Flick by Jason Leung
NOTE This is a repost from Patreon. Subscribe for a couple of bucks a month to get the latest and greatest as it happens. Fipamo is completely independent and has no outside investment. All funding comes from its lovely community.
This one legitimately began as an enhancement of the text editor. No, seriously. I didn't intend for it to stretch on into this Octavia Butler-esque epic adventure of refactoring and rebuilding. And there were a couple of moments where I just banged my head against a table because it became a bit overwhelming. Ha, ok more than a couple if I'm honest.
But despite all the hardship and research (LOTS OF RESEARCH strained smile) or maybe because of it, we're here at the big huge 2.5.0 update. This one is probably the biggest update since I switched the codebase from Node to PHP. It was quite as involved but this one touched a lot of moving parts under the hood.
Ok, so what's the big deal with the update? The headliner is the overhaul of the text editor, which in and of itself wasn't that bad, which led to re-thinking some fundamental parts of the codebase to make it possible. The most visible stuff is syntax highlighting for Markdown and HTML. This change makes legibility and writing so much easier. And it just looks good.
Markdown to HTML rendering was inconsistent, so I took a hard look at that process. After polishing this and tightening that, that conversion is smoother and a lot more stable. It's still kinda strict as far as what it lets through (I'm working on it) but that will even out pretty quickly.
Another big upgrade was how file uploads were being handled. Editing pages can now handle multiple files (images, rtf, txt, pdf, and mp3). You can drag/drop files into the editor of click and selecting what you want. The system will grab them, sort them, and get them ready for uploading. Once there in the interface, you can also sort them into whatever order you want. And since it will take some time to upload multiple files a progress indicator has been added to the notification UI so you where your upload is at. I know. It's pretty sexy.
The codebase itself got refactored to make scalability better and easier to upgrade in the future. Ha I could nerd out about so I'll chill but if you want to read about it, check this out.
The next update (2.5.1) is focused on addressing some outstanding rendering issues (ha sanitizing is a little too strict) and rounding out functionality for the file uploading, like being able to delete files from the upload queue. Ha, no overhauls this time. Just polish.
On a more personal note, this was a tough milestone because I've been job hunting while working on this one. Looking for work has been a surprisingly grueling process during the pandemic because a lot of people are tired and burned out. And not to mention the conflict happening in Ukraine. It's just a tough time for everyone right now. It was hard to focus on getting this one out so this update will hold a special place. We're all going through it.
So to close this one out, of course, check out the notes for this release, but remember to take care of yourselves as well. Take breaks when you need to. Eat, drink and rest. Be around people that like and value your company. If it's one thing working on Fipamo has taught me, it's the value of prioritizing your well-being. Not just for work but your quality of life while we all navigate hard times. It matters because you matter.
And thanks for being here. Times are tough but they aren't as tough because we're all here together.
wink
r.