Publishing a database as website

Posted by Tester
Sep 2, 2015 at 11:24 PM

I uploaded another sample for a Webbook created with RightNote under the same link as above: http://kompakt.bplaced.net/index.html/notebooks/enalexiko/notebook.html

This time the file/notebook in this sample consists only of about 1000 notes and speed is of course no problem with such a small amount. I wanted to try out how the user of RightNote can influence by himself the appearance and the functionality of the webbook. And though it means quite a lot of work I can say that it was possible to adjust the webbook quite exactly to how I would like to have it.

This concerns on the one hand the colors and other visual details. On the other hand I was also able to change the structure of the elements on the interface and the search mode in the filter in a way that satisfies my needs in a better way than the default parameters. Here a short description of the most important modifications (illustrated in the following picture):

http://abload.de/image.php?img=sample25odx.jpg

1: I transferred the filter (= the field for the tree search, that’s in my case the keyword search) from the bottom under the tree to the top over the tree. (I have to thank Rael for his support how to do it.) And I gave this field a distinctive orange color. It is the central part for the user of an online dictionary (or similar databases).

2: In the tab bar I transferred the search tab (which is by default on the left end of the tab bar) to its right end. (And I gave the tab another name: “Volltextsuche” [= “Fulltext search]”). The reason has again to do with the needs of the user of a dictionary: Full text search plays only a subsidiary role compared with the keyword search. So it is sufficient when the fulltext search is positioned a little bit offside. Moreover a search tab directly above the filter would be a little bit confusing for the user (concerning the appropriate choice for his search).

3: That’s one of the most pleasant modifications for me. :-) (Again it was Rael who explained me the way to realize it.) The search method in the filter is changed: When you type some characters you will get only results with these characters *at the beginning* of a word (more specific: at the beginning of the first word in a note caption / tree item).

You can try it out by typing the German word “alt” (= old). The search will show you only the keywords consisting of respectively *beginning” with these tree letters (“alt”, “Alter” etc.). But you will *not* get as result words as “abhalten”, “anhalten”, “abschalten”, “Anstalt” etc. where the letters “alt” are somewhere *within* the word. Such results usually are completely useless for the user of an ordinary dictionary and ennoying when you think for example of a dictionary with some thousand keywords - and therefore it is good that they are filtered out.

You can see the difference in the results when you make a fulltext search for “alt” (via the tab “Volltextsuche”). In the fulltext search I did not change the default search method and so you can find there all the words mentioned above too - and of course also all occurrences of “alt” within the text of a note.

All changes are made either in the css-file (colors etc.) or in the notebook.html (changes in the position of elements, of the search method etc.). It is quite cumbersome if you do not have much experience with such things but I am so happy with the result that the effort is justified. ;-)

So at the moment for me the only severe problem with the Webbook is the speed factor - especially the delay in loading the website - when the database consists of some thousand notes.