Several weeks ago I released a new version of the OfflineBible with rudimentary search capabilities. It had many restrictions, but proved that the Gears platform could handle simple, fast keyword searches. A lot of code has passed under the bridge since then, and I’ve fleshed out the search screen into something a little more powerful. Here’s what you can look forward to in the new version.
* Filtering – After running a search, the distribution of the hits is shown in the filter block. Click on a block to restrict the results to the corresponding book. There are also filter blocks for testaments, and one for the whole Bible which removes the filter.
* Paging – Quickly sort through many results using the new paging mechanism.
* Integration – Previously the sidebar search control allowed you to jump to a given passage by typing in a reference. Meanwhile, the search view allowed you to look for Bible keywords. Now you can do both of these things from either location!
* Multi keyword searching – Probably the most useful thing in this release.
* UI enhancements – Switch between the standard horizontal-scrolling multi-column mode and a vertical-scrolling single column mode. Unfortunately IE8 doesn’t support the necessary CSS features for multiple columns, so if you’re using IE8 you’re out of luck. Switch to Chrome 
* Resize – In the previous version I added a resizable splitter bar which allowed you to change the size of the sidebar. Unfortunately the items in the sidebar didn’t scale or reposition well. I’ve half-addressed this now. The mini-search and bookmarks scale nicely, but the notepad doesn’t. It’s being replaced with something new and shiny in the future, so I didn’t bother burning time into making it work.
Want to upgrade? Sadly you’ll have to use your browser to remove the current site from Gears (if you already have it installed). Typically, you’ll find the setting in Tools > Options > Gears Settings. It’s in the “Under the hood” tab, in the “Option” dialog in Chrome. I realise this is a pain, and it’s something I’m planning to address soon.
Feedback and suggestions appreciated as always.
Several weeks ago I released a new version of the OfflineBible with rudimentary search capabilities. It had many restrictions, but proved that the Gears platform could handle simple, fast keyword searches. A lot of code has passed under the bridge since then, and I’ve fleshed out the search screen into something a little more powerful. Here’s what you can look forward to in the new version.
- Filtering - After running a search, the distribution of the hits is shown in the filter block. Click on a block to restrict the results to the corresponding book. There are also filter blocks for testaments, and one for the whole Bible which removes the filter.
- Paging – Quickly sort through many results using the new paging mechanism.
- Integration – Previously the sidebar search control allowed you to jump to a given passage by typing in a reference. Meanwhile, the search view allowed you to look for Bible keywords. Now you can do both of these things from either location!
- Multi keyword searching – Probably the most useful thing in this release.
- UI enhancements – Switch between the standard horizontal-scrolling multi-column mode and a vertical-scrolling single column mode. Unfortunately IE8 doesn’t support the necessary CSS features for multiple columns, so if you’re using IE8 you’re out of luck. Switch to Chrome : )
- Resize – In the previous version I added a resizable splitter bar which allowed you to change the size of the sidebar. Unfortunately the items in the sidebar didn’t scale or reposition well. I’ve half-addressed this now. The mini-search and bookmarks scale nicely, but the notepad doesn’t. It’s being replaced with something new and shiny in the future, so I didn’t bother burning time into making it work.
Want to upgrade? Sadly you’ll have to use your browser to remove the current site from Gears (if you already have it installed). Typically, you’ll find the setting in Tools > Options > Gears Settings. It’s in the “Under the hood” tab, in the “Option” dialog in Chrome. I realise this is a pain, and it’s something I’m planning to address soon.
Feedback and suggestions appreciated as always.
Hi Nathan
Keen to give this a go, but I can’t get it to install. i have gear installed but I keep getting:
Installation failed
The installation failed due to an unexpected error. It could be that the installer does not support your browser, or there is a problem with the current codebase. Please try again later.
Line 96: Internal error. (worker #1)
Any help would be good, thanks…
Hi Ben.
I’ve installed in IE8, Firefox and Chrome but I do tend to find that Chrome is much better at handling the multi-threaded installation process. I’d suggest trying that if you aren’t already. If you’ve already installed once, you’ll also need to remove the old version using your Tools > Options > Gears Settings (or wherever it is in your browser) and removing the entry for OfflineBible.com.
Also, if you’re on a slower connection some of the resource requests occasionally time out. I’ve not built in any retry functionality (yet), so the install just bombs instead. Retrying usually fixes it.
To make sure the codebase is working I’ve done a reinstall in a clean session (Chrome), which succeeded (hooray). What browser are you using?
Thanks for the interest, working hard on the next release at the mo : )
Hi Nathan
Keen to give this a go, but I can’t get it to install. i have gear installed but I keep getting:
Installation failed
The installation failed due to an unexpected error. It could be that the installer does not support your browser, or there is a problem with the current codebase. Please try again later.
Line 96: Internal error. (worker #1)
Any help would be good, thanks…
Hey Amy.
Error recovery is not too hot in this version of the Offline Bible. You need to delete your Gears settings for this website. In Google Chrome, you can do this by going to the spanner, Options > Under The Bonnet and clicking “Change Gears settings”. Select the OfflineBible website and choose “Remove”. Then revisit the site and click on install.
Although I’ve had the site working in both IE8, Firefox and Chrome, I find that Chrome tends to behave best during install. IE8 whitescreens for about ten minutes with a “This application has crashed” message, but if you leave it for long enough it’ll come back. Firefox doesn’t seem to handle background worker threads as nicely as Chrome does.
FWIW, I’m upgrading to HTML5 as Chrome now supports it, so soon you won’t even need Gears installed to use the OfflineBible. I’ve been working on some major changes to the site, and expect to redeploy the site in the next few months.
Hope that sorts out your problem!
First off, beautiful minimalistic design. I would love to see it further developed, but it’s great as it is. My only request is to have different versions of the bible.
great work, like i said.