[Updates/Notes] 20180626

[joeyklee]

link to weekly update slides https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iPBk2P695OF-J2qb-zQOwe796sJfpqdY39j3l4tNIJU/edit?usp=sharing

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notes

My goal this week is to spec and build out the various components to make a fully functioning prototype from end to end.

This includes:

• front end user facing interface
  • [x] TODO: create GET request to pull popular tags via API from our DB and add to browser extension for easier search and tagging (see below)
• backend user auth and resource submission database management
  • [X] TODO: create API endpoint to pull popular tags and add to browser extension for easier search and tagging (see above)
• backend database resource handling:
  • the first few tests using Github issues as our database were interesting, but I think it makes more sense now to fire up our own server/database to handle incoming data in a better/more flexible way.
  • try out firebase as a service
  • try out homegrown solution
• wiring all that up in a context that makes sense - bookmarklet? or browser extension?

Updates

I put together a little demo to show all of the front-end mechanisms working.

👉A short video can be seen here: https://youtu.be/fWUvTobaE0k 👈

The video shows:

• grabbing title, description, and image from page meta tags
• defaults to page url if no meta tags are found
• multi select tagging with suggestions via Selectize.js
• applying level and time commitment
• submit resource button sending output data to the console

Learnings:

• need to find a good way to add titles, decriptions, and images to pages without <meta> tags
• still need a rating and commenting feature
• youtube has keywords that can be pulled from the page

A couple images:

[joeyklee]

@shiffman @vanevery I've been looking a bit into Firebase as database/auth service and wondering if either of you have any major reservations about it.

pros:

• lots of fancy features
• well documented
• easy to spin up and handle complex stuff

cons:

• pricing // https://firebase.google.com/pricing/
• very much living in the google-verse

Firebase seems like it would be a nice service to use, but I think it is just good to consider medium/long term plans regarding funding, maintenance, etc.

alternative

I'm also happy to spin up a non firebase server/db (e.g. node.js/mongo), but I am just curious to know if you have a preference.

Thanks! ✌️

[joeyklee]

just dropping some some diagrams for thinking about data flow:

[shiffman]

Hey! Only seeing this now after our meeting. I'm assuming based on our discussion you went in a different direction, but I'm a-ok with firebase should that make sense to use!

[joeyklee]

@shiffman - yep! all good for now. I think we might be able to manage ok with our own simple server/db setup :) Thanks!

[joeyklee]

Update: 20170627

Now we've got a basic chrome extension working that sends data to a local mongodb instance. I still need to update the mongodb data handling in a smart way to increment the count for redundant tags and count how many times a url has been submitted etc, but the pipeline is alive and working.

TODOS:

• What's missing is authentication but I will take care of that next week.
• Also need to add the pages for the a links (e.g. info and view submissions)
• still wireframey in style so it is def. not the final design

"what is the mortar to the bricks?"

I've added some ideas on this in the update slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iPBk2P695OF-J2qb-zQOwe796sJfpqdY39j3l4tNIJU/edit?usp=sharing

It is basically what the initial proposals were. I think we're getting somewhere... still lots to be determined.

[joeyklee]

A tool link from Alejandro - "a visual tool that helps you think": https://www.are.na/

[joeyklee]

Closing issue ==> moving all the [Updates/Notes] to https://github.com/knittingmachine/knittingmachine-docs/blob/master/updates-and-notes.md