Ugh! It's Murphy's Law

I found one problem with items not dragging right after the program loads. It should work now.

Last Christmas my PC went on the fritz because of an anti-virus program. And this year the cord is breaking, where it plugs in. So my programming plans for this week may fall apart.

I don't even know what to do anymore without my PC functioning. I think I will just go crazy. Especially now that I have my download ready for testing.

I saw a Lenova (think that is what it is called at Best Buy). It looked pretty nice. But takes only $1000 out of my strained budget.

So I guess my download may be postponed if it breaks completely. Right now it is charging with a chair propped up against the plugin. :(

I'm praying to God to keep it together so I can finish.

Many thanks to the lady that emailed me about the new app. I hope it will be helpful with designing.

Items cannot be added without the download. I do have the ability to make that happen online also. It's just a matter of time to get the code written. And of course I have to have a PC that works. :(

I will post about a download within a couple days if this cord will hold out. Otherwise it may be 3 or 4 weeks from now.

Setup Updates! Yay!

I spent all day getting the down loader ready. I just tested it and all seems to work right. But will do more testing tomorrow. If I find no hic-ups I'll post it tomorrow. I've been waiting 2 years for this, So I'm really excited! That free's up the next 7 days to get the cart and back end working better. I also put in a lighter wood frame for the canvas windows.

Setup Works, Now to make it update.

I've been working round the clock to get it done before school starts. It's looking pretty, but I see a bunch of places that need comments fixed.

The install file works, but the update code does not work yet. I had to restructure the version code, and that means the update code needs fixing too. So I'm guessing that will take a couple days of writing and testing.

I'm getting tired fast though. Comes from pushing too hard too fast. But I'm sure the download will be up by Jan 7.

I see a few little quirks like the mouse disappearing when over the lower part of the canvas. But those little things will make good trial runs for checking the update code. Until then your free to check out the online version.

Till next week!

Finally, I got the setup file created!

Darn! Kick Start said they only allow for projects that are not upgraded on a normal basis. So I guess I'm on my own trying to get this done.

I spent all week making a one click script to set the updates. It works, and now I just need to test it. I'm thinking that on Jan 1 or 2 2013 I will have the setup file posted.

However the Cart will not be enabled for any users.

You will only be able to add items. And it will be in testing mode for all users.

Once school starts I will only have a few hours a week to work on it. I'm thinking of working less this summer to get the tools done. But at least the basics will be up.

My Kickstart video

Schools out, but work has doubled.  I work for the college cleaning up after sports events.  There is so much energy here at this college, it makes me tired just watching all these kids.

In the mornings I work on my Kickstarter video.   Just looking at myself made me feel pretty old.  LOL, So I  put the transparency on 70% to hide all the wrinkles.

Enough of the small talk!  I tried to make the video short, but it took 10 minutes to say all I needed to say.  About 15 seconds per frame, and 21 frames.   I put it up on youtube.com also.

KickStart Project

Schools Out and I'm on it!

Today is the first day I have to concentrate only on the craft board.  Then the download will be the next hurdle.  The cart is unusable till I'm done creating the database structure for the requests panel.  But now items can be added.  I plan on using XML on the client side for offline searches.  Even though I'm out of school, my day has been filled with 4 more hours of work time.  I am planning to put this project on Kickstarter.com to buy me some developing time.  The presentation is currently being made, and hope it will be up this week.

Hope everyone is having a great December!  Till next time, cheers!

One more week till school's out!  I won't be able to work on the board till December.  I did work on the download for a few hours.  But am having a few issues getting it to install correctly.  So that will be my first fix to attack in December.  Then I'll make sure it is updating correctly.  I want to post the download by December.

I also am creating a kickstart project page.  Maybe some funding would bring this project to life faster.  I could take a few months off and kick it out.

Will post again in December.   Hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving dinner.

Edit:  Ok,  this one simple b should have been a B.  I'm happy that it was simple, but I was looking for something "brainy" to fix it.  I'm going to try it again on another pc in about an hour.

Well this is a disappointment!  I discovered the rest of the world is not seeing what I am on my PC.  For some reason the page is not loading if the flash content is not downloaded.  I will have to research this this week.  Sorry for the delay, but this is a mystery.  Hopefully it will be resolved by friday.

Uploading the first set of web files

Today I am putting the new app online. However it will be in testing. I will keep it open for those who want to check it out. But it is not complete. So I won't be posting the download. I do think it functions better than the older version. And it doesn't have all the tools included. It has the basic move, rotate, align, delete, and create project options. There are also some buttons on the top row that are not functioning yet, like the adds, coupons, etc. I'll have the month of December to refine it.

 Let me know what you think!

  New Craftboard Software Online

Drag N Drop from edit panel

I've been in school for about 2 weeks, so it's been busy. I'm just now getting into the routine.

• I have projects opening and closing.
• I spent a little more time putting drag and drop into the edit panel.
• I also have the recent and unfinished items list in.
• I took the time to find out about getting the big picture of the project.
• Last of all I worked on getting tabs in for the windows.

Doing all that and keeping up with homework and my part time job has been a major test of my abilities. Hope it all goes well and quickly getting it online. I've got the download ready, I just have to check the update routine.

The Edit Items panel is almost complete! I just need to plugin uploading items, and then the posting. That's 4 days for 1 and 2 for the other. Then the search panel, that will take another couple days. And last of all, the updating code, which will take another couple days. That's around Aug. 28th.

And the saving and reloading files code. That will take a few days. I'm guessing at 9/3/2012 for an estimated download date.

Wood Panels content

I'm working hard and fast! I have a goal set for August 16. I have all the admin panels loading. Now just to make them work right. Today I get the downloads, tomorrow I start working on the add items panel. This weekend I test the cart. That may take a week. After that its just testing. Wish me luck!

We're dropping our drawers!

With new windows everywhere it got kinda confusing because everything looked the same. So with a little thought and missing my drawer panel, I decided to put it back. But with a little better design. Some wood texture and a drawer handle. It had to have something that suggests you can open it. I recreated the drawer, so now you can see each item that pertains to a thumbnail. I also made the drawer drag and drop between the search panels. I'm working as fast as I can, but it's still not fast enough. I'm past my upload date goal. But I guess we all make goals that are always late. I've trimmed the tools to the bare necessities so I can finish hopefully this summer. Crossing my fingers.

Inheritance is in with a new testing panel for more fun stuff.

Those who know object oriented programming will understand the title of this post. I just post this here so I will know when I hit the milestones in the development process. Inheritance is a way of grouping items and not duplicating code. It took me about 2 weeks in my off time to scrap the item processing I have and replace it with items that have sub items. For instance Shapes->Rectangle->Square type categorization. Grouping was the most challenging. After completing that I realized my loading code was reduced to less than 10 lines. It's untested, but I'm confident it will work. I've got a new search panel and hope to get that same system in the drawer this week. I've also created a condensed board for creating new tools. But now it's finals week, so I have to hurry!

Windows Galore!

Finally!! I have been working hard resetting all the references with every spare moment. And I've finally made it to putting instances in the search panel, drawer, item panel, and the canvas. It's just a matter of time now to get the tool references fixed to manipulate the canvas items. I wish I could estimate how long till I get it online. This is a milestone though. I can see I have to get a tab bar for the windows. Or some type of docking system set up. But will save that for last. The next goal is to make the canvas interact with the tool bar.

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First 2 windows are in

I'm not sure which was harder, writing the component or plugging it in. I'm trying to apply all I've learned this last year while in school. And that takes time too. But with a little plugging and playing I finally got it to work right. Works great in fact! So the next week should go a little faster with plugging in the rest of the windows. Then I have to come up with a new canvas system because the interface is so different. I'm thinking about a month for that. I wish I was done now, but this was worth the time.

My own new window component

I was working on getting the panels in and finishing up some testing. Meanwhile yearning for my interface to be better. So I made a rash decision to stop right where I was and just make it better. It took me 10 days to write. I still have to plug in the button functions. The idea is to have inner windows that users are custom to. And to make more canvas space. Now to get it plugged in to the bead software.

I was hoping to be online with it this month. But I think this was worth the 2 week wait.

Yay! Tool extentions work!

I drummed up a system for adding tools to the tool bar. I gave it a whirl by moving that shapes panel into 4 different tools. I now have a grid tool, color tool, shapes tool, and a text tool, all in the bottom row of tools. Now the side panel, on the left, will only be for viewing your projects and shared projects.

All that's left is to make sure the tools still work correctly. I have a goal to get the new tools in the tool bar working right by Sunday. And have pushed file opening to be completely done by the following Sunday.

It's been 10 hours of straight coding. I'm ready for a break again. Good Night!

Working on Opening files

The orders panel is nearing completion. I am now working on opening files. Spring vacation is right around the corner. With 2 weeks of time I hope to have most the rough edges worked out. I've got items opening in files, and now am working on image grids and shapes opening from files. It should be quick getting the files to opening correctly. After it's fully functional I'll put it up at it's new home on http://craftboard.net. The site there now is the same as perlygates.net. And it redirects to perlygates.net.

Working on the orders panel

I've reached the back end finally! I had a couple setbacks with hard disk failure, so that took some time in my already tight schedule. But were back up and running. There was a day of lost data that I have to redo. But I guess that's par for the course.

All this lead to some good I suppose. I have another backup PC that is exactly the same as my working PC. I'm getting anxious to upload. I had that planned for this month. Now it's looking like March. It's been about a 40 hour setback with backups and time spent re-installs, and re-coding.