Rounding things out...

Project Update

Whipped up a couple of backend scripts to handle adjusting the what Twitter users and which terms are tracked for the daemon. Also, created one to create Events for events listed in a Google Calendar.  These will probably just run as cron jobs every hour and once a day. 

Populating the Google calendar with the events necessitated creating a couple of small scripts to scrape the match listings on the EPL site to download the .ics files, then I looked at the .ics file associated with another calendar to figure out the format to combine all the separate event .ics files.  In the end I now have the current EPL schedule in a Google calendar.  Should be easy to make changes to the events when the schedule changes due to unforeseen circumstances ;-). 

I think this system should set things up nicely for a pretty automated go live.  Just need to have each team setup before hand.  It was a manual process to get each of the EPL teams in the system.  Fortunately the EPL site has links to each teams Twitter feed embedded at the bottom of their page. 

Chain Update

Been a few days since I've posted anything new.  We travelled a lot last weekend and it was a little hard to get the time in.  Had to split a couple of days between coding and design reading.  Working from a hotel this week hasn't been bad.  Kind of fun to work all day then go out at night in a somewhat exotic location.  More exotic than normal anyway.


Party On!

Getting there...

Project Update

I think the backend stuff is finally worked out.  Locked down the Admin views with Pyramid's authorization scheme.  Works well enough I suppose.  Also, added more form validation to the signup process.  Will be moving on to scripting events based on calendar information if possible.

Should be able to find a calendar object that I can import into a Google Calendar then script the event object creation... I think ;-).


Party On!

Backends...

Project Update

My focus has been on updating and adding a lot of backend stuff the last couple of days.  Mostly things like the new user sign up process, password change procedure, etc.  Not too glamorous, but things that need done before launching. 

Chain Update

Starting to feel the time crunch a little.  August 18th will be here before you know it.  I should have the project ready to release by then, but I'll be traveling next week, and don't know quite how much time I'll be able to dedicate to developing... might be more design interludes the coming week.


Party On!

Adding forms...

Project Update

Spent the last couple of days cleaning up more of the models and templates to be more dynamic.  Made moderately heavy use of modal windows to display forms for the various model's attributes.  Seems to work pretty well and provides a consistent interface for the different types of objects.  Also, adding forms for feedback, and such.

 Still coming along swimmingly...


Party On!

Missed a few...

Project Update

Have been working on some more adjusting the templates and models to incorporate the CouchDB changes, and make things a little more consolidated.  The Bootstrap modal windows are quite awesome for adding content to a page.  Especially if the content isn't always going to be needed.

Chain Update

Don't know why I missed blogging a for a couple of days there.  Things have been a little on the depressing side in my life the last week or so.  Maybe I'm taking things a little too seriously.

Things are really starting to come together with the first project in the chain.  Can't wait to release it and see what the world thinks... well it'll probably be just friends and family at first.  Might make marketing the site another project after a small one.

We'll see...


Party On!

Updates...

Project Update

Have the main part of the project working the way I'd like.  Was able to make the carousel look really good and added a menu to indicate when a stream has been updated.  Might add some additional animation to the process of prepending a status update, but then again maybe not...

Worked on cleaning up some of the old cruft from the start of development.  Changed everything over to CouchDB... probably just me, but it seems a lot simpler to deal with then MongoDB.  Need to cleanup the Twitter Authorization process next.


Party On!

Neat feature...

Project Update

Had an interesting idea the other day, about having the streams viewable in a carousel type window on the page.  Did some searching and found a lot of cool JavaScript and jQuery libraries that make image carousels look very good.  Don't think that's exactly what I'm looking for.

Then I cam across iosSlider and that fits the bill nicely.  It was pretty easy to wrap the stream divs in the necessary iosSlider divs.  Took a quite longer to get things displaying the way I wanted them.  Needed to remove a bunch of Bootstrap tags I'd used when the page was more static.

Need to add a few more features, but that portion is coming along nicely...


Party On!

More adjusting...

Project Update

Working on updating the main view for the new object.  Things are progressing, but it may take a little more time than I'd originally thought... seems like most things take longer than I think, heh. 

I think this will be the last major overhaul before release though...

Chain Update

This weekend has been pretty relaxed.  Haven't traveled anywhere or had company here.  Still haven't worked on the main project as much as I'd liked to have.  Worked on a smaller side project for a couple of hours this afternoon though.  That was fun... I'll post some pics once that project is finished.


Party On!

Model updates...

Needed to update some of the other models with the transition to CouchDB.  Getting them to work together also requires some changes, Heh. 

Getting a little antsy after realizing the Prem stays in five weeks.  Feel I should be ready though.

Party On!

New Object...

Project Update

Realized I need another Python object class to round out this project.  So far the streaming display has been static test streams... gonna need to make that a little more dynamic come go live, heh.  Started modeling the new object and feel that it's coming along nicely.  Need to integrate it with the other objects though.


Party On!

Back on track...

Project Update

Didn't take as long as I'd thought to get the display corrected and auto-update working again.  Needed to adjust the data structure returned from Redis and adjusted for links and what not.  Once that was squared away things looked good.  Some JavaScript adjustments were needed for the auto-update, and that turned out simple enough. 

Had an idea for displaying the streams that might be pretty cool.  Found a jQuery add-on that might help facilitate it as well.  Interesting stuff, heh.


Party On!

Clean up Clean up...

Project Status

Finding out that I need to fix the display of statuses again.  The time adjustment function seems to have been broken somewhere along the line... probably because it's a string and not a time object, heh.  Also, need to fix the auto-update of the streams and probably the modal windows again.

Feels like two steps back for one step forward sometimes...


Party On!

Fun with Entities...

Project Update

I may have been totally wrong about TweetStream not including status entities yesterday.  I may just not know how to access them once I've converted a status to JSON.  Need to do it with:

  status['entities']['user_mentions']

Instead of:

  status['user_mentions']

Doh, that was at least an hour I could have saved myself.  Well back to converting model methods to use Redis.  Also, thinking about changing the backend store from MongoDB to CouchDB.  Twice now I've had an error with MongoDB because of improper shutdown... granted I'm running the MongoDB on a laptop that gets moved around a lot.  Don't remember these types of issues with CouchDB though. 

Plus CouchDB seems to have easier replication.  I briefly played with setting up a couple of replicated MongoDB instances so I could develop this thing on my desktop as well, but didn't get very far.  Ran into some replication errors and never when back to fix it.  I think the size of my project won't require the more advanced MongoDB replication needs.

Worth a test anyway...


Party On!

Changes for Streaming...

Project Update

Started working on adjusting the model methods for retrieving and parsing status updates that are stored in Redis instead of using the REST API.  Things were going swimmingly until trying to parse the user_mentions field.  I guess TweetStream doesn't include the entities for status updates.  According to the Twitter dev documentation they are included by default when using the Streaming API.

Will probably have to adjust the TweetStream version I've installed using Ruby Gems...


Party On!

Another design research interlude...

Project Update

Due to having company yesterday and attending a great CCR concert, I looked for a new design book to read.  Found this great book by Smashing Magazine, which is a site I think I came across not too long ago when looking for design help.  The book has  a lot of great content and being free is a great bonus. 

Might look into a subscription to Smashing...


Party On!

Daemon is done man...

Finally have the daemon script for parsing the Streaming API working.  Thought for a second that I'd need to write another daemon to restart the parsing dealing, then I remembered that I'm running this on Ubuntu and I can use Upstart to start the process when it stops.  Upstart works pretty slick and was quite easy to get setup.

Now back to the main site at last...

Party On!

Locking things down...

Project Update

Getting more good close to having the features I want in the daemon script.  Just need to lock in some code to restart the daemon if the track and follow list changes.  Looked for something like CouchDB _changes in Redis, but the only thing sort of close is the watch command.  From what I can tell that only enables you to execute Redis commands when a key value changes.  It'd be cool to be able to execute an external script or shell command, but that might have all kinds of security considerations or something.

Chain Update

Actually started this post yesterday, but got distracted by something.  Found the post edit screen open and waiting this morning, heh.


Party On!

Independence... daemon...

Project Update

Very close to finishing the daemon script.  Just have to add the tracked term to the tweet ID number when saving it to Redis... somehow.  It'll be good to be back to working on the actual site. 

Short post due to Independence Day ;-)!


Party On!

Oh so close...

Project Update

Things are really getting there with the deamon script.  Big thanks to the TweetStream project for making it so easy.  I've setup a Redis entry to house a list of Twitter IDs to follow and just need to add a list of terms to track, which I think is possible.

Had to upgrade to Ruby 1.9.1 in order to use the *variable magic in method arguments.  That works gangbusters...

Also, had to filter some of the tweets that come through the stream.  I guess with the Streaming API it sends retweets and user mentions when using the filter stream.  I don't think those would look good in the project.



Party On!

Can Taste the Daemons...

Project Update

Have a feeling that the daemon script is almost there now.  I have a script to follow multiple users and put the tweets into Redis, but need a way to identify tracked terms in the Redis key.  Probably just need to learn up some Ruby ;-).

Chain Update

Coming up on the third month, and haven't missed a day so far.  Feels kind of good, but it'll feel better to have one project done.

Football

Almost forgot to mention a big congrats to Spain for winning the Euros yesterday.  Played a great game against Italy.  They mentioned that this Spanish team may be the best in history, and I think I agree.  Though my football history only goes back to 2007 ;-).



Party On!