New Database Engine Released

[Hot Trout]

I am very happy to announce that the latest significant upgrade to the database engine has been completed and made live. This latest official release (v2) will see the introduction of the following features.

Comments (C)
You can now post comments for each manufacturer, system and individual rom. Comments are displayed immediately along with your avatar and date.

Reviews (R)
You can now leave a review for each manufacturer, system and individual rom. A review is held until approved then posted for all to read.

Images/Screenshots (SS)
You can also upload images in the form of a logo, image or screen shot for the manufacturer, system or rom in question. All images are posted pending review first.

Rating System
Each manufacturer, system and rom can now be voted for by you the user. The rating is from 0 to 5 stars with 5 stars being the best. Once you have voted you will not be able to vote again.

Download Counter (DLs)
All rom downloads are now counted live. When looking at DLs numbers always remember that they refer directly to the folder/subfolder or specific Rom. This way you can see download totals for Commodore then Amiga then Games then games starting with A and then the actual game name.

In addition to these new features you can also use all of this additional data to better filter your search. While browsing the roms if you click the column header the database will reindex either ascending or descending for that column. For example if you click on the DLs column, the entire list will sort on that column. This can make finding the top rated or most downloaded roms quick and easy.

I am sure you will agree that this is a major rom engine upgrade and one that will get everyone involved. Please get stuck in and start adding your comments, reviews and images. You just need to remember to login to take part.

[Jesse]

Cool!

Some bugs I noticed so far...

I'm definitely able to vote more than once.

And you can somehow rate using "Select Rating..." in the box. But it seems that doesn't work if there are no ratings at all on the section. The Bally section was 5 stars with 2 votes. I opened up the rating window, kept the box on "Select Rating...", clicked "Rate", and now the Bally section is 3 stars with 3 votes.

Also, other weirdness. Like, if I go the main MAME directory it will say it's at 3 stars with 9 votes... but when I go a level further (with the alphabet links) it says it's 4 stars with 6 votes.

You should probably reset the ratings and things once you get more stuff ironed out.

[hamdiya]

Bugs have been addressed and resolved.

Also, other weirdness. Like, if I go the main MAME directory it will say it's at 3 stars with 9 votes... but when I go a level further (with the alphabet links) it says it's 4 stars with 6 votes.

This is not a bug. The 3 stars 9 votes rating is for the MAME manufacturer, while the 4 stars 6 votes is the system rating.

MAME: Rating = 3 stars 9 votes
'----------> (system): Rating = 4 stars 6 votes
'----------> (another system): another rating
and so on...

Thanks you

[Jesse]

Oh, I see.

EDIT:
I had submitted 3 pics for the first Megaman game (NES). Once they were approved, the rating and download count reset for it. But only on the main list. If you click on the game itself and bring up it's little C|R|SS menu, it still shows the correct rating and download count. Also, it only says 1 under the SS on the main list, but there are 3 pics in there.

[Hot Trout]

Jesse,

You are correct, there was a problem with the counters just after the new database went live which resulted in the counters being out of sync. This is not a problem now, however the counters are still wrong and I can not reset them again. To fix this I could delete the content which would reduce the count to 0 and you could then re-add the images/comments etc again. This would then establish the correct count.

Let me know what you think. I deleted the post that proceeded this and will endevour to sort this issue by PM.