JSDB.io - A Database of JavaScript Libraries

Yea, the search system right now is a very basic iteration (I really just wanted to get this launched) but I definitely have plans for making it better. Typeahead is definitely one of the first things I'm going to add.

platz• 13 years ago

I think a tag system instead of a directory system may be better for categorizing libraries. For example, is D3 is "data / undefined". Arguably it could exist in multiple categories.

ksokhan17• 13 years ago

This is probably the hardest problem to solve in building a tool like this. Ive thought a lot about this, and here is my thinking:

Its not an either-or scenario. Tags are great at grouping similar libraries together, but it doesn't work very well when you look at all the tags together, since there is no clear hierarchy.

Categories are good, on the other hand, for creating a clear structure for looking for libraries. If a user is confused about where to find something specific, they can just search it.

My plan is to combine the two approaches in jsdb: have a clear and very general category system, and a tag system for finding inter-related js libraries.

tantalor7• 13 years ago

What? Why have two systems?

Just make the categories be system-defined tags. Display your navigation with only them. Let users add new tags but don't display them in the nav.

richardwhiuk• 13 years ago

The library is called jQuery, not Jquery - same with jQuery UI, DOM is an abbreviation.

It looks like you've crudely turned things which aren't words which start with an uppercase letter into ones which do, for no reason.

ksokhan17• 13 years ago

Thanks for the tip. Fixed. Stared at it for so long during development that I didn't even notice!

8ig8• 13 years ago

There's also MicroJS:

http://microjs.com/

ksokhan17• 13 years ago

Whoa, sweet find! Slightly differently positioned though I think...

mcrider3• 13 years ago

Would be great to have something like this also serve up the JS files via a CDN, and provide a JS-based loader (like require.js for remote scripts). Plus maybe dependency management?

ricardobeat4• 13 years ago

That's http://cdnjs.com/

mcrider3• 13 years ago

Ooh, nice; I've seen this before too but forgot all about it. @ksokhan, maybe think of linking up the CDN URL's from cdnjs.com to your site? Your site definitely offers more as far as discoverability.

devgutt• 13 years ago

or the best among all: Vanilla Js http://vanilla-js.com/

ksokhan17• 13 years ago

Thats funny :) took me a bit to figure out the joke

arctangent2• 13 years ago

I expected the "sort by" thingy to be at the top-right of the list of things I was viewing.

Despite that minor gripe, please accept my compliments. I'd love to see a site that can point me at all the newest and most popular JS tools and maybe this can be it.

ksokhan17• 13 years ago

Thanks for the kind words. The sort by should only list the current page/category. You might be confused because "sort by" ignores pagination and rearranges all of the libraries in that category, and only then re-paginates it... Or am I misunderstanding your comment?

arctangent2• 13 years ago

Thanks for coming back to me. Let me clarify what I mean.

When I'm on the front page or, especially, once I have selected a category, I want to be able to sort that list by newest/top-rated/last-updated/etc.

I'm used to seeing the option to do that sorting (or filtering, if you ever do that) up at the top of the things I am looking at, rather than by the list of categories.

So, the recommendation I am making is to show any sorting/filtering controls at the top of the list instead of on the left hand side of the page.

gummydude2• 13 years ago

http://microjs.com/ much easier to browse

ksokhan17• 13 years ago

Can you qualify that? Would love to get help/suggestions on making navigation better...

gummydude2• 13 years ago

What i meant was, everything on a single page and i could just ctrl-F search the list. JSDB.io is neat too for a larger growing list of JS.

mcrider3• 13 years ago

...Its just a list of JS projects -- Its much harder to browse IMO.

ricardobeat4• 13 years ago

JSDB is the name of a javascript cross-platform environment based on SpiderMonkey, that exists since 2005 and is still active.

http://jsdb.org/

tantalor7• 13 years ago

That doesn't seem like a very good name. Why "DB"?

bermanoid• 13 years ago

From the front page: "JSDB is JavaScript for databases, a scripting language for data-driven, network-centric programming on Windows, Mac, Linux, and SunOS. JSDB works with databases, XML, the web, and email. It is free and open-source. Use it as a JavaScript shell, to run CGI programs, or as a web server."

atuladhar• 13 years ago

Looks useful. Some comments

- I wish there were a way to sort by name

- How are the ratings calculated? (Just realized that if you hover on a library's rating it tells you the rating is "derrived (sic) from combination of the other metrics": would be good to know how exactly + "derived" is misspelled.)

ksokhan17• 13 years ago

Ah good point on the first, and working on the second! want to be a bit more transparent, but basically, its simply a combination of the other factors listed with some logical balancing through multipliers. (ie. stars is weighted more than contributor count)

zybler• 13 years ago

I wish there's a way to sort by the size of the library.

tantalor7• 13 years ago

Why require a Github URL? I should be able to give you any number of URLs to any sites for each lib. This would be much more useful!

opminion• 13 years ago

In Google Sets[0] I entered CPAN, CTAN, CRAN, CJAN, names of archive repositories for other languages.

It added JSAN.

[0] http://googlesystem.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/google-sets-still...

nilliams• 13 years ago

Looking like a great resource, nice work. +1 on the suggestions to link to npm and cdnsjs.

I did spot that searching for 'require' did not find 'requirejs' (searching 'requirejs' finds it).

ksokhan17• 13 years ago

Yea, good point. The search system leaves a bit to be desired, but I'm working on it!

bebraw2• 13 years ago

Great work. Cheers from the http://jster.net folks. :)

cwills2• 13 years ago

Looks more mature than JSDB.io - particularly with the larger collection of libraries and tagging system etc. But honestly your site is cluttered and ugly, JSDB is winning there. A twitter feed, really? I think your site needs some clear direction. Just saying.

bebraw2• 13 years ago

Good points. Any specific ideas? The Twitter feed could go, that's definitely true.

itsbits• 13 years ago

very useful link, you should work on interface though..very hard to filter the lib i want...

jaequery• 13 years ago

i like it, hope to see more

jdolitsky• 13 years ago

thank you for making this

joemaddalone• 13 years ago

Oddly, you've been working on something very similar to a small project of my own. www.javascriptoo.com. Great work.

JSDB.io - A Database of JavaScript Libraries

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