TR is having a problem with auto-reloadings. I made an update so it would only reload if the user isn’t on the page but I guess I’ll have to go back to force-reload mode (browser compatibility issues).
The thing is, I didn’t implement permanent logins so after a while, the session ends and user must relogin.
Working on a solution
For all interested in testing non-stable versions with new features:
Added feeds list. You insert a Twitter username and the system shall validate it and add to your list. Every username in the list (feed) has a position that can be reordered but It isn’t done yet.
Also, as you click a user to load its feed, you can do the same thing if you’re reading a message that has @username text and click it. I will add an “add” button when the user feed loaded is not on the feeds list.
If you’re reading another feed than your timeline and want to get back to your, simply click your username or your picture on the upper left corner.
Another change that was made and was very necessary was the ability for the system to know when the user is looking at the page and so, now, if you’re in the middle of reading a message or even writing one, you don’t get auto-reload, it must be explicitly requested by clicking the “reload” button on the right menu or pressing ‘r’. Thing is, when you leave the page open and you’re browsing other tabs or simply doing some other stuff on another OS application, you want to keep the feed updated, so now, when you leave the page, the system auto-reloads the feed on the background, so you can keep TR minimized and still have an updated look on the unread messages counter of the current loaded feed + page.
This is what I’ve been working on and what you’ll be able to put your hands on the next Sunday (probably) after some more testing and browser compatibility issues:
TwitteReader v0.5 Preview
2 AM here and I’m still working on user’s friends list.
There are many ways to do this. The decision that is pending is should it show username plus mini picture or just username?
I’m doing something like, next or first login where this is implemented and available, the system loads first 100 users from the friends list and stores that list on the DB. Thing is people might have more than 100 users, so it should have a next and previous pages buttons to navigate through all friends. An intelligent option is sort but sorting 500 friends over some criteria (best friends, by name, by number of updates) might be a pain in the ass! I’ll have to think about it.
Stay tuned for next version and feel free to comment suggestions!
There is a version of TwitteReader for mobiles being developed. Hope to release it at the end of this month.
First for iPhone/iPod Touch and then for other mobile devices.
When done, will be available at m.twittereader.com
Early this week I bought the domain twittereader.com at GoDaddy.com (my webhost). I was managing TwitteReader from twittereader.mwmdev.com a subdomain of my website.
After purchasing twittereader.com I also upgraded my host so I have more bandwith and space as hundreds of users join every day.
Today was a busy day as I put everything up on twittereader.com and created this blog space where I will post news and TR updates.
There are many features coming, including:
I woke up about 9.00 am, took my breakfast and then went to my PC to check my email, feeds, and of course, TwitteReader for new messages.
As always, before leaving home to college, I got a look at TwitteReader’s stats for new users. And they were the same only 3 guys I know.
Coming back home, I started to receive like 10 emails/hour giving me tips, new features ideas to implement and mostly asking for the install instructions.
I got really excited for the massive join of new users. Just before dinner TR had already been tried by 820 users! When I got home, an hour ago, TR had 1232 users.
For a small project like this that took me some days to develop and some weeks to fix bugs (and keep fixing them), I was, and I am very happy with it.
For all users that made my day today: thank you so much and I’ll be adding some more features soon. I hope my webhost can deal with the traffic and Twitter API doesn’t let me down. I think TR only has 100 requests/hour but this number can be 20K requests/hour after aproval by Twitter.com
TwitteReader is still in beta version as hundreds of users join every day. I have TwitteReader hosted at GoDaddy.com and I’m working with them to try to get more bandwidth and a faster and more responsive server. In the meanwhile I haven’t much control about the server load. If you see your loadings or updates taking too long, give it a minute.
Too many things going on right now. I’m trying to achieve the best QoS (quality of service) as I can with my resources.