This website displays the result of a nightly retrieval of car show event information, including shows, cruises, and cars & coffee, for the tri-state areas of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland usually for a few months of time depending on the sources used. More event types and states may be added at a later time. The nightly retrieval obtains its data by inspecting popular car show event websites which will be un-named here. This was written to provide its author, and his car club members, a single easy place to find local-ish car show events. This page explains the full feature set of this website.
The website is intended to be used on desktop computer web browsers. The website will display on most mobile devices however features requiring hovering with a device pointer will not work. If the mobile device screen is small-ish then the display may not show as intended and thus could be difficult to use.
This is a hobby type of website. It is not intended to be professional or popular. In this fashion it may not be accessible for various impaired users.
The total count of listed events is displayed in the parenthesis next to the main title.
To the immediate right of the main title, and displayed event count, is a red and yellow information icon. Hovering your mouse/device pointer over this will display the nightly retrieval configuration noting which event types are listed and for which states.
Upon loading the site prompts users you to allow the browser to use your location. If you decline it presents an address form for you to enter your address into manually. This is NOT required to use the site! The site does this to support the features listed below. If you decline to allow the browser to identify our location or otherwise enter an address manually the features listed below will not work properly. For your own privacy the website does not retain or record your address information on my server or anywhere else, thus each time you visit the site you will be prompted in this manner.
The event list will display as rows on screen. Left most for each row representing an event will be a day-of-a-calendar style widget informing of the month, day, weekday, and year of the event. Each row will include the event name in bold letters. To the right of the title, in parenthesis, will be a details link. Clicking the details link will display more information about the event in a new browser window, or tab if that is how your browser is configured. Below the bolded title and details link the address of the event will display.
The information displayed here is only as good as the data source it was retrieved from!
Overlayed on the top-right hand side to the screen is a tiny Google map that contains some custom control buttons and some standard Google Map controls. When you click an event in the list this map will update to show the general area of the address listed in the event itself.
On the top-left side of the map are buttons for showing a street map or a satellite view.
On the top-center of the map are buttons for zooming out, zooming in, resetting the zoom, and driving directions. The driving directions button:
On the top-right side of the map is a button allowing to have the map take up your entire screen. Hitting the 'ESC" key or the 'F11' key on your keyboard should revert full screen mode.
Towards the bottom-right side of the map is a button that is a circle shape with 4 arrows on it pointing north, east, south, and west. Clicking this button will display 6 additional buttons on the map. 4 of the buttons will be the north, east, south, and west arrows and clicking those will move the map in that direction. '+' and '-' buttons will also display. Clicking these will zoom the map out ('+') or in ('-'). Clicking the compass like circular button again will hide these additional buttons.
The mouse can also be used to move and zoom the map. Clicking on the map with the left mouse button and dragging while holding the mouse button down will move the map. Holding down either 'CTRL' key on the keyboard while rolling your mouse wheel, if your mouse has one, will zoom the map in or out.
On the bottom-right hand side of the screen is a person icon. If you click with your left mouse button and drag the person icon over the map some streets will light up in a blue color. You can drag the person icon over these streets and let go of the left mouse button to switch the map to Street View. Street View displays a camera on the street the person icon was dragged onto. You can left-click and drag your mouse and the camera view will rotate accordingly. The street itself will have two arrows overlayed on it and when you click them the camera view will move in that direction up/down/left/right on that street. Towards the bottom left will be a compass icon that automatically rotates the view when clicked and under this are familiar zoom in and zoom out buttons. The aforementioned holding of the keyboard 'CTRL' key while spinning the mouse wheel up or down also works to control zooming. This mode can be exited by clicking the left pointing arrow at the top-left of the screen to the left of the address box. This view allows you to familiarize yourself with nearby landmarks of various areas along the entire route.
On the top-right of the screen are icons using a red and yellow color scheme. These are various filters that can be applied to the event list. Clicking these and selecting one or more items will limit or expand the events displayed. These do not work in combination currently. Selecting any of these filters de-activates any prior applied filters.
The left-most of these icons, when clicked, will display the months that are represented in the entire data set as checkboxes. Initially they are all checked because the initial view shows all months. You check and un-check one or more months to limit the display of events to the checked months in this filter.
The second left-most of these icons, when clicked, will display the cities that are represented in the entire data set as checkboxes. Initially they are all checked because the initial view shows all cities. You check and un-check one or more cities to limit the display of events to the checked cities in this filter. If you hover over the city the state will display in a tooltip.
Currently filtering by state is not implemented. if implemented then the city filter items would depend on the state filter and this would be a combined filter which is nit currently supported. Until such a time that combined filters, or another creative solution can be determined, state filtering will not be supported.
The second right-most of these icons, when clicked, will display a bar that you can drag the mouse over and click to limit the events to within so many miles of your address. As you drag the mouse the bar will fill or un-fill with the color red and if you hover for a second will display how many miles. If you then click at that point on the bar the events will be filtered to only include the ones within that many miles of your address. For this to work you must have allowed the browser to use your location or have entered an address manually. If you have not done so you will be prompted to enter an address manually.
The top-right most red and yellow icon with a '+' symbol on it allows those that are aware of the site administrator password to enter it and add an event that currently is not listed. A limited number of people, one currently, have access ot this.