Online database, part 2
misterjoel's post of corrections has reminded me that I haven't done much yet on my previously-proposed online database. I have a bunch of ideas for this, but it occurs to me that there are several ways to design this, and that the members of this forum will undoubtedly be able to help me decide which is the best way to proceed, by giving me conflicting and contradictory input :-)
So with that in mind, here are a few of my ideas for the underlying content of the database. Please feel free to comment if you think any of these are good or bad ideas.
- The database will be able to contain multiple entries for a comic, if it has been scanned more than once. This will allow for situations such as a cover-to-cover scan that is lower resolution, versus a more detailed scan that doesn't have ads, or is missing pages.
- Each comic entry will be able to be flagged for the following conditions: Missing pages, Missing cover, Scanned complete (a.k.a. cover to cover, with ads), Reprint, Remix (reconstruction), etc. I am also considering some sort of "resolution" flag, to indicate the approximate scan resolution of the comic; maybe something like "Under 800, 800-1200, 1200-1600, Over 1600".
- I've thought it would be nice to include who scanned a particular issue. BD's database does have some information pertaining to this, and I'm sure others are keeping track of this as well. Do you think this would be useful or desirable?
- To try to eliminate the frequent problem of mis-sorting due to variations in spelling of the book title, the database will have a separate table with the standard names of each book. This table will include the "canonical" title for each book series, along with name changes that the book went through. The exact naming conventions to be used are open for discussion.
- Each canonical title above will have one or more "genre" flags associated with it. I say "one or more" because some books fall into more than one genre (i.e. war romance, funny animal superhero, etc.) A question would be, are there any books that fall into more than two genres?
Please note that the above ideas all have to do with the data contained in the database, and not how it will be viewed or queried. Also, it will be possible to view lists of books without having to see all of the above information, but it will also be possible to filter the information according to a user's preferences (i.e. only show me DC superhero, mystery and sci-fi books).
Comments, please?
posted by Snard @ 9:24 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Just a minor correction. My database does not have a field for scanner (except for ones I have done). I have headers for all ABPC posts going back to 12/02 (in separate weekly groupings) so I can often go back and figure out who posted the comic.
Hi, I hope posting a follow-up to my own post isn't bad form. But I've been chatting with Imbie, and he's already created a similar online database for tracking 2000ad scans... and it looks like it can be adapted and built onto for this project. Many thanks to Imbie for offering to share his code with me.
Besides the schema I shared with snard, I've been meaning to throw in my two pence...
2. (...) I am also considering some sort of "resolution" flag, to indicate the approximate scan resolution of the comic; maybe something like "Under 800, 800-1200, 1200-1600, Over 1600".They're more of the exception than the norm, but I have seen scans where some pages are in the 1000px width region while others are closer to 5000px.
I'm not talking joined pages here ... these are single pages in the same scan, scanned by the same scanner.
This is probably a non issue because you can average it out, but still...
3. I've thought it would be nice to include who scanned a particular issue. BD's database does have some information pertaining to this, and I'm sure others are keeping track of this as well. Do you think this would be useful or desirable?I do think it's useful, but as royraymond points out, not every scanner wants the credit (or paper trail :-), so if you do this, I advise limiting who can see names.
The way I approached this for the 2000ad list was the addition of a password field for scanners in the DB, and letting those who login see more info than Anonymous Joe does.
Imbie, thank you for the 2 pence. With the current exchange rate, that's almost enough for a cup of coffee.
Re: the resolution flag, in most cases where I have seen wide variations in scan resolution, it is because someone inserted missing pages or a cover from another source, and didn't resize them to fit. Or, in a few cases, someone accidentally included the raw scans for one or more pages. In this latter case, the scanner usually posts a "Oops, sorry about that" update with the correct pages.
For the anonymous scanner issue that royraymond raises, we can hide the "who scanned what" field for anonymous users, as Imbie suggests, or we can simply tag that person's scans as Anonymous, at the scanner's request. The idea behind the field is to give at least some people a way to contact the original scanner if there were questions about a particular issue (missing pages, etc.)
Thanks to everyone who has responded to this thread so far.
hey Snard,
I maintain the
'What's Left to Scan (& Scanned) in the DC Universe" list
just happened to release the latest version.
Perhaps it could be useful in helping you as info could be leveraged off it for the online database.
NiteCrawl
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