Samanayr Database Test Help

[Jennalyn]

As some of you may know, I'm helping Sushi get together a Samanayr database and all of the interface stuff that goes along with it. I'd love to recruit a few volunteers to help me test things. <3 If you're interested, please PM me with your willingness and, if you have it, a messenger like AIM or MSN or Gmail. I'll then get back to you with the URL and a few guidelines for the testing.

I'm quite excited by how far it's progressed. xD Being able to save all your Sams and Songs so that you'll never have to worry about losing the image, or about members of your Song losing their images/pages/information? I dunno about you, but that sounds /awesome/ to me. Heee.

[Calomel]

That does sound great!

[Jennalyn]

Yeah, I've had two people helping me with error-checking so far, a friend of mine from school and silvermoondragon. We've found plenty of them so far and no doubt there are (and will be) more as things progress. But! It's a much tighter database, and a much tighter collection of coding, than it had been before.

[Harroway]

I'll see what I can do about testing it out as well!

[Jennalyn]

Things are coming along very nicely with the database. People have been poking around, registering, adding and editing records, and other varied and sundry things to "try and break it". Which is good! The more errors we find now, the less there will be when the database actually goes live.

I'd like to thank everyone who's been helping out so far and PMing me with potential problems and questions. Your input and assistance are making this test-run possible. ^_^

I've had to remove the linking of Songs on Sam searches, maybe temporarily and maybe for good, because the code just wasn't working properly and I wasn't sure how to fix it. Until I get that settled, I've just removed the links in that spot altogether. If you notice them gone, that would be why.

[Jennalyn]

Latest updates, for those who are interested and fiddling with it:

- The apostrophe problem should be fixed now. Finally figured out that little issue. If you see any apostrophes with backslashes before them, please let me know where so that I can attack them! Thanks very much.

- There is a new field for Songs called the "Banner Image URL" that Sushi suggested. Should this database be used in the future for people to display their Songs, or should people just want to make their database records prettier, they can upload an image to be displayed at the top of their Song record table. View one or two of my Song records for examples (though the banners are from other things, so they make no sense - I just needed quick images that were handy). I've mentioned a size restriction on the entry and update forms so that things don't get out of hand. Please respect it.

- There is now a field for Samanayrs called the "Foal Image URL" that Orasteele suggested and Sushi heartily agreed with. In the future, foal images will be saved to one of Sushi's photobuckets just like Sam images, minus the text information. For now, get 'em from wherever. Just make sure you remove the text information like name, owner, etc if they're a newer foal! Or else don't put up the image.

- The member control center (memberMenu.php) received a makeover so that it's far less ooglay now. Tell me what you think! Any suggestions to improve looks, or do you rather like it the way it is now?

[Jennalyn]

AHA. Boy, that was... rather aggravating. I can't believe I didn't figure out the solution earlier. It was a very d'oh moment, figuring out how to run individual searches from links, but I got it. Each Song record now has links to searches for each of its member and offspring names, so when you click on them it runs a search for their name in the database and returns the result. This also now applies to the offspring's Song, if they're in one, and to the Current and Birth Songs in the Sam display, as well as the offspring there. Gads. xD That took forever to copy over to all the pages, but I think it was probably worth it. Heee.

[Jennalyn]

...this has basically turned into my update thread, so that I don't have to spam Sushi with a billion PMs to tell her what to look for and what's to come. xD Hope you guys don't mind! If anyone does, just post here and let me know of that fact.

- When Sushi originally asked me about searching the database, back when this whole thing was just beginning (...last Thursday, if you can believe that), I told her that my coding skills weren't up to making a search with multiple fields in one search so that members could enter as much or as little information as they wanted. At the time, that was true. Now I know enough to be able to make such a search, so I have. The main database search page should look a lot less cluttered now! Also, this will make updating some of the displays a lot easier when there's a change because there are far fewer pages to be updated each time (two for Sams and three for Songs, as opposed to half a dozen or so for each). Means less to you guys than it does to me, but yay for easier and less time. xD

- Now when you want to display all records, all you have to do is run a search with all fields blank. <3

[silvermoondragon]

Ooooh I definitely like the upgrades! Maybe add some pictures or a little more colour though? Like maybe for example, next to the samanayr search, have a small image of a samanayr and next to the song search have a group of samanayrs from a song, like the song of the rainbow. Once again, it looks great!!!

[Jennalyn]

Oh, that's a cute touch... I've added the Song of the Rainbow Hotsprings below the Song searches. Not sure which Samanayr to add below the Sam searches. Any suggestions from various peeps? If Sushi would be willing to remove the info and host it on her photobucket, I could link to it no matter where the database is hosted at the time. <3

For those of you who might be interested, there is now a 'Display Inventory' feature below the searches! There you can see all of the items currently existing (I went through and added them all just to test). There are also various admin pages that function as control of this, but they aren't accessible to most people so it really doesn't matter at the moment. But, items! Shiny. xD *falls over*

Edit: Also just added a table to the member control area that acts as an inventory to show the person logged in the items they have, rather than everyone.

[Jennalyn]

Okay, so right now the database is sitting about where I want it in terms of features, displays, etc. It's time for you guys to throw more stuff at me. xD Questions? Something you'd really love to see if it's possible? It may not be, but who knows until you ask? Some other way to make things look better?

[SunBlind]

I have a nearly decade old Song here:
http://www.myth-and-fantasy.com/mystich ... lower.html
The last two mares don't have valid pages anymore, so if you need their images for your database just let me know ^_^ The first belonged to Blue Mist, the second to Gabby. All the foals are accounted for.

In this oldish Song, only the last mare is not mine. The link I have is for her is broken, and I can't quite remember the name of the owner, started with a K....if you need it, I'll look it up.... *lightbulb goes off* Kaetz! That's it xD
http://www.myth-and-fantasy.com/mystich ... hadow.html
And her foal is also missing - Sanguinity in Lurid Afterglow. And the foal Pools of Seething Magma is on Geocities.

[Jennalyn]

*headtilt* I'm afraid I don't know what to do with/about those Songs. Since this is only the test version, all of the information in here will be deleted before we start with the real one. You'll probably need to visit either the ID or Songs boards with that information so that Sushi can figure out how to account for them. There's an Inactive Songs board there, I believe.

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Latest update on the database: Automatic item fields! I've removed the Equipped Items field in the Insert and Update forms because their entry and display is automated now, kind of like Offspring for Sams and Mares for Songs. Basically, there's a new option for Sushi to go in and enter a Sam or Song name to an item that's equippable (once Totems and Amulets) start appearing. Then, if an item exists with that Sam or Song name entered into the Equipped field, it displays beneath the Sam or Song record whenever they're called up. Less chance for user error, and more pretty (since the image will also appear along with the item name).

Edit: Also made some display tweaks for Sams. Now sire and dam names are linked, unless empty or 'Wild'. When there aren't fields, there are defaults to put 'None' in place on display, which pleases my head and makes things neat. Just generally cleaned up the Sam display a little bit.

[Jennalyn]

I was once approached about the idea of Lineage Trees. At the time, I hadn't been sure how to make them work. I still can't beyond foal and parents, but you can always go further down if the parents' are also the foals of others and view their tree. I think this feature is rather nifty and it makes me smile. Input? ^_^

http://jennalyn.net/samdb/displayLineage.php

And if you want to make them pretty by entering a few Samanayrs that belong to other people and are their parents with temporary information, feel free. <3 It'll all be deleted later anyway!

[silvermoondragon]

That's awesome! It's soo cool to be able to see the foals and their parents and see how the colours and patterns got passed down! It would definitely be even better if the tree could go farther on and hopefully eventually it might.

Maybe you could put in which one is the father and the mother above the images or next to their names? And maybe on the samanayr information pages under extras, if the samanayr has listed parents add a link to the lineage tree? It would make following trees higher up easier, for example your two mystic twins have grandparents, instead of having to find Mystic of the Dusty Sky in the list of lineages, you could just click on her name, click on the lineage icon, and then go straight there, or when you're searching for a samanayr and you find out that was a foal and you want to check out it's parents, instead of having to view each one separately, you could click on a link to the lineage and see them all together.

Also, maybe for the item inventory, where it lists all the the items a person owns, maybe you could add in a total value at the bottom so people with a bunch of items to be traded in for modiems can easily tell how many points they have? Less math for us to do XD

[Harroway]

I LOVE the lineage tool. omg Jenn that is AMAZING. I love seeing how traits are passed down from generation to generation! This is an amazing new feature for the database!

[Sushidragon]

Oh awesome, I absolutely love the lineage tree This will help me with breedings too, it could give a chance of markings, colors, or traits from grandparents! Now I really need to load up the database XD

[Jennalyn]

@Silver: Your suggestions are all excellent. These are exactly the kinds of things I was hoping for. All of them have been implemented within the past few minutes.
- I've added Dam and Sire labels to the lineage trees.
- I've added a 'Lineage Tree' link to the Samanayr displays that shows up if they have a mother listed that isn't wild and links to only their Lineage Tree.
- I've created a 'Total Value' row below the listing of items in the member control area.

@Harroway: I'm so glad you like it! I think you were the one who gave me the idea to begin with? xD

@Sushi: That's fantastic to hear, and a really fun new element to breedings! As soon as some of the images start getting uploaded on your photobucket, we'll have the basis for members to begin entering "actual records" and we can figure out how to safely export the database and pages. There are quite a few. x3

[silvermoondragon]

I noticed that the total is adding in the points for the modiem I have as well. It says I have 13 points when I should actually have 8(5 extra for the rarity modiem). I don't know if you can keep the modiem value there but have it not count in the total...

[Jennalyn]

Ooh, thanks for spotting that! I hadn't differentiated between the types of items. Since 'Trade' items are the only ones that can be exchanged for other items, I've made it specific to them. It should be fixed now?

[silvermoondragon]

yep yep, all fixed!

[Jennalyn]

Alright. In preparation for the move to Sushi's server and "official" records to begin, with images hosted on her photobucket and watermarket, all records in the database have been deleted. All users have also been deleted. Please do not insert any information or register for the database right now. Testing is ovar.

[Jennalyn]

O__o; Would anyone believe me if I told them I just figured out I'd spent 125 hours on the database project, give or take about three or four in either direction as room for error? That is boggling my mind. 's like... three and a bit work weeks, if they're forty hour weeks, or a little more than five solid days. xD I've never been as passionate for a school project, let me tell you, even loving school as I did...

[Harroway]

Oh wow, Jenn! You deserve a trophy! Or at least chocolate and some hugs! If I had that kind of time, I'd do it too. XD Of course, I don't have the coding knowledge that you do. My attempt at a Sam database would consist of Post-It Notes with the Sam's picture printed on it, all attached on a huge whiteboard! You are to be commended!

*sends hugs and chocolate to Jenn*

[silvermoondragon]

woah!!! that's alot of time, if only they could make schoolwork that engaging.