Introducing 7books V2 - Ajax Magic, Embeddable Lists, FB/Twitter Login - Oh My!

...or, How I Re-Built 7books from scratch in 4 days

Aren't holidays great for working 14 hours a day coding your favourite website?

Oh, just me then.

Still, I've managed to get A LOT done in the last few days, and 7books is now officially better, bigger, faster, stronger and fancier. So, without further ado let me present to you the various new shizzle that's going down in the 7books python party fest that I like to call code:

Facebook/Twitter Login

This was the major feature that I knew V2 was going to have to include. Relying solely on Google login was just too restrictive. Book lovers are typically not geeks and not everyone has a gmail account (though I think they should!). So opening the floor to Twitter and Facebook just makes good sense and actually makes the whole login process pretty snappy.

If you've previously signed in to 7books with your gmail account and you sign in again using Google then my fancy schmancy code should even associate all your old lists with your new account! Boom! (ps - sometimes this breaks the site. Meh.)

Ajax Magic - Achievement Unlocked!

If you go back and read the original how I built 7books in 4 weeks post you'll recall that one of the things I wanted on the site when I scribbled down the specs in my moleskine was Ajax Magic. Well, I hereby present to you ajax magic. Go sign up and then create a list and you'll see the magic in action baby!

Learning how to do some simple jquery transformed the list-making process from a clunky form into a well oiled machine. If you listen close enough she purrrs. Shout out to SexyButtons as well for making it easy to sexify my buttons across the site!
Another bonus from using ajax magic is that I'm now able to pull in book cover images for lists you create and link directly to the product page rather than a crappy search results page. Bonus win!

Embeddable Lists

Last but by no means least on my list of new features is embeddable lists! Anytime you visit a list page you'll see a "share this list" link like this:

And clicking that will give you a popup like this:

And finally you can then copy and paste that code into your blog post just like this! Here's the actual embed code from one of my lists :)

Mind-Bending Fiction

Booklist created by TomCritchlow

If On A Winter's Night A Traveller (Vintage classics)
by Italo Calvino

A book within a book within a book etc etc. Wonderful literary detective novel with genuine twists and turns and will keep you on your toes right till the end. Best read next to a roaring fire.

Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Jorge Luis Borges

A collection of short stories from perhaps the best short-story author ever? More like philosophical nuggets of critical thinking these fantastical mythical stories will keep your brain engaged for years.

Use of Weapons (The Culture)
by Iain M. Banks

Don't baulk just because it's science fiction - this book is a wonderful twisting and turning dark psychological exploration of friendship and family. The fact that it's set against the backdrop of the stars just makes it more awesome!

The Gormenghast Trilogy
by Mervyn Peake

A castle that's as sprawling as the characters which inhabit it. A wonderful lucid description of a fantasy world. Dark, vast and scary.

The Raw Shark Texts
by Steven Hall

Another book within a book, where the characters themselves are composed of words and ink. The very words and ink you're reading the book through. Mind-bending and wonderful.

Playlists for bookworms: www.7bks.com

I'm fully aware that the embed code needs a little work but I'm rapidly running out of holiday in which to work on the site so I thought it best to push something live. I welcome any suggestions at all about anything on the site but in particular if you want to drop me a line to suggest improvements/features to the embed code that would be much appreciated.

Here's to 2011 being the year of booklist making :)