Horse Name Database
How it came about
The Horse Name Database came out of a very practical search. I was looking for the right name for a horse myself and simply couldn't find one. Back in 2019 there were already a few sites collecting horse names, but hardly any with a really large selection. One site came close, but barely let you filter anything. So I just built my own database.
Over time, that collection turned into a tool where you can browse and search horse names in a table. You can filter by the horse's breed and gender, so if you're specifically looking for a certain kind of name, you simply navigate through the table. If you know a name that's still missing, you can submit it directly. Every suggestion gets reviewed by me before it goes live.
Technical development
The project started out entirely on PHP and MySQL. In the years after I finished my studies, roughly five years, development stalled. Without ongoing updates, the old version eventually stopped working the way it was supposed to.
The idea behind it never really let go of me though, and in the meantime the database had grown to over five thousand entries. Instead of finally burying the project, I rebuilt it from scratch. Together with Claude, I translated the old PHP code piece by piece into JavaScript. The register now runs on React, and the database has moved from MySQL to SQLite.
Current status
After the rebuild, the Horse Name Database is fully active again. Filtering by breed and gender is still there, and a few new features have been added on top: a choice of entries per page, a name search, direct navigation to specific pages, and an approval area for new submissions that's only accessible to me. Submitted names can now be suggested directly on the same page, protected by a honeypot against spam. How reliable that protection is in practice, I'm still keeping an eye on.
Latest releases
Horse Name Database Version 3.0 – Complete relaunch with React
After almost exactly six years of standstill, the Horse Name Database is back, and completely rebuilt from the ground up. The old PHP version had been frozen since my studies and eventually just stopped running cleanly. The idea behind it never fully let go of me though, especially since the database had grown to over five thousand names in the meantime.
So together with Claude, I translated the old code piece by piece. PHP became JavaScript, MySQL became SQLite, and the whole thing now runs as its own page in my portfolio, built on React.
What's new?
- Filtering by entries per page
- Full-text search by name
- Direct navigation to individual pages
- Approval area for new submissions, visible only to me
- Name suggestions can be submitted directly on the page, protected with a honeypot against spam
Filtering by breed and gender is still there, that was and still is the core of the tool. Everything else has basically been added on top.
Warm regards and a happy Monday,
your Jackie
Horse Name Database Version 2.0 – Faster load times
Happy Halloween to everyone out there!
I hope you managed to enjoy your Halloween despite the current situation? Mine, I'd say, was a full success. Around midday I visited my parents and we had lunch together, and in the evening I dedicated myself to one of my older projects: the Horse Name Database. From now on, the register is even faster to use. Since I had to make some big changes under the hood, I'd be very grateful if you could report any bugs via the comments or by email.
Why the Horse Name Database, of all things?
Honestly, fast load times weren't really the reason I maintained the register. It was more of a technical concern that affects my entire site. Anyone who knows SEO should know how important parameter-free URLs are. Since the register had a parameter for every page, every language, every gender, and every letter of the alphabet, this obviously had a very negative effect on ranking. I set myself the task of fixing this for this week, and today I successfully did.
Good morning to all of you!
Yesterday I dealt with the last small details of the Name Register. All the planned features have now been built in. On top of that, there were a few small extra features.
All changes at a glance:
- Bugfix: page numbers can no longer go negative
- There's now a search form
- No link shown when a name doesn't exist
- Name filtering by language
- Simplified process for adding names
Warm regards and a lovely Wednesday evening,
your Jackie
Since yesterday, there's good news.
I hadn't failed to notice that my site takes an unbelievably long time to load. I haven't been able to find the exact reason yet, but I know it's related to WordPress. So, on a colleague's recommendation, I downloaded a few plugins for the site overall to optimize performance a bit. Pages/posts already visited should now load faster on a second visit from the same device.
Since I also hadn't failed to notice the long load time on the Horse Name Database, and it frustrated me just as much that the register wasn't quick to use, I rebuilt it outside of WordPress and roughly recreated a few elements like the header and footer. Now you should be able to flip through over 1000 names in seconds. I also tweaked the buttons a bit here, so they're easier to "hit" on a smartphone.
Thank you for your patience (also for the fact that some pages in the register weren't reachable yet), and for helping develop the register by already submitting so many name suggestions!
You can find the next development steps for the Horse Name Database in the following post: Update: 04/29/2019 Version 1.1 Horse Name Database
Warm regards and a lovely Wednesday afternoon,
your Jackie
Good evening to all of you!
Since 8:30 PM, it's now possible to suggest your own horse names. This is possible via the incredibly professional and visually appealing form on the Horse Name Database's homepage. Of course, names first have to wait for approval, we don't want to feed the trolls, after all ;-). You can also now see the exact number of submitted horse names.
While rolling out the visible, approved names, there was a small display issue this morning through the afternoon. It was successfully fixed a few hours ago. (Would've gone faster, admittedly, if writing PHP on a phone weren't so incredibly annoying).
I noticed that the first new names have already started trickling in, and I'm really happy about that! I find it pretty astonishing that I managed to write down a whole 1000 names... But going forward, you all can help me out! 😛
What happens next?
Going forward, more and more horse names in different languages will be added, so the next step would be building in a filter. I was thinking of a search form where you can select the horse name's language. At the same time, there should be a separate page for adding new names, with more fields to fill out there, to take some of the work off my hands.
I'm already looking forward to your name suggestions!
Warm regards and a lovely evening,
your Jackie