u2songs.com: Running to Stand Still
Site Related => Discography & Releases => Topic started by: Carl on November 17, 2009, 04:38:07 PM
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We're gathering information for a re-design of the site.
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I think the way it is now works pretty good. There was something I used to get confused when searching for lyrics. When you click on the lyrics link in the navigation, the page it takes you to doesn't really have any menus or link. You have to look further down the navigation options on the left side of the page to find your options. That used to throw me off. Some basic links should be provided in the body of the main lyrics page.
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I like the discography section just the way it is. I didn't answer the poll question because I don't understand choices #1 and #3. I would need a visual example ...... I'm just un-educated about computer lingo. Sorry about that.
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I'm fine with it the way it is, but I think my ideal version would be a database where each release has attributes for release date, release type (album, ep, single, promo single, etc.), and whether it's a regular U2 release, an appearance on a soundtrack or compilation, solo work or collaborations. Then you could choose to sort them by any of these, but with the other attributes displayed. I've often wished I could look at a chronological list of all releases, but with the info displayed whether it's promotional or commercial.
The current "By Song" listing should be retained in addition to any new navigation you come up with. It's incredibly helpful in different ways than the release listings.
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Dear God, some of us aren't technies...please keep it simple and straightforward: alphabetical by song is divine.
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@zoo I'm leaning towards 2 and 3 myself, though we could probably emulate 1 with links once we build 2. what you typed is what i tried to quickly describe with option 3.
@eagle - 1 is what we currently have on the site.
@gp2 - being able to search by alpha or title would be the same or faster as the current way, but we could have pre-made queries.
@all changed the wording a little, I made these quickly at work after IMing Aaron.
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I also like the discography section how is organized now, it's very simple to find all the informations...
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I love it the way it is. It's the only discography I've seen that is so comprehensive and extensive without being confusing to navigate. It's a work of genius, really.
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My two cents is to put all the discography information in a database and go from there.
There are endless ways to present the data to the user; no doubt endless opinions can be found on the topic as well.
But, having dealt somewhat with this type of data being stored server side, if it's not in a relational database you're killing yourselves with the amount of work necessary to update and maintain the data.
Once it's all in a database (my recommendation would be MySQL for the database and PHP for the website) you can redesign the site every day if you want.
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Yeah, that's where we're going (though with a content management system and not home grown) - I pulled the lyrics into a simple custom mysql/php setup a while back.
To a certain extent database architecture will influence site layout, particularly in how we relate entries to either and play off of that (main release page + individual regional/format releases + lyrics).
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Wanderer editors...
Just keep it updated and the end users will be happy. The naigation system is okay.
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The thing is we'll have to build templates for all the navigation once we move from a static html site to a content management system. So it's not redesign for the sake of redesign, but something we'll have to do anyways so content is easier to update and manage.
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Wanderer editors...
Just keep it updated and the end users will be happy. The naigation system is okay.
I agree, updating the content should be the main focus, e.g. the last entry for soundracks was 2004.
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Wanderer editors...
Just keep it updated and the end users will be happy. The naigation system is okay.
I agree, updating the content should be the main focus, e.g. the last entry for soundracks was 2004.
I no longer have the time I once had to update the discography. I've taken on more responsibilities with work, am no longer single, and I spend a significant portion of time travelling. "Just update the content" doesn't work. That's why we're asking about changes. We want to know what works and doesn't work for people as we build new systems to allow the content to get back on track. Changes have to be made, and not everything that is there now may be possible going forward...
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One thing i would like to add...i would find it incredibly helpful if there were a way to produce a comprehensive listing of ALL U2 related releases in chronological order.
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Wanderer editors...
Just keep it updated and the end users will be happy. The naigation system is okay.
I agree, updating the content should be the main focus, e.g. the last entry for soundracks was 2004.
I no longer have the time I once had to update the discography. I've taken on more responsibilities with work, am no longer single, and I spend a significant portion of time travelling. "Just update the content" doesn't work. That's why we're asking about changes. We want to know what works and doesn't work for people as we build new systems to allow the content to get back on track. Changes have to be made, and not everything that is there now may be possible going forward...
If you go down the Drupal or similar route, can you authorise some trusted parties to help with content on a limited basis - I'm sure you'd have plenty of offers.
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We're thinking similar route at this point - I can't think of a friendly way of having lyrics related to different albums (including different positions on different tracklists), with different releases of each album related to the main entry in Drupal. To be able to hand out input to more people (which is something we are thinking of) the UI needs to be fairly understandable. It could be done with some taxo terms and weighting, but it feels like it'd be pretty kludgy and I'm not going to write a module for it (plus php isn't my strong point in the web dev skillset).
If you know of some super friendly way to do that in Drupal I'd be happy to hear it. :)
So far this extension for expression engine looks like our best bet: http://pixelandtonic.com/playa