Today marks a significant shift in our development focus. Till now, all features on this site have been designed for "backward compatibility", that is, we have a feature-set supporting the lowest common denominator of browsers including IE6 and earlier. This kind of backward support of old browsers has prevented us from leveraging the latest technologies and pushing the envelope on features.
Hereafter, the site engineering and future features will embrace the latest HTML5 and other cutting-edge technologies, to provide faster and superior browsing incorporating the state-of-the-art. To enjoy upcoming features, our users are requested to switch to modern browsers like Google Chrome 10, Firefox 4, IE9, Opera 11 or Safari5. Downloads of these browsers are quick and upgrades are fast.
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the first iteration, the India Rail Info app for Chrome is already available to be installed. The initial feature-set is comprised of:
1. Chrome Browser Action icon:
To the right of the Chrome Address Bar, you will see a new India Rail Info icon. This is a shortcut icon for quick train search, seat availability info and PNR fetch. Any search done from this box will search and provide seat availability info very fast - the search is dynamic in the sense that incremental seat availability updates can be seen on the screen. Also, quick PNR fetches are available from this box.
2. Seat Availability in the Train tab:
Inside this tab, all refreshes will be incremental and dynamic. So you won't have to wait a long time for all information to be fetched before being displayed. Whenever incremental info is fetched, the seat availability tab will refresh incrementally.
3. Inline PNR refreshes: In the PNR forum, there is a new "Refresh" button against every PNR. Clicking on this button will "inline refresh" the PNR status. You won't have to switch back-and-forth between the Forum and the PNR Status pages.
This is the first iteration. The app and the site will be continuously enhanced and upgraded to bring in new features, in the coming days and weeks.
Upcoming features:
1. Chat and messaging: There's been a long-standing complaint that there is no interactive sound and other notifications like Google Talk. This aspect will be addressed. New chat messages and chat requests will have sound.
2. Context menu for News posting: For our news posters, a quick right click menu will be provided to input new news items without having to switch between this site and the newspaper site, or laborious cutting-and-pasting.
3. Bulk PNR updates and autotracking: Long-requested feature. Will very soon be implemented.
4. Streaming desktop notifications for new Blog Posts, PNR posts, Private posts, etc. This would be like other desktop apps like Twitter, GMail. Will also incorporate sound alerts.
Also under development: Toolbars for Firefox4, IE9 and Opera 11. All modern browsers will have the India Rail Info app. These are coming soon.
Meanwhile, you may install the Chrome app to experience the initial features. Some of our members and admins have already downloaded the new Chrome app, and provided private feedback.
Thanks.