Saturday, August 28, 2004

Bell's Mind v2.0

I've been looking at the site and the current codebase recently and, while I'm happy with the results so far, I think there is a lot that could be improved.

I've started compiling a list of new features and fixes that I'd like to incorporate into the next incarnation of the "Engine" portion of the site and I need some help. So far I know that number submission needs to be a little cleaner, there needs to be more separation between code and content on a few pages, and I'd like to speed the site up (I've got that one nailed down already with preliminary speed increases of at least ten times on most pages).

On top of all of the above there's one feature that is seriously lacking that I have been putting off implementing for a long time. Natas recently brought up to me a good way to get around it which was even more of a kick in the ass to get it done. That feature is searching. Natas simply uses Google to get the job done but I'd like users to not have to leave the site to find what they need. Now my question to the users of Bell's Mind is "How would you like searching to work?".

My current plan is to implement searching by user (done), searching by NPA-NXX (also done), searching by number type, searching by description, searching by any part of the number (country code, NPA, NXX, suffix, etc. including regex stuff if possible), searching by state (done), searching by CLLI (again with regex), and searching by submission date. What else do I need? What format would be the best to present the results? I already have code to present some information graphically on-the-fly (PNG) so suggestions like that are definitely not out of the question.

There you have it... that's what has been bouncing around my brain for the past few weeks. And now for the obligatory "e-mail me!" part... e-mail me.