So as you may know, I’ve been working on this movie sorter/searcher program, which will catalog movies and allow a user to search through them by title, description, genre, or rating, as well as providing some other useful features. I’ve finished the first draft of the documentation, and I’ll post it below. I’m slowly making some progress on the program itself. The interface is almost to where I want it, and the search functions are working well. I’m having a few problems updating the table used to list the movies, but beyond that things are going smoothly. I’m not looking forward to entering in all the movie information by hand. I’ve looked into trying to automatically get the info from IMDb, but I think I would have to license their content, and that would require money. Still looking into it though.
I’m also going to be adding a feature where you can save lists of your favorite movies to a file, and then open thoses lists later. This will be sort of like playlists in iTunes, and it will make it easy to find your favorite movies quickly. I’m hoping to make it so you can also launch the movies right from the program, but we’ll see how far I get with that. Might come in a later version. But right now I’m just going to concentrate on getting this version up and running without too many bells and whistles. I tend to do that sometimes, just keep adding stuff, and never finishing it.
Anyway, here’s the first draft of the Documentation. I’m still not sure what I’m naming the program, as you’ll see below.
If you have any comments about the documentation please send them to djtranquil@djtranquil.com
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Welcome
- What does this program do?
- Why should you use it?
- Features
- Searching
- Resetting
- Sorting
- Resizing
- Favorites Lists
- Troubleshooting
- My search isn’t returning anything.
- My search isn’t returning what I expected.
- How can I search within a search?
- About
- Author
- Thanks
- Contact
Introduction
Welcome
Welcome to the documentation of <Insert Name>. This document will walk you through each feature of the program, and explain how to use its various search functions. Near the end there is also a Troubleshooting section that will hopefully resolve any issues you may be having. Finally there is a contact section should you have any issues you’d like help with or if there’s a bug that needs fixing.
What Does This Program Do?
This program catalogs your collection of movies, and makes it easy to search for and find the exact one you’re looking for. In the mood to watch a comedy? Just select the appropriate checkbox, and only comedies will be displayed. Trying to remember the name of that movie that has the word good in it? Just type it into either the Description or Title box and only movies with good in the searched for field will be listed.
Have a bunch of movies you know you’re going to want to watch again? You can also save lists of your favorite movies, and easily open and view those lists at a later time. Favorites Lists make it easy and simple to find the movies you love, right at your fingertips.
Why should you use it?
Instead of hunting through movies by title, why not make things easier by looking at the description, rating, and genre of the movie as well. If you forget what a movie is about, you can quickly read a short explanation of what the movie’s about, much like reading the back of a DVD case. Rather than hunting through directories to find the movie you’re looking for, you can launch the video right from the program. <Insert Name> makes finding and playing the perfect movie effortless and quick.
Features
Search by Title and Description
Searching by title and description is easy and intuitive. If you’re searching for a movie that has book in the title or description, just type book into the appropriate field and click search. You can search for more than one keyword at a time, and you can also search for different keywords in the Title and Description fields at the same time. The text search fields remove duplicates from the search, so if you were to search for the lord and the lady, all movies that contained the, lord, and, and lady would be returned. Movies would not have to have the word the in the title or description twice.
When searching with multiple keywords, they do not need to be in the correct order, nor do they need to be case sensitive. For example, The Lord and the Lady would return the same results as lady the the lord and. This makes finding movies simple and hassle free.
Search by Rating
Searching by rating is as easy as entering a minimum and a maximum. All movies whose rating is between these two values will be returned, with the min and max included. This means that if you entered a range of 6.0 – 9.0, all movies that were rated 6.0 or above and 9.0 or below would be shown.
Search by Genre
The genre of a movie is very important, and will often be one of the first decisions you make about what movie you’d like to watch. To select what genre’s you’d like to be shown, simply check the suitable box, and then click Search. Only genres that are currently in the database will be displayed. So if all your movies are either Action or Comedy, you don’t need to worry about having a Drama checkbox to deal with. The program will automatically add a new checkbox when a new genre is added.
Resetting
With the reset button, you can reset the program to its default state, showing all movies, with all genres selected, all text searches cleared, and the rating search set to 0.0 to 10.0. Using the reset button is the easiest way to start a new search, and the fastest way to view all the movies in the database.
Sorting
You can sort the movies in the database by Title, Genre, or Rating. To sort, click on the column header at the top of the list. This will sort the selected column in a descending manner. To sort ascending, click the column header again.
Resizing
The entire program is resizable, meaning you can make it as large as your screen to list as many movies as possible. Note however that there is a minimum size to the program, and because of this a minimum resolution of 800 x 600 is recommended. The program can simply be maximized to expand it to fill the screen.
Favorites Lists
Favorite lists allow you to save a list of your favorite movies to a file to be opened later. Want to keep all your favorite comedies separate from the rest of your movies? Make a favorites list with the best comedy movies of your choosing. You can load previously saved lists through the Favorites menu.
Troubleshooting
“My Search Isn’t Returning Anything!”
If your search isn’t returning anything, check your spelling in the Title or Description fields. A misspelled word will make is so that nothing is returned. Also check to make sure the minimum and maximum are set to the correct range. Sometimes you may need to widen your Rating search range to find more movies. When all else fails, hit the reset button, and try searching again.
“My Search Isn’t Returning What I Expected!”
If your search isn’t returning what you expected, try widening your search parameters by widening the Rating range, selecting more Genres, and using fewer keywords in the Title or Description search fields.
“How can I search within a search?”
To search within a search, simply add more keywords, reduce the Rating range, or select fewer Genres.
About
Author
The program and documentation was written by Ebrahim Kobeissi with the help of the individuals mentioned below. Ebrahim is a college student at the University of Vermont, pursuing a degree in Computer Science, with a minor in Mathematics.
Special Thanks
Thanks to Jay Kopper for initial inspiration to start this project. Without his ideas I would never have gotten this far. Thanks to Liam Elberty for all the help along the way. From data structure ideas to general programming knowledge, he was a huge help. Thanks to the members of the Sun forums, who helped me figure out all the GUI stuff.
Contact
Please send all feedback, questions, or bug reports to <insert new Gmail account here>.
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