EngineeredTheology » Tech

Update: Commentary Database

engineeredtheology — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:50:07 +0000

A little over a year ago I made a database to contain some of my bible notes and began transferring a lot of what was in my bible into that database. This had three problems. The first was that a lot of the notes I had in my bible were pretty old, and my viewpoint has changed quite a bit since then. Secondly, I have a lot of notes, and transferring them all over was taking forever. Thirdly, the page I wrote made it difficult because it separated the adding of a note from the verses and there was no real way to edit them.

I decided to add all the notes I had because there still might be something in those old notes that is interesting. Unfortunately I didn’t even get through the Pentateuch because of problem #2, which is making the determination that the database will just have new notes. For the last problem, I spent some time improving things. Wanted something a little more dynamic, so I taught myself AJAX (which really just meant improving my JavaScript). Now, the interface to the database is much better and significantly easier to use – so adding a note to a verse just involves clicking on the verse and selecting the right menu, editing the note is done with a double click.

It’s alive

engineeredtheology — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:27:32 +0000

After a little research and trial and error, I’ve got a working beta of a notes/commentary database. Links are up at the top to add and search database (only logged in users can add comments). Now starts the task of loading it with comments from old bibles and such.

Commentary Database

engineeredtheology — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:55:37 +0000

My last bible had extra wide margins to write notes in. Over a few years I used that space extensively and wrote all over my bible. I finally got to a point where I had two problems: 1. I ran out of room even though I was writing small and 2. I was getting a little imbarrased/prideful (I don’t know which one it was) about opening it up in public. It was about time that I was looking for a new translation, and I got a new bible. Unfortunately, loosing the bible ment loosing all the notes and effort I put into the previous one. Since I suspect I will not be keeping any one bible for more than five or so years, I needed a more permanent place for my commentary.

I’ve done quite a bit of searching for some sort of commentary database. I want something in a standard format (preferably SQL) that I can add comments and questions to. Something that will allow me to reach from anywhere and is easily searchable (and allows me to export the SQL file if I need to move it). In the end, I can’t find anything that is even remotely like what I need. I guess this means I’ve got to make it myself. I know next to nothing about PHP and SQL, so I’ve got my work cut out for me. I hope to have something functional that is accessible through this website. We’ll see how it goes…