v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (Full Version)

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Eric -> v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/21/2008 8:50:25 PM)

v 3.10.9

<Edited to reflect changes and additions>

My first forays in the world of the modern web. I have plugged a little AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML) engine in behind the search control on the find/add wine page. As soon as you type at least 5 characters the site will start background searches to show you an autocomplete list of wine names that match what you are typing.

Also when adding or editing purchases tying one character of a Location, Bin or Store name also yields a dynamic dropdown.

I have been meaning to do this for a while, and frankly it is pretty cool, not the greatest thing ever, but the sort of thing that as you adapt your searches knowing that it is there will really save some time. Obviously if this works out well it is the sort of thing that one would want in nearly any search control all over the site.

I would love feedback.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/21/2008 8:54:37 PM)

I already have noticed one usability thing that bugs me a little. When you press ENTER it fills in the search control with the wine name that was selected in the list. The thing is, lets say you wanted to only search on "betz syrah" and not "Betz Family Syrah Chapitre 3", well you either have to click into the search control OR press the ESCAPE key.

ONCE you are used to ESCAPE it becomes second nature quickly, but I could see this getting annoying. Then again, the sort of power user who does broad-swath searches will likely figure this out pretty quickly. Still, maybe a little gray ghosted text to say "Press ESCAPE to dismiss this list" at the bottom might be in order.

Let me know what you find and think.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/21/2008 9:12:21 PM)

Wow this fires a LOT of searches at the site--boy you people are out there and doing a LOT of typing...

I dialed the minimum search length up to 5 characters to trigger the new behavior.



bgibbard -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 9:02:47 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Eric

I already have noticed one usability thing that bugs me a little. When you press ENTER it fills in the search control with the wine name that was selected in the list. The thing is, lets say you wanted to only search on "betz syrah" and not "Betz Family Syrah Chapitre 3", well you either have to click into the search control OR press the ESCAPE key.


I was just about to report this when I found you've already noted it. As someone who is a moderately decent typist, this behaviour really irritates me quite a bit. When I am typing in a search box, I expect to be able to just type and press enter. It is very counterintuitive and slows me down to have to take my fingers away from the home keys to either press a mouse button or reach for the ESC key, and I'm not sure that I would get used to it over time, as other search boxes on other sites do not work this way. Can you add an option in the user profile to turn this off? I have been doing quite a bit of searching for the last few hours, and it is really getting quite annoying. I recognize that other users may find it useful, but I just find it gets in my way, slows me down, and doesn't provide much in the way of benefits. For that reason I would like to see it be user configurable.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 9:42:52 AM)

It's just like Google actually...

Try getting used to the ESC key. It is right there in the corner of the keyboard.

If it is really annoying I will add a per-user option to suppress the completion.



bgibbard -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 10:39:36 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Eric

It's just like Google actually...



I don't follow you. I'm not seeing any auto-completion in the Google search box, or am I mis-interpreting what you are saying?

Also, the ESC button doesn't seem to be working for me in the way you suggest. (I'm using IE in case that makes a difference)

For example when looking for all wines that contain the words Salinas and Monastrell I type Salinas and Monastrell, two words that appeared on the label picture in front of me, and pressed enter, expecting a list of all wines containing those two words. That does work in Google. In CT what I get instead is Bodegas Gutierrez de la Vega Alicante Principe de Salinas which is not the wine I am looking for. If I type Salinas Monastrell, and then press ESC, not only do the three items on the auto-completion list go away, but so do all the letters I just typed in the search box, and I am just left with an empty page. So far the only way I've found so far for me to do what I want is to type the words, and then go and click on the search button with the mouse. I haven't yet found a way to do what I want with just the keyboard.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 10:58:30 AM)

Uggh, heinous IE bug(s). It works like a dream in FireFox and Safari... In IE when pressing ESC it just deletes all of what you have typed. In IE and Safari it dismisses the popup and leaves you with your typing, all from the keyboard.

I will dig in.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 11:58:46 AM)

Brant, good news. I have found a fix for the IE escape issue. It is a 'feature' of IE that pressing ESCAPE while in an edit control will in fact clear the edit control. I am going to suppress that when you are on a page with one of these AJAX controls.

I also have found a way to get extended characters with accents etc to display nicely. And I am looking at also including the locales for greater clarity and even sorting by the number of bottles held (so that heavily held wines will show up at the top of the list instead of straight alphabetical). I may even eventually do as Google does and show text to the right with the actual count of bottles (they show indexed pages) so that people can see.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 12:07:37 PM)

Brant, these changes are posted now. Let me know how it goes, hopefully a bit smoother than before.



michaelgor -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 2:05:52 PM)

Hi Eric..

this new feature is terrific ! Thank you !

BTW..I use Safari..and and if is helpful for you to know, it works well with this Browser



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 2:09:31 PM)

Awesome, glad you are enjoying.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 4:03:46 PM)

OK, now this appears in more places. When adding or editing a purchase the Store, Location and Bin dropdowns now all show the automatic filter dropdown as well based on all existing stores, locations and bins.  In the case of these since it is only looking at your own private data it kicks in after you type just one character. Frankly it works so nicely it makes me wonder if I can/should remove all of the dropdown controls, but first I want to see how this works on older browsers. Pretty nice stuff though and relatively easy to extend to more dropdowns. Expect to see this in a lot more places on the site.

Any quriks, bugs or gripes please let me know.



schnittle -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 4:41:23 PM)

I came home from a party down the street last night and was loading a few wines in CT.  Did not seem that drunk until I started typing in the search box and could not get anything to work.  I was really annoyed last night.  Now I know that perhaps it was a combination of the wine (and Vodka) I had consumed and the new search functionality.  I'm glad I happened upon this thread and now see what's happening. 

Initial reaction is that this is a solution to a problem that did not exist?  Meaning the search was fine as is and if it ain't broke....

However, I'll give it a try and work the escape key and report back.



fingers -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 4:59:16 PM)

I've just noticed the little web link behind the producer name on wine pages.  Like that one, too.  Thanks, Eric



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 5:42:49 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: schnittle

I came home from a party down the street last night and was loading a few wines in CT.  Did not seem that drunk until I started typing in the search box and could not get anything to work.  I was really annoyed last night.  Now I know that perhaps it was a combination of the wine (and Vodka) I had consumed and the new search functionality.  I'm glad I happened upon this thread and now see what's happening. 

Initial reaction is that this is a solution to a problem that did not exist?  Meaning the search was fine as is and if it ain't broke....

However, I'll give it a try and work the escape key and report back.

Feedback courtesy of the designer who is helping me with my upcoming overhaul: be less aggressive; pop the list but don't select any items unless the user arrows into the list to pick one. That way the people who want to type and not be bothered can (but can still get advance feedback on what the search will yield) do business as usual. And as people get used to this they will start to click or arrow into the list.

I am going to see if I can coerce the list to come up without a selection.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 6:06:46 PM)

OK, it now is a lot more subtle. When the list pops up no items are selected. You can use the mouse or keyboard to select items. I played with making it even more aggressive and submitting the form, but I will hold off on that for the moment. Meanwhile I am working on plugging the dropdown into more places. That will come later.



Wrighty -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 6:32:37 PM)

Eric,

Think that would be a better solution.  I used it on IE last night (before the fix) and found it annoying and not like Google.  Will have another go over the holidays.

Wrighty



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 6:34:01 PM)

Since last night there are double-fixes for IE. ESCAPE will dismiss the list. But now even when the list activates it doesn't force a selection unless you pick one. So it is very much like the Google implementation with the exception of a missing CLOSE link at the lower right to dismiss it.



gbm -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 7:03:49 PM)

Thanks for all the updates Eric.  I love it.  One question on the new search page.  I am trying to enter a new bottle into my cellar:

Georges Dubouf Beaujolais Nouveau (France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau)

It was a gift.  Anyway, once I select the above choice from the list and search, it returns no wines by that producer.  Is this a bug?  Am I doing something wrong?



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 7:36:20 PM)

It is Dubœuf were the oe is a ligature. It look like this is getting flattened to just an "o" in the autocompletion and hence is not matching. I will figure it out...

This is the real search: http://www.cellartracker.com/pickproducer.asp?szSearch=Georges+Duboeuf+Beaujolais+Nouveau+(France%2C+Burgundy%2C+Beaujolais%2C+Beaujolais+Nouveau)&Sort=&Method=&PickWine=on

UPDATE: I have this fixed locally. It is a UTF-8 versus ISO-8859-1 encoding doodad. I should have the fix on the site tonight before I go to sleep.



bgibbard -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 8:08:59 PM)

Woot! Just got home from work a few minutes ago and tested it out. I like this much better. The ESC does work, and I especially like the fact that the pop-ups now give you the information which you can click on if you wish to, or ignore if you don't. The way it works now is actually pretty close to the way the search box on Amazon works. I like.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/22/2008 9:08:55 PM)

I'm glad you prefer this.

Sheesh, messing with scripts across 3 browsers is, uhh, errr, quite fiddly. FireFox and Safari are just logical. IE seems to confound at every turn. Anyway, I have an initial rendition of a "close" hyperlink that works in FireFox and Safari. There are some things I would like to tighten up about the behavior, but it's a start and an indication of the direction. For the life of me I can't figure out how to get the same to work in IE, for the moment...



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/23/2008 12:13:21 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: gbm

Thanks for all the updates Eric.  I love it.  One question on the new search page.  I am trying to enter a new bottle into my cellar:

Georges Dubouf Beaujolais Nouveau (France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau)

It was a gift.  Anyway, once I select the above choice from the list and search, it returns no wines by that producer.  Is this a bug?  Am I doing something wrong?

Tis fixed.



gregnbaker -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/23/2008 8:53:21 AM)

Eric, this is great work, thanks a lot!



gbm -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/23/2008 7:17:28 PM)

Thanks Eric - works great.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/29/2008 11:58:46 PM)

OK, the next installment is here. Now the search control at the upper left has been AJAX-ed with the proper search context depending upon the search scope.

Most completions now fire after 1 character, although in some cases 2 are required. If you type quickly there is a very faint delay on each search with the last search winning--so you don;t get a search for every keystroke. It seems to work pretty well.

Also, know when the search menu is up pressing ENTER with no focus in the search control acts as if the dropdown doesn't exist. Before the enter was just blocked and didn't do anything which was annoying. I think the behavior of the dropdown is getting dialed in a lot better than the original release a week ago, but i would love feedback if anyone see glitches.



superbarre -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/30/2008 7:44:52 AM)

What is a bit confusing, although I wouldn't know how to make it better, is that when you select a specific wine from the autocomplete list, it still only uses this name to submit a search, also resulting in other wines.

Say you start out by typing 'pontet' and then you select 'Chateau pontet canet' in the dropdown, it will also result in 'chateau les hauts de pontet canet', which is the normal search behaviour, but somewhat confusing since you specifically selected another wine.




iByron -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/30/2008 10:00:05 AM)

I LOVE IT!

Not only do I see things in advance, it knows the difference between searching the entire database and searching just my holdings.

My one problem is it doesn't seem to count spaces as characters. This sort of thing is most useful with phrase/string searching (where the full entry is seen as one search term) as opposed to keyword searching (where each space indicates the end of a search term and the potential beginning of another).

If I'm typing "chateau " I probably don't want "Chateauneuf".

However if I just type "chateau" I should expect to see "Chateauneuf" "Chateau" "Chateaux"

Obviously in a wine database that's a horrible search to use, but the example fits. "Ridge" and "Ridge " might be better examples.

Byron



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/30/2008 10:47:23 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: superbarre

What is a bit confusing, although I wouldn't know how to make it better, is that when you select a specific wine from the autocomplete list, it still only uses this name to submit a search, also resulting in other wines.

Say you start out by typing 'pontet' and then you select 'Chateau pontet canet' in the dropdown, it will also result in 'chateau les hauts de pontet canet', which is the normal search behaviour, but somewhat confusing since you specifically selected another wine.



I understand and agree--but that's a function of the way the keyword search works and not easily changed.



Eric -> RE: v 3.10.9 - now with AJAX (12/30/2008 5:54:34 PM)

One more tweak today: now picking an item from the list with either the mouse or keyboard submits the search form in question, very consistent with the Google autocomplete behavior.

Nitpicks I will track down at some point:
  • It seems like the dropdown flashes onscreen for a second and then hides itself when you first type, messy.
  • Still no "close" hyperlink in IE.
  • The "close" hyperlink in FireFox and Safari should put the focus back into the edit control instead of into 'space' right now.
  • On the wine addition screen the search order is by overall cellar holdings with most common (duh) at the top. I would like to show the quantities in green text ala what Google does for indexed pages.
  • There are other fancier autocomplete dropdowns out there versus this spartan one, but it's a start and has me learning about AJAX. Some of the techniques will get much heavier use in the future, hence the current use of the dropdown to promote my learning.
  • Bin dropdowns should filter based on location and maybe not do total wildcards but just start of word ones.
  • The search control at the upper left is still disabled for guests.
Hope you are enjoying it and appreciate the feedback so far.



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