dirtyBlog

Today I’ve made available a very basic (read-only) API. You can learn more about it on the about the API page. So far you can do basic interaction like searching:

http://api.dirtybeta.com/get/releases/search/dirtybeta

and then do lookups based on those results:

http://api.dirtybeta.com/get/release/id/1

Eventually the plan is to make the site completely functional without the GUI of the website, so that external applications like Widgets can benefit from the database completely without having to hit the website.

More to come!

This is a pretty major release! And the halfway mark to version 1.0 has been crossed! YAR! Anyway here’s what’s new:

1. Per suggestion, increased the size of the tag cloud.
2. The tag page is now pretty icons instead of just boring ol’ text.
3. Fixed IE6 (boy I hate that browser) rendering bug created by tag icons.
4. Changed popularTags label in the sidebar to tagCloud, because, unlike releases, tags are not user-submitted. Makes more sense this way.
5. I noticed a while back that dates weren’t showing up in Netvibes. I really have no idea why that is, but I think I’ve fixed it. My guess is it was because the timestamp dates were defaulting to midnight (like they do), so all newly submitted releases should starting showing proper pubDates.

Now then, as usual with these sprint releases there are many small fixes and one major one. Here’s the biggee this time around: Added an RSS link to the top of each tag page. This has been in the software since inception, but hasn’t really been promoted or linked to (which is a good thing because version 0.4.5 broke it). This is a feature in a feed service that I’ve wanted for years and I’m really excited about it. Here are some typical examples that many folks will find useful:

• RSS feed of all open source software
• RSS feed of all new websites
• RSS feed of all Wii games
• RSS feed of all Xbox-360 games
• RSS feed of all Windows software

This is a pretty major release for dirtyBeta, and I’ve decided to finally start to promote the site a little more. Not really knowing many avenues to take to do this (which is embarassing because I have a minor in Marketing), I’ll be using some of the no-brainers like Digg and possibly Reddit (if I can retrieve my stinking password).

So if you’re here from one of those sites, welcome! If you’re wondering what this is all about, this is the companion blog for dirtyBeta, a software release syndication and feed service. dirtyBeta’s goal is to inform users about new software, video games and websites.

(Also, a quick note: If you’re here from a social bookmarking site and you’ve found one of my posts to be obnoxious or spammy, well then sorry, but that’s how those sites work. Some sites let you bury such stories, and they all certainly allow you to ignore entries. I sincerely think this service will be a valuable tool to many (or I wouldn’t try to promote it), and I’d love to have the word spread about it.)

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy this release.

This was as very productive release! Here we go:

1. Release names are now highlighted along with summaries on the search page.
2. Speaking of search, there’s now a search form on every page like there should be on every page on all of the Interwebz!
3. Uh, searches and tag pages are now longer broken… cough…
4. Not that we’re there yet, but pagination now is intelligent enough to not shoot off into the hundreds (you should have seen the development box, it was nasty looking).
5. Fixed a bug in the tag cloud that was sizing tags with zero releases larger than those with just a few.

Now then! Those are the somewhat smaller updates. Here’s the big one that’s very obvious just by glancing at the release page: icons! Spiffy eh? Hope you enjoy:

This release is all about tabs! Releases can now by sorted by recently posted, recently released, highest traffic and most comments. This feature really should have made it in the first release…

Here’s a minor update…

Always on the lookout for ways to better organize releases, I’ve added three new tags: CMS, PS2 and PS3.

Well, I’m one (small) step closer to having this site the way I envisioned it before it reaches that big sought-after 1.0. Seriously, if it wouldn’t have been so ridiculous, I would have made this a beta.

Here’s are the updates in this release:

1. Search Highlighting
   Search results now show the keywords highlighted as opposed to, well, not. Hooray for ease of use!
2. RSS Limit Increase
   The RSS feed was showing 10 results per page, which is just silly. Netvibes supports paging, so let’s take advantage of it!
3. Summary Character Counts
   When submitting software releases, it was a pain to figure out if the characters were over the 255 character limit or not. Nobody ever knew that but me, but now they’ll never have to! Some handy-dandy JS counts the characters at the bottom of the textarea.
4. Links in Summaries are Clickable
   Kind of a no-brainer here; this should have been done in the beginning. Now links users post in their summaries are clickable.
5. Slight Design Tweaks
   The tab on the left is gone. Waste of space, anyone?
6. Severe Submission Changes
   This has changed substantially. First off, name and version have been combined, because it seemed confused (and also would mess up the API plans I have). Second, URL is no longer a required field. Why? Because this is soft
   Slight Design Tweaks
   The tab on the left is gone. Waste of space, anyone?
7. Severe Submission Changes
   This has changed substantially. First off, name and version have been combined, because it seemed confused (and also would mess up the API plans I have). Second, URL is no longer a required field. Why? Because this is software releases, not social bookmarking! Somebody may make a version of something and just have it available in ware releases, not social bookmarking! Somebody may make a version of something and just have it available in Synaptic or something. Point is, it’s software and not just URLs. Also: video games are now allowed. Again, this is software! Video games are totally software. Several tags have been added accordingly.

   Lastly, releases must occur within a month of posting and no more than 3 months ago. This is because the site is meant for new software releases. The constraints are arbitrary, sure, and they may change — but they’re meant to emphasize new.

That’s it so far! Relatively involved release… hopefully someday someone will find these fixes useful!