Guess Sublime Feed will be built with Laravel... š¤Ŗ Here is an auth screen (all comes out the box, with tweaks from me š). The main site now also runs on it... was using Rails before. Nothing like learning something new.
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These are my active development projects at this time. You can go through any of them for more info and see specific posts for the project.
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Find out more and read the updatesGuess Sublime Feed will be built with Laravel... š¤Ŗ Here is an auth screen (all comes out the box, with tweaks from me š). The main site now also runs on it... was using Rails before. Nothing like learning something new.
Thinking of doing a little code challenge this week, which I was supposed to start today. Let me know if you dear readers would be interested in Sublime Feed, a web based feed (RSS) reader and sync service. Already recorded a podcast this morning saying I'll do it 😋
Friday evening. So instead of playing a video game ā I really donāt play at all anymore ā Iām going to be dusting off an old project of mine. Much better game where my code and me are the story.
Wow, OK, so HEY launched something called HEY World. Which, as it seems, is a real simple blogging platform, that is basically just you writing an email and sending it to a special address. That in turn gets published.
It's super simple, has an RSS feed per profile and also allows you to sign up via email - to receive updates when someone writes a new post.
This all happened this week as I was on my way.
I really love the idea, and what depresses me the MOST is that I planned, and registered a domain, mid last year for something incredibly similar (June 15th!).
I have always seen a need for something simple, without you having to have your own blog. Just something for you to write and get it out there. The name I chose was "Sublime Thoughts"...
Damn!
Here is the announcement post from HEY.
Now, I am not put off by this in any way... because I have my own angle on it. But it's a shame in a way... but I will not focus on the negative. I can't do everything, I am only one person.
Anyway, if you are using HEY Personal and once they open it up, it seems like a great idea.
Playing around with the login and register section of Sublime Feed. Trying out Unsplash for background images.
Started on getting my.sublimefeed.com set up. It's got a homepage and a link to the next section. There's also a info modal on the top right that shows the current status of the page. Click to expand :)
Got to start somewhere I guess, you can see it in action here: sublimefeed.com
Started the very first step of Sublime Feed today. Set up two repos, hosted them on Netlify, pointed the domain to it. Deploying nicely. They're already React JS web apps, which I'll be using to build out everything. A bit excessive at the moment, however it'll be the foundation of the sites - don't really fancy adding it at a later stage.
Itās been a few months since I shipped Simple Schedule, part of my first ever code challenge. Itās been an eye opener for sure and am happy where it got me. Whilst it hasnāt gained much traction, I am pretty OK with it. A lot of effort went into it, during a difficult part in my life. True, itās still in beta and yeahā¦ there are still a few items I want to change and add.
Now, I want to attempt something new. Something out of my comfort zone, using a new framework - in a language I have never really coded in. With multiple apps to throw into the mix.
Looking at my registrar I registered a domain name in summer of last yearā¦ with a simple ādirectoryā of things being hosted - just to try out a prototype iOS app that I fully designed in Sketch. With the iOS app and part web app serving as a directory I got to work with shipping something for September of last year. As everything in life, I was confronted with other things. So it never saw the light of day. Nor did I progress further except getting a design into Xcode and getting the views hooked up. With that, I also got one of the feeds (spoiler) to work. But thatās as far as I got.
Didnāt want to keep you in suspense too long, so letās get right to it.
Last year I sat down and looked at feed readers and the state of online feed sync services (talking about RSS btw). Theyāre all pretty great and I tried a lot of readers out there. The only feed sync service I ended up using was FeedWrangler. I liked the simplicity of it all and it was well supported with readers. True enough, there are a lot out there that do the same thing.
With that being said, I think there is room for one more. I call it Sublime Feed. Initially called Just Feed last year, I have grown rather fond of the word āsublimeā.
So, whilst I donāt want to go into too much detail just yet - for this post - I do want to offer a clue, or letās say a high level overview, of what I actually want to achieve with Sublime Feed:
There are many more things I want to put here like accessibility, multi-language support, privacy and portability of data - however I think that will go into too much detail at the moment.
There is always a planā¦ plans are plans and are subject to change. So right off the bat, I wonāt get annoyed when things donāt work out as I want them to. I may even cut features to get to Alpha. Oh, spoiler right there. Whoops.
Ermā¦ plansā¦ right.
With that said, I expect a few things to change along the way and I donāt want to overpromise too much. However, I set this as a guideline to the end goal of the ācode challengeā part. Not everything will be there straight away and some things will take longer than others to get there.
This certainly wonāt be a 3 month challengeā¦ To be honest, Iām not even sure if I should call it a code challenge. At the same time thoughā¦ it is. I have never attempted something this challenging for a long period of time. I usually concentrated on one thing at a time. One app, one website, you name it. This is more than that.
The truth is, I like to start with getting a design in place and working with that to define the app and features I want to have. This worked well for Simple Schedule. True, this is not for everyone and may not work for youā¦ it does for me. It floats my boat.
Here is the plan, for the plan, to plan the first plan, of the planned web application (that probably didnāt make sense):
Here was me thinking there will be a huge list. Sureā¦ itās one pointā¦ however itās actually a massive undertaking. Hey, anyone can code HTML and CSSā¦ right?
For the nerdy type, Iād like to build the project (the frontend) out with the following frameworks/technologies:
I would like to say that the website is phase one. With the web app built Iām hoping it will give me clues of what I should and shouldnāt include in the iOS and Android app. A side effect of using React JS is that the web application will be a progressive web app. That's pretty neat!
Whilst not set in stone, I want to really tie myself up and say that I will release both the Android and iOS App at the same time. However, the web app will, for sure, be first.
The Android app, together with the iOS release, has been fuelled by seeing a lot of these service and/or apps not catering for either at the same time. Sure, a few offer alternatives. In fact, Iāll be investing in an Android device to develop on itā¦ and not use emulators of that sort. You canāt beat a real device.
Everybody reads. They shouldnāt be limited to what device they use.
And yes, I agree that you should work on what you know and feel comfortable with. But thatās not the point of a challenge.
Iāll be writing everything down in more detailed posts along the way.
Letās call this the plan for the frontend part - Stage 1.
As with my last project, Iāll be working publicly where I can. This time around I wonāt have a newsletter ābetaā sign up form at all. So readers of the blog and myself can keep an eye on it and then eventually sign up to it.
There will be many, however not that frequent, blog posts as I go. I also want to attempt a few short podcasts, however that remains to be seen.
I may rename "Code Challenge" to Development Diaries or something similar. Inspired by Brent Simmons.
It would be great to hear from followers and readers of this blog of what they would like to see in a feed reader. May it be web specific, app specific, reading style specific, you name it. Anything at all. Is there something missing on what you use now that you want to see? Email me as per below or message me on Micro.blog.
This is going to be breaking a lot of hearts. I am one person, with many client projects taking most of my time - hey, it pays the rent! Not only that, I work on tight schedules which drain me mentally and actually physically - not bad for sitting in a chair all day. On top, I have a family that need me when Iām not working.
However, I have planned dedicated time for the project around all my client work. They donāt need to knowā¦
The famous plan for timing:
Iāll stop there because weāre now at 6 months already. Iād love to work on the mobile apps at the same time, but that just wonāt be the case. On top, I donāt want to hold up the project at all trying to get these out the door. No, I just want to ship something and then build it out into something really great.
For a firm start date for getting startedā¦ donāt ask me. I think around mid of May would be a good start. So watch this space.
Again, Iāll be dedicating a little section on my website regarding the project so you can follow along. Not sure if I should create a special one-off feed for these posts?
Iāll also be working on a pre-alpha type release, where stuff will break all the timeā¦ but you can start using it. Because if I can use it, so can you.
Again, this is an exercise for me, to throw me into the deep end. I want to learn and gain new skills on the way. I want to take something complex and make it simple, or so I hope.
Also, by throwing this out now I do realise that Iām pretty much giving anyone my idea. By opening it up to the public I hope to once again keep this all going. Keeps me liable to actually shipping it. Sure, I take away the surprise effect, but why wait?
I donāt want to build yet another feed serviceā¦ no, I want something way more sublime and engaging.
And on that note, thanks for reading. Excited to get started and totally amazed that I finally got it off my chest.
If you want to follow along, subscribe to my blog feed, follow me on Micro.blog or just email me. Glad to speak to a human :)