Dave's Redistricting App Screwed? (UPDATE: New DRA Link, v2.5)

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

That new app is awful. I'd rather just use the 1.0 version which should always work. The 2.2 still works for me though.

What's wrong with the new one? I haven't used it yet.

You can no longer draw a box to zoom into a specific area or color a whole bunch of districts at once. The "check continuity" and "jump to state view" buttons are also gone.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

That new app is awful. I'd rather just use the 1.0 version which should always work. The 2.2 still works for me though.

What's wrong with the new one? I haven't used it yet.

You can no longer draw a box to zoom into a specific area or color a whole bunch of districts at once. The "check continuity" and "jump to state view" buttons are also gone.

You can still color multiple districts at once. The key to draw the boxes is now Z instead of ctrl.

[Lachi]

I still don't get why there is a newer version with less functionality, while version 2.2 still continues to work.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I still don't get why there is a newer version with less functionality, while version 2.2 still continues to work.

Basically, 2.2 depends upon another piece of software that is no longer being maintained, not even for emergency fixes. So if something causes that to break, 2.2 will be dead with no chance of revival.  2.5 doesn't have that dependency, so it is more robust, but at the cost of less ability. Ideally, we'll eventually get a DRA 3.0 that doesn't use Silverlight at all, but I can understand why that's unlikely to happen until we have 2020 census data to play with.

[Heisenberg]

I wish it had 2012 and 2016 data to compare, but it won't happen.

[muon2]

I still don't get why there is a newer version with less functionality, while version 2.2 still continues to work.

Basically, 2.2 depends upon another piece of software that is no longer being maintained, not even for emergency fixes. So if something causes that to break, 2.2 will be dead with no chance of revival.  2.5 doesn't have that dependency, so it is more robust, but at the cost of less ability. Ideally, we'll eventually get a DRA 3.0 that doesn't use Silverlight at all, but I can understand why that's unlikely to happen until we have 2020 census data to play with.

I'm hoping that DRA 3.0 will use the estimate data before we get to 2020. He did that with 2008 estimate data, so perhaps it can happen with 2018 data, too.

[Figueira]

Has anyone had trouble with Maryland recently? Wouldn't load for me on 2.2 or 2.5 yesterday.

[muon2]

Has anyone had trouble with Maryland recently? Wouldn't load for me on 2.2 or 2.5 yesterday.

I just tried it with 2.2 on IE and it worked fine.

[justfollowingtheelections]

I have never been able to use this app and I have tried all apps.

[publicunofficial]

The newest update of Firefox breaks all versions of DRA.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

The newest update of Firefox breaks all versions of DRA.

Wait, so...I thought it was a Silverlight problem.

[Nyvin]

The newest update of Firefox breaks all versions of DRA.

Wait, so...I thought it was a Silverlight problem.

The updated firefox version blocks Silverlight, and it doesn't seem you can override this.

[muon2]

DRA 2.2 still works for me in IE from my Win 10 machine.

[Starpaul20]

Actually it is still possible to use Silverlight on Firefox 52 but you need to add a config setting:

1. Open about:config
2. Anywhere on the page, right-click, go down to New and select Boolean
3. For the name, enter plugin.load_flash_only and the boolean value, enter false
4. Restart your browser

I'm told this will only work until Firefox 53 is released in mid-April. Another solution is to use the ESR release which supports Silverlight until the next ESR release in May of 2018.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I got my Windows 7 machine to work online again (by replacing its ram cards). Its version of Internet Explorer (11 I think?) can run DRA 2.2.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Another solution is to use the ESR release which supports Silverlight until the next ESR release in May of 2018.

?

[Starpaul20]

Another solution is to use the ESR release which supports Silverlight until the next ESR release in May of 2018.

?

Firefox has an Extended Support Release meant for organizations who need extended support for mass deployments. Other than longer gaps between versions it's no different than the normal version (other than a few minor things like keeping Silverlight support). It can be downloaded here

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Another solution is to use the ESR release which supports Silverlight until the next ESR release in May of 2018.

?

Firefox has an Extended Support Release meant for organizations who need extended support for mass deployments. Other than longer gaps between versions it's no different than the normal version (other than a few minor things like keeping Silverlight support). It can be downloaded here

ah
thx

[Cokeland Saxton]

As for me, it won't let me load TX or NM, crashes on IL, OH, CA, FL, and NY, and is really laggy for MI, WI, and MO.