Please checkout the GitHub repository HEREand the extension on the Google Chrome Store HERE.
Recap
I've written previously about a Chrome Extension I had in mind for this website. The idea I had was to facilitate for people who purchase from the online store a means of making sure they are getting the best price.
The great thing about the online music store is that they specialize in electronic music and therefore most DJs and electronic music lovers look to their to find latest releases. Most of the music found on on the site is not offered by some of the more giant music stores (i.e. iTunes or Amazon) however there is some overlap!
The idea for the extension came when I noticed that many of the more mainstream songs on the store could be found cheaper (usually -50%) on other electronic stores (i.e. iTunes or Amazon).
This websiteis an online music store specializing in electronic dance music and culture.
I've uploaded Alpha Version to the Chrome Web Store and GitHub. Go grab it!
Alpha-ish
I've recently continued work on the extension following some surprising feedback (via YouTube comments and e-mails) based on the YouTube videos I had posted showcasing the initial idea. I was surprised because the video showed little in functionality except the plausibility of the idea.
The recent work I've put into the extension is in hopes of getting it functionally working. Luckily I found some great Open Source project to help with the project (Bootstrap and String Score). I've added an Options page, how the user interacts with the extension in seeing cheaper songs (via a popup box) and better matching against track/artist name. I'm pretty happy with the Alpha stage because it's at least somewhat useful/usable. As a test, my roomate (a frequent user of the site) was able to search for a few songs with it and had found them for a cheaper price on iTunes!
Looking for Contributors
Going to Beta
This extension is a bit much more beefy than my last HypeMachine Extension I had written. My lack/self-taught knowledge of CSS and Javascript are really showing on this project (for instance I am having a tough time figuring out how to figure out which event is fired on every anchor). I had some great help on my HypeMachine extension by OPen Sourcing the project and uploading it to GitHub and I've done the same for similar hopes! If you love electronic music, saving money, Javascript, CSS or being a nice person, I'd love if you could help me polish and fix many of the problems/TODOs I have listed. I think this extension is a great idea and would be a amazing to finish/polish.
Here is a quick recap of some of the things I need help with:
- Have nicer graphics for the Chrome Web Store
- Figure a nice way to hook into the Ajax events so that the content script will get executed again
- Add Options page which includes settings per user
- Add Song Matching from track page to checkout page (based on user feedback)
- Cleanup CSS
- Add additional website to check (i.e. Amazon store or other electronic music stores)
Send me an e-mail if you'd like to discuss working on it or moving the project in a different direction.
Legal Question
Roughly one month ago, a website had sent me an e-mail via their lawyer (am I allowed to publish the e-mail?) requesting that I change the name of my extension so that it did not use the name as the site. First off, I was pretty taken aback by the request as I had not even published the extension and hardly any work had gone into it (aside from the YouTube clip). I think it's important for the name of the website to be in the title/name of the extension as it is tailored for the site however I want to make sure I don't dig myself into a legal mess.
Can someone provide me some legal advice on whether I can have the name of the website in the name (i.e. 'X Price Finder')? The Fact that they had sent me an e-mail, at a time when all I had done with the extension was upload a video on YouTube makes me believe this is a excellent extension worth investing time into developing.
I wish I knew Javascript and CSS better however still... I'm learning tons as I go at least.
