Database version 2 (1 Viewer)

mjp

mjp

Founding member
I've been doing a lot of work on the coding aspect of the new database interface, and I may have a beta version you guys can check out in the next day or two. Making the database better made the methods used to query it about 10,000 times more complex, but that's not your problem. ;)

Well, it may be a problem for hank solo's marvelous Firefox plug-in that queries the current database...I think that will be irrevocably broken, unfortunately. I'll talk to him about that. We may still be able to do a loose, general search using that plug-in. We'll see.

Anyway, I'll post when the sneak preview is ready. All the functionality will be there, just not all the data. Only one magazine listing, for example. But a lot of the book and manuscript info is there, so you'll be able to get a feel for how it works. Your feedback can have an impact on the development of the tool before I unleash it on an unsuspecting public.

Bugs? Oh, no, no...no such thing. Um hm. Well, I suspect you will find some and I'll work them out. Fingers crossed. Stay tuned.
 
Fingers crossed here.

Might even try an IE7 search plugin if the Firefox one can be modified...
 
Yes, of course! An IE7 search plugin and then modify the Firefox plugin! Why didn't I think of that!

?!?!?!?!?!???????? What the fuck could that possibly mean? When did the brain train pull out of Victoria Station (without me)? You might as well be speaking in Farsi.
 
Okay, this is a preliminary version, just to give you an idea of the new database search interface.

All of the data is not in the new database, so magazines and broadsides and something else I don't recall at the moment won't show up in the search results (okay, there is one magazine poem - search for "fat" and you'll see it).

I also don't have a couple special features ready (flagging "only appearances," different versions, etc.), as that is going to take some more involved work. It's a combined 400 lines of code already just to do what it does now, so you'll forgive me for taking so long. ;)

First thing you'll notice is it appears to be a lot more complicated than the old interface, but everything under the search box is optional. So just like the old database you can just type in a word and go.

This also truncates any result at 200 records, so the database won't spend a lot of time returning a couple of thousand results for "the" or "and" or whatever. If your search returns over 200 records you need to refine it anyway. The magazine listing is the only thing that will return over 200 records.

Clicking on a title won't take you anywhere yet.

https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://bukowski.net/database2/

I'm looking for feedback, but don't be offended if I can't/won't make it do what you want it to do. ;) But I know I can count on you lot to come up with some good ideas that I can steal.
 
thanks, it looks really promising...

just a tiny detail: the highlighted word has a color which is quite similar to the background color, meaning it's kind of hard to see the highlighted stuff.
 
Working Yaay!

mjp said:
...Well, it may be a problem for hank solo's marvelous Firefox plug-in that queries the current database...I think that will be irrevocably broken, unfortunately. I'll talk to him about that. We may still be able to do a loose, general search using that plug-in. We'll see...
Click to expand...

So far so good mjp. As that search page stands at present, the plug in is easily modified to work, returning the same results as a Loose match search, with none of the radio buttons selected. The highlight feature can be put into the plugin by default and works too. I won't upload the modified plugin to here or to mycroft.mozdev just yet.

If the interface doesn't change to much, then the Firefox plugin should be fine, and I will probably code the ie7 plug in as threatened for anyone who uses that browser.

Feedback on the interface - I'd like it if the keywords used re-appear in the search box on the result page so that the search could be modified and repeated more easily. eg, I search for poem titles containing you know, but then want to broaden my search to just know, so I could just delete you and hit return, or I might just want to narrow my results to only show the BSP/Ecco results so it would be useful to be able to click the radio button without having to retype the keywords or even go back in the history. I know the first database didn't do this.
 
I'm not spamming the forum honest ;)

It might be useful to select a year range rather than a single year. And if the code could detect that if only one year was selected (assuming you use drop downs like the current year select) or that the first year was more recent (ie higher) than the second one then it should return results for just the one year as it can now... Does that make sense?
 
cirerita said:
...the highlighted word has a color which is quite similar to the background color, meaning it's kind of hard to see the highlighted stuff.
Click to expand...
Hmm...I changed that a couple days ago because it was too similar to the background as I saw it, so I thought I made it better. Heh. I'll mess with that.

I've noticed that the color scheme (if you can call it that) on this site looks much different on a CRT compared to a flat panel LCD.
 
hank solo said:
...I'd like it if the keywords used re-appear in the search box on the result page so that the search could be modified and repeated more easily.
Click to expand...
Yep, yep, already on the "to-do" list.

It might be useful to select a year range rather than a single year.
Click to expand...
I'll look into that. My initial reaction was, "gah, that would be too hard!" but it may not be so difficult.
 
If you want to parcel out some of the coding chores for adding features (if that would be of assistance), I volunteer.

SD
 
Thanks Sam. The bulk of the heavy lifting is finished though. The rest should be relatively easy. Plus I don't want any real programmers making fun of my code. ;)
 
cirerita said:
the highlighted word has a color which is quite similar to the background color, meaning it's kind of hard to see the highlighted stuff.
Click to expand...
Try it now...
 
well, it's different :D

it feels weird, though, because highlighted words tend to be of a different color, not of the same color within a dotted square... but, then, I guess that if we were used to the dotted squares then we would find weird highlighted words with a different color...
 
I could certainly change the text color of the part of the word that matches. That didn't occur to me. It's too obvious and logical. I'm always trying to find the most difficult and obtuse way to do something. I enjoy the challenge. Ha.
 
Highlighted text and populated search field (your search term stays in the box even when results are displayed) are done.
 
mjp said:
Thanks Sam. The bulk of the heavy lifting is finished though. The rest should be relatively easy. Plus I don't want any real programmers making fun of my code. ;)
Click to expand...

No problem, mate. If you ever do need assistance, I'd be glad to help. (The least we can do for all the work you've put in for the cause.) And remember, any code that works, is good code; no matter what it looks like.

SD
 
mjp said:
I could certainly change the text color of the part of the word that matches. That didn't occur to me. It's too obvious and logical. I'm always trying to find the most difficult and obtuse way to do something. I enjoy the challenge. Ha.
Click to expand...

no shit! :D

If you're using firefox, hit CTLR + F, type Buk in the search window and you'll see Buk will be highlighted in GREEN -at least in my computer.

The red color you chose is just fine -in fact, I really like it- but it's way too similar to the red you chose for the word "manuscript" which appears below many entries, and I think it's bit of a visual mess sometimes...

Talk about being finicky!
 
That must be fixed because manuscript doesn't show red on my screen...

Unless its a link you've already visited... Is the manuscript text you're refering to a hyperlink?

Hmmm no even visited links stay black for me...
 
The word "manuscript" under a title in a search result is dark red. It will probably eventually be the same blue as the rest of the links. That will be different from the old db, in that you won't click on [manuscript] anymore, but the title.

cirerita - ctrl+F is the Firefox search...the CSS on the page shouldn't affect that, and I don't think there's anything green in the CSS anyway...
 
mjp,

yeah, I know about the Firefox search window, I was just using it as an example to "illustrate" how a highlighted word normally uses a different color than that of the background...
 
if push comes to shove, I'd rather see the red you used last time -despite the visual mess with the dark red "manuscript" word- than the yellow which appears now... and now you can tell me: "fuck off, maaaaaaaaaaaaan!"
 
mjp said:
The word "manuscript" under a title in a search result is dark red.
Click to expand...
Strange. I'm trying to work out why my Firefox (which is v1.0.7 once again) isn't using the class smalldarkred... It displays ok in IE. eg. I search for "gigolo" - results are 'A Couple Of gigolos' from 'Hot Water Music' and 'The gigolo - manuscript - carbon'. Hot Water Music displays ok using the class small, but manuuscript is just displaying at the same size and colour as normal text, like "Results of your search".

Hmmm. the Style sheet looks fine. And the page source looks ok. Must be a glitch in my browser.
 
Ok mjp, so either you've just fixed it this second, or, I suspect, I had a cached version of the style sheet that was missing the smalldarkred class. Anyway. Now I see what you mean. :D
 
Ok, the suspense is killing me ... so whats happening?
 
Ha ha - nothing's happening...not at the moment. A lot has changed - technically speaking - since I started work on the new db, so it's kind of bogged down. I had to remove the old one while I did some other db optimizations. It's back now. The old one. Don't be disappointed.
 

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