Magazines in ZXDB

[PeterJ]

Experienced PHP developers are always wanted as [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] says.

[pavero]

However I agree it would work better if SC validated each generated link before displaying them. Although it’s tricky to implement this logic efficiently, considering that each magazine page may have links to a hundred PDFs of 100Mb each. If anyone experienced in PHP development would be willing to help implementing it in SC, please contact PeterJ!

There is possible to use this simple PHP function. But it always depends on a response of the target server. And the response Archive.org probably won't be quick enough for using this function dynamically.

Code: Select all

function url_exists($url){
   $file_headers = @get_headers($url);
   if (stripos($file_headers[0],"404 Not Found") > 0  || (stripos($file_headers[0], "302 Found") > 0 && stripos($file_headers[8],"404 Not Found") > 0)) {
      //echo "The file $url does not exist";
      return(0);
   } else {
      //echo "The file $url exists";
      return(1);
   }
}

[Einar Saukas]

Every issue of Personal Computing Weekly is now a "special" and they're listed by "Week #" rather than date or issue order:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... mag_id=154

This is fixed now. Thanks for reporting it!

[Einar Saukas]

Could my Annual also be added to the database?

Done! It will appear in the next ZXDB update.

[Einar Saukas]

I need to check it out more thoroughly yet but may already say that online reading of these magazines has never been so friendly before.

I definitely like it!

Thank you!

[Einar Saukas]

From Beyond is shown as having a "mirror link"... What is that? There are no PDFs or files linked to on those pages. (A large number of From Beyond magazines were in the old WOS magazine archive, including many that I'd done in the past)

Good point!

It’s because this magazine was only available in old WoS archive as individual pages, but these links currently recognize PDF only. I will fix it ASAP!

This is working now. Although a few issues are missing. Are they available somewhere else?

[Einar Saukas]

Just to add...

Chris Hester was the publisher/owner of Adventure Coder, btw
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=2513

Tim Kemp was the publisher/owner of From Beyond...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... l_id=14589

Red Herring was edited and published by...
Sue Medley...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... l_id=14054
& Marion Taylor

Information added. Thanks!

[8BitAG]

This is working now. Although a few issues are missing. Are they available somewhere else?

I scanned From Beyond 7-12 & 14-16. Issues 1-6 and 17+ aren't currently archived anywhere at the moment.

[8BitAG]

This may be a Spectrum Computing issue, rather than ZXDB, but certain magazines are producing errors similar to that shown below...



...showing in the various magazine sections.

[PeterJ]

Thanks for the report. We are looking at this issue and will resolve as soon as possible.

[Neil Parsons]

Excellent news! Thank you so much Einar.

You may add INPUT Sinclair link to archive.org, as I recently submitted there all issues in PDF.

Also, all 12 issues of Microhobby Cassette (paper) is in PDF too in the same place, here.

[Einar Saukas]

Excellent news! Thank you so much Einar.

You may add INPUT Sinclair link to archive.org, as I recently submitted there all issues in PDF.

Also, all 12 issues of Microhobby Cassette (paper) is in PDF too in the same place, here.

Done. Thanks!

[PeterJ]

This may be a Spectrum Computing issue, rather than ZXDB, but certain magazines are producing errors similar to that shown below...



...showing in the various magazine sections.

Morning,

This is now fixed.

Peter

[Stefan]

The magazine viewer does not like how Format (INDUG) has been archived. This is an A5 magazine, the pages have been scanned per pair. So page 1 is the back cover and the front cover, page 2 = not found, page 3 is page 2 and page 3 etc.

The result is that every second 'Next page' shows a broken image icon.

The viewer also seems to have no idea what the last page is and will happily attempt to keep serving next pages.

[Einar Saukas]

The magazine viewer does not like how Format (INDUG) has been archived. This is an A5 magazine, the pages have been scanned per pair. So page 1 is the back cover and the front cover, page 2 = not found, page 3 is page 2 and page 3 etc.

The result is that every second 'Next page' shows a broken image icon.

ZXDB doesn't even store information about individual magazine pages. And even if it did, I don't think it should store stuff like "this specific page exists in the magazine but it's missing from that scan"...

IMHO the proper way to solve this problem is fixing the scan, not the database.

If Format scans were consistent, it would be possible to incorporate this knowledge directly in the magazine viewer. But they are not. For instance, Format v1 #1 was scanned with page numbers 1,3,5 but not 2,4. Format v4 #2 was scanned with page numbers 1,2,4 but not 3,5. Despite the fact all page numbers exist in the actual magazine. Good luck trying to deal with this!

The viewer also seems to have no idea what the last page is and will happily attempt to keep serving next pages.

There are 2 ways for the magazine viewer to know when a magazine issue has finished:

• ZXDB could store the last page number of each magazine issue. I will happily add this field to the database, if we can get volunteers willing to provide this information for about 6000 magazine issues.

• Or each site could detect automatically if a link to the next page is valid, before displaying it (as mentioned here).

[PeterJ]

I'm happy to make a start with Sinclair User [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] if option one turns out to be the preferred solution.

[Stefan]

• Or each site could detect automatically if a link to the next page is valid, before displaying it (as mentioned here).

So, being pragamatic, this will solve all problems, if instead of looking ahead one page a second page ahead is also attempted before giving up and considering the magazine complete.

[Einar Saukas]

I'm happy to make a start with Sinclair User @Einar Saukas if option one turns out to be the preferred solution.

Thanks a lot for the offer! However I prefer to avoid doing it now, concentrating our efforts on much more important tasks instead.

For instance, processing the remaining CSSCGC entries, and taking screenshots of other games that are still missing them.

[Einar Saukas]

• Or each site could detect automatically if a link to the next page is valid, before displaying it (as mentioned here).

So, being pragamatic, this will solve all problems, if instead of looking ahead one page a second page ahead is also attempted before giving up and considering the magazine complete.

Right!

[PeterJ]

I'm happy to make a start with Sinclair User @Einar Saukas if option one turns out to be the preferred solution.

Thanks a lot for the offer! However I prefer to avoid doing it now, concentrating our efforts on much more important tasks instead.

For instance, processing the remaining CSSCGC entries, and taking screenshots of other games that are still missing them.

Thanks Einar,

For obvious reasons I have more free time currently! I will continue with the Crap Games entries.

[StooB]

I'm happy to make a start with Sinclair User @Einar Saukas if option one turns out to be the preferred solution.

For a magazine like Sinclair User, which always had an advert on the back cover, then the last page can be found by looking up the highest numbered magazine reference for that issue. There's no need to do it manually.

[PeterJ]

Thanks [mention]StooB[/mention],

Good point.

I could write an SQL script for that. Similar for Crash, and I'm sure the majority of mainstream titles.

I was also thinking of the old WoS magazine viewer which I believe had the data in. I would need to check that though.