D&D Insider Compendium Searcher for iPhone

[jkohlhepp]

Hello,

I have completed a beta version an iPhone-compatable website for searching the D&D Insider Compendium. Right now it only supports searching monsters, but if there is enough interest and usage of the tool I will most likely expand it to include other things that can be searched using the D&D Insider Compendium API. It is designed for use on the iPhone but it might look okay on other smartphones, and does work in Firefox and Safari on desktop computers as well.

Here is a link to the tool. Please check it out and let me know what you think, especially if you are an iPhone user.
http://vsxp.com/scryer

I implemented this tool using the published API for the D&D Insider Compendium. Some information about the API can be found at these links:
Gaming In Code » D&D Insider: Compendium – API Part 1
Gaming In Code » D&D Insider: Compendium API – Part 2
(Note that this article basically points to another articles on the D&D Insider site which has been unavailable for over a week; they might have intentionally taken the article down or it might be an oversight - I'm not sure).
Encounter-a-Day » Archive » Exclusive D&D Insider Compendium API details

This tool could definitely use some usability improvements, but it is functional, and I'm hoping to get some feedback on how useful it is, and what features would make it more useful. Please post feedback / comments / questions here and I will respond.

Thanks,

~ Justin

 

[_NewbieDM_]

Yeah, pretty kick ass.
Please expand it.

 

[Kzach]

I'm not sure I understand the need for this? Can't you just browse to the website on the iPhone?

 

[FoolishFrost]

I'm not sure I understand the need for this? Can't you just browse to the website on the iPhone?

Yes, and it's a PAIN. The site is so flash heavy and buttony that you can't find anything on the screen. Slows the iphone too.

 

[Kzach]

Yes, and it's a PAIN. The site is so flash heavy and buttony that you can't find anything on the screen. Slows the iphone too.

Ah, so this is quicker and prettier?

 

[_NewbieDM_]

Yes, it's very quick, not just on iphone but on my pc as well. Well worth checking out.

 

[darjr]

Nice start. It still has plenty of issues.

I'm very interested.

 

[WizarDru]

I salute you, sir.

This is WONDERFUL. If you can expand this for some of the other searches, like for powers...that'd be DANDY.

 

[pedr]

Brilliant!

As The Fool says, trying to get into the Compendium on my Touch HD (WinMo6.1) is horrid. It takes ages, sometimes the controls don't activate well etc etc. This worked in Opera without a problem.

I'd love it if you could develop it to search the other categories. My suggestion would be separate seach pages for each with an 'index' at the front - so if I tend to search for powers a lot (for instance) I could bookmark the powers search, or just bookmark the front page and have a link to each category of search. I'm not sure there's any real need to replicate the Compendium's search engine which takes text and returns results from all the categories.

 

[jkohlhepp]

Thanks for all the feedback folks. I am glad to hear that people seem to like it. I have been using it myself (after all that's why I made it), and I'm finding it very helpful so I will definitely be adding the other searches (items, powers, etc.). Probably will take a few weeks though. Stay tuned.