GOLEM keyboard project
Home / Keyboard building blog

Behind the scenes of Issue 17

Sound database continued: search term logging, upload form, automation. Typing test quasi-standard. Night/dark mode. Issue 17.

I forgot to track the number of posts on r/mk again. I'll have to write an automated logger to fetch that stat. Not crucial, but it's nice to have it and compare it to the number of posts making it to the latest issue.

The problem is, I can only fetch the 1000 most recent entries through reddit. That means, to get the actual weekly sum I would need to check back every 2-3 day, since the average count is about 2000-3000 posts per week nowadays.

That said, as an estimation, Issue 17 of the magazine with its 23 entries is representing the top 1% of r/mk.

I thought with publishing the Keyboard Sound Database last weekend I can reclaim some of my time, but it seems I just can't let go that sub-project.

Simultaneously to the uploading of new typing tests I've tracked the search terms on those pages and I tried to include some archive, sought-after switch types and keyboard sounds.

Until this week I've edited the database through a general admin GUI, but now I've put together a dedicated upload form with the appropriate structure, representing the keyboard-specific metadata and fitting the ever sprawling attributes on a single screen.

Some nice features will make the future maintenance much easier: checking of videos already existing in the database, pre-propagation of some fields, managing of multiple switches/tests in a single video, etc.

I'm not sure about the reception by the actual content contributors, but I came up with a quasi-standard for typing test descriptions/metadata which would make the aggregation much easier and the test more comparable/useful.

Another new development was the dark/night mode. It's still in progress, but already fairly usable across my site. (Check the contrast icon in the top menu.) This is something I've done on the sound test page first and extended to the whole (rather complex) site.

Developments

  • sound search term logging
  • sound test upload form
  • checking mechanism to identify videos already existing in the database
  • video metadata auto-propagation
  • comparison list: link to entries + highlight active item
  • dark mode (check the contrast icon in the top menu)

Well, that's it for now. Check the KBD latest issue if you haven't done it yet.

Take care! dovenyi

Previous post
Editor's note - Issue #16

Next post
Behind the scenes of Issue 21