MediaWebPortal --- 1.1.1 --- 12-04-2010

Hi all,

I was just setting up the whole internet experience on my htpc a bit more and here's what I came up with.
I created a super accessible portal webpage to be my homepage (see the image below for a feeling). It can be controlled by mouse and mousewheel, keyboard (and therefore remote) and last but not least numerically.

Live demo of 1.1.1! (allow popups for numeric navigation)


Changelog

1.1.1

• Updated manual to reflect changes
• Add escape key listening to toggle google dialog
• Add a close button on google code dialog
• Add a setting for fade animation duration of numberoverlay. A value of zero will disable animation
• Bug: Opera google search overlay rendering issue
• Bug: Disable numeric navigation when google search is displayed

1.1

• Center wrapper div vertically
• Implement google search in an accessible fashion
• Fade animation for numberOverlay
• Preload backdrops
• Updated manual with google search usage and known Opera rendering issue

1.0

• IE Fix numberOverlay display issues
• Fix Chrome/Opera scrollwheel movement

1.0 RC1

• Add favicon
• Display correct background upon load
• Display numeric input on screen in a not too intrusive way
• Fix for caching problems when previously older versions of this website were used (with the same URI)
• Second try @ Bug fix an issue where mouse is moved and then keyboard enter is pressed causing not the selected item to open
• Mouse click on body (so any where but a thumblink) will also cause the currently selected link to open
• New default config file, content wise

Beta4

• Numeric navigation now handled with delay so multiple numbers can be received
• Updated manual
• Cleaned up Topic Start and added live demo
• Added title
• config.js file with windows newlines instead of *nix newlines for notepad compatibility
• Bug fix an issue where mouse is moved and then keyboard enter is pressed causing not the selected item to open

Beta3

• IE uses black glow for better readability of numbers. Similair but different to the way firefox displays it
• IE now also handles numeric navigation
• At least IE and FF now work with the numpad as well

Beta2

• IE navigation handling bug fixes

Roadmap

1.1.2

• Add CSS3 PIE for better IE CSS3 support

1.2

• Google search T9 support
• Maybe add linear background gradient through CSS(3)

Re: The perfect browser homepage

Looks good, especially those plugins come in handy, saves us the time of finding them ourselves. Cheers!

Re: The perfect browser homepage

Thanks Joz,
Looks good. Where can I download it?
I'll have to set up a PHP web server to host that page, right? Could do with some instructions on how to use your portal page.

Re: The perfect browser homepage

Hi Poco,

As I mentioned in the TS; as it is now it is based upon PHP. What I did not say it is also integrated in another project of mine (my server console).
What I will do, hopefully tonight (otherwise soon), is rewrite everything to javascript (JS/Jquery to be precise) so PHP is not necessary anymore.
Then I will update the first post and add a download link.

So be patient for just a little bit longer and I can offer you a version that works in all modern browsers (as it already does), does not need anything to run (except javascript being enabled) and finally easily configurable (which it is not currently, will be configurable by editing a javscript config file)

p.s.
I have modified it already some more and it now also uses faded backdrops for the item currently selected.

Re: The perfect browser homepage

Hi guys,
I just came across this new browser this morning: Kylo Browser
It's a browser designed especially to be used on a (HD)TV from your PC and it's free too.
I haven't tried it at home yet, but will install it soon to try it out.
Gr, Dave

Re: The perfect browser homepage

drullens, looks pretty neat

---EDIT---
Just tried out Kylo but as it seems it's not suited for my needs (or maybe I haven't digged into it far enough) since it does not seem to work that well with just a keyboard. Seems that you kinda need the special mouse for easy access.

Re: The perfect browser homepage

See first post for the first public release.
Completely rewritten to be solely dependant on javascript, PHP is out the window.

I provided my current setup to be an example of how to configure everything. If I missed something or you've found a bug somewhere, report and I I'll figure it out.

--EDIT--
Already upped beta2, first release was not very IE compatible. Already fixed a number of issues in beta2, although some css (text-shadow) and navigation (opening page on enter) remain.
Have not tested anything else then firefox and IE but my guess is that most browsers will work fine, IE is such a piece of you know where you can put that, anyways...

--EDIT2--
Updated the TS with a small p.s. for FF users.

Re: The perfect browser homepage --- UPDATE beta2

Shukuyen so much, just what I was looking for!

Re: The perfect browser homepage --- UPDATE beta2

Woohoo already 5 downloads for my fanastic creation !

So this message is dedicated to my (maybe unexistent ?! ) user group!
If you guys have ideas to improve any of it with new features, do not hesitate to post!
I will focus first on getting those last IE problems out of the way but that shouldn't take too long (I think/hope)