Bookly

The last update was about finishing up things and sending it out. I looked at all the code carefully finding every broken link changing the last bits of fake text with real final words and checking for any problems that might happen. I spent a lot of time making sure that the global search engine, custom playlists and native PDF reader all work well on every page. When the tests in my computer were approved I put the files online and made the site live. Bookly is now officially online and ready to help students, over the world.

This update was about making Bookly real. I did a data change removing the fake items and putting real textbooks and real cover images in their place. The library now. Feels like a real and working platform! Along with the books I connected the social media links and changed the sites main details to show our real brand. Now that the structure and system are all set the hard work is done. From on the plan is simple: the rest of the work is mostly about making the user interface better and adding more books to the JSON database for the community. We are, near the end!

I just finished making the platform feel really alive. It does not need me to fix it all the time. I worked on the Featured Book section on the Home page. Before I had to change the code by hand to show a book. Now it uses a JavaScript loop that runs automatically. I made a function that figures out what week of the year it is. The script uses math to switch between a list of book IDs from our database every 7 days. It puts the book cover, description and other details into the PDF reader and the UI Modal perfectly. The Featured Book section is. Changing all the time and it is ready for students to use. The platform is working dynamically. The Featured Book section is automatically updated. I made the Featured Book section feel alive. It is ready, for the students.

I am trying to expand Booklys library putting every saved book into one “Favorites” list just wasn’t working. Students study for subjects and exams at the same time. First I improved our localStorage structure from a flat array to a dictionary object. This let me include a custom dropdown inside the Book UI Modal where users can make their folders right away (like “Term 1 Finals” or “Weekend Reading”). Lastly I redesigned the Library page swapping the favorites grid for a lively tabbed dashboard. Users can now move through their custom folders easily. To finish I created a migration script so anyone who had books stored in the system had them moved to a default “Favorites” folder without losing any information. I am trying to expand Booklys library putting every saved book into one “Favorites” list just wasn’t working. Students study for subjects and exams at the same time. Todays update adds a Spotify-style “Collections” feature to the platform. First I improved our localStorage structure from a flat array to a dictionary object. This let me include a custom dropdown, inside the Book UI Modal where users can make their folders right away (like “Term 1 Finals” or “Weekend Reading”). Lastly I redesigned the Library page swapping the favorites grid for a lively tabbed dashboard. Users can now move through their custom folders easily. To finish I created a migration script so anyone who had books stored in the system had them moved to a default “Favorites” folder without losing any information.

This time, I focused on enhancing the user experience. First, I expanded our central books.json database, populating it with a wider variety of texts and injecting new metadata—like author names, page counts, and synopses. To display this rich data without cluttering the main grid, I built a custom, glass-morphism UI Modal. Now, clicking “View Book” triggers a sleek pop-up rather than aggressively forcing a download. The biggest technical win, however, is the new “Read Online” integration. By leveraging the target=”_blank” attribute paired with the raw PDF URL, Bookly now securely hands off the file to the browser’s native PDF viewer. This bypasses the need for heavy third-party libraries, ensuring students get a hardware-accelerated, lag-free reading experience right in their current window.

I am working on my HTML project. I want to make it more interesting. The old version of my project had a problem. It was not easy to make it bigger. I had written a lot of code for each book in my library.html file which made the code very long and hard to work with. Today I removed all the code that I had written for each book. I put all my books into a small file called books.json. Now my website uses JavaScript to get the information from this file. It makes the book cards on its own. This way the information and the way it looks are separate so adding books is easy. I just need to add some new information to the file.

I want to note something for developers: when you try to get a file from your own computer the browser will stop you because of security rules. So I started using a tool in my code editor called Live Server to help me work on my project on my own computer. This tool makes sure that my website can get the information, from the file without any problems.

Coming back to a four-year- codebase is always a trip. The original Bookly did the job. The structure was holding it back. It was a single-page application that tried to do much all at once. The goal for this update wasn’t just to fix problems; it was to give the platform space to grow changing to a multi-page setup while keeping the original idea of making education easy to reach.

The biggest change in the structure was splitting the site into focused pages (Home, Library, Explore and Support). This made the site load faster. Made it easier for people to find what they need.

On the side I created a solution using localStorage to build a working “Favorites” feature. People can now make their reading lists and the browser keeps track of their choices between sessions without needing a complex backend or user login. I also added a mode toggle—something that is very important for students who study late at night.

In terms of looks the user interface was updated. The old heavy sliders were replaced with endless Swiper grids. The basic loading screen was changed to a custom animation made with CSS that flips pages like a book giving the site a feel from the very first moment.

Even though using plain JavaScript makes the site super fast the next step is to add a backend. I plan to use a database, like Firebase or Supabase to handle user accounts so favorites can stay the same on different devices. Also I want to create a PDF reader that works in the browser so students can study directly on the site of downloading files helping them save space on their phones.