Posted by David Harris
Fri, 31 Mar 2006 14:35:00 GMT
Wow, so that was different. :)
So I make a post that has some ruby code you can do with rails, that lets you basically chain database relationships into a chain of objects through a ”:through” declaration, when I realized the current stable Typo doesn’t have syntax highlighting support. So I tried to upgrade to the SVN trunk, likely at the exact moment my host did the upgrade to Rails 1.1.
So I was stuck with my old installation with a new database, a new installation that I wanted, and neither working because 1.1 broke it.
In the end, I just wanted Typo back up. Luckily, I’d dumped the mysql database before that. Probably took that from working with SQL Server too much. :) So I cleaned out the databases, restored the old one, put my symbolic links back to the old installation, and tried it out. Didn’t work. So, in the interest of someone with the same problem coming across this, I applied this patch from Typo’s ticketing system and it fixed everything (reassociated the rails libraries to 1.0).
It’s a shame too, because from the little I’ve looked at Typo code, it looks like a lot of the stuff they hack around to get database stuff to work could be completely replaced by some of the features in rails 1.1. Though apparently they are working diligently on it, so here’s hoping for some code refactoring and 1.1 compatibility before Typo 4 is released.
3 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by David Harris
Wed, 15 Mar 2006 21:45:00 GMT
I now understand the way 37signals does business, if I didn’t before. In my recent need for scheduling, I’m going to have to create a tool I like. Maybe I make money off of it, maybe not. But I benefit either way.
enter the problem.
I consider myself an “agile” scheduler. :-) Meaning, that I don’t set a rigid schedule for my personal activities, but rather I have large visions of what I’m doing in a week. I rarely think more than a week out unless it requires travel. However, as of late, I’m finding myself a little too busy with things to not have a calendar of some kind.
enter the process.
So, I searched for about a week looking for a nice “web 2.0” (boy I hate that moniker) calendering application. And I looked at every one I could find. Apparently Google is looking for a calendar soon, and there are hundreds of startups looking for a quick buyout from Google, following the typical web 2.0 way of doing things. Don’t even get me started on how pitiful it is to choose a quick buck over constant innovation.
And my needs were not that complex:
- Easily accessible from anywhere with internet access.
- Accessible from my mobile phone.
- Ease of inputting. I don’t want to have to fill out the equivalent of a tax application just for a reminder to walk my dog.
- An easy URL to remember.
- Fast loading time – there is no reason it should take a minute to load a calendar.
- Non-cluttered.
Yet despite fairly normal constraints, nobody got it right. 30boxes came the closest, but the jumbled look of the application gave the sentiment of future feature creep, and the loading time wasn’t great. Close, but no cigar.
Most of them were for “sharing” your calendar with other people. I have no need to do that, though. I would like a “public” and “private” designation, where I can make some events publically viewable, just a simple boolean answer; do you want others to see it or not? I don’t need reminders, it’s my job to look at my calendar. I don’t need to micromanage my time in a day, just let me input an event, and if I want to include the time I will.
enter the solution.
So, I’m going to roll my own calendar app, and not so Google can buy me out (though I wouldn’t say no). I registered tinycal.com for this purpose. It’s something I am going to use, and if other people see it as a good idea, then great. I might even figure out a way to cash in on it. Here are some of the basics I’m looking at thus far. Please, if you have input comment below, as I may be missing some great ideas. However, if said idea requires interface modifications, then I may not go for it. My goal is simplicity.
The current ideas:
- Obviously ruby on rails. I want to use this sucker right away.
- Each user has his own subdomain, such as http://user.tinycal.com. Like basecamp. The public can look at this and see the events marked public. But it must be logged into in order to see private events or add new events.
- Inputting a new event is simple: double-click the cell and it prompts you for three pieces of information: the event, public/private, and “other data” (which can be location, or time, or whatever you want). The “other data” and the public/private (default private) fields are hidden by default and opened up through a simple link.
- We don’t care about times of events. If you want a time, you can add a simple “8pm” to the front of the event or in the “other data” section. If you want to keep items in order, each box’s events can be ordered manually via dragging the event up and down (scriptaculous sortable lists).
- For God’s sake, no more mouseover information. It’s ugly and most times, you moused over by accident and didn’t want to see extra information. If you want to see the meta data, then you click the event which opens a description box (which of course has edit-in-place).
- Mobile phone access. I want to look at and edit events from my phone. Obviously this won’t be ajaxified, but it will be as simple to navigate.
- I’d like to implement a Google Maps style dragging to scroll the calendar month to month, but I’m not sure of the best implementation for this yet.
- I don’t care about skinning. If I make the interface pretty enough, that will be pointless anyway. Maybe provide a few color schemes though.
- I don’t care about “categories” or anything like that. An event is an event is an event, whether it’s at the office, or a football game, or poker night. Why do we care if it’s categorized or not?
And that’s all I have now. Maybe it will work out, maybe not, but right now I have no other option. These calendar sites are all trying to be the “One Calendar to Rule Them All”, and that’s stupid. I don’t use Outlook because it’s too much to handle. My lifestyle doesn’t require me to know every 10 minutes of my life ahead of time. I just need to know if I’m supposed to be somewhere, or maybe two places, this thursday night.
2 comments | no trackbacks
