Delicious Monster previews Library 2 web export
Want to show the world the contents of your bookshelves? David C. at Infinite Loop previewed the much-anticipated Delicious Library 2's HTML export feature, which you can see in demo form over at Delicious Monster's site. With lovely sliding panels and gorgeous book covers, the web export looks like it will live up to the graphical standard set by the original Delicious Library.I'm very much looking forward to DL2, which as previously noted will be Leopard-only. Delicious Library is still the app I launch when I want someone new to the Mac to enjoy the feeling of having their jaw hit the floor.
Worthy of note: the current preview site, which works fine in Safari 3 and also apparently on the iPhone, doesn't behave as expected in Firefox 2 (no detail panels).
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alice said 6:22PM on 10-06-2007
I know it goes without saying, but the site doesn't work in IE...
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Simon Arch said 6:52PM on 10-06-2007
One thing Firefox seems to get right is the graphics. The item images show up distorted in Safari. Oops. Oh well. This is still a very nice feature, though I'm more interested in the new database. Any details on that yet? I was under the impression it was going to use SQL. Any truth to that?
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Tan The Man said 6:56PM on 10-06-2007
Will the new version accept other software besides games like Librarian Pro does?
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(01) said 7:33PM on 10-06-2007
Right? Pretty much the best show off app ever. I also love that "The giving tree" is one of the books in the example.
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Brady J. Frey said 10:37PM on 10-06-2007
Very few sites work in aged versions of IE without hacks - it's not his fault he doesn't want to stress about it now, he's created his site with standards:
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.delicious-monster.com%2Ftwo%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0
I will say it's not semantic in the least, and a mix case of divitis... so handicap accessibility takes a back seat, which is a shame and something I'd concern myself well over crying about IE's mess.
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Techslacker said 11:57PM on 10-06-2007
If only comicbooks could be implemented into this where we could scan in the barcode.
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Tom said 2:13AM on 10-07-2007
@6: I agree, actually. It sucks completely that they only use amazon, I've seen many copies of the same (older) book added and re-added by sellers with no extra information that shows why the book you're selling is ANY DIFFERENT than another one with the same name and same lack of information. Unless you can prove it's different with an actual publisher and edition number or something, there's no reason there should be 20 results for the same heinlein book, all without covers or information.
Also, some books just aren't on amazon, and since amazon is NOT AN ENCYCLOPEDIA (even though they have one), you cannot ADD information to it for others unless you are selling the book.
Why am I furious? Because I helped my girlfriend import her old library into Delicious Library, which I bought a while back. Many we had to look up on amazon to hopefully find something with a cover picture or details close enough that we could use it.
Sorry for the rant in a TUAW comment, but I just hope to god Delicious Library 2 supports more item databases, several of which I found while searching for information on UPCs that didn't return a result on amazon (but did return very detailed information elsewhere).
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DigitalFury said 4:24AM on 10-07-2007
Tom,
I don't know why you waste time with Delicious Library (DL), the *pedias have much better functionalities - including what you seek - than this toy.
http://bruji.com/
DL is all shits & giggles eye candy, the *pedias are the real deal used by Mac power users and run circles around DL.
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hendrik said 7:17AM on 10-07-2007
IE is damn important. A good designer deals with the errors and anomalities of IE, otherwise he loses 80% of his/her audience.
In Camino the site renders OK but it takes ages to load with. The interface is not navigable at all. It works on the desktop client but the metaphore of bookshelf works less in a browser I think. Also when I
click on a book the pointer turns into a hand but there is no link.
All I want to say this is a usability nightmare :-)
The export to isolated HTML is a bit odd in this socially connected web. I want export to libraryanything or facebook and last.fm....
:-) Hendrik
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artifex said 8:04AM on 10-07-2007
Anyone notice the items were not in alpha order?
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Paul said 8:37AM on 10-07-2007
DigitalFury (Post 8),
Yep, they've had the web export function for ages too (and iPhone for a few months - which David C. also mentioned DL would have).
But I guess it depends if you need something functional or something pretty to look at.
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Michael Rose said 9:14AM on 10-07-2007
Tom -- in addition to Bookpedia from Bruji, I also recommend checking out Readerware:
http://www.readerware.com/
It's not much on the shiny pretty, but it does the job very well including support for a score of data sources.
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Christina Warren said 1:44PM on 10-07-2007
I'm very excited about DL2 -- I have about 1500 DVDs that need importing (I tried to do it last month when I was alphabetizing/moving all my TV DVDs to their new shelving, but it seriously got too frustrating with the eyesight barcode detection only working may 1/3 of the time and my living room was full of stacks of media worth more than my car, plus my mom was over and leaning over my shoulder and so I said "screw it") and cataloging for insurance purposes (I have a basic title list but I'd like to have the UPC). Depending on how well the database works, DL2 or the *pedias will hopefully eventually catalog every DVD, music CD and non-textbook I own -- and maybe my current-gen video games too (all my retro games are in my parent's basement in plastic bins or with a now married ex-boyfriend who I'm afraid to call because his wife hates me - but he has my NES, SNES and like half my games and the NES was totally restored right before I let him borrow it like 4 years ago). Organization can be so sexy.
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LD said 10:35PM on 10-07-2007
I am fairly unimpressed with the actual features of DL. I paid my money and I regret it. DVDpedia looks better, feature-wise to me. DL is damn sexy, but that's about it. It lacks some of the most basic features one would want, like HTML export. Looks like it's coming, and I'll hold judgment on the slow to release next version. Of course, I'll have to upgrade to Leopard to try it out.
Oh well, DM makes it difficult to do business with them, but they like their small set of customers.
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Tom said 11:59PM on 10-07-2007
@8, @12: There's a bunch of library type apps, don't suggest just one:
http://www.themacpak.com/Librarian-Pro_p_0-37.html
The Collectorz one (i can only enter 3 urls)
Even a free one:
http://books.aetherial.net/wordpress/
I'm sure there's more because I've seen 'em before even though I didn't run across them in this brief search, I am still wondering if an audience exists for a site that lists "programs similar to this popular one", using categories and tags. IUseThis seems ok so far;
http://osx.iusethis.com/app/booxter
So really, I don't know if I want to buy 4 separate pedias for each type of media when many apps support them all.
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artifex said 3:09AM on 10-08-2007
I've also been disappointed with DL. It was the killer app that helped me cross the line and finally buy my first Mac, a G4 Mini. But, as I'm sure you've noticed, adding new titles gets very unwieldy once you have a few hundred titles in it. The G4 Mini maxes at a gigabyte of RAM, but it was current hardware when DL was for sale. Later, the company blogged about it and said they were revamping the database system for the next version. But the next version will require Leopard, and also require a paid update. So I feel let down.
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LD said 1:34PM on 10-08-2007
artifex,
I am also running a G4 Mini with 1GB of RAM and DL is sometimes unusable on it. Performance is horrible thanks to the eye candy. I am in the same position as you, pay for Leopard and pay for DL2.
If I have to throw out some money it will probably only be $18 on DVDpedia.
I'd love for DL2 to be truly useful rather than just pretty. It has a couple awesome things going for it. The iSight scanning is very, very cool. And it's pretty. Honestly I don't think it's a great UI though, but it looks pretty.
As to the HTML export, I personally think my hack is a little better. It's DeliciWeb with a couple modifications. I've not done much to improve it as I'm not much of a developer. But I think it emulates DL better than DM emulates DL with their preview.
http://teamoverkill.com/LD/DVD/movies.html
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el_zapato said 8:07PM on 10-14-2007
This is a bit of a plug, but you may consider checking out this app I'm writing, http://lifeshelf.net. It's in active development, so it's a little bumpy at times, but new features are being added all the time, so hopefully that's a plus. Also, it's free. Also, what with it being web-based, web-export is built in, naturally.
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