January 28th
2010
I know that most of you come here for the recipes and rest assured, I have something sweet up my sleeve (and perhaps a little intimidating on first sight) – just not today. Today is about a topic that is close to my heart and – as all your copious comments on an earlier post on delicious:days have shown – close to yours, too: how to organize recipes. Having used an imperfect, sometimes chaotic mix of online bookmarking tools, a couple of folders for rip-outs and handwritten Moleskine recipe books, I was never really satisfied with the situation.
Always on the hunt for the perfect solution and being an avid computer user, I tried to warm up to different recipe tools – several times! But nothing really stuck and convinced me to stay, either because of lacking functionality or rather bland layout style. Too impractical, neither flexible nor accessible enough. And on top, as soon as the iPhone moved in with us, the wish to access my favorite recipes from just anywhere grew exponentially. Still, the perfect tool for my needs was nowhere to be found. Then one day last summer I thought out loud. The fatal words: Why not design and program my dream tool ourselves?
What began as a crackpot idea soon turned into a little project (as if we needed to spend extra time in front of the screens). Due to job obligations our little project sometimes took a longer break, yet it began to take shape. I wanted this program to basically store my favorite recipes. It should offer multiple search options (extensive recipe categories, tags, search terms). And of course it should have a cool and easy to handle interface, that would make it pure fun to use. In September I was able to actually use the first stable version on our web server and began to enter the first recipes. Soon after we had made the software iPhone-compatible (streamlined user interface) new ideas popped up. I wanted the application to keep track of cooking ideas (my to-try-list), for whom I had cooked certain dishes and of course the recipes’ origin, not to miss a function for emailing and printing.
Oh, and of course our baby was still in need for a cute name. Before I even started pondering different options, Oliver hit the nail on the head with the perfect idea: recipeShelf was born.
I am using it ever since. It’s exactly what I was looking for, has all the functionality I wanted and nothing more. Whenever I open it, it makes me smile - it’s really fun to use and even satisfies my designer’s heart, as you can pick and choose your favorite background design depending on your mood (ok, probably a girls’ thingy…).
That was that. A following conversation with a friend of mine – I was asked how I kept track of my recipes – now sparked a thought process and I was pondering the idea about whether or not our recipeShelf could indeed be of interest to others. The feedback fellow food bloggers (Thank you, Elise, Matt, Hande!) and non-blogging cooking friends gave us was pretty straightforward enthusiastic. This is why we decided to share recipeShelf with you.
Here is the link to the home page of recipeShelf with more detailed information and a feature list. If you just want to give it a whirl without actually installing it on your own web server, you can log into a demo version here: full web application, iPhone application (login: demo/password: demo).
PS: The default language is English, but can be changed to German as part of the installation. If you’d like to contribute a language, let us know at dev [at] myrecipeshelf [dot] com or via our contact form.
[...] the original here: How to organize recipes, part 2 – recipeShelf » delicious:days var addthis_pub = 'exil0r'; var addthis_language = 'en';var addthis_options = 'email, favorites, [...]
Looks and sounds fantastic.
I'll write about it to my sister, who always critics my blog search function.
Meanwhile, could you help me in explaining what's organization to my boss?
Could I use your recipeShelf as a successful case study? :)
This looks great! I've been looking for something like this for a long time, the demo convinced me to show it to my friend (he is kind enough to install my computer). Thank you for sharing it.
That is so clever!! When I get my iphone (which I am working on daily!!) I am going to be all over it .
I love that you can track what you've cooked and for whom. There's been a few times when I've duplicated meals for people and it is so annoying (I want to say embarrassing, but that makes me look like a stepford wife or something!!).
Wow - well done!
I love this idea!
Do you forsee making it available without a domain? iPhone stand alone would be good, but even if a separate hard drive is required, it would still be very useful!
At this point we are not planning to host recipeShelf on our server, that is not to say that we wouldn't be interested in someone else to do it. recipeShelf will however always come with a full web interface to allow more convenient data entry.
[...] post: How to organize recipes, part 2 – recipeShelf » delicious:days Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 06:50 RSS feed for comments on this post Leave a comment | [...]
Just installed it for a quick test. What to say? It's a VERY nice little piece of software!
Thx, hermes
[...] How to organize recipes, part 2 – recipeShelf » delicious:days Tags: carlton-cuse, default-language, english, executive-producers, final, full-transcript, german, installation, the-final, you-want Michael Geist - ACTA Guide: Part Four: What Will ACTA Mean To My …The Watcher: Talking 'Lost' with Lindelof and Cuse, Part 3, and …Video Sharing, Part FourAdena Lewis: Numbers important to Smithville's future : The …Sons of Steve Garvey: SoSG Campaign: The Great Debate (Part 2 …Nine films compete for foreign Oscar - The Screening Log …Shortlist appears for Foreign Films | KillerFilmCRM Watchlist 2010 Part IIIB | Social CRM: The Conversation …Ruscombe Green: Nuclear: how to take part in consultationsTHE CRYPT: Master Chief Billy Kinshasa | Scott Sigler: Bestselling … View the Contact Powered by Blog [...]
Hi -- been trying to get this install...cannot get it to work. If I leave the db-config.php blank I get an error unable to connect to database w the recipe shefl background. Complete my info and just get a white screen? I have set up many before - not sure of issue here. Any help?
Yes indeed, if you leave the "db-config.php" file blank you will get an error. Tripple check your database settings in the file. Once correct, you should be getting the install screen. A white screen may be an indicator of some sort of incompatibility, see "minimum requirements" and if in doubt check with your hosting provider.
Tried different things in the past, but nothing impressed me. This is exactly what I've been looking for. AWESOME!
I'm just writing a post about how I organize my recipes and saw this in my GReader feed. I've been using a File Maker database for oer ten years - but I'll definitely give your app a go!
I use an Android mobile, not an iPhone, but still I should be able to access the web version, right?
Congratulations, it looks marvellous!
Das ist wirklich der Hammer! Nach so was hab ich schon lange gesucht und ihr habt es tatsächlich auf die Beine gestellt. Ich bin schwer beeindruckt! Das Einzige was vielleicht noch fehlt ist eine Benutzerverwaltung. Dann wäre es wirklich perfekt. Bin auf jeden Fall schon auf die finale Version gespannt!
Grüße aus DE
Thomas
Eine Benutzerverwaltung per se ist leider nicht angedacht, da sich hieraus eine ganze Liste an weiteren 'Aufgaben' ergeben und damit die ursprüngliche Idee (persönliches Rezeptarchiv) zunichte machen würde, vorstellbar wäre evtl. ein Read-Only Modus.
This looks amazing! Thanks for sharing it :)
Looks fantastic!
I`m still using prints in sheet protectors (perfect in a messy citchen!) in differend coloured folders for recipes I tried - and like, I love the database with its searchfunction on cuisine.at though it hasn`t got any pictures, but I haven`t tried my own digital version of a cookbook yet.
May be now. But transfering all the recipes will take some time ...
Can you imagine a possibility to get my favourite recipes like the gnocchi and many others from your blog into my recipeShelf??? - Similar to the printable PDFs you already offer ...
Glad you like it! Will have to think about your question and let you know... ;)
Got it working - not sure what was different, but just copied over code from some wordpress blogs I host and there it was. Super super cool!
Glad it worked out :)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by MattArmendariz, Peggy Schatz, Christelle, Valentinas Kochbuch, dubby and others. dubby said: RT @missesdelicious: Ever wondered how to organize recipes? Then maybe recipeShelf is for you. http://bit.ly/dkmujA #cooltool [...]
You. Two. Are. Brilliant. Absolutely, OFF THE CHARTS, genius!!!! I am so excited to become a RecipeShelf-er!
This is brilliant! Thanks so much for sharing this with the masses (or at least the masses that read your blog). I just set it up and this may distract me from studying this weekend :)
I was so excited when I saw this post but don't have my own web server. I hope there will eventually be a way for people like me to use it - a good recipe program is hard to find!
Per the FAQs, if you don't have your own web space/domain, you can set it up with a free web space hoster. Thomas actually pointed that option out and he had no issues getting recipeShelf installed (cook4life.piranho.de).
[...] by Jeanne on January 30, 2010 This is pure genius – a recipe organizer designed by none other than [...]
Thank you for the programm!
your iphone has a wonderful case! may i ask, where it`s from??
Thanx
Hi Juli, this is what I got and I still love it :)
Hi, this is really gorgeous! Guess how I spent my weekend... As I have to move between different places this at last gives me the chance to have recourse to my favourite recipes at any place + time. Brilliant. Thanks a lot for your imagination + time.
One question: The "tag menue" won`t open, so I can`t search for my tags. Any ideas? Thanks again, Bärbel
Odd, is this the only side module you can't open? Have you tried a different browser? Does the demo site (above) work for you? Have you assigned "Tags" in your recipes?
great, i will try that one out.
Hi, Great job you've done!
I've been running your app and I'm thinking it's just right for my needs ^_^b
I'm having problems with the tag module, though...my recipe tags are saved in the db but not showing in the cloud...tried to run the installation again but no luck. Any idea?
I noticed the demo is a 0.92 version, whereas the download is 0.91...do you already have an update available?
Thanks again for all your efforts+help
Hm. Ok, there might indeed be an issue, since you're the second user reporting it, even though I can't reproduce the issue. I've sent you an email.
RE: tags not being shown
There is an issue with tags not being shown when your server runs on a lower PHP version than 5.2, this will be fixed in recipeShelf v0.92 shortly.
Very nice job!
wow, awesome, thank you so much for all your hard work!
now if only you would implement a feature to automatically add all your delicious recipes from this very blog...
I think a lot of people might actually love that.
wow - just brilliant! recipe organizing makes me crazy sometimes and your solution is fantastic.
What a wonderful idea!!! It's great!
Great concept. Will give it a look. Love to marry technology with food and wine.
What a great application...Enough to make us add an iPhone to our family of communication devices.
You are awesome! I have got to try it out. Heading over to that page...
Love this idea and was just trying to figure out the best way to arrange my recipes.
Am going to try to install hope it works out
thanks
Best idea ever for a average person or top chef. Mobile application is the way to go and it will make our lives much easier. Thank you!
just installed the application -- it looks really great. however, it doesn't seem to have an alphabetical list of all entered recipes in the full web-browser mode... or am i just too stupid to see it? thanks
Correct, there is no complete view off all recipes in any of the modules simply because it would either break the layout (length) or it would require paging / scrollbar. Neither option we found acceptable at this point, however it may be added in a future release. Meanwhile the [expandible] Search option will help you find your recipe...
Hi, Can I export from recipeshelf to a page on my Wordpress (self hosted) blog??
Thanks!
T
There is currently no automatic way / interface to be doing this, however the roadmap foresees a connector that will allow to conveniently reference any recipe from anywhere in your WP environment (post, page etc.) and receive a pre-formatted output. Until then, you can either use the XML output & XSLT to do accomplish that (not trivial!) or more simply send yourself an email from within recipeShelf and copy/paste the HTML.
Großartiges Tool! Nur leider funktioniert die Rezeptanzeige bei mir auf dem iPhone irgendwie nicht, beim Öffnen von Rezepten dort erscheint die Nachricht "Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in [...]/recipeshelf/iphone/ajax/ajax-search.php on line 101" :(
You've got email.
I've been trying to achieve this by using a blog to post recipes only and then tagging them extensively. It's not as elegant as a solution as this. Though if there could be a "kcals" field and "course" field it would match my categories precisely. I could use the custom categories function for the courses - but I'd argue there's a good case for including a "kcals" field in the main body along with cooking time and yield.
Just a suggestion. Good luck with this - I'm sure it'll be a great success.
Audree F
Good point regarding kcals, we'll add this going forward.
Great app. How do you add new users?
Please see our recipeShelf FAQs, Q#5.
I think this is a really great idea. I wish that it could be an application on my google phone. I will though go to the website and use it that way.
The iPhone part of recipeShelf is in fact a regular web application running on your web server, however it makes more intelligent use of the limited screen estate compared to the full blown recipeShelf app. There is no reason you couldn't run it on your Google phone (except for missing some Safari browser specific style/layout features).
Thank you, thank you, deep bow, applause and danke schön.
This is to good to be true. You earn a medal for offering this far out tool for free.
Ah, and eternal fame and everything you desire.
Ciao!
[peter]
What a fantastic idea! Had a quick spin around the demo site and it's so easy to use and organise. Am excited about future plans to integrate with WordPress as that would be PERFECT!
[...] at my delicious.com page – How to organize recipes – recipeShelf – Nicky and Oliver from the ever wonderful delicious:days have created recipeShelf, an online [...]
The timing on this couldn't be better; I am at the end of my MacGourmet trial but still not convinced. It is a necessity that whatever I use also works on my iPhone. I can't wait to try this—it looks fabulous!