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barney ntd · Jan 15, 2003, 09:37 PM

I have just about finished my first Sherlock channel, one of the first UK-specific channels available! It allows you to search for DVDs & videos by title, director and actors, compare online prices from Amazon, WHSmith, Tesco, HMV, Virgin and 101cd, and go straight to the order page. If anyone wants to beta-test it for me, the url is:
sherlock://homepage.ntlworld.com/b.h...tion=subscribe
then when Sherlock prompts you, click "Proceed". All feedback appreciated.

Barney.

Diggory Laycock · Jan 15, 2003, 09:58 PM

Brilliant! - you are a star.

I just looked up "dirty rotten scoundrels" and clicked "info"

I got more info - but at some point after that Sherlock put up the following alert:

"Make sure you are still connected to the Internet and try again. If you continue to have problems, contact your system administrator or Internet service provider.

Error ?-1011? accessing ?http://tracker.tradedoubler.com/clic...?&shop=26985?.
"

sandsl · Jan 16, 2003, 04:46 AM

Can't try it until I get back home but it looks cool!

TC · Jan 16, 2003, 05:34 AM

Very cool, I did a search for Bigalow and found out that Amazon sells it for 1/2 the price of the rest.

I got this error while tryting it:
Error ?-1011? accessing ?http://tracker.tradedoubler.com/clic...?&shop=26985?.

biscuit · Jan 16, 2003, 05:36 AM

Excellent, sterling work! I've been waiting for something like this to come along, well done.

Seems to be working OK so far, any plans to extend it to Music and Books?

biscuit

MickS · Jan 16, 2003, 05:41 AM

Looks pretty good.

It might be an idea to include a button to allow feedback somewhere, at least whilst it's being tested.

The Virgin search brings back a lot of extra entries. A search for Babylon 5 DVDs brought back all of the released ones on each site but for Virgin also brought back anything with '5' in the title. That could be just a problem with Virgin's search engine though.

I'm sure you're going to get requests to add additional sites to search. I'd like it to look at Play.com as I find that they are usually the cheapest.

Thanks for making Sherlock useful.

as2 · Jan 16, 2003, 05:43 AM

Seems to work with no problems on my mac...

Thanks!

Adam

glowingcactus · Jan 16, 2003, 05:57 AM

Originally posted by MickS:

I'm sure you're going to get requests to add additional sites to search. I'd like it to look at Play.com as I find that they are usually the cheapest.

Just to prove a point then....

Add play.com and you have a winner.

stevenhaddon · Jan 16, 2003, 06:55 AM

Excellent! At last a Sherlock channel I will actually use!

Steve

P.S. I third the request for the inclusion of play.com!

Simon X · Jan 16, 2003, 07:43 AM

Nice one Barney, thanks.

Would it be possible to allow the user to remove shops from the search, i.e. Tesco. Reason being I would never buy a DVD from Tesco and most others as Play (please include) is always cheaper.

Anyway, great work.

RevEvs · Jan 16, 2003, 10:28 AM

superb!! really really superb.

How hard was it to make the channel? I've been thinking of making a few UK based channels in my spare time....

RevEvs · Jan 16, 2003, 10:30 AM

oh got this error when selecting an item:

Error ?-1011? accessing ?http://tracker.tradedoubler.com/clic...p?&shop=26985?

schwachs · Jan 16, 2003, 10:30 AM

Is there a US version of this available?

MickS · Jan 16, 2003, 10:44 AM

Originally posted by schwachs:
Is there a US version of this available?

Most of the Apple Sherlock channels are weighted for the US (look at the eBay one) let us have one to ourselves

schwachs · Jan 16, 2003, 10:48 AM

Originally posted by MickS:
Most of the Apple Sherlock channels are weighted for the US (look at the eBay one) let us have one to ourselves

Heh. Ok. I just thought I could help move a US one along as well. Enjoy!

-- Joshua

Simon X · Jan 16, 2003, 11:00 AM

Originally posted by schwachs:
Is there a US version of this available?

Hey, stick to your own play pen.

Actually, I think there is an US Amazon channel already available.

barney ntd · Jan 16, 2003, 12:06 PM

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I shall certainly add play.com (and anyone else you recommend). I've been wondering about how best to do info/about/feedback and shop selection, and I'm thinking of using sheets. Should only be a couple of days, but I wanted to get a first version out.

The -1011 error is caused by WHSmith. If a WHSmith search returns only one result, the bloody search engine returns an error, with the error text pointing to the result page! I've hacked my way round this, but I can't stop the error panel from appearing.

I am planning more searchers. Books will be next, as they are what I want to search for most. Probably music after that. These will be seperate channels in the same subscription, so they should pop up automatically for you as soon as I release them (as will all the updates to this one).

Writing Sherlock 3 channels is quite hard. If you've programmed in C or something similar, JavaScript is straightforward, but XQuery is really wierd. And yes, you do need to use them both. It's taken me about a week (pretty much full time) to get this far, but I have a lot of experience with unusual formal languages. Having said that, it's great fun! The frustrating struggle of trying to work out what the hell some website is doing, followed by the triumph of the results you want appearing is just like playing an adventure game.

Barney.

Simon X · 02:31 PM

Barney - I appreciate your effort.

Nice addition to the Apple localised channels. Oh wait, I forgot, They haven't done any. Nada, zip, bugger all.

Parky · Jan 16, 2003, 12:59 PM

How about adding www.blackstar.co.uk

Ian

Diggory Laycock · Jan 16, 2003, 01:12 PM

For the guy looking for an american version see here:

http://sherlock.clan-mac.com/channels.html

Console Games would be my idea addition

Jonesy · Jan 16, 2003, 02:22 PM

This is great. I have been lobbying Apple to replace the Shopping channel from OS 9. Now I just need a channel for books.

Great work. I have had no problems yet.

barney ntd · Jan 16, 2003, 07:16 PM

Play.com should be up! Blackstar is next on the list. With this many shops, I'm definitely going to have to have a selection panel.

Barney.

barney ntd · Jan 16, 2003, 10:21 PM

Ok, Blackstar is up. Time I got some sleep, I think.

Barney.

DAlex · Jan 16, 2003, 11:25 PM

Small bug, the price column is not resizeable and some prices have a word after them but only the first two letters are visible.

Other than that an excellent piece of work - very quick searching!

DAlex

glowingcactus · Jan 17, 2003, 05:26 AM

Originally posted by barney ntd:
Ok, Blackstar is up. Time I got some sleep, I think.

Barney.

Amazing! You got Play.com up so quickly!

After you have had your breakfast get books and games up!

Apple,

give this guy some free kit. He has done more for Sherlock 3 in the UK than.... well you guys.

barney ntd · Jan 17, 2003, 10:03 PM

Ok, I've done shop selection. I think this channel is pretty much ready for version-tracker!

Books next.

Barney.

Group51 · Jan 18, 2003, 07:51 AM

Its super. I just looked for a History of Britain, and it came up with a good few options, and some nice prices (�44.99 from Play). And the web site bit showed up in the info below.

Brill.

The Shadow · 09:27 AM

Great stuff Barney!

I'm looking forward to being able to search for CDs after you've done books

Way to go!

Peter · Jan 18, 2003, 10:37 AM

hooooray! this single user has made Sherlock actually worth while to have on a UK Mac

Thanks!
is it only VHS + DVD?

Diggory Laycock · Jan 18, 2003, 01:45 PM

is it only VHS + DVD? [/B]

What - you want Betamax?

MickS · Jan 20, 2003, 08:15 AM

Originally posted by Diggory Laycock:
What - you want Betamax?

Nah, laserdisk

nelliott · Jan 20, 2003, 10:55 AM

This is fantastic!

Good work mate

.

ja · Jan 20, 2003, 11:11 AM

brilliant

littlegreenspud · Jan 20, 2003, 11:24 AM

excellent!

I second the comment about Apple sending some free kit!

Peter · Jan 20, 2003, 12:49 PM

Originally posted by Diggory Laycock:
What - you want Betamax?

no but books would be cool

wulf · Jan 20, 2003, 01:02 PM

Originally posted by PeterClark2002:
this single user has made Sherlock actually worth while to have on a UK Mac

^^^ what he said

philm · Jan 20, 2003, 03:57 PM

That's three great things to come out of Bolton:

Peter Kay
Badly Drawn Boy
Barney and his Sherlock channel

Phil (in BL6)

Geobunny · Jan 20, 2003, 04:31 PM

One word:
WOW!

Peter · Jan 20, 2003, 04:38 PM

Originally posted by PeterClark2002:
no but books would be cool

*does a little dance to attract attention to my post*

barney ntd · Jan 20, 2003, 04:46 PM

Didn't I say? Books are on the way! Amazon, HMV, Tesco, WHSmith, Blackwells, PaperbackShop, abeBooks, plus any suggestions. A new channel will appear automatically to all UKShopping subscribers as soon as I've got it working.

Barney.

willed · Jan 20, 2003, 06:28 PM

You genius! I want to have your children!

willed · Jan 20, 2003, 06:29 PM

Originally posted by willed:
You genius! I want to have your children!

Actually, I take that back, but you know what I mean.

mattmac · Jan 21, 2003, 06:00 AM

I've never really used Sherlock before - it always seemed like a good idea for the US, but of limited use over here. It's now suddenly become incredibly useful!

Well done!

Regarding the WHSmith error thingy, I've simply disabled them in the search as they rarely come up with the best price anyway!

Barney ntd, do you use the DVD forums as there's loads of users there who would love to know about this? If you don't have a login yourself, I'll happily post it on your behalf!

nelliott · Jan 21, 2003, 07:09 AM

Originally posted by mattmac:
I've never really used Sherlock before - it always seemed like a good idea for the US, but of limited use over here. It's now suddenly become incredibly useful!

Well done!

Regarding the WHSmith error thingy, I've simply disabled them in the search as they rarely come up with the best price anyway!

Barney ntd, do you use the DVD forums as there's loads of users there who would love to know about this? If you don't have a login yourself, I'll happily post it on your behalf!

Well I hope Barney doesn't mind, but I actually posted it there yesterday.

Simon X · Jan 21, 2003, 08:20 AM

The Play.com search is great, but could you possibly add an option to search for both region 1 & 2 disks. Actually, one of the small annoying quirks of searching on Play's site is that you can only search within one region at a time, not by film/director and so on regardless of the region.

barney, what do you say?

edddeduck · Jan 21, 2003, 08:34 AM

Region 2 disks would be great

Also have you seen Happy Hunter?

OK it would be hard to add the UK bit (I think) but this place kicks ass for findng cheap DVD's.

Also another vote for region 1 stuff on play.com that would be great.

Cheers Edwin

barney ntd · Jan 21, 2003, 11:25 AM

OK, region support is up. Does anyone use any R1 sites other than Play.com?

Still working on books.

Barney.

JayTay · Jan 21, 2003, 03:49 PM

Originally posted by barney ntd:
OK, region support is up. Does anyone use any R1 sites other than Play.com?

Do you want to include US based sites that ship to the UK or just UK sites that sell R1?

barney ntd · Jan 22, 2003, 07:51 PM

Books is up! Plenty of testing, please! New subscribers welcome.

Diggory Laycock · Jan 22, 2003, 08:32 PM

You are an absolute star! quick work on the books.

One bit of feedback - is it possible to use a smaller font in the results tableView - because there's so much info there that on my screen it collides:

(see here

http://www.monkeyfood.com/thestuff/f...UKShopping.png

You don't feel like adding a console games channel? - oh go on - you know you want to.

Then you can rest!