About my Periodic Table

Aren't there hundreds of periodic tables?

This website is built to be a minimalistic presentation of the periodic table, providing useful information about different elements, for people to use for education or for reference.

The site is currently in development, so features will be added as they are developed, and improvements will be frequent, although this means things may break more easily, so please let me know if you experience this.

The periodic table is designed to be interactive, to allow information to be well presented and easy to access, on any device.

How does it work?

To find out more information about an element, simply click on it to get a full screen view, with a variety of different information, including electron configuration, general information such as boiling or melting point, and information for engineers. You can use arrow keys (or swiping on mobile) to switch between elements.

If you want to find an element that fits a set of criteria, you should use the search feature with parameters to find the elements you want.

So you’re still building the site?

Yes. The site will continue to be getting new features and improvements, but I can’t do it alone. I need you to help improve the site. If you have any ideas for improvements, features or data types, please do let me know, using the forms at the bottom of the page, and if you would like a reply from me, please use the ‘Contact Me’ form.

Also, if you like this site, please do share it on social media or link to it on your website so other people can learn about my website. If there’s something you’re less sure about, let me know! I have a fair amount of development to do but I’ll do my best to improve it and to respond to user feedback.

I am also looking to add new sections to the website, in addition to the current periodic table view, so if you have any big ideas, there is a good chance I may be able to implement them.

I like it, can I put it on my site?

You are more than welcome to link to my site in whatever way you wish. This helps new users to discover my content, and I would even encourage this if you found my content useful.

If however you are looking to embed my site, unfortunately at the moment this is not possible. I haven’t set up a version of the site for embedding, so the user experience would be poor. Instead please link to the site, and if you have an interest in embedding later, please use the contact me form, and I’ll email you if this gets made. This will also allow me to prioritise this in my development.

If you embed or use my work by downloading and re-uploading any content without contacting me, a DMCA takedown request will need to be issued to google or your hosting provider.

Why is your site any better than the others?

This website uses responsive design well, which I believe is unlike many other periodic table web applications. This means the website is easy to use on a phone, tablet or computer, whilst providing the best experience on all of them. I have tested this site on many modern browsers, to ensure good performance and a good user interface.

It also has a modern simple design, which makes the site easy and intuitive to navigate. It is also constantly being updated by me, so improvements will be frequent in nature.

Because my periodic table is interactive, it allows you to easily find more complex data, including information about ionisations and electrons, as well as the history of the element, whilst keeping the simplicity that makes it easy to use.

How was your data sourced?

The information about each element was originally sourced from a csv file found on a university site. Since then I have added more data from Wikipedia, and pushed manual corrections where necessary. I am working to correct errors, and will continue to push updates correcting any errors that are reported to me.

What are your plans for future development?

The future plans for the website revolve around a couple of main themes, which are as follows:

UI improvements - presenting the data in a way which is more functional as well as prettier.

Data Accuracy, and more data - I will add corrections submitted to and verified by me. Furthermore, I will try to add more fields for each of the elements, including atomic radius.

New Features - I will add to the existing features of the site. I haven’t got anything concrete on this I can share at the moment, but I’ve got a couple of ideas I’ll be designing, and then I’ll decide what will be implemented from there.

Developing the Periodic Table

What Technologies did you use?

The backend of this website was built using PHP and mySQL, with data initially imported from a csv file. Over time, more fields and data were gathered using a python script. The front end is build using javascript and jQuery, however at some point I would like to convert to pure javascript to reduce load times.

Is it Open Source?

The website is not currently open sourced, however I am working to improve the site. If there is a feature that you want adding, then please let me know, or if you have a reason for wanting the source code or a proposal, then please speak to me and I’ll listen to what you have to say.

Can I use the data from your periodic table?

Unfortunately, the data is not available for use in other applications at the moment. I have not implemented any API, and data is sent as HTML, rather than as XML or JSON, making it harder to parse.

Because the data is not currently available, if you have a specific need for it, feel free to contact me.