20 November 2024
NHL was the only big league that was still using our old Player Stats/Box Score component in Match Detail. Now that league has been linked to the new component, which mostly means there are a lot more stats shown.
A couple of small changes have been made to this widget:
07 November 2024
Previously teams and scores could only be displayed vertically (stacked) inside a match block. Now we have added a horizontal view. This can be configured with the new “matches_view” parameter. This parameter only influences matches, not phases as they don’t have a home and away participant. The “matches_view” parameter is also added to the Standings widget, as it is possible there to add matches with the “include_matches” parameter. In Bracket we have stuck with the vertical view only, because of the specifics of that widget.
Match Detail adapts to the amount of data that is available for a certain match. If the coverage level is high, we keep displaying all elements and tabs, but if the coverage level is lower we remove things to not display elements that are worthless for the match’ coverage level. Some examples are:
In Phase Detail a new tab has been introduced called Rankings. In that tab the series rankings are displayed connected to the event that was held. The Rankings tab is only displayed on the last phase of the event and only if the phase has finished, because only then the series rankings are updated. If an event is linked to multiple series (e.g. Ski Jumping Four Hills Tournament/World Cup) all series are displayed. Because we already had a Phase Detail tab called Standings, which displayed the accumulative results after a certain phase, we renamed that tab to Total.
Connected to the Rankings tab we have added the points that athletes earned with their result for the series rankings to the Results/Summary/Total tab, depending on which tab are available and ‘where’ these points were allocated.
In widgets within the so-called phases domain, Calendar, Phase Detail and Results Overview, we already displayed flags with rounded corners instead of square corners. The same flag style is copied to all other widgets. This means that in Bracket, Carousel, League Stats, Match Detail, Schedule, Standings, Team and Teams By League also flags with rounded corners are used.
In all widgets where we use tables to display a lot of data (e.g. detailed result or standings tables), we have reduced font sizes, logos, flags and margins across all viewports. All viewports still maintain an appropriate size and have enough white space to still feel comfortable reading, while now being way easier to scan since more rows fit in your view.
Within series it is possible that multiple editions of the same league are held within the same league season. That happens for example often with winter sports. Previously only the first edition within a league season was displayed in Calendar, while it now shows all editions that will be/are held.
09 October 2024
Multiple new leagues across different sports are now available within the Global Sports Widgets. This list includes the following leagues:
In the Results Overview widget we introduced a different view: a stage overview. In the original view the widget displays the top 3 medalists per event in case a league has multiple events. That remains the same, but if a league has only one event that consists of multiple phases, the so-called stages, (e.g. Cycling Tour de France or WRC Rally leagues) the widget switches to the stage overview. The Schedule clickthrough in the Calendar widget has been updated accordingly to show the stage overview to show this more informative overview instead of the Schedule widget.
Similarly to the Schedule and Calendar widgets the Standings widget can now also display multiple leagues. If multiple leagueIDs are entered, by default the sport/league dropdowns are displayed at the top of the widget, which enables the user to switch between the standings for different leagues.
In the Team widget the Roster tab has been further improved as the following two things are done:
25 September 2024
For our three newest widgets, Calendar, Phase Detail and Results Overview, multiple accessibility improvements have been made. Those improvements include adding heading and list structures, focus on click backs, reading blocks in a linear order and hiding icons where they don’t help the screen reader users.
Series standings with persons that are linked to a club team (e.g. Formula One World Championship) now include a reference to that club team. Similarly to how this is displayed in Phase Detail the club team name and possible graphics as team jerseys (for Cycling) and team colors (for Formula One) are shown.
This is a new parameter for the Calendar and Schedule widget, that controls the behavior of the league (Schedule) or month (Calendar) buckets. The parameter has three options: default (how things worked before), expand (all buckets are always expanded) and collapse (all buckets are always collapsed).
The functionality of this filter, that can be shown in Calendar and Schedule, is further improved. If there is only one sport scheduled on a specific day (Schedule) or in a specific season (Calendar), the sport is prefilled to avoid that users have to do a redundant action to select the sport.
11 September 2024
The Calendar widget is extended with functionality to combine multiple leagues to create a true sport(s) schedule. Leagues can be both series (e.g. Golf PGA Tour) and standalone leagues (e.g. Athletics World Championships). Also matches leagues (e.g. FIFA World Cup) can be included. We advise to restrict this to shorter matches tournaments and not to add matches leagues that take the entire season (e.g. NBA or Premier League). Parameters are available to fully customize the view. Examples are adding the sport and series names, which you want to see in a multi-sports calendar and probably not in a single-series calendar.
The Standings widget is now also available for series standings (e.g. Formula One World Championship and Alpine Skiing World Cup). The standings must be linked to a series consisting of leagues. Standalone rankings (e.g. Golf World Ranking and Tennis ATP Ranking) are not in scope yet. When those standalone rankings can be requested in the Standings widget is not known yet.
The Team widget has two new tabs: Roster and Standings. In Roster the team’s squad for the current season is displayed. Players are grouped based on common positions for the different sports. For Football/Soccer also incoming and outgoing transfers during the season are shown.
In Standings all standings of the leagues a team is part of are shown, as long as the league actually has standings. For each team the domestic league is the default league to land on when the widget is opened.
29 August 2024
Last month with Phase Detail the first widget in our so-called ‘phases’ domain, for non-matches sports like athletics, cycling, golf and winter sports, was introduced. Now we have also released the new Calendar widget. This widget displays the entire season of a series that consists of multiple leagues. Examples are the Golf PGA Tour, the Formula One World Championship and the Tennis ATP Race. In the next release functionality will be added to turn this widget into a true sports calendar by adding multiple series and separate leagues, like the Football FIFA World Cup or the Athletics/Track & Field World Championships, to one single configuration.
Together with the Calendar widget also the new Results Overview widget has been released. This widget displays all medal winners/top 3 ranked athletes of the different events in a league, for example all medal winners of the 2023 Athletics/Track & Field World Championships. Results Overview will also be available as a clickthrough from the Calendar widget in case a league consists of multiple events.
The former TV style, a dark css that can be used in darker environments like, has been replaced with a new style simply called ‘Dark’. This stylesheet fits the color scheme of dark environments better than our previous TV style and contains some nicer contrast colors.
In addition to the new dark style, functionality has been added to automatically detect if your environment (browser, app etc.) is in light mode or in dark mode. Based on what is detected widgets are presented with either our default (light) style, or the new dark style. By default this functionality is switched on. It can be switched off by setting the auto_dark_mode parameter to “no”. If a customer uses a custom css, the automatic switch from light to dark and vice versa will not work to not interfere with the custom stylesheet. Those customers need to add our Dark css to their custom stylesheet to also enable the switch from light mode to dark mode. More information about that is available on our documentation pages.
If a device has no working internet connection, or otherwise doesn’t connect with the widgets at any moment, the widgets will now contain some visual signs that there is no internet connection. A message in red will be shown at the top, the widget has the same red border, a gradient layer is put on top of the widget and the widget isn’t clickable, all to make clear to the end user that there is no internet connection. In the past the widgets would blank and a hard refresh was needed to make the widgets appear again. That isn’t the case anymore as the widgets will always remain visible.
In Phase Detail a specific live view for races has been added to the Info block of the widget. In this block it is visible in which lap the race is out of the amount of scheduled laps, what the status on the track is (both from a weather and flag status perspective), who is the leader of the race and who has the fastest lap at that moment.
For all Golf tournaments the par of the course and the purse of the tournaments have been added to the Phase Detail widget so the end user has all necessary information when watching the scores of a Golf tournament.
03 July 2024
Phase Detail is the first widget dedicated to non-matches sports like Auto Racing, Cycling, Golf, various Winter Sports and many more. In the widget detailed results are displayed. The available information, the speed at which results are available and the data depth is dependent on the entry level of the league. We still have some gaps in this widget in terms of data consistency. Therefore please reach out to us if you are interested in a certain sport or league to see what we can already deliver.
To display a complete sports schedule in the Schedule (multi-league) widget now also non-matches sports can be included. Both series and separate leagues can be included. If an ID of a series (like the Formula One World Championship or the Alpine Skiing World Cup) is given, all leagues that are part of the series will be retrieved. This makes it easier to ensure a consistent delivery without the need to consistently change the input IDs.
Also the single-league variant of the Schedule widget can display phases. This way it is possible to show the entire schedule of the Athletics World Championships or a Formula 1 Grand Prix. The input must always be a league ID as a series ID doesn’t work. To output the calendar of an entire season of a series we will later develop a new widget.
05 June 2024
Two further improvements have been made to the League Stats widget. For each player, both in the overview pages and in the full stats tables, the team a player is representing is displayed instead of the nationality of the player. Additionally it is possible to sort the stats in the full stats tables both ascending and descending.
In both the Teams By League and the Team widget the team’s home venue (stadium) is added, if Gracenote keeps track of the home venues for a league.
In all widgets where a start time of a match is mentioned, which is the case in Carousel, Schedule, Match Detail, Standings (if matches are included) and Bracket, the start time is removed if the time is not 100% sure yet. This happens for example in match rounds later in a league season, when matches are scheduled for a specific date but not on a specific time yet. We are not outputting a default start time of matches anymore.
In the Carousel, Schedule and Match Detail widget the polls information for the NCAAF FBS is available. In front of the team name, identically outputted as the seeds for tennis, the rank in either the AP Top 25 or the playoff rank is displayed. For NCAAB and WNCAAB the polls information will be added later.
In Carousel and Schedule it is also possible to filter the entire list of matches of the NCAAF only on the matches that contain teams that are listed in the polls for FBS. This can be done with the “top25” input in the “tier_conference_id” parameter. With the Tier/Conference dropdown in Schedule it is also possible for the end user to filter the list of matches, since there is a Top 25 option available besides all conferences.
23 May 2024
The Team widget has been released. Currently it only consists of the Info Block at the top and the Schedule tab with the team schedule below that, but in the future also team roster, standings and stats tabs will be added. The core of the widget is identical to Match Detail. This means specific components of the widget can be delivered separately. This widget is now also the default widget clicking through from Teams By League.
The stats full ranking page has been completely revamped. Instead of clicking through from the overview page to one specific stat, the click through now goes to a full stats table (for that specific subcategory of stats), where an user can sort the table on all included stats. The ranks will be updated accordingly. In the near future we will make some more modifications to this widget.
For NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA, NCAAB and WNCAAB the teams are now displayed in buckets based on their division or conference. For NCAAF this will be added in the future.
This parameter has been added to the Schedule widget to be able to hide all results related information to prevent giving spoilers. This includes live and final scores, winner indicators and additional live information, like current period, clock time, possession etc. Instead the word ‘Finished’ for finished matches and ‘Live’ for live matches will be shown.
24 April 2024
After the improvements that were made last month with the introduction of the general classes based on function, we now finalized updating the documentation. A completely rewritten Custom CSS Guide is available on the Documentation page. The guide explains per general function and color where they are used throughout the portfolio and where they can be adjusted.
27 March 2024
Huge improvements have been made to the custom CSS. Until now classes were grouped based on color, but we added classes based on function. This way it is easier to custom style the same elements across different widgets. The following elements are considered:
Using the above changes we created a new Gracenote CSS, which is a more expressive custom style sheet embracing the Gracenote/Nielsen colors to show what can all be adjusted by changing the CSS. The style is now also available on this website.
17 January 2024
In all our schedule related widgets (both Schedule single- and multi-league as well as Carousel) cricket specific logic has been added to accommodate the characteristics of the sport. The changes include adding a cricket bat as identifier for which team is at bat, how many overs the current batting team has played, displaying the target score and mentioning for test matches the scheduled breaks (tea, lunch, stumps) and the current day of play.
The Bracket widget is extended with additional functionality to serve leagues with multiple events or multiple brackets within a season. Therefore the widget is now available for sports such as tennis.
06 December 2023
For tennis we have implemented a couple of improvements in our schedule widgets to match the specific tennis requirements. The most noticeable changes include outputting the separate set scores instead of the sum of won sets, displaying the seeds for players and doubles teams, hiding the bye matches as well as adding retired and walk over identifiers. Additionally in the phase info bar in Schedule the overall is referenced, since multiple overalls take place in the same tournament and this way the user knows to which overall a match belongs.
We now support Lacrosse within the Schedule and Standings widgets as we defined what to show for the sport. The most important league that we keep track of for Lacrosse is the NLL.