Suggestions for Making a Good App Better #2

[A. Wayne Webb]

Here are some other suggestions to make this better than "the other" book cataloging app.

• Give us the ability to denote the condition of the book.  This could be a list of words (Mint, Near Mint, Very Fine, Fine, etc.) or a series of numbers.  If using words, or numbers, have a spot where the bibliophile can describe his condition rules, and have that accessible from the front end.
• In the Book Information tab's External Link make it selectable for either _parent, _blank, etc.  In other words have the link open in either a new browser tab or a new browser window.
• Allow for the ability to indicate a book is part of a series.  By doing so, and providing a means to link to the other books in the series, it makes it easier to see if one of the books is not in the library.  This can be accomplished by the use of either a Series:  Prev. Book —— Next Book at the bottom of the description, OR (and this would be more preferable) give the bibliophile a means to show a series of linked images to navigate amongst the books in the series.
• Give us the ability to include the publisher's product / catalog number in a field.  Perhaps in the previously suggested user defined fields.
• Give us the ability to create Wish Lists to complete a collection.
• In the Author's profile give a field to link to that Author's web site.

To better display some of the suggestions you can visit a sampling on my site.

Added as a modification to this posting at a later time:

• Another need is a method to denote the edition and the printing of the book.
• When using Book Information > External Label and you have the link image not displayed, ensure that the word "Link" does not appear twice.

[A. Wayne Webb]

Here are some other suggestions to make this better than "the other" book cataloging app.

• When using Book Information > External Label and you have the link image not displayed, ensure that the word "Link" does not appear twice.

To resolve this issue there is a workaround.  Create a transparent PNG file; I made mine 1 pixel by 1 pixel by dimension and the size should be around 200kb.  Upload this file to <my_site>/components/com_abook/assets/images/link>.  Open the back end of your site and then open ABL.  In the Options > Book tab change the "Link image" to "no_link.png" to select your newly created image.

Now you will not have an image displayed in the "Link" field on your front end nor will you have an instance of the phrase, "Link:  Link" when a book is viewed.

Cordially,
Wayne