SuttaCentral 2021: we are live!

[Deepika]

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[Ulriquinho]

Just wanted to point out a mistake. This text is listed as Chinese when it is Tibetan:

This seems to be an issue for all of Dhp/Uv Kg.

[pjteh]

Hi Ajahn @sujato ,

Thanks for working on this! I have two small pieces of usability feedback about the new website design (one of which should be relatively easy to address), for your consideration please.

1. The design does not differentiate between clickable links vs. text, so it is hard to know where to click at a glance. The design requires the user to move the mouse & hover around the page, in order to figure out where one can click or not. It doesn’t help that the formatting looks exactly the same, until you hover the cursor: see pics below from actual screenshots.

→ This can be improved by simply introducing a background colour for clickable elements, or even using a different text colour for hyperlinks.

2. The loss of side-navigation panel slows down navigation significantly. It used to be relatively easy to find suttas through the side-navigation panel, and to quickly go through the Pitakas > Nikayas > etc. to find a sutta without leaving the current page. It was relatively easy to trial-and-error, because it was quick to backtrack or explore through the side-navigation panel, since it didn’t require reloading each page. Now, navigation requires clicking through each page, and waiting for the page to load. So it takes time to trial-and-error to find the right sutta.

The navigation also introduces relatively un-used groupings (for me), which then loses me. For me, the point where I frequently get lost is in between the Nikaya and the final sutta (e.g. in Samyutta Nikaya, it would be this page: SuttaCentral). Usually, I know I am looking for AN3.100 or MN 114: the intermediate grouping as a compulsory but unfamiliar step doesn’t help with navigation. Point 1 about unclear clickability further compounds the navigation issue.

→ This is not so straightforward to adjust, as it is a side-effect of a deliberate design decision, as you’d noted before. Would adding the side-navigation complicate the website…? I don’t have a clear answer to this, and am also cognizant that adding features usually has a hidden technical cost (oh, samsara in the kaamma-loka …). But I’m just raising this feedback for your awareness please.

The above is just for your consideration please, Ajahn, so please feel free to ignore if you think it’s not really appropriate.

With much metta,
PJ

[sabbamitta]

@pjteh

Usually, I know I am looking for AN3.100 or MN 114

If you know exactly the Sutta ID you are looking for, the easiest way is to just type it into the URL line:

https://suttacentral.net/an3.100

which takes you to the respective suttaplex card. And if you also know which language and translator you want, you can type:

https://suttacentral.net/mn114/en/sujato, or
https://suttacentral.net/mn114/de/mettiko.

There is no need to click through all steps of the canon hierarchy, nor to use a navigation sidebar.

Another way is to type MN114 into the search box. The first result that is returned is the respective suttaplex card.

[pjteh]

Thanks @sabbamitta ! Yes, sometimes that is the case.

More frequently, it is not so clear: I might think the text I am looking for is MN 19, but actually the passage is in MN 20, for example. It is then useful to have a means to go around the website when searching.

[sabbamitta]

Sure. And there are several means. If you just want to look at the next or previous Sutta, there are the respective links at the bottom of each Sutta page. There are also shortcut lists, like here:

You find it on the first navigation card after clicking “Middle Discourses”, it just takes you to a list of all MN Suttas. Often, seeing the title of a Sutta helps to find what one is looking for. I also find that the loading of pages is so much faster with the new version of the site, so I personally don’t mind so much switching pages here.

But there are also other approaches for finding what you are looking for. Voice.suttacentral.net for example has examples terms. If you want to find a Sutta with a simile on water, for example, type “water” into the search box and select from what pops up. (But that’s a bit off topic, and if you want to discuss this further we should go elsewhere.)

[Bob1]

Today the pali lexicon broken every word is a ?

[Bob1]

the pali dictionary still on the fritz, in chrome and several other browsers.

[sujato]

It is fixed, but it may require clearing cache and futzing around a bit. Sorry about the hassle, it was caused by a buggy cache in our server configuration.

[dustin]

I am still alive cheers