Rejuvenated search page
- Author
- David Chambers
- Published
- Short URL
- http://blog.mtg-apps.com/13/
- Markdown
- http://blog.mtg-apps.com/13/m/
The old Magic search page has been rewritten from the ground up and is once again available for use. The functionality is more or less identical to that of the old version, but the user experience is much improved.
- Search page screen shot
Improvements
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Short, memorable URL: search.mtg-apps.com. (Those who remember the old address will appreciate the significance of this change!)
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The filter panes have been rejigged to provide the same powerful options in a clearer, more compact format. Also, the panes no longer take up the whole screen if JavaScript is disabled.
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Flavour text and artist names can now (optionally) be included in the output, and are searchable.
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The annoying image pop-ups have been removed.
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The CSS has been optimized and now takes advantage of several CSS3 features in the leading browsers.
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Gorgeous sticky buttons allow toggling of non-essential information (images, flavour text, and artist names). Toggle images in Safari, Chrome, or Opera to see CSS3 transitions in action!
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Results are no longer paginated – instead, the first 20 results are loaded and additional results are loaded 20 at a time as one scrolls to the bottom of the page. This means that even if there are thousands of results only the first 20 card images will initially be downloaded by the browser.
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Under the hood, the PHP spaghetti code that powered the old site has been replaced by Python code (which is still rather spaghetti-like, actually).
I'm thrilled with the improvements that have been made to the user experience, although I've noticed that the server's response is sometimes quite sluggish.
I love receiving feedback, both positive and negative. Within ten minutes of Chris checking out the site for the first time he'd sent me two screenshots of glitches that needed attention. Feel free to do the same!