Wafy's Tools

I was able to get the DynaBallot update pushed out. The biggest delay was the policies and the parts needed for those policies. Some of that delay was some work with Docker for a development environment. I was able to add a new ballot type also, so check out the Dynaballot blog site.

Still working on the DynaBallot update slash privacy policy issue. I did a little more research and found that there are a number of "generators" out there that can provide a relatively sound privacy policy. From some of the testimonies and some blog posts that I have read they seem to work well. While there are some that are mostly free, they still need to make money. The one that I am planning on going with adds sections for different regions and charges for those sections.

I have an update, but due to the regulations around privacy and cookies I can't upload the update. The DynaBallot update would added a new ballot type that would have been good about 2 months ago when the holiday season started. It would also add some things that would help with the SEO and added privacy policy. It seems I need to lawyer up and get a proper privacy policy built, then add the dorky cookie popup and maybe even have a cookie policy. It is crazy what regulations are out there now even if you are not located in the region that the policy is in.

Was able to push out the Wherearegames update and the SEO for the site seems to be doing a bit better. I posted to my local gaming group and they seemed to enjoy it for about a week. With most places closed and people wanting to stay home so they don't get sick, it is not surprising it isn't getting much use. I will probably post it to a bigger group after this next update to see it will be more of a hit.

Well the feature for WhereAreGame is written, it just needs to be fully tested and prettified. Was able to get a lot done yesterday and worked out some bugs that I had while the app was talking to the server. From the looks of it depending on how difficult it will be to test the objects, and what life throws at me, the feature should be completed soon. For the most part things look to be working as expected. There are just some validation and some polishing yet to do to make it look and feel like the rest of the site.

Still haven't pushed out an update. Summer time is too active to do much in the line of programming. Though it is not to say there I can't squeeze in a little time to make a little progress. As for progress, the main GUI object exploded into many smaller objects and components, and is now a shadow of what it once was. I have to admit I spent much of the month arguing with myself on how best to pull that last piece out and how it will interface with other pieces.

Another month without pushing out an update on either of my apps. I have to admit writing a GUI framework in JavaScript is a lot of thinking and hoping I write it right. Working on breaking down some more of the main GUI object into smaller components while allowing for extending functionality. A lot of what I am trying to do is to organize widgets  and allow for external widgets to be added with out interfering with the user's widgets. I have had to simplify the main component quite a bit, but still have some more work to do.

Summer time there is so much to do and too little time to do them in. Winter isn't much better, but gives you less of an excuse to go outside at least in Minnesota. Started a new sprint at the beginning of July to update the WhereAreGames site and ran into other priorities that seem to be taking things over. Was able to get the server side of the site updated with a new feature using Server Side Events. The issue I ran into was trying to update the client side to make the layout more dynamic.

Created my first tech document, used my latest project as inspiration. I have been working on consolidating my Javascript into NPM packages in both my projects and in my library packages. The bad thing is when it comes to the library packages I don't have an easy way to move the Javascript from the package to the main project to be used. I have look at what is in Packagist and didn't find much that gave me the flexibility to move files from what I want to where I want. So I wrote a composer plugin to remove some cobbled together composer scripts to get around the problem.

There were web sites that only displayed data. Then came browser-side and server-side scripts. Where we are now, things are getting better and more complicated. But everything has it's growing pains.

I was inspired by others that have setup blog sites to keep notes on techniques they have used and projects that they are working on. I have listed projects that I currently own and hope to add to the vast knowledge base that is the internet. This is my way of giving back to the community that have inspired me so much.