We already have tooltips for (almost) all the different icons and symbols as well as a few links - like the group short names, for example - in AniDB. I'd like to see the same method used for the file- and episode links. Just put the descriptions there. That way, the descriptions may be actually used for something productive, instead of being mostly ignored.
It would be just a matter of adding some title="..." strings to the already existing links.
Description Tooltips [DONE]
Moderator: AniDB
I like the idea of making the descriptions more readily available, but I agree with exp that, most of the time, the extra information would be unnecessary and would just be more overhead.
What about a way to display descriptions on demand?
One way would be to display the description under the episode name, and before the files whenever you expand the files (and if you expand all the files it would expand all the decriptions).
Another would be a set of buttons similar to the expand files buttons (could have an icon with a letter, maybe 'D' for description, instead of the '+'), and an expand all descriptions button.
Just some ideas.
What about a way to display descriptions on demand?
One way would be to display the description under the episode name, and before the files whenever you expand the files (and if you expand all the files it would expand all the decriptions).
Another would be a set of buttons similar to the expand files buttons (could have an icon with a letter, maybe 'D' for description, instead of the '+'), and an expand all descriptions button.
Just some ideas.
Uh ... displaying the descriptions as tooltips (that is, only when you let your mouse pointer hover over the episode or file number for a while) is "display on demand" and, on the plus side, doesn't take up any more space on the user interface.egg wrote:I like the idea of making the descriptions more readily available, but I agree with exp that, most of the time, the extra information would be unnecessary and would just be more overhead.
What about a way to display descriptions on demand?
Example of a tool tip (sorry, the mouse pointer is missing in the screen shot, it should point at the "A-E&L-E" link):
It does take up space in the html document, meaning pages load slower, more cpu time is needed for the server to generate the pages and the bill for the server goes up!doesn't take up any more space on the user interface.
(Maybe not the bill but I have no idea how the server deal looks.)That's what they mean.
I don't buy it.PetriW wrote:It does take up space in the html document, meaning pages load slower, more cpu time is needed for the server to generate the pages and the bill for the server goes up!doesn't take up any more space on the user interface.
That's what they mean.
Let's look, for example, at http://anidb.ath.cx/perl-bin/animedb.pl ... xpandall=1 ... 8.5kB (around 5%) just in some irrelevant spaces, line breaks and friggin' comments.
And that's even disregarding the 10:1 html-to-information ratio.
A problem with the DB transfer volume I understand. If your problem lies in the size of the HTML pages, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do with XHTML+CSS2.
We are not saying the HTML code will take up much more space, but the HTML file sent to the users, it has to include all of the descriptions.
Let's take Naruto as an example. One the most popular animes on AniDB (#3 ratings, #1 users), it probably gets loaded quite frequently. This has 73 episodes (69 + 4 Specials). If every episode has a 3 sentence description, 10 words per sentence, 5 characters per word, then the size would be 73*3*10*5 = 10,950 or 10 kB every time the page is loaded.
I even think these numbers are relatively low, if the ability to see descriptions were added in, I think a lot of people would put them in and they wouldn't be that short. Also this does not count the HTML code overhead to define the tool tips, and there are many series longer even 2-3 times longer than Naruto.
I also want to see the descriptions, I just don't think that doing it in the tooltips is the best solution.
Edit: Added URLs
Let's take Naruto as an example. One the most popular animes on AniDB (#3 ratings, #1 users), it probably gets loaded quite frequently. This has 73 episodes (69 + 4 Specials). If every episode has a 3 sentence description, 10 words per sentence, 5 characters per word, then the size would be 73*3*10*5 = 10,950 or 10 kB every time the page is loaded.
I even think these numbers are relatively low, if the ability to see descriptions were added in, I think a lot of people would put them in and they wouldn't be that short. Also this does not count the HTML code overhead to define the tool tips, and there are many series longer even 2-3 times longer than Naruto.
I also want to see the descriptions, I just don't think that doing it in the tooltips is the best solution.
Edit: Added URLs
For the record, I played a little with the Naruto page egg linked to (removed all formating information, stripped all unnecessary tables, converted to pure XHTML/1.0 and added some CSS2 formating). For the anime listing, this made the HTML file 40% smaller (before removing comments and line feeds, which would amout to at most another 5% points) - that's around 40kB -, while growing the CSS file from 1.5kB to 3.5kb.
My guess is, one could shrink the AniDB HTML files to around 50% this way. The (static) CSS file should amount to 5-7kB.
If anyone's interested, the half-redone page I base my estimates upon can be reached via http://www.vernideas.de/anidbtest/animedb.pl.htm
My guess is, one could shrink the AniDB HTML files to around 50% this way. The (static) CSS file should amount to 5-7kB.
If anyone's interested, the half-redone page I base my estimates upon can be reached via http://www.vernideas.de/anidbtest/animedb.pl.htm
well,
I am pretty sure that a LOT of overhead could be saved by restructuring the html output pages.
However I would only do that if it is compatible with all current browsers.
Which probably makes it quite hard.
Also for various reasons the html code is not well seperated from the anidb program logic. Which would make it quite bothersome to replace the current html structure.
BYe!
EXP
I am pretty sure that a LOT of overhead could be saved by restructuring the html output pages.
However I would only do that if it is compatible with all current browsers.
Which probably makes it quite hard.
Also for various reasons the html code is not well seperated from the anidb program logic. Which would make it quite bothersome to replace the current html structure.
BYe!
EXP
*bump*
Leaving the html-optimizations aside:
Right now, there are much less file- and ep-comments than suggested by egg. I don't know the load difference between querying the mere existence of a comment vs. the querying the comment itself, but ATM, it seems to me that the gain by displaying the comments as tooltip would be bigger than the additional load they'd impose.
Just from my experience:
Regular TV-animes don't have many ep- or file-comments. Hentai animes probably have much more comments (episodes -> original title, files -> un-/censored), but in turn also very few files and episodes.
Leaving the html-optimizations aside:
Right now, there are much less file- and ep-comments than suggested by egg. I don't know the load difference between querying the mere existence of a comment vs. the querying the comment itself, but ATM, it seems to me that the gain by displaying the comments as tooltip would be bigger than the additional load they'd impose.
Just from my experience:
Regular TV-animes don't have many ep- or file-comments. Hentai animes probably have much more comments (episodes -> original title, files -> un-/censored), but in turn also very few files and episodes.