online DrinksGuide - feedback?

[kongknabe]

Hi.

 

First of, this is a beta of a site I'm currently working on with a friend - not all browsers are supported yet!

 

On a PC you can use Firefox or Safari3 Beta (Safari seems to do the best job) - IE7 will be supported shortly :-) (At this time we do not plan to support IE6)

 

On a Mac you can use Safari3 Beta, Firefox, although Firefox/Mac is really poor.. Lots off bugs, slow and it eats your CPU :-(

 

The site is not quite finished yet... Some small bugs may occur, and we haven't yet implemented a simple HTML site for browsers not supported - it will all be there in time... :-) (We also plan an English version this site)

 

Would like to get some feedback on functionality, feel and performance :-)

 

www.drinksonline.dk/beta

 

By the way... since this is a Danish site, may bee I should translate a little... "FindDrink" is obvious "it's called the same in danish and English) - The searchfield at the right (TømBarskab) is translated to "Empty your likker cabinet" or something like this.. Put in whats in your likker cabinet and the list shows you the drinks you can make out of that (And what you might need to buy) :-)

 

[hcdarkmage]

You have a really good site design.  It takes a while to load, but that could be my internet connection.  You may want to check the spelling on your drinks.  I tried to look up a fuzzy navel and it said fozzy navel.

 

Very innovative.  You may want to make it in other languages as well!

[kongknabe]

It takes a while to load, but that could be my internet connection.

 

 

The site is a bit heavy when i comes to images - but we cache all images so the it sholud be faster when you revisit the site :-) (When its done we will also cache the CSS, Js filse and so on :-))

 

You may want to check the spelling on your drinks.  I tried to look up a fuzzy navel and it said fozzy navel.

 

 

You have a good point there.. We have an English databse ready witch should be a lot beter than the Danish one.

 

- Thank you very much for your feedback :-)

 

 

[kongknabe]

Hmm.. Getting a lot of views but not that much response.. Is it because people are IE only in here or?

[448191]

I like it a lot. It looks good and is mostly user friendly. One tiny usability issue: 'close buttons' (X) are expected in the upper right corner.

 

If this site becomes popular, I personally would be concerned with the stress you put on the server with the 'immediate suggest' thing you're doing. I like it, it's very user friendly, but I wouldn't like to be your hosting company if this takes off.

 

To reduce the stress on the database server I would at least do heavy some heavy result caching. I don't know much about ActionScript, but if at all possible, I would do some heavy client caching as well, and limit the number of request by requesting for 'probable use'. Better to send a little too much than bring down your HTTP server by flooding it with tons of tiny request.

 

Overall, very good looking and functional app. Congrats on a job well done (translates to "I envy you" ). Too bad it won't work on IE6, as that is still the most common browser.

[kongknabe]

I like it a lot. It looks good and is mostly user friendly. One tiny usability issue: 'close buttons' (X) are expected in the upper right corner.

 

Your right - i will ad that. :-) (All though I'm a Mac user and would expect them in the upper left corner ;-))

 

If this site becomes popular, I personally would be concerned with the stress you put on the server with the 'immediate suggest' thing you're doing. I like it, it's very user friendly, but I wouldn't like to be your hosting company if this takes off.

 

To reduce the stress on the database server I would at least do heavy some heavy result caching. I don't know much about ActionScript, but if at all possible, I would do some heavy client caching as well, and limit the number of request by requesting for 'probable use'. Better to send a little too much than bring down your HTTP server by flooding it with tons of tiny request.

 

We are already caching images and plan to compress and cache CSS Js files and so on... I am not sure whether it is possible to cache the results from the database but it's worth looking in to :-)

 

Overall, very good looking and functional app. Congrats on a job well done (translates to "I envy you" ). Too bad it won't work on IE6, as that is still the most common browser.

 

Hmm.. maybe we should put a little effort in to this after all.. it's just.. well - i really hate that browser :-D

 

Thanks for the feedback and nice words! :-)

 

[448191]

We are already caching images and plan to compress and cache CSS Js files and so on... I am not sure whether it is possible to cache the results from the database but it's worth looking in to :-)

 

Aside from result caching, I'm also talking about caching search results and suggestions on the client. As I said, I don't know much about about ActionScript, and I have no idea how this works in the background, but if possible, I would seriously consider it. If it's anything like Ajax, simply set the right caching headers on the response. EDIT: And use GET not POST. Using POST can result in the browser reading an inappropriate file from the browser cache.

 

Hmm.. maybe we should put a little effort in to this after all.. it's just.. well - i really hate that browser :-D

 

You and me both. Unfortunately it'll take a couple of years before IE7 really takes over.

 

Thanks for the feedback and nice words! :-)

 

They're well deserved.

[kongknabe]

Actually i think the results in the drowdown in the right search field are loaded only once when you enter the site, and then kept in the memory - I'm not sure if the same would be possible whit the drink results (Will have to ask my friend who have done all the hardcore database programing)

 

If it's anything like Ajax, simply set the right caching headers on the response. EDIT: And use GET not POST. Using POST can result in the browser reading an inappropriate file from the browser cache.

 

Well this is AJAX - but if we use GET wont that force the page to reload?

 

You and me both. Unfortunately it'll take a couple of years before IE7 really takes over

 

yeah i know :-( - We will look at it when everything else is in place. This is kind of an hobby project for me and my friend, and therefor accessibility is not crucial... it's a playground where we get the chance to play around with some new techniques - we will ad a simple HTML site for non-supported browsers.. But off course it would be nice to support as many browsers as possible :-)

 

 

 

[448191]

but if we use GET wont that force the page to reload?

 

Euh... No. I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing here.

 

Basically I'm talking doing xmlRequest.open("get", url);

 

If the browser has cached url, it will use that file.

 

For example '/dosearch.php?search=blah'...

 

If you use post instead and load just '/dosearch.php', the browser will keep loading the first search result until the cache file expires...

[kongknabe]

Ahh.. I understand now - good idea, will try that out! :-) (All though i don't expect this to be a site where the same person comes on a regularly basis and search for the same things it could potentially take a little load of the server - a little is better than nothing, especially when the server load potentially is very high :-))

[448191]

They might not search for the exact same thing, but since you're doing suggests starting from the first letter...^[1] They might repeatedly enter the letter 'b', or the letters 'bl' or, etc etc.... Cache those responses on the server, and send a caching header. Be sure to match lifetimes.

 

^[1] If you weren't doing that I wouldn't be suggesting this.

[kongknabe]

hanks again - we'll try that :-)