3onesix

Okay, everyone, I am happy to say that the Elohim Notes beta is almost ready. I have been working so much on so much. Late last week I put up a feature spec on the website. Here are some of my favorite features:

eBible Integration: From the get-go I wanted an editor that had a Bible search. Two years ago, I could never have hoped for such a thing. Builting my own Bible search would have meant licensing translations, programming for sleepless weeks, and way to much more to think of. But now, we have an API from eBible (the Web 2.0 Bible), and it allows for the creation of whatever your heart desires. We are still working on some features for the search system, but the essentials are done and working. Just type in your search (John 3:16, Romans 1:16, etc.) and strike you enter key. A little window appears with your result. Piece of cake. Want a different translation (New King James is default), just type “NCV: James 1:6” and the New Century Version will be used instead. Or, if you want to always use the NCV, go to your preferences and change your default translation!

Bookmarks: One thing I wanted was the ability to bookmark pages. With social networks you may add people to your friends list and whatnot, but with a site based around notes, you probably want to remember select pages (notes and profiles), right? I know I would! So I built that in, and it works with pretty and fast AJAX. You click the star on any profile or bookmark, and it animates a bookmark draping over the page. Easy and quick. Also, if you bookmark a profile, you can see in your Bookmarks window the last three notes published from that user.

Faux-pop Windows: What are faux-pop’s? If you have seen the hundreds of websites using Lightbox, you know what a faux-pop is. Faux-pop is what I call it, as it is a fake/false pop-up window. We use them for the Bookmarks, Friends, Private Message, and Browse/Search windows. They are sleek, fast, and display information is a more clean environment then a full browser window. I am sure you will all love them as much as I do.

AJAX: This is my first big AJAX project, and I love working with it. Now, the first thing that beta users will notice is that the site requires Javascript and a fairly modern browser to work. I will get at least a few complaints about graceful degradation, so I will say it now: I am working on it. We will have full graceful degradation by (non-beta) launch! So many of the base processes (auto-save, eBible search, online users, and more) need AJAX. These cannot be reimaged to work with Javascript, so they will be stripped from the non-Javascript pages.

The programming for this project is actually relatively easy. The pain is all the DOM scripting in Javascripting. I have created a few things that make it easier for me to program what I want to program, but it still is pretty intensive. I do love it though. Keep an eye open for the beta release. Please, if you want to beta test, sign-up for the beta at elohimnotes.com. If you don’t want to sign-up, watch the blog here. Non-beta users will have access to the public side of Elohim Notes, which includes viewing of profiles and published notes. So you do get something. Keep watch, my friends!