June-July 2006

Layout

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how awful the layout has been. No offence, I mean, we are all used to the clean and neat layout of wikipedia but this is just so untidy. The blue color in the background doesn't match the foreground and the navigation menu is all messed up. I'm suggesting the same neat layout we had before. -- Funper 08:19, 7 July 2006 (CDT)

• I hope this is more acceptable. Of course, you can always change your choice of skin. ----Sphemusator 12:52, 7 July 2006 (CDT)

Pointing out a type that has been in place since the beginning..."Feburary 16, 2006"

Main Picture

I don't like the main picture depicting a harp. It does not give the impression of this site as a music score library, it should be more like sheet music, scores. Not harps. ;) -- 80.191.88.38 18:22, 30 June 2006 (CDT)

• When I was thinking about the kind of image that might be appropriate I considered using a sheet of music - but whose music, and which piece? I didn't want to suggest that the IMSLP was limited to a particular period, composer or genre. (BTW, it's a lyre rather than a harp). In the end I used the lyre as a classical western symbol for music.

Score counter

The score counter is increasing rather fast ;). Is an automated counter possible? -- Funper 19:56, 9 June 2006 (CDT)

That would need some coding skills that I don't think I have sadly :/ --Feldmahler 22:01, 12 June 2006 (CDT)

More User Friendly

There was a discussion in the forums about the usability of the front page. I'm going to mess around with it a bit. Discuss here if you have any problems with what I do. Horndude77 23:14, 24 June 2006 (CDT)

Oops I spoke too soon. I don't have permission to edit the front page. Here's what I was thinking of adding to the top (blatently stolen from wikipedia, but it looks nice):

• Maybe not the best, but something like this at the very top would help greatly. Horndude77 23:40, 24 June 2006 (CDT)

• I agree that the front page could be more 'welcoming'. I have submitted an image for the IMSLP logo, but unfortunately I don't have access to the stylesheets so cannot make the change myself, and I guess Feldmahler is rather busy about now.--Sphemusator 06:45, 25 June 2006 (CDT)

• Absolutely better than the pure text where you have to search the links to the browsepages!

I even think the front page and all other pages should not be protected, as wikis are open to the community. It should only be protected if there is too much vandalism that can not be repaired quickly enough.--Peter 14:42, 25 June 2006 (CDT)

• Hmm... point taken. I'll unprotect the main page. Though, sphemusator has sysop privileges too... so she should be able to do everything I can do to this wiki. You guys can ask her if you need some sysop stuff done, since my internet time is very limited (I had no access to the internet for the last 5 days). Nevertheless I'll try to be here as much as I can. Good thing I'll be back to normal in less than a month. Also, I agree very much that the front page needs some MAJOR reworking. --Feldmahler 23:09, 25 June 2006 (CDT)

• I think Peter has done a great job adding the "Welcome Mat" to the top of the Main Page. Unfortunately I don't speak PHP which seems to be a prerequisite for much of the WikiMedia architecture, but I have to ask, how difficult would it be to add a similar template to the Special:Articles one for images, to keep a live count of the number of scores on the front page? --Sphemusator 14:49, 29 June 2006 (CDT)

• Well... the main problem is that I'm not sure the main page can be a special page... unless maybe it is automatically redirected to a real special page? Making the special page is not an especially hard thing, but the main problem is that once there is a special page, it ceases to be world-changable (actually changing it would be a pain even for me), since it becomes a static (code-wise) PHP page. There is an alternative: to define a new macro like the one I used for the catalog numbers for the files on the work pages. The upside is that the main page is still world-changable, but... it will only be *semi-automatically* updated. The counter will only update when the main page is edited, or a special reparse-page command be given to the page (I think anyone can give this command via HTTP, though I need to check on that), because the parsed page is stored in cache and displayed whenever the main page is requested. Another way is to edit the skin pages so that the counter is displayed at the top of every wiki page (like the donation counter during the wikipedia fund drive). --Feldmahler 22:27, 29 June 2006 (CDT)

• I agree, the main page should not be a special page. My thinking was that since the code Peter added derives the number of articles from the Special:Statistics page, maybe the same principle could be applied to give a live count of scores if there was a way to derive the number of images. It's late. Maybe I should look at this when I am fresh and my cat is not trying to sit on the keys. --Sphemusator 21:40, 30 June 2006 (CDT)

• I just got back in town from a business trip. Nice job on the front page all. I think it's a lot more friendly to a newcomer with the box on top. I did a quick look around to see if there was a NUMBEROFIMAGES or similar variable, but I couldn't find any info. So if it's wanted it'll have to be created. Also this may be getting too complicated, but I'm not sure counting the images will be totally accurate. Perhaps in the future more actual images will be added here and skew the goal of the count too much. I don't really have a solution to this problem and it might not even matter, but just something to think about. Anyways, look good thanks! --Horndude77 23:32, 1 July 2006 (CDT)

September-December 2006

Automatic Loading of Correct Language Front Page

I just thought of something, but do not yet know how to implement it. I know there are sites that can automatically select which language of a particular page you would like, and I thought this might be a very good idea for IMSLP too. The problem is that I have no idea how to go about this (code-wise)... Any help would be appreciated. --Feldmahler 18:22, 28 September 2006 (EDT)

Actually, I managed to do it already (oh the wonders of Google <.<;;;). But I still need to test it in a Spanish prefering browser. --Feldmahler 19:13, 28 September 2006 (EDT)

Translation/Internationalization

Recently, Mr.Moonlight has started the Spanish translation of IMSLP. The question I now have is how I should integrate different versions of the same page. In my opinion, the Wikipedia style of putting the different languages on the side is not noticeable enough; I would like to put it across the top of the page itself (and maybe even put little flags of the countries instead of the actual language name). I think this idea works since there are really not a lot of pages that have to be translated (5 essential ones), so there is no real need for some automated mechanism to link the different language pages. Of course that's just my opinion. The reason I'm writing this is because I want to hear some other people's opinions and/or code :) --Feldmahler 21:13, 26 September 2006 (EDT)

That sounds fine to me. I agree that the wikipedia style won't quite work here. I believe those links actually exist in separate wikis. I gave it a go. It's just a test. I couldn't find any good flags to replace the asterisks. Is this what you had in mind? Horndude77 22:58, 26 September 2006 (EDT)

Yes, that's quite similar, though I'd leave out the untranslated languages (until they're translated :). And also I just thought that maybe a right alignment is better? I'll test it --Feldmahler 00:03, 27 September 2006 (EDT)

Actually, I thought it was too un-integrated so I tried something different... tell me what you think :) --Feldmahler 00:09, 27 September 2006 (EDT)

I think it's fine where you're putting it. In fact I think I like that best. We are going to run out of room when more languages become available. Maybe it should be moved to the bottom of the page when it gets too big. Or do what wikipedia does with an intro page to get you to the correct language. I was messing around a bit in Test page, but I couldn't come up with anything better. I have a side question though: what's the difference between 'composer's time period' and 'work's time period'? Could we eliminate one? I know there are some composers that are a bit ambiguous, but it just seems redundant to me.

Now that's a very good question. Originally I conceived of it just in case there are somehow discrepancies between composer time period/work time period (I was thinking maybe this might be the case for some "in between" composers). To date I do not know of any piece which is not in the composer's work period, frankly. But I think maybe the function of the two is slightly different? I.e. in one of them you are browsing actual works, while in the other just the composers. That's just my opinion... but if there are formatting problems that arise from having both, it is very conceivable to delete one. --Feldmahler 21:03, 27 September 2006 (EDT)

Regarding the Page/Score Line

I saw your change to the Page/score line, Peter, and I thought it was a correct one to make, except that the "scores for" part seemed not really necessary, and also makes it not look very good... so I'm removing that part for the time being, unless there is another reason for it that you had in mind. --Feldmahler 20:40, 3 October 2006 (EDT)

Not using the built in $NUMBEROFFILES

The reason I brought back the <imslpcount> parser hook is because I realized that the $NUMBEROFFILES variable implementation is very buggy. Currently, the <imslpcount> hook actually counts the number of files in the directory, so it is always correct. --Feldmahler 18:46, 2 November 2006 (EST)

News Pane

I have a suggestion for a news pane on the homepage, where latest news and messages about IMSLP can be posted. A special News page would be inlined in the main page for quick and easy editing of the section (not in this example, that's why there are red links in the pane). What dou you think? And what about the lay-out?
If you want to enter it just add everything after <!-- NEWS PANE --> --Peter 08:11, 4 November 2006 (EST)

I really like this idea, but there seems to be a little bit of a dilemma: if I put the news section above the entire rest of the page (like you have here) it seems a little weird, since there is also the main bar above it. So I thought it might be a good idea to put it below "Introduction". But of course, now the balancing between the two sides is broken :( I've already changed the <imslprecentadditions> parser so that it will accept the number of items to show from wiki input (the reason it still shows 12 instead of 16 items is because no one has submitted any more yet; this shouldn't be a problem in the future since the internal buffer is now 24 items).

Anyway, I'm still not very satisfied with the layout... but can't think of anything better. --Feldmahler 10:11, 4 November 2006 (EST)

Protection of the Main Page

I've locked the main page due to recent vandalism... if anyone needs anything changed on it please tell me. --Feldmahler 20:51, 25 November 2006 (EST)

Inside page scroller

I have setup a css scrollbar that works inside a wiki page (is not an iFrame). This could be good for something like "Recent Additions" where you could have it set to like 50 instead of like 10 or whatever it's set to now. Obviously good for other lists inside a page. Many settings are changeable from the wiki, colors, size, fonts, etc. Let me know if you want to use it and I'll post the CSS/wiki here. The CSS can be added right to MediaWiki:Common.css from the wiki but can only be added by sysop or greater.

Here are a few examples...

http://www.hak5.org/wiki/Category:Special_Guests

http://www.hak5.org/wiki/Goodies#Wallpapers

http://www.hak5.org/wiki/DL.TV (on the right)

http://www.hak5.org/wiki/Episode_2x05 (also on the right)

A Witt 18:08, 18 December 2006 (EST)

Wow... that would indeed be a nice thing for the main page (and so I won't have to change the length of the recent additions list whenever I add a news item -_-). It'd be great if you can post the CSS code :) --Feldmahler 19:20, 18 December 2006 (EST)

I made a separate page with the info.

Scroller

A Witt 19:34, 18 December 2006 (EST)

Scroller Attempts

Call me dumb... but I can't for the life of me find a way to use the scroller the way I want it to be. Basically, what I'm thinking is using the scroller in the news pane, so that there is no change in length when I add a news item. Also, it's a good idea to make the width of the scrollbox flexible, so that it takes up half (width-wise) of the page regardless of what screen resolution the user is viewing it at, but I don't know if that can be done...

So I'm going to let everyone get a chance to dip their hands in it and see if they can do it. If you manage to use it on other things and make them look better, that's even better :)

The information about the scrollers can be found here, and a duplicate main page that I set up so people can edit it (since the real main page is locked) can be found here. Good luck! --Feldmahler 21:46, 18 December 2006 (EST)

This should be closer to what you want...

scroller

You can now increase the # of recent additions to whatever you want, change the height and width, but I didn't use the #expr version cause I wasn't sure if you have the math/parser extensions. It doesn't really matter much thought since that can just be a template and you will only set it once.

I like it, and also the shadowbox, which I think is quite useful on the wiki elsewhere. However, there's a problem with putting the scrollbox on the main page in that while the scrollbox works with IE6, it breaks with both Firefox2 and Konqueror (right side of scrollbox breaks out of the containing shadowbox). This is viewing the site at 1024x768... I don't know about 1200x1024, but the box should be resolution-independent, since people use vastly different resolutions. However, that might mean that the scrollbox can't be put on the main page :(, unless these two points can be fixed (browser compatibility and resolution independence). --Feldmahler 11:38, 19 December 2006 (EST)

I made the <div class="scrolltext_a" width smaller, which is the setting that would show it breaking out of the shadowbox. It could go smaller and still look ok in higher resolutions. I have tested in Safari, IE6 pc, FF 2 mac/pc but all are 1200x1024 +

A Witt 12:14, 19 December 2006 (EST)

Nice; I'll do more with it after I finish being very busy for the next few days... basically there are two more things that are needed: a scrollbox around the News column, and possibly removing the shadowbox, and using only plain scrollbox. The shadowbox is quite useful elsewhere on the wiki, but I don't think it really fits with the layout of the main page (stands out too much). :) --Feldmahler 12:43, 19 December 2006 (EST)

I see you've changed it, and I like it! I will try it out on both main pages (english and spanish) in a few days. I won't be here most of the time before then so I don't want to change anything dramatic before then, in case there's some unforeseen problem (as unlikely as that is). --Feldmahler 18:54, 19 December 2006 (EST)