[jsword-devel] Next version of iPhone-ish site

[Greg Hellings]

On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 7:01 PM, Jonathan Morgan <jonmmorgan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 9:32 AM, Jonathan Morgan <jonmmorgan at gmail.com> wrote:
>  > On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 7:47 PM, Greg Hellings <greg.hellings at gmail.com> wrote:
>  >  > I have continued working on the site between end-of-semester work and
>  >  >  exams and such.  Updates this round include:
>  >  >
>  >  >  --Better (read: existent) handling of improper keys entered manually
>  >
>  >  I can't get enter manually to work at all.  I get the message box
>  >  "Enter desired key" (I still prefer verse or reference) and then when
>  >  I type a reference nothing happens.

>From this and other things below, I take it you're using some flavor
of IE?  I just popped up my Windows side of things and saw how
atrocious the site looks in IE - my apologies.  It looks much better
in Safari.  I also cannot get the site to work quite properly in IE.
In Firefox at least you can get the text to show when clicking
through.  At this point, even the CSS contains some WebKit/Safari-only
things (like the button styling).  I'll take it that the flaw in the
display is because the text is appearing at a different level in the
z-axis, since the FF display of it in Windows leaves much to be
desired.  Safari for Windows and for Mac displays it fine.

I just changed that use of the word "key" in my code now.  Thanks, I
had missed that instance of it.  Working in the code with the "key"
class so much, I keep forgetting that's not what we call a reference
in everyday parlance.

>  >
>  >
>  >  >  --More elegant labels and timings of the "Back" button
>  >  >  --New landing site to give the OT/NT split (default module: ESV)
>  >
>  >  That is much better.

I agree - thank you for the suggestion.

>  >
>  >
>  >  >  --Intelligent messages to the user if there are no applicable options
>  >  >  (i.e. choosing "New Testament" from the LXX doesn't leave you in
>  >  >  never-never-land)
>  >  >  --Direct URL referencing with the following accepted (if not specified
>  >  >  the default module is ESV -- interpret the syntax of the following
>  >  >  lines similar to the syntax of GNU cli argument specifications, name,
>  >  >  anything in square brackets is optional, nested squares mean the
>  >  >  options are nested, and angle brackets indicate that the words in them
>  >  >  should be replaced by a value):
>  >  >  *#books[.<module>.[<testament>]]
>  >  >  *#chapters[.<module>[.<testament>]].<book>
>  >  >  *#testaments[.<module>]
>  >  >  *#verses[.<module>[[.<testament>]].<book>.<chapter>
>  >  >  *#modules-list
>  >  >  *#bymodule.<module>.<book>.<chapter[s> | [.<verse[s]>]
>  >  >  *#<book>.<chapter[[s]> | [.<verse[s]>]]
>  >  >  --Mostly supported Back & Forward buttons (the only place I know them
>  >  >  to not function atm is if you use the in-app button to go "Back" and I
>  >  >  know where to fix that, and just haven't yet).
>  >
>  >  What are the arrows on the sides of items in your list of things to
>  >  select intended to represent?  When I see them as a desktop user, I
>  >  assume they mean some kind of pop out menu (which they don't).

Those are native iPhone-style indicators of the iPhone's equivalent of
a pop-up submenu.  Since all the GUI controls on an iPhone tend to be
much bigger than even other mobile devices (since it's designed for
finger-tipping and they suggest not having controls smaller than
around 15-20 px per side), rather than having a submenu pop-up in
front of the screen, they place a little chevron like that on the
right-hand side of a list to indicate that selecting the item will
take you to a sub list.

Probably they should not be on the verse list, since that is taking
you to the actual data, and iPhone applications tend to only have that
to indicate a submenu, then the last submenu doesn't have them and
takes you to the data (an address book contact, the verse page, etc).
The page changeover should, optimally, be a slide-in effect from the
left to make it as much like a native application as possible, but
that level of appearance is my last priority.

>  >
>  >  I still think that it is very easy to get lost navigating from
>  >  chapters to verses, since if I click on something like "3" in the
>  >  chapter view, I will get a view of verses that will appear almost
>  >  identical, and it is unclear that I have actually got anywhere (the
>  >  only thing that changes is the  top link to verses rather than
>  >  chapters).

I feel the same.  Might it be better to both drop the chevrons from
the right-hand side of the verse list, as well as add a little prefix
to each item (such as "Ch 1," "Ch 2," ... "vs 1," "vs 2")?  That way a
quick glance can see a list of Ch x or vs x and tell easily where we
are?

>  >
>  >  I don't actually get any verse output, either by clicking through to
>  >  it or be entering a reference manually.  I just get a blue screen with
>  >  a header bar.
>
>  This does appear to work now.  I don't know what changed.

Neither do I, the only changes on my end between the e-mails were
myself refreshing my own browser to locate some of the difficulties in
the code.

Again, thanks for the feedback - it's much more detailed than my
buddies who say, "Hey, I can read it."

I've also moved the cross-reference links and footnotes, for those
modules that have them, to be stacked under the verse, rather than to
the left of them.  One of my buddies said having them side-by-side was
very difficult to read on the mobile screen, since it was so squished.

Maybe someone can give me a pointer as to how I would have all the
verses and all of the footnotes grouped together?  Currently the
layout runs:
verse 1
notes 1
verse 2
notes 2

I'm sure it's just a matter of moving around some calls in the .xsl,
but I'm not certain which ones to move around at the moment.

--Greg Hellings

>
>
>
>  Jon
>
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