Homepages, AJAX, Marathons, Etc.

Just finished adding a new little feature to the site that was supposed to be there this weekend, but got pushed back due to my Memorial Weekend movie marathon (more on that in just a bit). Taking a cue from Kottke*, I’ve added a little AJAX-enabled filter on the homepage — it’s that oh-so beautifully crafted menu that appears next to the page title. Click on one of the options and voila! The beauty of XMLHTTPRequest presents you with a filtered view of Opus’ recent updates.**

Okay, so it’s not a true filter — the filtered bits aren’t all grouped by date like the homepage content that is displayed upon initial page load. I’m still working on a few bits here and there and I know my JavaScript isn’t as optimal as it could be. However, this is my first attempt at some of the AJAX stuff that’s been taking the Web by storm, and I’m itching to figure out more ways I can use it on the site.

My only real reservation has been navigational issues. Sure, I could use it to display search results from, say, the “Artist…” pulldown in the music reviews — but does that make sense? Right now, I’m having a hard time justifying the use of it, no matter how cool it is. However, it seemed to make more sense on the homepage, since that’s supposed to the most dynamic part of the site anyways.

On a sidenote… I’ve decided to officially change the name of “Cool Links” to “Elsewhere” (and if you really want to get technical, each individual link is an “elsewhere.” Not really sure why I chose that. I suppose because it sounds all enigmatic and whatnot, and it definitely sounds cooler than the ultra-generic “Cool Links.” It does a good job of describing what they are — little interesting tidbits found elsewhere on the Web. And the fact that they share a name with a super-rad breaker certainly doesn’t hurt either.

Concerning the aforementioned movie marathon, I spent the past Memorial weekend with my rear firmly planted on the sofa watching movies — which explains the flurry of movie reviews that appeared on the site in the past few days. I managed to get 9 movies in — not quite as many as I’d hoped, but still a pretty good effort. It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these things, so I guess I’m a little out of shape.

* — I’ll have an original idea one of these day, I promise.

** — I’ve tried to test this in as many browsers as possible. Unfortunately, I don’t have easy access to a PC at home, so if you’re a non-Mac user, let me know if you see anything funky.

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