The devil in the details

By chris, posted on Aug 16th 2007

One of the main reasons for rewriting projectGenie (you knew I was doing that, right?) is to clean up a lot of the little things. After all, an application is just a collection of tiny details so it makes sense to get those details right.

So here’s a quick preview of part of the old interface:

Old interface

And it’s new counterpart:

New interface

Much better, I think.

The mountain keeps growing

By chris, posted on Jul 18th 2007

You know that lack of time I was talking about? It’s now even more lacking. However despite that I have had chance to spend some time on the upcoming Brookmeyer release, and have finally nailed three important parts.

So from that you can tell I’ve made quite a bit of progress. There’s a long way to go, I still have almost every page to shuffle round so it looks better and is easier to use, but progress has been made.

In the meantime I have a bit of technical know-how that might help you out. A couple of projectGenie users have complained that they get SQL errors after installing the current version. If that’s you then don’t panic, it’s a problem to do with the configuration file (fixed in the new version to come). Going to ‘Configuration’ and clicking the update button (you don’t need to change anything, just click the button) will re-jig your installation and sort it right out.

Learning from the gurus

By chris, posted on Jun 8th 2007

There is less than a week to go to the release of version Brookmeyer of projectGenie. In quite what state I’ll drag myself across the line I’m not sure, but I’m fairly pleased with progress. The install, database, templating, security and application modules are done, so I’m now just faced with modifying the actual display screens to be easier to use.

Speaking of user interfaces, those clever blokes over at 37signals have updated the dashboard of Basecamp again. Basecamp is their insanely popular project management system (over 1 million people have signed up!) and is a huge inspiration to me. Basecamp is projectGenie’s main competitor, but seeing as I’m giving my software away for free, and they host theirs and take care of all the technical headaches, we’re not quite in the same market.

Their dashboard is now better than ever. Here’s a quick list of some of the goodies are;

As I mentioned, projectGenie and Basecamp are targeted at two different markets (OK, projectGenie isn’t really targeted at any market) so while there’s a lot to learn from the masters of lean, mean web applications, I won’t be copying it wholesale. That would be bad-mannered. Instead I’m going to try to be a little more selective in the graphical elements and layouts I choose (less icons, more simple lists, group things logically).

And, who knows, I may even get it done by the deadline.

Changes of plan

By chris, posted on Jun 4th 2007

So there I was, knee-deep in PHP and wondering what the hell I was thinking to set myself a challenge like this. To write, basically from scratch, a new version of a quite complex web application in just over 10 days. As if that’s not mad enough, I had other clients that need to be serviced as well. Life doesn’t stop just because of my whims.

So, depsite me saying that I wasn’t going to look at the templating system for projectGenie this time round, guess what I’ve done? That’s right, rewritten the templating system. Oh, and the installer.

There is method in my madness, you see. By having a better installer means that (hopefully) people will find it easier to start playing with projectGenie. I’m forever thinking about the users, me. And by sorting out the templating system (OK, so it’s a hybrid of a proper object-oriented templating system and my old procedural system) I can produce the rest of the system screens much more easily.

I’ve also added a simple database class so that I have a single point of failure, I mean access, to the database. And the menus are now dynamic, so people who aren;t meant to see certain section now can’t. Hurrah.

Still, to think that I’ve not even started on the list of things I’d said I’d do for version Brookmeyer … it’s a ludicrous escapade. If I make it I’ll be amazed.

And they’re off!

By chris, posted on May 31st 2007

I’ve started my ridiculous escapade of getting the Brookmeyer version of projectGenie live by my birthday on the 14th of June. I’ve already made a few decisions to limit the amount of huge under-the-cover redevelopment I’ll have to do (basically the templating system will be staying much the same) and now is the time to set out my stall for exactly what features will be added/removed.

In a nutshell:

  1. The main screen (can I call it the Dashboard? Not really…) will be redesigned, with the five or six current sections being replaced by three. The main one will show all notes to all projects that you have access to, with some options to filter them. Much better.
  2. I’ll be replacing the current clunky JavaScript library with prototype and Performer.
  3. Clean URLs for people who can use them. That will be configurable by the configuration options.
  4. And speaking of configuration options, I’ll be cleaning that up quite a lot. Basically there will be a standard set of configuration options, and a much more comprehensive advanced set of options.
  5. There will be redesigns for most of the screens, especially the client, contact and project screen.
  6. I’ll add some simple reports to help you manage projects.
  7. The help section will be updated and rewritten.

Seeing as I’m not sure I’ll have time to do even that little lot, there is only a very slim chance of any of this next list happening, but we live in hope.

  1. Simple financial management for projects: a total amount for different phases of each project, then details of any (possibly multiple) payments until the fee has been paid.
  2. Simple time management showing some kind of on-screen timer. This would be per-task.
  3. Start date and end date for tasks, allowing a simple Gantt chart to be shown.

There will be more information about my progress (or lack of it) over the next couple of weeks.

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