October

Improvements to the series search, as well as various behind the scenes improvements

Welcome back to another monthly update. October didn't see as many additions as September, due to the combination of factors - personal and work-related, the last update being 3 weeks ago and finally addressing issues due to the influx of new users from Asura Scans.

I've still had a chance to do some important improvements, so let's jump right into it. And don't forget to check Changelog for the overview of all the changes:

📋Changelog

🔎Improvements to Series Search

The most recent addition of the ability to search for series by typing in a title has been extremely well received. With everyone using it, some issues came up, which I've focused on fixing, specifically:

1. Typing, stoping and typing again would result in it being jittery and missing some characters. That has been fixed and your typing should be solid now.

2. When finding a series with the same title, you should be able to add all of them, instead of getting "This manga has already been added" message.

3. Finally, having Source non-selectable after finding Series with titles that have special characters in it. If you find a series, you should always be able to select a source

There are more improvements I'd like to do, specifically adding more information to the Source selector, so you know what latest chapter it has as well as if the site is down or not. This should make it super easy to pick the best source, instead of trying them all one by one.

🛠️ Improved tracking of inactive sources

This might sound like less of an exciting work, but for Kenmei to become the best place to find, collect and read manga, it's important that our data is up-to-date and high-quality.

In preparation for adding another aggregator, which would bring in thousands of new series, I need to add more admin tools to make sure Kenmei database continues to have correct and up-to-date data.

There are already various sources that are outdated, due to sites being removed, URLs changing and other causes, which I have been fixing manually or through user reports. To make it less time consuming and more accurate, I've been working on an automated system, that would flag sources that have been removed on the site that we are tracking.

This will allow me to then send an email to notify users to switch to a different source or quickly fix the problem, for example when URL has changed. This will also help me add smart suggestions in the near future, onto your dashboard itself.

Don't forget that you can use Report button, to let me know if a series has some data outdated or it has been removed. Just select as many entries as you want and click Report, which will let you choose from a couple of options, which will then notify me.

📈 Progress Overview

As mentioned, I have been mostly addressing issues that came up with everyone using new search functionality, so this list didn't change much. After wrapping up the work I've started this month, I am going to continue with the UI improvements and getting closer to adding the new aggregator

1. Revamped manga list UI → 90% Complete

2. Improving mobile experience → 60% Complete

3. Official Kenmei Extension → ?% Complete

4. New aggregator support → 70% Complete

5. Ability to choose title type globally (English or Romaji) → 50% Complete on hold

6. Dark theme → 10% Complete on hold

7. Cover grid mode → 30% Complete on hold

Take care and see you next month!