Missing features, minor issues and some data issues in Gita web app v1.4

Last updated on 5 Sep. 2024

A) Desirable features but postponed or seems to be too difficult to implement

1. Search feature: I very much wanted to have at least a limited search feature for searching verse text and translations. But it seems that the GraphQL data source/endpoint I am using does not have such a search feature and I could not get an alternative public and free REST API that supported search. I have made some notes about it in the post: Notes on enhancements and bugfixes to Bhagavad Gita v1.3 Next.js web app [Search for 'Search feature challenges' in the post to get to related section.] So this search feature seems to be too difficult to implement.
2. Choosing (clicking on) verse number in Select Chapter Verse drop down lists in navbar should typically go to the chapter and verse immediately rather than wait for Go button to be pressed. An initial implementation had got it done but fixing build warnings about missing useEffect dependencies broke that code. To fix the code, I dropped the going to chapter & verse on verse listbox change. Instead the user has to choose the verse and then click on Go button to go to chapter & verse. I have made some notes about it in the post: Notes on enhancements and bugfixes to Bhagavad Gita v1.3 Next.js web app [Search for 'Listbox for select chapter and verse' and 'Fixing build useEffect warnings breaks SCV breaks implementation' in the post to get to related sections.] I felt it is not appropriate for me to invest time to redesign/refactor the code to bring in the feature of going to chapter & verse on verse click/choose. I think it is not a big issue if the user has to press the Go button to go to chapter or chapter-verse. Disabled and enabled Go button are good visual cues about when the button needs to be pressed to go to chosen chapter or chapter-verse. So this feature can be implemented but is postponed and I don't know if and when I (or somebody else) will do it.

B) Minor issues which are currently ignored/tolerated

1. First time Settings are saved (or after Settings page is refreshed), the tab gets reset to first (Verse)  tab even if I am on another tab, and the 'Settings saved' message is not shown. For details about the problem and my (failed) attempts at solving it, please see sections, "Settings saved message issue-1", "Settings saved message issue-2" and "Settings saved message issue-3" in the post: Notes on enhancements and bugfixes to Bhagavad Gita v1.3 Next.js web app.
2. Warning is not provided when user has unsaved changes in Settings page and navigates away from it. For details about why I decided against a partial implementation and why a full implementation is challenging, see section "Settings saved message issue-3" in the post: Notes on enhancements and bugfixes to Bhagavad Gita v1.3 Next.js web app.
3. Not a big issue but noticeable: In Settings page, on Verse Page tab for md breakpoint, refresh of page first shows first tab's contents (English) and after short delay, shows other tabs' contents. This delay is much more in dev environment than in build environment. But even in build environment, one sees a flash/flicker and if one observes closely, one can see that the other language tabs' contents show up only after a short delay.
4. Not really an issue: The scroll position for some pages during forward and backward navigation is NOT to the top. That seems to be default Next.js behviour: From Next.js docs: Disabling scroll restoration : "The default behavior of the Next.js App Router is to scroll to the top of a new route or to maintain the scroll position for backwards and forwards navigation." We can disable/change it if needed. As of now, I think it is best to go with the default behaviour.

C) Data issues which are beyond my control

1. There seems to be a problem with the data associated with commentaries of Swami Sivananda and some others. Question mark character (?) appears frequently in places where I think there should be a comma character (,). I have provided a temporary fix (hack) which is described in https://gita-rsi.vercel.app/qmarkissue.
2. Some verses Sanskrit text display complex characters separately instead of showing the combined proper character. For example, see Chapter 7, Verse 3, https://gita-rsi.vercel.app/verse/283 . The words, "कश्िचद्यतति" and "कश्िचन्मां" are not displayed correctly. But Gita Supersite shows it correctly as "कश्चिद्यतति" and "कश्चिन्मां": https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&field_chapter_value=7&field_nsutra_value=3 .But these cases seem to be very few. I have chosen to use default font on the device for Sanskrit characters. In Windows, that font is Nirmala UI. As explained in my post, Notes on enhancements and bugfixes to Bhagavad Gita v1.0 Next.js web app (first item in Details section), the same Nirmala UI font used by Gita Supersite shows the complex character correctly on my Windows PC whereas my Gita web app does not show it correctly. It possibly is a data problem in the GraphQL data endpoint (data source) my Gita web app uses. [I had explored using Noto Sans Devanagari font but was not sure whether it was a good font to use. For more on it, search for 'Noto Sans Devanagari' in my blog post: Notes on regular UI Bhagavad Gita Nextjs web app. built on top of very simple Gita app.]