Nothing to see here...

But that doesn't mean nothing is happening. A whole new database structure is being built and tested. Sync tools are being built to feed the data from beerengine.com into the new DB. Template pages are being created with multilingual capabilities.

Not only is that happening but I'm currently building another single country site which will work in a similar way to the engine. It will concentrate on bars & shops and is hoped to be a source of information for a regular printed guide to the country in question. Although you will never know it when using the new site it will be using the beerengine database. Unlike the engine (so far) this site will be heavily publicised as soon as it's in good shape.

No, I'm not telling anyone which country! I really want to see this stand on it's own two feet.

If you think you know which site it is drop me a note and I'll send a bottle of something very special if you're the first to guess correctly.

Anyway, I think I'll go write some more sync scripts.

Been thinking about the site again and I've decided to pretty much start again.

I can use the existing dataset so nothing will be wasted.

I was mulling over the new features I want to add and brainstorming a new indexing system. (developed about 8 years back to index tens of thousands of photos but gathering cobwebs since then. Shame since it's very simple and powerful.)

As I said earlier I've now started to view the site as a collection of datasets. I've come up with a way to easily index a disparate collection of datasets which should result in a very simple user experience. Still got to bench test it. Watch this space. Must go create a new database....

Progress is close to glacial but things are actually happening. I've created a new domain mobile.beerengine.com and have been experimenting with optimising the site for mobile use. I got myself an iPhone last month so that's mostly what I've been using to develop the pages. A couple of friends have Blackberries and the site seems to work quite well on that platform. Haven't had a chance to look on an Android device yet but I'm sure someone I know uses one.

All the new stuff is being developed in PHP. I don't see any point in spending any more time on the old ASP site.

Just to keep things interesting I've also started work on a completely new section of the site. I've long wanted to add a dictionary / glossary / translation feature to the beerengine. It's not just a new feature but the start of a much more versatile indexing system for the whole site. It also provides the infrastructure for making the site multilingual. I might not have much time for writing code but long drives can be a good environment to mentaly test ideas and data structures. I now view the site as a collection of data sets rather than one big rambling set.

Hopefully some of this will be visible in a week or two.

It's nearly two months since I announced that I was working on the beer engine again. There's nothing much to see but I have been making a little progress. I've got the bare bones of the map browser working. Getting the data back and forward turns out to be the easy bit. Collating the data and presenting it on the client is the fiddly bit. I once wrote some javascripts to sort, filter and display archived invoices (stored as XML on a CD) using only a browser. I wish I could remember exactly how I did it.

http://phptest.beerengine.com/map2.php kind of shows you what I'm up to but till I get some quality time to work on it things like map pointers and rollovers are just items on a wish list.

I've also dipped my toe in location based content for smartphones. I've got a page which will display a map of your current location on an iPhone. Big deal, Google Maps does it all the time. The difference is that my page has access to all the data in the beer engine and I know how to use it. The usual problem of lack of time is frustrating.

http://phptest.beerengine.com/wai3b.php if you really need to know where you are.

Strange coincidence or...

A strange chain of events today revealed an interesting coincidence. I left a list of beers that I'd been entering in the compay database lying on our dining table. My wife noticed it and spotted the Toccalmato Skizoid. She made some comment about the spelling and I came up with the standard English spelling. She then commented that it's a word that's really only used by young people. Being a smart arse I pointed out that anyone into serious rock music would know King Crimson's seminal 1969 album In the Court of the Crimson King and the 1st track, 21st Century Schizoid Man. Somewhere in my head a lightbulb went on. A quick trip to Wikipedia produced the cover artwork of said LP.

Back to work

The more astute among you will have noticed that its almost exactly 2 years since I made an entry in this blog. I do have an excuse, honest.

Around the middle of August 2008 I was faced with a life changing decision. Do I continue working in web development or do I get involved in the beer business by taking over a small, specialist beer distributor. You've probably guessed that I bought the company.

One consequence is that I have very little time for anything other than work. Aside from the day to day running of the company I've been writing a lot of software to help me run things more efficiently. As the systems I've built are getting more complex I've noticed that I can't concentrate enough on an average evening to get much useful work done. I still need to hone my PHP skills so I'm going back to work on The Beer Engine. Oooh, look. I've given it capitals! Don't think I've done that before.

Although the beer engine has been static for the last couple of years the dataset has been growing steadily. This gives me a great base to work from. I've been working on a few refinements and improvements to the database which I'll try and implement in the new version. I hope that I can demonstrate all sorts of new ways to use the information that's been gathered over the last 5 years.

The first thing I want to work on is the map browser. I intend to use AJAX techniques to collate information held that is relevant to the map area in view. If that meant nothing here's an example. As you zoom in on a town, anything there with an entry in the beer engine will be listed and pinpointed on the map. The zoom level will determine the level of detail displayed.

As the bare bones of the site are built I intend to skew the presentation toward making Bars and Beershops more important than Brewers and Beers. The existing site gives equal weight to everything. I've always believed that the most useful function of the site would be to get real people to real beer. If you want to talk about beer on the internet there are plenty of places to do that. If you want to find places that sell great beer, use the beer engine (I hope...) I have all sorts of future uses for the beer information.

If you have any ideas about how to make the site easier to use or new features to add please let me know.

Something to see

Work progresses on the edit page albeit rather slowly. I have been spending much of my time and effort on another project recently. I will make an announcement shortly.

Anyway, there is now an edit button on the view page which will take you to the edit page. It's a bit rough and ready with many hidden fields visible and quite a lot missing. At least I've got it to the stage where I can make incremental improvements even when I don't have much time to work on it. I hope functionality will start coming on line in a few days. All that currently happens is the information required to populate the form is assembled and displayed.

You can also get to the edit page using the add links on the town page or the 'add new beer' button on a brewer view page.