When it comes to updates or changes to Databruce, most of the time the reasoning comes down one of the following two scenarios:
Reason 1. In using the site myself, I find something to be slightly annoying or obtuse, and I change it.
Reason 2: When doing X, I unintentionally broke Y
The latter is more common unfortunately. Usually the fixes are easy, and often I’m on it when I get a report that something broke. Other times I find out months after the fact that emails weren’t working and a dozen signups couldn’t use the site.
The update is slightly early this month, there were a number of bigger updates and fixes that “forced my hand” so to speak. Also I have other stuff I want to do like the Shuffle archive, which I basically haven’t touched since January.
Not much else to say, lets get into it.
Full Changelist:
- [Fix] Fixed issues with signup and user adding shows
- [New Page] Added "News" page, which is basically a site blog
- [Style] Colors changed slightly. Badge/Button colors slightly different
- [Style] Light/Dark Theme Colors Updated Slightly
- [Style] Numerous style tweaks, using some elements from Hummingbird as I think it looks nicer.
- [Update] Cleaned up several API views, faster response on many
- [Home Page] Changed rendering of Upcoming/Recent/OTD Tables, no longer using Datatables.
- [Event Tables] Changed setlist icon to checkmark, removed true/false text
- [Band Detail] Added "note" card
- [Release Detail] Moved most items to cards
- [Song Detail] Updated year stats to pull from API
- [Releases] Fixed length not showing on table
- [Profile] Added count badge to nav tab buttons
- [Event Detail] Added "set times" card. This will show start/end time and duration of event if known. Times are shown in local time.
- [Event Detail] Link buttons now centered and evenly spaced
- [Event Detail] Album Breakdown no longer uses Datatables
- [Advanced Search] City search now shows country if no state
- [Advanced Search] Fixed issue where quotes in IDs would cause error
Signups Fixed
There was a brief issue where new signups would never get the email to verify their account. This has been fixed, and any accounts that signed up were manually verified by me.
Fixed Adding Shows To Profile
This was part of a bigger issue on the database end, but it has been fixed. Also forced me to go through the database and fix all the weird errors that popped up due to all my constraints and primary keys taking a vacation for some reason.
Navigation Changes
Falls under reason 1. When updating the site, I usually have a browser window side by side with my code editor. The current navbar is a slight pain for navigating in this smaller environment, especially when it comes to the search and switching themes.
Because of this, both the main navigation and user menu have been changed to offcanvas elements which slide over the page. These are much easier to use, especially on small screens. The element is very much inspired by Bootstrap’s, which should be obvious upon comparison.
News Page
A new page added this month is the “News” page, or a blog if that sounds better. Up until now, including this post I’m writing, all update posts have been posted on my Github Pages portfolio site. While that works, having the news about the site separate from the site itself is a bit of a pain. I’ve also wanted to look into some kind of newsletter, which can’t be done on a static Github Pages site.
All of the past update posts have been added, and going forward all new posts will be added as well. For the meantime, posts will be added to both.
Style Updates
This update makes a number of changes to the style/color palette of the site. The style updates are mostly small tweaks, but the color palette changes are a tad more drastic as seen by the pics below.
The reason is that I wanted to experiment with Tailwind color shades, as they provide a bit more flexibility with colors. Most of the colors are not too different than the old ones, with the exception of the background/card shades. The dark theme goes for a much darker look, which I think looks nicer, but might be a matter of opinion.
Home Page Changes
One of the bigger changes is that all of the tables on the home page (minus the setlist table) don’t use Datatables anymore. Those tables don’t make use of any Datatables features, and in fact nearly every setting is disabled, so why even have them? Removing them slightly improves the loading speed of the home page, and with the addition of placeholders, there is less of a layout jump when everything loads.
Event Detail Changes
New Set Times Card
This was added earlier in the month. This card shows the start/end time and length of show. Thanks to Brucebase’s show statistics spreadsheet, every show from 2012-2025 has times. 2026 shows have been tracked by me, using info from BTX/GL setlist threads, and occasionally setlist.fm.
For shows prior to 2012, there isn’t a data source that I know of with this data. And many older shows it is unlikely anyone tracked this info to begin with. So, an optional “scheduled time” field has also been added. This is when the show was scheduled to start, and that info can be found printed on the ticket stubs. I pulled all of those available on Brucebase, but haven’t added many times yet. This will be done over time.
As a final note, times are shown in the local time zone.
Album Breakdown No Longer Uses Datatables
For many of the same reasons as the home page card tables, I realized that the album breakdown card really didn’t need Datatables features, and nothing is lost by rendering the table the normal way.
Advanced Search Changes/Fixes
Form Color Fixed
This was an annoying issue, with it caused by how the forms are rendered. Select2 is too good to be styled with standard CSS, and requires a dozen or so of it’s own rules.
City Field Now Shows State/Country
This falls into the first category listed at the beginning. I realized that some cities share a name with others, and without a way to tell them apart, it is confusing. This has been fixed, so cities will now have the state abbreviation or country name if no state.
Weird Server Error Fixed
This was an issue that I can’t explain because it shouldn’t have happened to begin with. In short, I started noticing that some advanced search requests were failing because quotes were being added to the form parameters. city=283 and city=283' are not the same, and the latter will fail. This required a bit of workaround to strip those from URLs, and this issue should be fixed.
Conclusion
Not as long of an update post as last month, which is good for all involved.
Before closing, I want to thank Hey_Eddie over on StonePonyLondon who added Databruce to the site’s sidebar within a few hours of using it, which is something of an honor I suppose. Even got a half dozen new users from it as well.
Should be it, see you next month!
Lilbud (April 21, 2026)