For a while now, I've been dithering over getting LibraryHippo its own domain name. I hadn't, mostly because I'm a little lazy and cheap and afraid of the domain registration process. Yesterday at the Day Job, a co-worker (whose name just might be an anagram of Yen Waster), on learning …
I recently converted the LibraryHippo “Family Status” page to use AJAX to fetch individual card statuses, instead of having the server aggregate all the statuses and send the complete summary back to the user. It was fairly straightforward, with one notable exception – Internet Explorer.
When using Firefox or Chrome, as …
I'm a fan of Test-driven development, and automated testing in general. As such, I’ve been trying ensure that the LibraryHippo code has an adequate set of automated tests before deploying new versions.
Unfortunately, testing code that relies on the Google App Engine SDK is …
After hearing about the release of Google's App Engine SDK 1.3.1, I rushed out to try the new Appstats Event Recorder to help profile LibraryHippo. I didn't expect great things, as I'm generally happy with the performance, with one notable exception, but I was curious about the tool …
LibraryHippo's main function is fetching current library account status for patrons. Since I have no special relationship with any of the libraries involved, LibraryHippo web scrapes the libraries' web interfaces.
The library websites issue cookies and redirects, so I needed to do something to augment the URL Fetch Python …
I enjoy reading and using my local libraries. My wife and I have four library cards between us - one each for the Waterloo Public Library, one for the Kitchener Public Library, and one for the Region of Waterloo Library. Using our cards, we were able to find all kinds of …