Introducing Quinterest 1.0

I know that I've been promising this for quite some time now, but Quinterest 1.0 is finally here!

First and foremost, I have made quite a few tiny changes throughout the entire website so that it operates more efficiently and is easier to use.

In been said quite a lot when conversing about quiz bowl; studying bonuses, not just toss-ups alone, is essential to improving yourself as a player. I have now added the ability to search through a database of bonuses. Because this is all fairly new, the amount of bonuses available to search through is minuscule compared the the original tossup database (there are 1034 bonuses available currently, but more are being added every day).

Another feature that has been added is the new "Study" feature. This feature searches through the entire database and returns a specified amount of random questions that the user can study and research. This is an easy way to quickly retrieve questions to study without any hassle.

I have removed the original question search from beta now, as I believe it has been shown to be reliable. I do recognize the few errors still left, but those are still being corrected daily.

There is also a disclaimer. The hosting for Quinterest is not free, and as so, I have made it easy for any inclined users who would like to donate and support Quinterest. It is not required, but for anybody that chooses to donate, my appreciation greatly goes out to them.

One more thing. I would like to thank Joshua Duncan and Jacob Reed for their help with the database.

As usual, if there are any questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to send an email to info@quinterest.org

Just A Small Update

Just A Small Update

Quinterest has been slightly updated (now version 0.9.4). I have now implemented the ability to add search restrictions such as tournament, difficulty, type, and category in the interface friendly version of Quinterest. In addition, I have also updated the interface friendly version of the site so that it doesn't need to refresh the page for results to be shown. Also, simply for satisfactory purposes, I have made it so that when a user visits Quinterest on a mobile device, the site automatically redirects to the interface friendly version since its is a much greater user experience when using a smartphone (I'll be honest; the regular version of Quinterest on mobile devices is not great at all). Don't worry though, the option is still there if you like to use the regular version on a mobile device.

As for information regarding upcoming Quinterest features, I am working diligently to get everything ready, but it's been a fairly slow process in the past few days. Look for Quinterest 1.0 (with the bonus search and more, etc) in the near future. Most likely, it will be launched sometime early next week. Stay tuned! That's all for now.

Something BIG is Coming...

It's been a few days since I've provided any information on Quinterest. I'll start with some minor comments. I really appreciate the constant error reports that I am receiving, as they a helping tremendously in cleaning the database! Quinterest has been steadily growing ever so slightly and use of it is increasing.

Now, on to the fun stuff. I am been working on Quinterest and writing code for the past few days, and soon, I am going to launch Quinterest version 1.0, bringing it out of beta. There are some pretty cool new features coming. One of them--you may have already heard of it--is bonus search. The bonus database is steadily growing, and I have already written most of the code for it. I plan on launching as soon as a viable amount of bonuses are available to search through. There is also one other feature that I plan on releasing in the next update. It's not extremely groundbreaking or anything like that, but I'm sure many will still appreciate the option.

Look forward to Quinterest version 1.0 in the near future!

Shoutout to Joshua Duncan for his help with the bonus database!

Quinterest Is Growing!

I would just like to update the followers of my blog. I've have been working tirelessly on Quinterest recently, updating it with new features and implementing suggestions. The database is becoming cleaner each and every day with the introduction of the "Report an Error" button, which really helps me to pinpoint certain errors in the database. In addition, as requested, I have implemented the ability to search the database by tournament now as well. I have a lot planned for Quinterest in the future. Bonus search is well on its way and should launch soon as well. In addition, Quinterest has now achieved over  36,000 hits since its launch on June 16, 2013 (just under two weeks!). I am extremely proud of this achievement, and it motivates me even for to continue improving Quinterest as time passes. Stay tuned, as there is much more planned for Quinterest in the future.

Just Some Updates

So, I don't have much to add here, just a small update. The site, Quinterest.org, is running smoothly. Everybody using it is doing so without any difficulties or problems. Database errors have been fixed. I've added extra functionality with new search parameters. Overall, everything is going fine. I have lots planned for the future. Stay tuned.

Up and Running Smoothly

After a few long nights filled with learning and hard work, I finally completed the website. I posted it to the quiz bowl forums and so far, I've received quite a lot of praise and recognition. Users of loving it. People have had discussion and have even sent me suggestions--most of which I have implemented. To be honest, I feel pretty proud of myself knowing it didn't even know where to start to write code just a couple weeks ago. 

And We Are A Go!

After many hours of researching php scripts and parsing in general, I learned how to code a script that will pull questions and other information from the quiz bowl packets themselves. A few hours later, after the MySQL database was populated, I finally got to coding a search engine capable of sending search queries to the database and retrieving information back. In addition, it sorts that information neatly and relays it to the HTML which displays it to the user. It's all fairly complex, but surprisingly simple once it is put together. I still haven't add the CSS to the search, so it's pretty crude as of yet, but the rest is smooth sailing from here!