New tool to categorize the libraries

[Informatix]

This is exactly the problem with such solutions. Who will update the database three years from now?

The libraries are already listed in a single place. Here:
Additional libraries, classes and official updates

The search engine is tuned to find libraries. The search engine is the key here.

I completely disagree.
1) In this forum, there's no list of libraries that you can consult (there was one but you removed it). An user has to rely upon a search engine that is not very efficient to retrieve a specific library. Try to find libGDX by typing "game engine". No mention after 3 pages of results. If you click on the "B4A library" button, the library appears on page 2. The searched keywords are not missing. They are the first ones in the description and there are only two game engines in this forum...
2) So, searching a specific library is not an easy task. And this task is just impossible if the library developper did not include some keywords in the library description. In a list that groups libraries by family, you can browse these families and you may even find something that is better than the thing you wanted to find. With such a list, no one can miss a library. In this forum, with only the search engine, missing a library is very common.
3) "Who will update the database three years from now?" With such a reasoning, no one will ever start a project or use any library here. If the database is open to any developer, if any library author or user can fill it online, then there are chances that it will be still used in a few years. Note that you can read the database without my tool. My tool is just a convenient way to read it and try examples, but it is not mandatory at all. And the SQlite format will probably be still there in a few years...
4) The real problem in my project is that the B4A community is not, for an unknown reason, a community prone to collaborate on a common project. I never saw that in other developer communities. It's really discouraging. That's why, unless something magical happens, I won't put more efforts into this project.

 

[Cableguy]

...
4) The real problem in my project is that the B4A community is not, for an unknown reason, a community prone to collaborate on a common project. I never saw that in other developer communities. It's really discouraging. That's why, unless something magical happens, I won't put more efforts into this project.

Although my stats says I'm an expert, my coding skills aren't... Still within my capabilities I am willing to help... as long as there is no real pressure on eta... I have a day job...

 

[Erel]

Try to find libGDX by typing "game engine". No mention after 3 pages of results. If you click on the "B4A library" button, the library appears on page

I agree that the results in this case are not the best results available in the forum. The 5th result (a tutorial that you wrote) will take developers to libGDX. The problem here is that there are other libraries which use the words game and engine in the thread title and library name. Based on standard relevance algorithm the search engine ranks them higher. The title is very important. If you add the work "game" to the library title then it will be more discoverable. You can edit the thread title and the library will be more discoverable after 24 hours.

 

[Erel]

BTW, I didn't remove the wiki list. It is still there.
When the wiki was created I did try to encourage developers to update it.
Eventually I realized that it is outdated and it offers no true advantage over the forum threads list. In addition, the forum threads are searchable.

Maybe we need to add tags or thread prefixes to the libraries to categorize them (like the tags in the code snippets).

 

[Erel]

I've updated the library thread from libGDX to "libGDX Game Engine" which better describes the library (you can of course change the thread title as you like).

It is now the first search result for: "game engine" and it is also high in the list when you search for game and use the libraries filter. What I'm trying to say is that we, as library developers, need to make sure that the libraries are discoverable. The title is the most important text here (though there are other factors). A library such as libGDX must include the word "game" in the title.

 

[thedesolatesoul]

What I'm trying to say is that we, as library developers, need to make sure that the libraries are discoverable.

This is true. But we are developers not marketing or SEO experts. We cant optimize our library thread page for search ranking, and besides thats search rigging. This is not what I want to spend my time on.
Forums and wiki are not a good vessel for dynamically changing content specifically library lists.

In my opinion, the category tagging needs to be done at the source i.e. an annotation in the library @BA.Categories("Graphics","UI"). The advantage of this is that any set of libraries can be categorized on any platform (IDE, Web, third-party) as long as the exported xml contains this information.
Secondly uploading libraries to the forum is bad organisation. Something like @warwound xml2bb script (which 90% of library developers use), can essentially snapshot and store library information into a DB on a webservice.

I agree as @Informatix says most forum users dont step up to the plate either due to various reasons. Quite frankly I find it annoying, (for e.g. some user asked for the source a few posts above with no other useful contributing information), and is one of the main reasons of mine (and others) contributions dwindling. The only reason to make the effort is for personal reasons, not community reasons.

But i still believe things need to be done right from the ground up. I'll see if I can get a VPS and script set up, but that would take a year or so!

 

[Cableguy]

This may sound stupid for the Real Developers but I just had an Idea...

The Tags Idea could be used in several ways to automatize a script listing...
Lib Devs could/should start Tags the possible categories in theirs libs, picked up from an "official Categories" listing..
Then, when creating the Thread, Add those Categories as the First Thread Line... kind of a 2nd Title
This way a Script Created/Updated Thread could crawl the libs forum in search of the new threads and populate the LIBs Listing Thread...

I was the first, back on Basic4PocketPc to create and maintain such a List, which still exists... Did it all the crawling myself and with the help of the devs, that gave me an heads-up when updating/posting their work...

I did propose EREL the same thread... at the time, we saw no big advantage on having it, but NOW, Things have changed a bit, and there are a few Libs that overlap themselves with similar functions and that sometimes go unnoticed...
I think a Single Thread to List all the Libs with brief description is now a MUST...

maybe EREL will now allow me to create and maintain such a List for the B4A libs forum... and even maybe for the B4i
Forum too...

What say you EREL??

 

[thedesolatesoul]

I dont see how that helps in maintaining an offline categorization.

 

[Cableguy]

It doesn't... but would make finding a suitable lib more easy... just that... then an off-line categorizing app would be easier to build, I think, and would make a great companion to the thread...
They could both co-exist and be cooperative

 

[Erel]

What say you EREL??

Cableguy I'm not sure whether you remember or not but you did start such a thread for B4A in the past and after several months told me that you can no longer keep it updated.

 

[Cableguy]

Cableguy I'm not sure whether you remember or not but you did started such a thread for B4A in the past and after several months told me that you can no longer keep it updated.

At the time I was in a time consuming work project and remote locations... Now I'm on a "fixed" team and very different conditions...
Now it all depends on you... to re-create or not such a thread... I have the time... and the will.

 

[Erel]

A wiki page is more appropriate for such a list as it will allow developers to update the list themselves. However as we already had such a page (http://www.b4x.com/android/wiki/index.php/Libraries) I don't think that it is a good idea to create a new one.

 

[Cableguy]

The thing is only a handful of users do use the wiki... and even debs often forget to update theirs.

 

[Informatix]

have a day job...

As almost everybody.

 

[Informatix]

Maybe we need to add tags or thread prefixes to the libraries to categorize them (like the tags in the code snippets).

I agree. It's better than nothing.

 

[JakeBullet70]

The real problem in my project is that the B4A community is not, for an unknown reason, a community prone to collaborate on a common project. I never saw that in other developer communities.

This surprises me too.