[Nathan Robinson]

I've been working hard on reworking our Bookstore to make it even more useful to the members of this site. My efforts have been split between bringing in more community-driven features and making it function more efficiently.

Please note that many of these new features are related to member reading lists, so if you have not yet created your own list or are not logged in, these features will not be available to you. The bookstore's real value is finding titles of interest to you and seeing them discussed and ranked by the members of this community. To get the most out of the bookstore, I encourage each member to create a reading list and always use the bookstore while logged in.


New Features:

1. I've added a fully-functional shopping cart! Users of the bookstore can now add books to their shopping carts right from myArmoury.com without having to go to Amazon until the final checkout. When I originally created the bookstore, I made its main purpose that of research and focused on making it a useful tool to find and discuss books. Originally, the actual "store" part of it was secondary, but I've since changed my mind and decided that actually getting the books into people's hands and doing it with a simple buying experience is just as important. Every transaction is secure and guarenteed by Amazon.com. They handle all personal customer information, including payment details.
   
   
2. I've brought in more pricing information for the books. In addition to the Amazon.com prices, available third-party offers are now visible for both used and new copies. Any of these third-party offers can be added to the new shopping cart and purchased in the same transaction. These third-party items are fullfiled and guaranteed through Amazon's merchant network.
   
   
3. A new Reviews Section was added that lists the most recent, most helpful, and most frequently reviewed books. This was added to make it easier to see new and valuable content as members submit it to our database. Members can now go to this page to view any new reviews that may have been added since they last visited.
   
   
4. A new Wish List Section has been added that now separates all wish list items from the reading lists. There are many ways to use the bookstore features, but as one example it is now much easier to track what you own from what you want to own.
   
   
5. You can now compare other member's reading lists with your own, showing or filtering out common titles between the two lists. This is a cool feature because it allows you to see what you have in common with other members. Looking at titles they have listed that are not on your list gives you ideas of things that might be of interest to you. These features are available right from the page of all Member Reading Lists, Your Reading List, or while browsing a specific member's list.
   
   
6. A brand-new Book Suggestion feature has been added that picks personalized suggestions by comparing the items on your reading list and your wish list to the activity of other myArmoury.com members and customers of Amazon.com. The calculations are fairly complex and the results are often surprising. The more items your lists contain, the more suggestions you get and the better suited they are to you.
   
   
7. I've added the ability to list all Recommended Books. The system shows how many recommendations each title has received and sorts them, showing most recommended books first.
   
   
8. Both our Bibliography and Reading List have had many titles added to them. Our bibliography is already one of the largest, most detailed searchable hand-picked lists of books related to arms and armour on the Internet. I keep adding titles in hopes of making it increasingly better.
   
   
9. On each book's page of details, additional editions are now also shown. For example, while looking at a paperback edition of a book, its hardcover edition may also be shown when available.
   
   
10. Many books that are not available on Amazon.com are now available on our bookstore, including many hard to find and out of print titles that are on our bibliography and reading list.
    
    
11. Members can now add any and all titles found on our Bibliography to their reading or wish lists.
    
    
12. The bookstore can now display book cover images even on titles where Amazon has no cover image. For example, many of the titles on our reading list are now shown with cover images that were previously not available such as Armi Bianche Italiane
    
    
13. The bookstore is better integrated into the rest of the site. The login/logout buttons, favorite pages, profile buttons, etc, are all there as is the ability to add the bookstore home to your favorite pages.
    

Performance tweaks:

1. Many pages, such as the page of Member Reading Lists have been greatly improved for speed. The page shows up much quicker now and doesn't load the server as it did before
   
   
2. Many, many other parts of the code were rewritten to make things much more efficient and improve the visitor's browsing experience
   

I'll be adding more, but I need to move onto other things and so this marks a good time to announce these new features.

[Jason Elrod]

Thanks for the changes. I haven't gone through them all yet, but the "book" section of myArmoury is the one section that I keep on overlooking.

Maybe I'm missing it but I'd like to see a way to return from where you started once you add a book from another members booklist to your own wish list. That way I don't have to search through their list to find where I left off.

[Jason Elrod]

It would be great if there was a way to print out whole wish lists or reading lists. Also to make things more complicated for you, I'd like to be able to search through my own lists and reorganize them either from most wanted to list wanted or by price or in print verses out of print. Specifically the last option. That way I can check my list from time to time and see if something that I want has become available again without having to go through my whole wish list.

[Jason Elrod]

More suggestions.

1. How about the ability to do a search through member lists recommended titles?
2. What about being able to search through other member lists by newest/latest added items.

[Chad Arnow]

[Jonathan Hopkins]

I love the bookstore update! I am glad I can add publications such as the Peter Finer catalogs. I have two books that are printed privately, but are available from the dealer's website and on eBay (they are both in print). How can I recommend them to the myArmoury community (or can I?)?

Jonathan

[Nathan Robinson]

Thanks for the suggestions, Jason. I'll respond to them later today. One of them is getting coded later today.

[Nathan Robinson]

[Nathan Robinson]

I've really tried to focus some attention on one major shortcoming of the bookstore: the actual shopping experience:

New Features:

1. I've added a fully-functional shopping cart! Users of the bookstore can now add books to their shopping carts right from myArmoury.com without having to go to Amazon until the final checkout. When I originally created the bookstore, I made its main purpose that of research and focused on making it a useful tool to find and discuss books. Originally, the actual "store" part of it was secondary, but I've since changed my mind and decided that actually getting the books into people's hands and doing it with a simple buying experience is just as important. Every transaction is secure and guarenteed by Amazon.com. They handle all personal customer information, including payment details.
   
   
2. I've brought in more pricing information for the books. In addition to the Amazon.com prices, available third-party offers (such as these) are now visible for both used and new copies right on each book's page of details. Any of these third-party offers can be added to the new shopping cart and purchased in the same transaction. These third-party items are fullfiled and guaranteed through Amazon's merchant network.
   

You don't need to be logged in to use the shopping cart, but shopping carts belonging to registered members will stick around for 30 days. Guest shopping carts expire after about an hour of inactivity.


Enjoy.

[Kenton Spaulding]

You're the man Nathan

[Jason Elrod]

Very nice. I know where all my extra money is going. . . if I ever get any extra.

[Pamela Muir]

[Bill Grandy]

[Jonathan Hopkins]

The bookstore is one of my favorite aspects of myArmoury.com. It has been a great resource for exposing me to books I had not heard of (and has resulted in a huge wishlist!). Some scholarly inquiry into arms and armour occurs in the form of articles that are published in journals. I think a list of journals (past and preesent) that cover our field of interst would serve to bolster the pool of shared knowledge on myArmoury.com. (examples include the Metropolitan Museum Journal, Arms Collecting, The Canadian Journal of Arms Collecting, Classic Arms and Militaria, The Connoisseur, Journal of the Scottish Military Collectors Society, Man at Arms, American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin, Journal of the Arms and Armour Society, ect.)

Thank you for all of your hard work, Nathan!

[Nathan Robinson]

[Jonathan Hopkins]

[Chad Arnow]

Nathan,
This is great stuff. I just used the cart and it is very, very easy and intuitive. Nice work.

[Jonathan Hopkins]

[Nathan Robinson]

[Jason Elrod]

How about a way to organize your wish list perhaps alphabetically or by subject?