Little UI Progress And A Bright Future

The Progress
I made a little progress with the sample notes application I talked about in the previous post.
I created a header to the table using a CSS.
The old version can be found here.
The new version can be found here.

It was quite a fast experience for all I needed was to look at another application :)
What I learned was:
  • How to copy-paste CSS code :)
  • CSS syntax - Just scratched the surface
  • Few glitches in GWT

Ultimate Goal
The ultimate goal is to have a framework and knowledge to develop a web application from end to end where the development should be:
  • Fast
  • Easy
  • Business oriented
  • Interesting
What's next?
Lots of options:
  • GWT API - Experiments with tables, layouts and other API
  • Google's app-engine: Available APIs, DB(JPA), Google users API(open ID?), ...
  • GWT MVC(Model, View, Contoller)
  • GWT project organization - Client-Server shared code, projects reuse, projects dependencies, ...
Means
OK, so I now have a set of things to learn, but it would be nice to use them in a real useful application.

I would gladly continue my exploration with the notes application but similar exists by the tons, which kind of takes the edge out of it.

I'm looking for an application idea I could experiment with.

My current idea is a warehouse sorting application(will have a warehouse after we move to Modiin:) - I haven't yet googled to see if such exists.
The application would keep track on what exists where and help users find things when needed.
It can have several features like search capabilities. It could perhaps plug into a task application and pop up useful info when needed, for example: If i have a task to repair a bicycle puncture, the application would tell the user where his bicycle repair kit is located(with history).

What do you think?

Please feel free to suggest other application ideas....

Cheers,
Alik.

2 comments:

  1. Can I add/edit notes in the application? Just wondering, because I couldn't do it. Anyway, it looks much better.

    Copy-paste programming is very common on the Internet. Few people actually start from scratch and this is a good thing because web programming is tricky if you want things to work properly on most browsers. I recommend handcrafting your CSS code as little as possible. Joel Spolsky said it best when he referred to IE6:
    "The best way to fix CSS problems with IE6 is to generate random mutations on the style sheet until it looks fixed."
    :)

    As for suggestions for your application... since everything today is about being social, how about using Google's social APIs to share the contents of your warehouse with friends to allow borrowing and swapping of stuff among people (e.g. I need your lawnmower and you need my leaf blower.) I think it's a little ambitious but you can learn another API from doing it.

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  2. The notes application doesn't really do anything except generating a few notes.

    Adding/editing/searching notes was something I was planning on adding.
    I developed year ago some stand alone application with a Swing UI that does exactly that (without persistence), but migrating to a web application requires a lot more - DB, user authentication, etc.

    The notes app idea is just a small version of a different idea.
    The main idea was to somehow take snapshots of your life.
    Some of the snapshots can be simple text notes.
    Others can be pictures, movies, locations, documents, thoughts, etc.
    The idea is to somehow remember everything that you did so it can be reused - by others or by myself.
    Another part of the idea is also to understand how to refer one snapshot to another.
    If i'm planning a long and far bike ride (mentioned in the calendar), it would be nice if my someone would prepare my repair kit to take with me :) or at least remind me to do so.

    I guess that if I could search/iterate through all my personal data (flicker/picasa/mail/docs/calendar/etc.) and make then relate to one another, I would get what I want.
    The problem is that I don't have such an option.

    Everything is scattered...


    Regarding the warehouse: Going social is a great idea - thanks Amit.

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