[mb-devel] Create a unified browse and search interface as GSoC 2015 idea prototype implementation

[Thanuditha Ruchiranga]

Hi all,

I previously sent a mail with the title "Create a unified browse and search
interface as GSoC project draft proposal"[1] and following link is the
prototype that I am designing for it.

http://mbrianzexplore-ruchiranga.rhcloud.com/index.php

The basic features have been implemented yet there is lot more things to be
added and improved. I will be working on it and will keep the prototype
updated as I build it. Please let me know what you think.

I used the example page[2] provided in the issue page as a basis for this.

[1] -
http://musicbrainz.1054305.n4.nabble.com/Create-a-unified-browse-and-search-interface-as-GSoC-project-draft-proposal-td4672524.html
[2] - http://mbsandbox.org/~nikki/browseartists/

Thanks
Ruchiranga

[Tom Crocker]

Hi Ruchiranga

There's some nice things going on there. A few things I wondered :
If someone's selected an attribute (e.g. person or United Kingdom) should
those details be dropped from the list of results (perhaps replaced by
others)?
I can see they're sorted by country, but then what? Worth using the sort
name?
Do you want to add flags for countries?

[Thanuditha Ruchiranga]

Hi Tom,

First of all thanks a lot for replying :).

Sorry but I think I did not quite understand what you meant by
"If someone's selected an attribute (e.g. person or United Kingdom) should
those details be dropped from the list of results (perhaps replaced by
others)?"
As far as I understood are you saying that if some one selected person or
United kingdom, the result records do not need to show it is of type person
and from United Kingdom, is that it? :) Well that sounds valid though I
will make it such that the selected fields fill not show up in the results
then shall I?

How about adding a SortBy selection box in the top of the results table?
The user can then select which way he wants the result table to be sorted
from?

By adding flags did you mean showing them up in the results or showing them
against the country names in the selection list?

Thanks
Ruchiranga

Post by Tom Crocker
Hi Ruchiranga
If someone's selected an attribute (e.g. person or United Kingdom) should
those details be dropped from the list of results (perhaps replaced by
others)?
I can see they're sorted by country, but then what? Worth using the sort
name?
Do you want to add flags for countries?
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http://lists.musicbrainz.org/mailman/listinfo/musicbrainz-devel

[Tom Crocker]

Post by Thanuditha Ruchiranga
Hi Tom,
First of all thanks a lot for replying :).
Sorry but I think I did not quite understand what you meant by
"If someone's selected an attribute (e.g. person or United Kingdom) should
those details be dropped from the list of results (perhaps replaced by
others)?"
As far as I understood are you saying that if some one selected person or
United kingdom, the result records do not need to show it is of type person
and from United Kingdom, is that it? :) Well that sounds valid though I
will make it such that the selected fields fill not show up in the results
then shall I?

That's what I meant, yes. Although I hadn't thought about multiple options
being selected (e.g. type:person OR group). So, maybe it's just cleaner to
leave it as-is? Or don't show the details in results only where a single
option for that field is selected. I don't know :)

Post by Thanuditha Ruchiranga
How about adding a SortBy selection box in the top of the results table?
The user can then select which way he wants the result table to be sorted
from?

Sounds good

Post by Thanuditha Ruchiranga
By adding flags did you mean showing them up in the results or showing
them against the country names in the selection list?

I hadn't thought about the selection list but I guess in both would be
good, if it doesn't clutter things up too much

Post by Thanuditha Ruchiranga
Thanks
Ruchiranga

Post by Tom Crocker
Hi Ruchiranga
If someone's selected an attribute (e.g. person or United Kingdom) should
those details be dropped from the list of results (perhaps replaced by
others)?
I can see they're sorted by country, but then what? Worth using the sort
name?
Do you want to add flags for countries?
_______________________________________________
MusicBrainz-devel mailing list
http://lists.musicbrainz.org/mailman/listinfo/musicbrainz-devel

_______________________________________________
MusicBrainz-devel mailing list
http://lists.musicbrainz.org/mailman/listinfo/musicbrainz-devel

[Thanuditha Ruchiranga]

Hi all,

I have extended my prototype for the "Create a unified browse and search
interface" improvement (which I sent to the mailing list previously also)
to allow browsing from release groups too. Please let me know your comments.

http://mbrianzexplore-ruchiranga.rhcloud.com/index.php

I will next be continuing to extend it further to allow browsing from
releases,recordings, labels, works, FreeDB releases and CS stubs as well.

I also will try to show flags against the countries that appear in the
results as well as the country selection box as Tom Crocker suggested :)

Browsing multiple categories at once( like artists and release groups) is
not yet supported and I will implement it once I complete the above 2 tasks.

**One special thing I noticed when browsing through release groups from my
prototype was that most of them which had more than 1 releases showed
faulty release names(where all were having the same name). I don't think
this is a problem with my code since even in the JSON file received from
the search query, this can be seen. If it is so, it seems the database seem
to be full of faulty data.

Thanks
Ruchiranga

[Tom Crocker]

Post by Thanuditha Ruchiranga
**One special thing I noticed when browsing through release groups from my
prototype was that most of them which had more than 1 releases showed
faulty release names(where all were having the same name). I don't think
this is a problem with my code since even in the JSON file received from
the search query, this can be seen. If it is so, it seems the database seem
to be full of faulty data.

Hi Thanuditha

That's as expected. It might be worth checking out the discography of an
artist you're familiar with and the documentation
http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Release http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Release_Group
Some release groups will have releases with different names but most
releases in a group will have the same name, just differences such as being
the promotional version, having bonus tracks/discs, being remastered, liner
notes in a different language, etc. Sometimes these have "extra title
information" or disambiguation comments that make the difference clear, but
most often not (because it's clear from the attributes).

[Thanuditha Ruchiranga]

Hi all,

I have improved the mockup I had previously posted by making it possible to
specify a date range when browsing on artists born/founded sub category as
discussed on the IRC channel. Earlier, only some static date ranges were
available to be chosen from.
The improved mockup can be accessed from here:

http://musicbrainzexploremockup-ruchiranga.rhcloud.com/

I used Knockout.js for dealing with the dynamic UI updates. Please let me
know your comments.

Next up I will be validating the input entries given in specifying the data
range.

Thanks
Ruchiranga.