with changes to the data template. Some changes could impact existing data. But I am sure that there will be some tweaking that needs to be done and we can make this into a useful feature for Captive Reefs.