The quicksearch / simple search has been extended to include results from artist and publisher entries. These results can be accessed from the side tabs, which also indicate the number of matching entries for each category. Note that if your search returns a unique result across all categories, you will be brought directly to the entry.

Zorbfish has updated the cddb/freedb emulation feature as well:

• Improved query performance and a disc length bugfix
• Query works with both disc and non-disc sources again
• Added ja.utf8 language option for returning Japanese in UTF-8
• Fixed disc title issue for mixed releases (thanks to CHz for pointing that out)

The feature is now confirmed working with EAC, CDex, MP3Tag and foobar. Foobar may have issues with queries that return multiple matches; Zorb is working on a fix.

Another minor update: cover images on album entries are now automatically resized to fit into the 250x250 display without getting cut off.

Thanks for the updates, pretty cool.

May I suggest, the side tabs look a bit weird and take too much space even in my giant(tm) widescreen monitor. I think they'd look better on top, or maybe even in the right, plus most of the time you won't use them anyway. Maybe a forced tag search would be better like "artist:kikuta" or "label:whatever" and such.

on the right would be worse than it is now, placing them on top would do just fine or make the space between them shorter / smaller on the left, like Dag said, even Wide-screen monitor users can notice the difference, imagine how that would be for mobile users.

I'll compact the tabs, but really, it's currently no wider than the right sidebar is (sidebar is 250px on pages that have it, this is 200px).

There are 2 ways that I think will be best:

First: remove that part of the table(td) since and likely those tabs (Albums, Artist and Labels) are more than sufficient for the users, unless you want to add something in the future below those tabs. That table consume too much space for majority of users and does not help much since we will not use much.

The first way is, move the tabs to the front of the returned query results or the opposite, move the tabs to the back of the returned query results. Also the users may get confused concerning the search tabs(the image of the tabs) since top tabs use the same Gifs / images).

The third would be compact the tabs I would not like it even if it was compacted. We would lose too much space below the search tabs, unless you are planning on adding something later below those search tabs.

This is just an idea.



Hope it helps,

I've already reduced the size to 150px. My original intent was to place them on top, but there are already two rows of horizontal navigation.

Placing the tabs at the left also compacts the table a bit. I don't understand why the results table simply has to fill the entire width of the page -- column data is actually harder to read when spaced far apart. You're not "losing" any space if much of it is empty in the first place.

Really, do a search and see the general distance between the album titles and the release date.


And yes, there will be more tabs than just those 3.

I got your point, VGMdb is growing rapidly and we will need that to filter the results. It would be limited to place more filter or others tabs If the tabs were placed at the top.

Do you think it could be possible to make it customizable to users in the future, I mean optional for example the image below.



It would be awesome if you could do that.

I was a bit surprised when I saw that the tabs are on the left side rather than right. It feels a bit inconsistent compared with the layout on other pages that have the right-aligned column. I could do without the button graphics as well.

Personally it's not about space, just they make the results look cluttered. Before, album titles (the main result for me) were aligned to the left so I'd just glance the results. Now, closer to the center and sandwiched by the other columns look "weird". Spaced column data is harder to read when you have several of columns and actually read them, in my case I rarely look at the catalog or date.

I also wonder if such multi tabs are really that needed in the left all the time. I use the quick search to find albums, for artists or labels the dropdown list or the advanced search works fine. Just like the ubiquitous "Feedback" button, are there that many suggestions that the button is needed all the time? The search results haven't changed since forever, with new stuff the less intrusive and different the better, imo.

Just my two cents, I realize more options is always useful though I favor "less is more", it's minor stuff I know.

Here is a table that illustrates Metroid's and Gigablah's point. This table uses the standard / default Height x Width that TV & Media Companies / industries are most selling which is 1280x1024, 17 inch monitors. I don't want to go over this because I do not want to complicate things as the resolution is not dependent of the monitor size.

My point is to protect the general audience, no matter what kind of device they are using, being a mobile or a huge wide-screen monitor, mobile users may feel slightly uneasy about the service as that table takes too much space, my point is to make that filter table optional or make it a standard / default feature with an optional button or tick box to disable it for members.

Gigablah's has a point as it is understood that the space between the Album title and the release date is enormous. He also has a point about adding the filter tabs on the left side as it compacts the table a bit, I mean it removes 150px of blank space between the Album title and the release date. He also has a point on adding it to the left side as it is the first thing that the end user will look at it. So it is important that the feature stays there as he will add more tabs to fill the gaps in the future..

I've changed it to a traditional horizontal tab style.

I think this is better now. I kinda liked how it looked before, but it seemed a bit "bobo"-ish in its domination of space. Since results are currently not paginated, the column of blank space under the old buttons would have accounted for a lot of wasted screen estate. (Notably if we decide to stick in another column of data at some point.)

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hi~

I agree, good job.

Another update: foobar is now fully compatible with VGMdb's freedb server.

I also like the way it looks now better (it looks great), it seems more in line with the overall design too.

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VGMdb group on last.fm

Gigablah's idea is a great idea. I know what he is planning. We will need to filter the results returned from the search service for example the classification of albums, for instance 500 albums were returned, the user opt to see only Doujin albums, the user will not need to scroll-down endless until the album is found. It will increase the search efficiency, in the future this feature will be a must, I mean indispensable. There are many more things that can be done. It just needs time. We need to be patient.

Zorbfish, great work but there is still an album (http://vgmdb.net/album/1185) that the information can not be retrieved / got from the cddb/freedb. The album's length is exactly the same 71,56. I used both EAC and Foobar. Gigablah has also the album so he might confirm it.

That would also help when checking Comiket-albums and removing all the touhou stuff. :P

And maybe that could be done by moving "Color coding: Official Release, Enclosure / Promo, Doujin / Fanmade, Works, Game Animation & Film, Demo Scene, Bootleg, Other, Cancelled Release" part from the bottom and link those words so that pressing Works for instance would only show Works-related albums from the search.

There's already the discography filter from artist profile pages. I'll just drop that in.

Zorb just sent me an updated copy of the script. I tested Love Song (using the original CD) and it identifies correctly now. Good job!

I just got home and as soon as I read you reply I went to test it and it is just like you said it is working correctly now, good job indeed.

The quicksearch page now has an album release type filter.

It works exactly the same as the artist discography filter.

Amazing, great feature just tested it, much much better. Thank you very much for that.

@Gigablah, so far this feature has been doing wonders for me but looking at the filter box on the picture below. I noticed that something is missing which I believe to be important, the missing thing is an option if a user wants to see official albums without reprints. For example, the "Official Release" checkbox on the filterbox will show all the official albums + reprints, if the reprint albums are official reprints.

I was thinking if it is possible to add to the filter box an option / checkbox to see only official reprints albums, another option to see all the reprint albums and a last option to see only official albums with no / without reprints. I would be very grateful for that. I think those options will be a great addition to this feature.