dw_dev | Demo desktop client

I'd like to share a desktop client I made for demonstration purposes for my GSoC proposal. It's available for download here, give it a try and let me know what you think. The client provides some very basic functionality like reading the last 10 entries in your journal, posting/editing/deleting an entry.

To run the program a double click will usually suffice, in case that doesn't work it can be started from the terminal by executing "java -jar jdw-0.1.jar". I've tested it on Linux and Windows, it would be great if someone could check whether it works on Mac.

Warning: I've written this in a couple of hours, so it's not some production quality program. I've deleted my first post here when by mistake I clicked "Delete" instead of "Edit" :) Now I added a nice confirmation dialog to prevent such mistakes. Just to be safe, I'd suggest you try it with your Dreamhack account if you have one, or use this account alternatively:

username: test
password: f/K0WN:|
server: www.dimitar.hack.dreamwidth.net

Edit: I uploaded a newer version with many fixes and small improvements (huge thanks to foxfirefey for reporting them!), available for download here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Soooo it runs on my Mac just fine mostly! And the Skins is totally going to be like catnip to people, I think.

Now I'm going to list a bunch of nitpicks, many of which you probably already know about! They do *not* mean that I didn't like your prototype--on the contrary, it's awesome and that's why I'm listing these things out and took the time to play around with it enough to find them. I realize that it's just a prototype, and a really really well done one, and that these are just the types of suggestions to move a really nice prototype forward, not criticisms of what it doesn't do yet. Some may not even be valid on further reflection!

* I'd rename "Main" to something that says what it is displaying--"My Entries"? "My Journal"? Just "Journal"? Not sure, but something other than Main.
* No Friends (on the left), they don't exist...except in our hearts! What it should be named will depend on the future purpose it has, ie "Circle" or whatnot.
* The HTML preview pane is a great idea! It'll need some additions for DW syntax for things like usernames, cuts. You'll also need a "preformatted" toggle, and the preview pane should pay attention accordingly, since most people won't be formatting exact HTML and newlines will insert breaks. It would be cool to be able to resize the writing area/preview pane, and to rearrange whether they appear on top of each other or side by side!
* I'd label the empty text box for mood something like "mood text" just to make it obvious.
* After posting something with an empty subject, it ends up being called "null", and so a more descriptive "(no subject)" might work there better. Additionally, posting something with an empty subject appears to break the widget on the left, making have only one item displayed (with arrows on the side to move up and down). Since it only happens if the null subject is at the top of the list, it's fixed if you post another entry with a subject.
* The "Journal entries" widget on the left might want to have "All" entries up at the top of the list, instead of the bottom, so it is easier to access.
* On my Mac, no copy paste; don't know if it works on other OSes.
* Personally, I think there should automatically be *one* new post pane up by default, during start up and after a post finishes, or alternatively have a "New Post" button on the left side. I don't think it's going to be very intuitive to go to the file.
* Resizing while in post mode makes the left sidebar much bigger and it can't be resized smaller until I go back to the main pane.
* If the window's pretty small, and you expand widgets that weren't expanded before, you can push the post widget out of the window's bounds.
* Duh-nuh-nuh typo--when a login fails, "falid challenge request" instead of "failed challenge request".
* If I put in a URL that doesn't resolve (aka www.foxfirefey.dreamwidth.net) it seems to hang forever instead of informing me of my silly error!
* You talk about an editing option, so I know it exists, but I can't figure out how. Double clicking on individual entries in the left widget doesn't seem to do it, nor my equivalent of right clicking, nor selecting "Post" from the "File" menu when an individual entry is selected. Don't know if this is a platform issue or what!

Anyway, great work! And I love your icon.

Edited 2010-04-11 20:07 (UTC)

Ooooh I love your comment, such a nice, detailed feedback! Thank you so much for taking the time to check it that well. Improvements are slow and not nearly as good as when there's criticism!

Great to hear that it's running on the Mac. Very weird that copy-paste doesn't work, on my Linux that works perfectly. I've fixed the things you mentioned (uploaded it here), except for the HTML preview, that requires some more work. Edit/delete - left click first on an entry to select it, then right click on it to show the popup menu. Let me know if it works, if it doesn't then I guess it's another Mac specific problem, besides the copy paste. I'll check around these things (could be some mistake from my side as well).

Thanks again! And glad you like the icon :)

Demo desktop client

I crit because I love!

Re: I crit because I love!