2015-03-28, 14:07
Hi scsii,
In last couple of days I've been looking for Netflix "options" for my HTPC, and came across your extension.
I think the design is wonderful, it's exactly the layout that complements the HTPC experience. Really good work, Kudos!
After i didn't found any repo (github or other) of your code, i took a look inside the code of the extension. It seems as you are tying to replace the whole netflix site with your own design.
It could have been great, but a service like Netflix is constantly changing, from front to back, and while you rely heavily on a specific HTML structre, and URLs schema... well, you figured it out already, It's a bloody-broken mess
You could have been using an API, which would make thing a LOT easier, but as we know Netflix closed their Public API, so we are left with parsing and scraping.
Now, i suggest that take a look at another extension that approached the same issue: Netflix Navigator - Chrome Store and Github links.
It maybe isn't as sleek in it's UI and design as your solution, and i think it can be much approved in it's code design, but it's much more steady because it didn't tried to replace Netflix UI, only to add a layer of controlling it. It relies on simulating the mouse movements, so as far as Netflix's website knows - you are still using it the usual way it intended to be.
Maybe a combination of those two ideas - first to overlay the original UI with keys and simulating and with as little scraping and DOM manipulation as possible, and then to try to manipulate some DOM into better design - could work perfectly.
It has a few large benefits:
1. no more broken URLs - you don't need to care about what Netflix does when you choose a movie - let Netflix do it for you!
2. Your DOM manipulation is focusing on shifting elements and re-designing their looks, and not trying to re-create them. (i.e., you don't need to 'understand' how the Netflix search is working, you just re-position and re-design it!)
3. the interactions and looks of the extension are separated. In 90% of the cases, a Netflix's change won't break the behavior of the app, only it's looks.
4. When a change is breaking stuff up, you can focus on small piece of your app and not in need to overview and test your entire code.
Now, if you want to add more people around this development, i suggest you upload your extension to Github, give access to the code. I would happily join you in trying to make it work.
If you are not interested in continuing and developing it from any reason, it will be very appreciated if you publish it still to Github, license it under some free-to-use copyrights so other people can benefit from your code.
Have a great day,
Shebo.
In last couple of days I've been looking for Netflix "options" for my HTPC, and came across your extension.
I think the design is wonderful, it's exactly the layout that complements the HTPC experience. Really good work, Kudos!
After i didn't found any repo (github or other) of your code, i took a look inside the code of the extension. It seems as you are tying to replace the whole netflix site with your own design.
It could have been great, but a service like Netflix is constantly changing, from front to back, and while you rely heavily on a specific HTML structre, and URLs schema... well, you figured it out already, It's a bloody-broken mess
You could have been using an API, which would make thing a LOT easier, but as we know Netflix closed their Public API, so we are left with parsing and scraping.
Now, i suggest that take a look at another extension that approached the same issue: Netflix Navigator - Chrome Store and Github links.
It maybe isn't as sleek in it's UI and design as your solution, and i think it can be much approved in it's code design, but it's much more steady because it didn't tried to replace Netflix UI, only to add a layer of controlling it. It relies on simulating the mouse movements, so as far as Netflix's website knows - you are still using it the usual way it intended to be.
Maybe a combination of those two ideas - first to overlay the original UI with keys and simulating and with as little scraping and DOM manipulation as possible, and then to try to manipulate some DOM into better design - could work perfectly.
It has a few large benefits:
1. no more broken URLs - you don't need to care about what Netflix does when you choose a movie - let Netflix do it for you!
2. Your DOM manipulation is focusing on shifting elements and re-designing their looks, and not trying to re-create them. (i.e., you don't need to 'understand' how the Netflix search is working, you just re-position and re-design it!)
3. the interactions and looks of the extension are separated. In 90% of the cases, a Netflix's change won't break the behavior of the app, only it's looks.
4. When a change is breaking stuff up, you can focus on small piece of your app and not in need to overview and test your entire code.
Now, if you want to add more people around this development, i suggest you upload your extension to Github, give access to the code. I would happily join you in trying to make it work.
If you are not interested in continuing and developing it from any reason, it will be very appreciated if you publish it still to Github, license it under some free-to-use copyrights so other people can benefit from your code.
Have a great day,
Shebo.
