About the catalogue
From ScrapingTheBarrel
Contents |
Joining In
However, once I've finished copying over and editing the content from the old site, I plan to lock down all the main pages, and open up self-registration. That way, you will be able to register and contribute to the Discussion pages.
If in the meantime you think you want to contribute some ideas or corrections, get in touch (contact details below) and I'll consider giving you an account!
Previous versions
This catalogue has had several previous incarnations. It was originally done with a spreadsheet, then as an XML file. I transformed the XML into a suite of static HTML files (item pages and index pages) using XSLT and a bit of Perl, to create the version at apple.relocution.com. It was a great way to keep the data in one place, and keep the presentation consistent, but maintaining and updating the data was an issue: all the static HTML files needed to be regenerated if the XML was changed - I had to remember where the templates and scripts were! I thought about writing a PHP or CGI wrapper to generate the lists and pages on-the-fly - not particularly difficult to do, but somehow I never got round to it. Then along came...
Wiki version
The XML version was a great way to explore a practical, personal application of XML. But time moves on, and wiki's the thing of the moment, of course, so this in turn is an opportunity to thoroughly explore using a wiki - Wikipedia's MediaWiki - for the same purpose. I may lose some of the benefits of a data-oriented approach, but hopefully I'll benefit from ease-of-use, and maybe find out a few little tricks of using MediaWiki/Wikipedia (which, so far, I've found rather stodgy and hard to use - my wikis of choice are usually TiddlyWiki and PmWiki).
Chief among the advantages is the ease of linking, and the ability to create a presentable, robust hypertext document. The Wikipedia-like appearance adds authority.
I'm not sure yet whether I will allow it to be a truly collaborative enterprise. I don't have or need any collaborators at the moment. However, there is, in MediaWiki, the facility to comment on pages, and since part of the catalogue is my own commentary on the music, I don't see why others shouldn't comment on it too (and on my comments). I'm sure there are people who can fill in relevant biographical details about some of the Apple artists, as well as those who may disagree with my views on some of the recordings.
Contact
An email to webmaster at apple.relocution.com should reach me.
