Today, I'd like to highlight the new File Exchange interface that was introduced this week. As I was writing this, I remembered that I wrote a post on File Exchange 2.0 when it came out back in 2008. We had introduced a new searching mechanism that was centered around tags. The new version provides a more flexible, faceted search functionality, that can be refined by category, product, time frame, and content type (e.g. Functions, Classes, Simulink Models, etc). I really like how I can quickly find GUI applications created using MATLAB classes.
The other feature that I like is the ability to preview individual MATLAB programs directly in the browser before downloading the entry. I missed this capability from the old File Exchange a while back, and now I can see the code and even copy/paste them from the browser to my MATLAB. Note: for Simulink models, you can include a screenshot of the model with the entry to have it display in the preview section.
Read more about the new features here.
Comments
Give it a try and let us know what you think here about the new interface.
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Published with MATLAB® 7.12
I like the way preview images are now displayed next to search results. I also like the fact that TMW keep maintaining FEX, which is a very important resource for Matlab users.
A few suggestions:
1. The caption “Updated 1 month ago” is less useful than: “updated April 12, 2011″
2. There is no need to reiterate “(last 30 days)” for each of the search results – once (at the top) should suffice.
3. I personally find the previous table presentation layout of search results easier to use/read. It is still present in the author page, by the way.
4. Binary files are not listed in the sidebars – only m-files, HTMLs and other similar source files. I understand that they cannot be linkable and that there’s a “view all files” link, but I think a better solution would have been to simply list them without a hyperlink.
5. In the display of m-file contents, I think you should syntax-highlight the source code. This can easily be done using the Geshi filter (http://qbnz.com/highlighter, http://sourceforge.net/projects/geshi). I use it in my blog and am very satisfied with it. So do Wikipedia and numerous other websites.
6. The gray header logo should link to the FEX landing page – it’s currently unlinked.
7. It is unclear what the difference is between an “app” and a “function” in a submission’s list of components
8. In the submission page, the preview image used to be a simple HTML-resize of the submitted preview image. This enabled animated GIFs, which are extremely useful when illustrating GUI-oriented submissions (e.g., my UIINSPECT submission and many others). Now, the previews are all automatically converted into static preview.jpg images and the animation is lost (yes – I know you can always click the image to see the animation, but who ever actually does that?). This is a great pity. I suggest to restore the previous mechanism that displayed the original image. If you could do this also for the new preview images on the search results page, that would be even better.
Should previewing a file count as a download for “Last 30 days” purposes, since one who has previewed a file has essentially done (or can do) the same thing? Is this type of “downloaded” file really covered by the license that _doesn’t_ come with it?
-I don’t agree that the new layout is an improvement. It seems very cluttered; to me it is a perfect example of “just because you can doesn’t mean you have to.”
-I do like that the figure is shown next to the file.
-Matt Fig brings up an excellent point about the license.
@Yair:
Nice comments. I agree about syntax highlighting. It would make it much more pleasant to preview files. The difference between an “app” and a “function” is described here:
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/about/fx/#ctypes.
I also use animated GIFs for my screenshots, so I agree that it would be nice to have it show that in the thumbnail.
@Sean:
Can you elaborate which parts you specifically think are cluttered? I’m also a huge advocate of simple, clean interfaces. In my opinion, the front page is much leaner, since it doesn’t display all the entries. I can quickly start searching or refining my search by types, so I like that aspect of it.
I like the new interface very much! great job! keep it up!