OT: Magazine index

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

One of the problems at my house is the big stack of aviation magazines and a memory that doesn't quite have the "past" pinned properly. That is, I think something happened just a few months ago, and I'll finally look it up and leaf through all the magazines, and find out it was a year or two ago.

A few months ago, I started indexing all the magazines I get -- and a few more -- here . I even have links to any online versions of the stories that exists (on that thread, c'mon EAA, at least put the articles in the members section!) It's been helpful to me (along with the RVator index), just by using CTL-F to find something, but I'm thinking there's a better way to search online.

I'm thinking an XML file could be imported into a Flash program that would allow folks to search more easily. I would categorize myself as an advanced beginner in Flash and while I'll eventually fully master importing XML into Flash, right now it's a matter of finding the time to play with it (something that's in short supply).

So I thought I'd check to see if there are any XML masters aboard who might be interested in this project (sorry, there's no pay, this is a free thing), or someone who's better at programming who could come up with a better format than text and html.

Thanks.
BC

[rv8ch]

I think this is a great idea, but I can't quite figure out why you would want to use Flash.

If you write in plain text what you've got, all the search engines will index it and it will be very easy to find. Flash will only hinder their indexing. There may be an xml schema for magazine articles, which might be nice, but plain text beats all, IMHO.

[zkvii]

I'm a fan of XML - the question for you is to know your data types / structures. The DTD (Document Type Definitions) is what you are actually sorting, but doesn't have to be complex or difficult.

Once in XML - it is simple to generate HTML, TXT and fairly easy to generate a funky clever application. I can't help with Flash, but basic XSLT and XML layout is no problem.

A 'standard' magazine article xml DTD would be nice - but probably over kill for your requirments.

Carl