GoodBook.Reviews - ISBN Search, Internal Database & Fixes
GoodBook.Reviews V0.4.x
Repository
https://github.com/code-with-sam/goodbook.reviews
New Features
This update brings ISBN book search when submitting reviews and an internal database to track submissions.
ISBN Search
Previous When submitting a review the user was asked to input a book cover photo, book title and book author. This is a barrier to submit as the user needs to find a book cover online and download it. This also has the potential to causes issues in the future with misspelt book/author names.
When Looking for a solution to include automatic data entry based on an ISBN number I found three data sources. Open Library API, ISBNDB and Google Books API. The ISBNDB looks to be a great service but is paid based on the number of daily requests which I felt could get expensive quickly. I settled on using the Google books API over the Open library as reading online It looks to have support for more books and a slightly friendly API.
Goodbook.reviews PR12 Implements the new form UI, Error handling, auto-filing and back-end data requests necessary for the new search feature. If no book cover can be automatically found the old manual book cover upload form is shown for the user (I found a couple instances where covers did not exist on google books).
THere is still work to do to match ISBN10 & ISBN13 but feel this is abig improvment over manual entry.
Internal Database
Goodbook.reviews PR13 I opted for created a database for goodbook.review submissions. When submitting a new review after being posted to the blockchain the data will also be stored in a database. It’s important to me that all content is still fully submitted to the blockchain and is accessible from any current or future interface.
The new database gives more control(& speed) over how reviews are listed on the site. /latest reviews are now pulled from the database, this fixed an issue with some reviews not appearing and is generally a lot faster than querying the blockchain. Individual posts will still pull directly from the blockchain for now.
The database will allow many improves in the feature and forms the base for the featured listings.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
PR14 Fixes 3 minor issues that were listed on Github.
- Strikethrough style text was not enabled for markdown
- Not all latest reviews were showing (STEEM API getLatest() has an unknown time limit)
- Support for multiple authors. Book Author(s) is now n array and can handle one or multiple authors for a book. Currently, this is auto-filled by the ISBN Search
Ideas and contributions
There is still a long way to go for Goodbooks. My intention is to iterate, get feedback and improve as we go. The next step is to add individual pages for books, where each book has many reviews. I’ll also work to add a user-facing landing page with more information and featured reviews.
As always let me know your thoughts.
Proof of Work Done
https://github.com/sambillingham
- PR 12 Feature ISBN - goodbook.reviews/pull/12
- PR 13 Feature database- goodbook.reviews/pull/13
- PR 14 Minor Bug Fixes - goodbook.reviews/pull/14
Thanks for the contribution!
Cool stuff, really like the way you formatted the post and all the PRs, makes it a pleasure to read!
I've been wanting to read more lately (mostly programming books to be honest, haha), but reading off my computer screen is doing my head in and paperback books are so expensive!
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Thanks Amos. Trying to better split updates into relevant parts, glad you found it readable.
Totally agree. Can't get into any lengthy reading on the screen, feel like it wrecks my eyes. You could look at buying second hand, somtimes the ones on amazon marketplace are like brand new but a bunch cheaper. I used to have a bunch of programming books but have to say I haven't had any new ones in a few years. 🙈
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Do you mind if i do some copywriting for you? Like faq, about us or privacy policy
I do NOT want you to do copywriting for this project. Please stop doing this.
Whats your problem? You don't want then you politely say you don't want. What you mean by stop doing this. Did i tell you must accept my proposal. We all have choices to make. Ill be glad if you do not make mine for me
I apologise If that came off rude. I did not want to offend you or disrespect your offer I just wanted to be 100% clear.
I mean stop trying to go around as many project owners and adding very similar copy/paste markdown files. It's not that those items are not needed or not useful but the way it is being provided. These items need to be part of the application and not just a copy-paste/quick rehash of the developers own words into a .md file.
I want Utopian to be recognised and used by the wider OSS community but as yet it has limited adoption. It's early days but I feel when adding files to Github Repos they need to be recognised as a standard part of a project repository. I feel FAQ.md style additions do not fit this.
Again I apologise If I was rude, you just happen to be the fourth person in as many days who I have encountered doing this.
I am really sorry too and i guess i see your point.
Sorry for the inconveniences.
I really like your posts.
visit my post brother.
https://steemit.com/art/@aronexxon/happy-old-woman-drawing-from-the-past-00b6e83c818aa