Accomplishments

It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at the code for this project.  Given my work schedule and other interests, this project has been put on indefinite hold.

Although I haven’t worked on this project in almost a year, I have been thinking a lot about it.  I have a feeling that the next update to the application will be a huge one.  In fact, I think it will be running on a completely different platform.

Although it’s only Tuesday night, the past few days have been very productive in regards to this project. I’ve been working on Rating Management and the Componentized UI. I’ve also been working to make the URLs used within the application more user friendly.

The code base is so unstable at the moment that I’m uncomfortable deploying a new version. Hopefully I’ll have a stable version by Saturday afternoon. Otherwise I’ll be forced to go quiet since I’ll be on the road all next week.

Below is the updated Task list. These items are in no specific order.

• Automatically post back to Twitter when you add an Accomplishment.
• Rating management. (In Progress)
• Completely remove references to “Accomplishmints.” (In Progress)
• Graceful errors. (In Progress)
• Move the to the official Twitter user that this service will use.
• Componentized UI. (In Progress)
• Database Connection Pooling.
• User friendly URLs. (In Progress)
• Implement JFreeChart.
• Data export.  (Should I do CSV?  Something else?)
• Reporting.
• Integrate Google Analytics.

If you have any questions, compliments, or feature requests please e-mail me (accomplishments@schwenkconsulting.com) or post a comment.

After a nice weekend get-away I came home to laundry and coding.  Unfortunately a new version of the application has not been deployed.  I’m working on a few things that are going to make developing a little easier which will lead to a better application.

• Integrating Google Analytics.  While this might not necessarily make this a better application, it will help me track how many people are coming by to check it out.
• A Componentized UI. I’m not sure whether I’m going to use Tiles or some other UI framework, but while working on Accomplishments, it has become abundantly clear that something is needed. If you’re a Java developer and have some input, feel free to send it my way.
• Database Connection Pooling.  Yes, I know that should be at the core of every application, but this project started out as a utility for me.  As I’ve been playing more and more, I realized that I want Accomplishments to grow.  I don’t expect to gain a great deal of notoriety but I do want it to be something that I can be proud of. Anyway, in order to grow, a rock solid DB connection is important.

Here are some other things to be on the look-out for.  (Yes, I know, this is virtually the same list as last time, but I want to keep it rolling.  It helps me to keep track )

• Automatically post back to Twitter when you add an Accomplishment.
• Rating management. (In Progress)
• Completely remove references to “Accomplishmints.” (In Progress)
• Graceful errors. (In Progress)
• Move the to the official Twitter user that this service will use.
• Componentized UI. (In Progress)
• Database Connection Pooling.

If you have any questions, compliments, or feature requests please e-mail me (accomplishments@schwenkconsulting.com) or post a comment.

After almost of two months of down time, I’ve finally updated Accomplishments.  No this isn’t another “I’m Sorry” post, this is actually an update to the application!  Below you’ll find some of the things I’ve done.

• Started removing references to “Accomplishmints”
• Added ability to “Merge” categories.
• Added ability to remove categories.

Below you’ll find what I’ll be working on for future releases.  These are in no particular order. Unfortunately my travel schedule is really heating up so who knows how long it will be until I work on them.

• Automatically post back to Twitter when you add an Accomplishment.
• Rating management.
• Completely remove references to “Accomplishmints.”
• Graceful errors.
• Move the to the official Twitter user that this service will use.

If you have any questions, compliments, or feature requests please e-mail me (accomplishments@schwenkconsulting.com) or post a comment.

Well it’s been a busy few weeks for me, so application development has been rather slow going.  Thankfully I have made some changes, but I haven’t uploaded a new version yet.  Below you’ll find some of the things I’m working on.

• Removing references to “Accomplishmints.”
• Ability to merge categories.  Example -  merge all accomplishments with a category of “personal” to the category of “My Stuff”
• Ability to delete a category.

A new version of Accomplishments Online has been deployed and it includes some exciting new features.

• Accomplishments can be viewed by category.
• New accomplishments can be added without having to use Twitter.
• Accomplishments can be edited and deleted.

The old UI problems, mentioned in an earlier post, still persist.  I’ve also added some new ones.  In any case, if you send me a bug report, please try to include screen shots of the problem along with your OS and Browser.

Welcome to the beginning of what I hope will be a very helpful, very popular application. This application is meant to help you keep track of all of your accomplishments - business, personal, and what ever else.

How Did It Start?

In January of 2007 I started a new job. One of the requirements was to report my quarterly accomplishments. In order to keep track of these, I started a Word document. Every day I would update it - what I did, why it was important, etc. After a few months this got to be very tedious so I switched to a “To-Do” list. Unfortunately this method also sucked.

Through all of this I was looking for one thing - simplicity. Thus was born “Accomplishments.” This is a simple web application that allows you to track what you’ve done. In order to keep it simple, I’ve Twitter-enabled the application. This means that you can post an accomplishment with the same ease as sending a tweet.

How Do I Get Started?

If you have an Open ID account, simply go to the login page and enter your URL, then link your Twitter account. It’s that simple. In order to add an accomplishment simply send a direct message to “Feedmeister” in the following format: [CATEGORY]|[ACCOMPLISHMENT]. Example: WORK|Created a new web application.

Application Status

Currently this website is in an “Alpha” status. So if you’ve happened to stumble across this site, please realize that any data you enter can be blown away in a heartbeat.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please send an email to: accomplishments@schwenkconsulting.com.

Technical Notes

The application looks superb when using Firefox and Safari. Internet Explorer doesn’t like it much. This incompatibility will be fixed in the future.

Accomplishments vs Accomplishmints

At the start of this project I had an idea to name it “Accomplishmints” and use the “mints” part as a schtick. After my girlfriend talked some sense into me I abandoned the idea. Unfortunately some remnants of “Accomplishmints”are still around. This will be changed in a future update.