Unofficial Heroes NBC Forum and Message Boards

slippy · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:06 pm Post subject: The HeroBase Project

Hurrah, five weeks to finish structuring the "Herobase" and start entering in all the info I can get from episodes 1 to 18.

As you may have already read in other posts by me, I realised my folly in studying the timeline of the series so closely in search of information - there were too many conflicts and contradictions. The project, however, led me to the idea of a public database as a common resource for us all to flesh out our own and shoot down other peoples' theories.

The project will be free and open source, and all contributors of code, layout or content will be duly linked and credited, of course.

I'm creating the database structure itself in Access2007, and I've got a fair idea of how most of the tables will be structured. However, I haven't worked with databases for years, and I'm finding I need to do a lot of learning while I'm doing this. So to that end, if there's anyone out there that's good with Access (or can help me with an alternative system if you know of one better), Visual Basic or VBA, and can help me with any part of the project, please please please contact me. You can PM me here at the boards, email me (misterslippy@ntlworld.com) or, if you're in a similar time zone to me, and you see me signed in, you can hit me up on MSN messenger at the same address.

Seriously, this is a big project, so if you think you can do anything at all to help, you'll be helping to create a resource for ALL Heroes fans.

Come on, let's do something BIG. Let's get NOTICED!

slippy · Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:57 pm Post subject:

Well, it's still very much a work-in-progress, but I've exported what I've got so far to an .XML file.

You can download it here.

The abilities list, I've taken from the observed abilities in the Wikipedia, NOT the NBC Heroes Wiki or the Activating Evolution Wiki - those are less reliable sources. Too many people are just posting X-Men powers and stuff in there.

The Places list is very sketchy

The Character list is nearly completed.

The Clip Index is only completed up to about 1/3 of the way through Chapter 1....it's a VERY SLOW process.

If you find the XML hard to read, and you'd rather see it in Access2007 or some other format, let me know (Either PM me here, email me or hit me up on MSN Messenger) and I'll zip up a load of versions and post .torrent files in this thread as and when I update it. I'll also post links on my Live Space - just click the "www" button below this post

If anyone has any suggestions for new tables or info sources or whatever, let me know. I may be going to the geek side again, but this is gonna stop me missing my Heroes fix for the next five weeks, and then for the time between the seasons, so sue me!! Very Happy

slippy · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:11 am Post subject:

All of Volume 1 Chapter 1 has been indexed by timecoded clip now. The address in the post above is wrong.

Here's the XML file: http://www.zesticity.com/herobase/Clip%20Index.xml
And the XSD schema: http://www.zesticity.com/herobase/Clip%20Index.xsd

Anyone know how to make a web page display the XML in tables???? lol

slippy · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:56 pm Post subject:

I don't care if anyone's interested or not at the moment, coz it's a messy project, but once it's started to take a better shape, I hope y'all will give me some feedback on it.

Latest update. 2/3 of the way through Chapter 2 - "Don't look back".

I've updated the XML's (linked above)

I've also uploaded a simple HTML export of the Clip Index. It doesn't give all the character, place and ability detail (I'll upload those databases as HTML tomorrow probably) but it does give my scene-by-scene breakdown in a fairly easy-to-read table.

Clicky clicky: http://www.zesticity.com/herobase/Clip%20Index.html

slippy · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:04 pm Post subject:

Hehe, more links!

To make it all a lot simpler, I've indexed it all in a quick-and-dirty webpage I just threw together in Notepad (!)

http://www.zesticity.com/herobase/index.html

kmstreet64 · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:49 pm Post subject:

I'm interested, I just have no idea what you are talking about.

slippy · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 1:18 pm Post subject:

Ms. Slippy · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 8:54 pm Post subject:

This is worth checking out - full of info I'd forgotten, and presented in a logical structure which is easy to read - has my seal of approval, if if that counts for anything!

slippy · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:56 pm Post subject:

Lol, thanks for the promo honey, but everyone knows you're my "significant other" and they aren't going to believe a word of it! Smile

slippy · Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:16 pm Post subject: Saturday's update

Saturday update:

Done a bit of work on cleaning up the Index Page

You can view the full scene index there, and there are links to scene indexes for each episode as well (coz the main file is gonna get big!)

Tidied up Chapter 1, added some refined locations.

Have also entered Hana's and Hiro's blogs into new tables in the database.

Have completed indexing Chapter 2, and started on Chapter 3.

Oh, and a few changes to the incidental notes file too.

slippy · Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2007 11:10 pm Post subject: Sunday update

Sunday Update:

Chapter 3 (One Giant Leap) is now completely indexed

The list of locations has been updated with a few more places, and the name format has been tidied up a bit.

slippy · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject:

I'm afraid I haven't really updated the heroes database much, lately. I've been busy, and I've taken on another project....just search the boards for "Lucien"

Anyway, I haven't abandoned the herobase, but I'll be doing most work on it between seasons, I think.

Although I'll definitely index the next few eps as and when I get them, lol!

slippy · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:17 pm Post subject:

The Herobase has moved to Herobase Central

You can now get to it at http://herobase.googlepages.com/

slippy · Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:46 pm Post subject:

The presentation of Herobase Central is coming on leaps and bounds.
Herobase Central contains the following pages:

News: Displays the Herobase News Blog - news and info about the development of the Herobase

Feeds: RSS feeds from my favourite Heroes info resources (including the ARG sites)

Boards: For discussion of The Herobase Project and all it's aspects. Obviously, anyone wanting to discuss the show itself will be pointed straight back here to superhiro.org

Images: Picasa web album containing copies of (at the moment) the Linderman archives and the graphic novel easter egg images.

The herobase: This page will change as soon as I figure out how best to present the database online

Notes: A Google notebook containing odd notes about the show that don't fit anywhere else just yet

Calendar: A publicly viewable calendar of Heroes and Herobase related events (and eventually timeline info)

Overseer: Links to my online blognovel Overseer, Lucien's journal

If you want to become a collaborator, let me know - although be warned, you may well get some odd invitation emails while I'm still developing the whole project!

Collaborators will have permission to edit most aspects of the site (except for the actual layout). At the moment, the herobase spreadsheet is only temporary, and any changes you make will be lost at the next update. I'm still looking for help on presenting the database online!

Check it out, leave your mark on the board