PopVerse

Unique Bible Reference Viewing Systems

By Tim Morton

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The Need For a Different Referencing Tool

Like most of you, we visit Christian websites on the Internet, some of them fairly frequently. Nearly always there is Scripture referenced in the text, often many references. However, when reading a page I almost never looked a reference up in my Bible.

As many of you certainly have found, there are a handful of organizations who have developed a tagging tool webmasters can link to in their pages that will convert the Bible references into links which will take you to the organization's web page and display the Bible text. Most now also show the text in a popup when the cursor is over the reference. This is a helpful feature, but there are still some shortcomings,

• Often the Bible version you see is not the King James Version.
• There is a delay before the popup displays, especially if you have a slow connection.
• The links do not work offline at all.
• The embedded JavaScript links in the pages must call the file from a remote server.
• Organizations could redirect or discontinue the links at any time.
• They could be hacked and unwanted or obscene data could be sent in place of Bible text.
• You cannot enter a verse to view.
• When you click a link you are taken to another site and often subjected to unwanted ads, promotions, etc.
• Furthermore, most sites don't have their Bible references linked to any system. 

PopVerse-Chrome
The Chrome Edition Is Born

After doing some research we determined a Chrome Browser Extension was the best system to make a local,  "stand-alone" reference tagger/viewer from. It also helps that Chrome is now the most popular browser, at around 65% market share. So learning the Chrome APIs and working in our spare time, the Lord allowed PopVerse for Chrome to be developed. There is no other reference tagging tool like it, and here's why.

• Fully Self-Contained; The KJV Bible is Included
  PopVerse does not rely on online sources. The entire King James Bible text is included and access to it is instantaneous. It works perfectly offline.
• Instant Reference Context Viewing
  Clicking a linked reference will cause a small browser "Chapter Window" to open showing the entire Bible chapter with highlighted references(s).
• Context Menu Verse List
  A Right-click will open a Verse List from References option where the text of all the Bible references on a page will be loaded in "Verse List Window."
• Easy Reference Entry
  A simple click of the PopVerse icon will open a Quick Reference Entry where the user can enter a reference to view. Entries can also be made in the Chapter Window.
• Optional Cross References Display
  In the Chapter Window there is a button to turn on key cross references for each verse from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Up to four cross references will be shown for each verse.
• Easily Enable/Disable PopVerse on any page.
• Change color scheme of popups and windows.
• Not susceptible to hacks or intrusions as data from remote servers is.
• Freedom From Unwanted Promotion
  The user is in full control and is never taken off the current page to a remote server which can include ads, nag messages, and other promotions.

To Install PopVerse for Chrome all you need is the desktop edition of the Chrome web browser (or any of its derivatives, Brave, etc.) and then go to the PopVerse Page at the Chrome Store. Once there click Install and then visit your favorite websites with Bible references and see how it works.

Here is a demonstration video of PopVerse-Chrome,

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PopVerse-Server (beta)
The Server Edition of PopVerse

As mentioned above, there has been online server based linking systems available for several years. These require each web site's webmaster to place a link to the remote tool in each page of his website he wants to link. Then while a page loads, it must also load the JavaScript file on the remote server before it can finish. If the remote organization's server is slow or down, this can hinder the page loading. Another significant issue is if the remote server was hacked, anything, including text, images, or even videos could be sent in place of Bible text. Think about that a minute!

How Is PopVerse Different?

The server edition of PopVerse is different from all other server based linking tools in one key aspect—each webmaster hosts all the necessary files for it to work on his OWN SERVER and DOMAIN! There is no call to another server or website for a JavaScript file, nor is a remote database queried to provide the Bible text. No other organization or host is involved. Everything occurs on the website's own server.

Furthermore, instead of having the Bible text placed in a server based database such as MySQL, we have put it in a file based SQLite database. The advantage here is a server database does not have to be setup and configured. Some small website authors may not have access to MySQL databases or may not wish to deal with them even if they do, so a simple file based database fits the bill for an easy "drop in" system.

How Does Is Work?

For PopVerse to work all that needs to be done is copy the few files that make up the PopVerse distribution into a single folder on one's server, and then put a script tag pointing to the popverse.js file in the HTML files one wants to link. After this, PopVerse should simply work. It will be retrieving the Bible text directly from the same server and domain the website is hosted from.

SQLite is a very robust file based database system. (In fact it is the database used for our Bible Analyzer software modules.) It can handle many thousands of simultaneous connections thus there is no danger of database access lag even if many users are using PopVerse enabled web pages on a single site at once.

The files that make up the PopVerse system consist of,

• popverse.js — This does all the heavy work and is loaded by each web page.
• getBib.php — A PHP file that acts as a bridge between the JavaScript file and the Bible database.
• chap.html — A skeleton HTML file of the chapter view window.
• popverse.css — A CSS file that the popup and chapter displays need.
• avBib.db — The 1769 King James Bible database file. (We also have a database made of the 1611 edition of the King James with the old spelling.)

All together there is around 4 MB of data with the database being the largest file.

Customizing

Since PopVerse Server is locally hosted, some features can be customized to suit the hosting organization. For instance, if a ministry would like to have their name or web site in the popups and/or chapter Window or change the entire color scheme, we can provide a customized edition for a reasonable donation. See circled areas in the image below,

How To Get PopVerse-Server Edition

If you have a web site and access to your server and want to give PopVerse a try, let me know. We will send you the package and simple instructions to install.

PopVerse is still in a refinement stage but we are using it on all our pages here at PreservedWords.com and it seems to be working as expected.