Database updated (3 Viewers)

mjp

Founding member
In the never ending battle between good and evil, we make one small step toward the good tonight, as I have completed phase I of the database update.

The last book added to the old database was Slouching Toward Nirvana, so there are a lot of new entries.

Also, the interface has been changed to provide better results pages. Now instead of a long list with duplicate titles and no order, things are tidier and more readable.

There is an advanced search and some other bells and whistles that still need to be finished up, but that old database has been mocking me for years, so I wanted to get the new data out there and freshen the joint up a bit.

I trust that you'll tell me when you find broken stuff. I've been staring at code for the better part of 10 hours, so I'm sure there's some slop somewhere.
 
labor of love, or obsessed buckethead? you be the judge. i love him either way.

We do too, but thanks for taking care of the whole carnal thing so we don't have to.

Looks good on first glance, mjp. Great work. And I learned something:

The Whores, The People At Taco Stands, The Bus Drivers, The Cops, The Killers, The Janitors, The Highschool Teachers, The Priests And The Garbagemen was written by Buk, not Hosh.

Now, if you could just reconcile all the nearly identical works with different titles and highlight edits made by JM in red and those made by Buk in blue, we'll be all set. I can wait until tomorrow evening for that.
 
Now, if you could just reconcile all the nearly identical works with different titles and highlight edits made by JM in red and those made by Buk in blue, we'll be all set.
I'll get right on that.

Minus the different colored edit comparisons (for now anyway), something along those lines is already in the works. Check out the Alternate titles/versions line in this entry. If you click on the alternate title it takes you to the other publication. There are only about 30 entries in that table at the moment, but it's something that will be there in the future for a lot more titles.

There's only one Forum item entry right now, but you can see the idea behind it.

There is something else in the works that I can't really talk about because it might ruffle some feathers. But it will be cool. You know, someday.

FYI: The database currently contains:
  • 4175 poems and stories in 113 books
  • 1609 poems and stories in 703 magazines
  • 56 broadsides
  • 682 manuscripts
  • 1 other items
  • 1 forum links
 
Labor of love, indeed. Thanks for the update. I'm sure the Alternate Titles part was a bit of a headache, wasn't it?

One thing which was cool in the old database was the ability to list everything by year, by magazine, by book, etc. Will that work in the new one?
 
Cool. Looking good.

Anyone using the old Firefox search plug in will need an update. You must remove the old version first.

The new one is here.

NB: This plug-in performs the loose match search function.
 
I'll get right on that.

Minus the different colored edit comparisons (for now anyway), something along those lines is already in the works. Check out the Alternate titles/versions line in this entry. If you click on the alternate title it takes you to the other publication. There are only about 30 entries in that table at the moment, but it's something that will be there in the future for a lot more titles.

Excellent! That's going to take some dirty fingernails to bring it anywhere near completion, so thanks for taking that on in any fashion.
 
It looks great! I can't even begin to imagine the hours mjp has spent on this. Thanks for the update!
 
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The advanced search features have been activated. They are basically just filters, but they can be pretty useful. I wasn't going to do it today, but there you go. If I didn't do it today it might have been another 4 years.
 
he's actually still tinkering with it and ironing out the kinks, etc. it really is a labor of love and i know we all appreciate his hard work. but i have to tell you guys that i share an office with mjp and right now he's driving me absolutely bonkers! every time something doesn't work right, he gets duly frustrated and he is vocal about it. i sit at my computer and i try to read things on the internets that interest me, but it's near impossible when you have a cranky old man talking to himself behind you. let's hope he gets this thing fixed soon for all our sakes. LOL!!!!
 
mjp's workplace.jpg


To keep yourself from going bonkers crack him over the head with something. Do you have a heavy duty stapler (the key word is heavy)? I think I speak for everyone in saying we can wait just a few more days.
 
There are a lot of staplers in here, but many other things that would make much better weapons.

---

In order to distract everyone from the bugs and glitches in the new database, I present you with this wonderful guessing contest:
  • The old database consisted of one table with 5,599 records. The new database has 10 tables and...how many records?
To help your guess I'll tell you that two of those tables only have one entry each, two have over 4000 each and the total is a five digit number.

Closest guess wins an Absence of the Hero ARC, a Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake frozen treat wrapper and a Mother's Joy Raisin Bran box top. You must be 18 or older to play, void where prohibited.
 
Glad to see this insane project has been updated and continued. Looks great! I've been hearing about this since I showed up! Advanced Search is especially useful.
 
...well, a (sometimes) cranky old man that i love to grow old and (sometimes) cranky with myself.
 
By definition, any guess is potentially laughable (even my noble attempt which was scientifically-enhanced by choosing random numbers that added up to 10,000+). Can't win if you don't play.
 
Don't worry, honey. Your sarcasm was noted and appreciated.

Sunday night I'll tell you who is closest and who gets the free wrappers and boxtops.
 
Okay, a few of you were spooky close, but here's the result:
10197 Purple Stickpin (-1464)

11661 <-- the actual number at the time I posed the question

11800 marina del rey (+139)
11834 hank solo
14435 fairhurst
18500 Bukfan
20600 Stavrogin
22827 1fsh2fsh​
So for coming within 139 of the actual number, marina del rey scores the ARC.

There is a new page that will always have the current database stats at the bottom (updated every 24 hours).
 
I'm furthest from the mark. Glad to see everything is normal.... Thanks for all of your hard work MJP.
 
I'm furthest from the mark. Glad to see everything is normal....

After school we'll corner Marina and give him a Hertz Doughnut. Probably cheated. And Purple, too. Him and his highfalutin scientifically-enhanced answers. We'll cold fusion his underpants to his smarmy taint.
 

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