New Main Page full redesign project

[icactus]

ok should be good now. That actually let me get rid of a few unnecessary divs in the process.


What's the next problem?

[feldmahler]

The fact that the search box doesn't do Google searches, but I think that one's on my end

[icactus]

oh yeah i keep forgetting to mention that. And is there a way to have it return the google results within a frame? Or some way so the visitor isn't immediately taken away from the site? I remember that was weird feeling the first time i used it. Usually that sort of navigation is code for "oops i used the wrong search box" or "arg! they tricked me into clicking an ad!"

[feldmahler]

Well, you can put it in a frame, but then the return link will be in that frame as well (unless, of course, you don't mind paying Google money to use their custom search thingy). I think the current setup is probably the best we can do with free Google.

[icactus]

couldn't you just use this in the header of every page:


<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!--
if (top.frames.length!=0)
top.location=self.document.location;
//--></SCRIPT>

With this you search - have google load in a frame - then click a result - then the result loads in the same frame but pops out because of this code and you're back where you started.

[feldmahler]

You are most likely right, but I've learned (the hard way) that nothing is as simple as it seems in Javascript land, with slightly different Javascript interpreters across browsers and the possibility of the client disabling Javascript (which so far has been covered). Considering that this is not very high priority, I would wait until we finish the more urgent upgrades.

[kalliwoda]

Ah, the new homepage its up. Neat!!! - and just (barely) enough color for me

Now, if I first arrive at a homepage like this, I would like to find quickly what is available for my special interest, and the google searchbox is helpful, but with obvious limitations. And if you search for something like "piano trio", or "woodwind quintet" you may find one of the manually maintained lists (last updated maybe a year ago).
But the most powerful search tool is hidden away in the side bar in "browse work genre"

Therefore the following suggestion: could the warning
'Please note that this list is manually updated, and may not contain IMSLP's complete collection' appended with
'To generate automatically updated lists see "browse by work genre" in the sidebar'

And the browse section of the sidebar could be streamlined (I always stumble over "All people"). My suggestion, best if it could include an indent:
Browse scores by
Name
- Composers
Nationality
Time period
Work genre
- Work type
- Instrumentation
- Featured Instrument
- Language
Melody

[icactus]

I appreciate the sentiment as I too think the search box would be nice if it could incorporate the categories easier. HOWEVA, for the love a god let's not put a giant long line of text on the page explaining the search box. I really can't think of a worse thing to do to the main page than to put more text on it. IMSLP could definitely use more restraint and brevity in it's writing anyway

[kalliwoda]

I completely agree - keep it simple and clear.

Maybe you misunderstood: When you open one of these long manually updated lists, you may find with a google search, like here
http://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_Compositi ... nd_Quintet
there is a "warning..." box on top with already a long sentence in it - there I wanted to add another line (and do not know how to do that), not on the home page

[icactus]

Haha oh ok i was reading too lazily (and excited about the page being up!)

I agree collapsible menus on the sidebar would help a lot. Especially with stuff down by the bottom that is mostly admin tools.

[vinteuil]

I don't see this box, but you might be referring to my "manup" template? http://imslp.org/wiki/Template:Manup

[icactus]

well one way to optimize the google searches would be to delete those redundant pages so they don't show up any longer.

[vinteuil]

Careful—some people are very attached to those pages...

[kalliwoda]

Ah, I assumed they would be on all the manually updated lists. You find the box here:
http://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_Compositi ... g_the_Oboe

Keep these lists, even if these are not updated, they may be easily found by google and the genre search results are not! But maybe, the box should be on all of them, with the appended sentence pointing to the genre search.

[icactus]

or what about redirects? Then you don't have to delete?