Searching the scriptures

As I continue searching the Internet edition of the scriptures, from time to time I notice things that would enhance my experience as a user. So I thought I'd start a thread where I could post them. I'd be interested to know if others would find these things useful. I'd also enjoy hearing your ideas, tips, etc.

I'd like the ability to save searches. For instance, yesterday I searched for

"come unto" & (me | him | "the Lord" | God | Christ )

Today, of course, I needed to re-enter the search parameters. Particularly for complex searches, or searches one was likely to repeat, it would be nice to have them saved.

I'd also like the ability to adjust the number of results displayed on the page.

Kathryn

I like that idea. I'd also like the ability to place bookmarks (not using my browser) so that I could later jump to a bookmarked passage when doing research. This would probably mean that we would need to create some kind of authentication as cookies may not be the best way to persist that data.

Tom

I like this idea too. If it is incorporated into the Church's scriptue site, then great.

Otherwise, all of these customization ideas might be a good argument for a Scripture API. Then 3rd party open source and commercial products can be developed.

tomw wrote:I like that idea. I'd also like the ability to place bookmarks (not using my browser) so that I could later jump to a bookmarked passage when doing research. This would probably mean that we would need to create some kind of authentication as cookies may not be the best way to persist that data.

Tom

Of course, that could be tied into the existing LDS.org signin that we use for LUWS, Missionary Apps, etc.

michaelcox wrote:Of course, that could be tied into the existing LDS.org signin that we use for LUWS, Missionary Apps, etc.

You could make an online community out of this idea. Like you mentioned you could tie existing authenticated applications and add some new features. I know the Church is very conservative, especially for lds.org, so I imaging blogs and forums are out. You could still allow people to save anything from the Gospel Library, tie into lesson planning, etc.

I especially like the saved search feature as well.

michaelcox wrote:Of course, that could be tied into the existing LDS.org signin that we use for LUWS, Missionary Apps, etc.

That would be nice. We sure don't need yet another login, but what about the non-members? Or is this part of the incentive to upgrade to the full product?

RussellHltn wrote:That would be nice. We sure don't need yet another login, but what about the non-members? Or is this part of the incentive to upgrade to the full product?

Whatever works!

I decided to move the chat about the account creation and login changes to another [thread=289]thread[/thread] called [thread=289]Account Creation and Login[/thread] which is in the LDS.ORG forum.

tomw wrote:I like that idea. I'd also like the ability to place bookmarks (not using my browser) so that I could later jump to a bookmarked passage when doing research. This would probably mean that we would need to create some kind of authentication as cookies may not be the best way to persist that data.

Agreed! That would be ideal.

Okay, here are two more ideas. The first one may be *extreme* wishful thinking but BYU has a site which lists all scriptures cited in General Conference (http://scriptures.byu.edu/) with links to the citing talks on lds.org. It would be wonderful to have the reverse: e.g., perhaps a small icon to the left of each verse number which brings up a list of all General Conference talks which refer to that verse. Can you imagine what a great help that would be when preparing lessons or talks, or just for personal study? I wonder how hard it would be to collaborate with the guys at BYU to do this. Or maybe you wouldn't even need to--just dynamically generate a list of hyperlinks to talks referencing that verse from the archives on lds.org.

Next idea, more down-to-earth Somewhere in the Study Helps, it might be nice to link to the Gospel Topic page in the Gospel Library on Scriptures (http://www.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/m ... 82620a____)

Did anyone catch Elder Bednar's recent CES talk on scripture study? That has to be one of the most thoughtful and useful talks I've ever heard on scripture study or any gospel topic. It would be great if that talk could somehow be referenced in the Study Helps.
http://lds.org/broadcast/ces/0,7341,538 ... 41,00.html

FWIW,
Kathryn

Kathryn wrote:Did anyone catch Elder Bednar's recent CES talk on scripture study?

Yes, I posted a link to that awhile back. It stirred some interest in developing software to do that.

Hi,

I've been using the church's scripture site for a while and I've appreciated the way that it's developed over the years. One of the things that would be really handy is a way to sort the results of a search. For example, as it is today, the results are automatically sorted by relevance and unchecking the box makes them sorted by reference (book, chapter, and verse in order as in the printed scriptures). I'd like to be able to sort by prophet (author of the passage), or by year written (where known).

Obviously some of that functionality would require additional information put into the database, but a lot of that is known.

Thanks,
Michael