September has been quiet, providing me with a great opportunity to put some hours into the OfflineBible again. I promised myself that I’d get search working in some sense before the end of the month, and although I’ve run it to the wire it’s just about ready for testing.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that it still isn’t quite there yet. However, I’m hoping to make more frequent, incremental updates over the coming months. In the usual style, here’s a quick list of the features I’m still working on…

1. Search Paging – The system currently limits to 10 results, which is a bit useless. I’m going to implement paging to allow the user to click through pages of results. That might sound painful and slow, but coupled with the filtering mechanism I think it should be quite quick and intuitive.
2. Filtering – As mentioned above, filtering has been designed to be as intuitive as possible. After searching for a term, a graphical representation of the search hits is rendered (see below). In this example, I’ve done a search for the word “God”. Here we see that the term is used heavily in both Deuteronomy and Psalms.
   

   Filtering functionality in the Offline Bible

   The results will be filtered by clicking on one of the boxes. Note: I’ve not implemented this yet! So far, only the graphical representation is working!

3. Search Companion – This is a pane down the right hand side of the search area. Currently, it is blank. However, in the future it will provide search tips. For example, suggesting “durst” when the search term “dared” is detected, or providing a list of alternative translations for the search term.
4. Skip to verse –  Currently, following the link from a search result simply takes you to the chapter containing the verse. Instead it needs to take you to the exact verse, perhaps highlighting it.
5. Miscellaneous - Bookmarking a search result is not implemented yet. Also, the search results don’t show the Strong’s numbers for a given search term.

So there is a long way to go yet. However, if you want to shape the development please comment on your likes and dislikes, and God willing I’ll find time to get another update out in the next week or two.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 03:15 and is filed under OfflineBible News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.