EpiHandle's corner of the Internet

Weekly Vusfy update #32

Hello everyone,

How are you? As always, it is a pleasure to have you here.

Welcome to the 32nd instalment of the Weekly Vusfy progress updates. A day late, because life kept me busy on Sunday, and I bear good news: at long last, I have finished the big feature I have been working for about the last month. :)

Dependency updates

To make Vusfy possible, I rely on code written by other people, which I then use in Vusfy. These dependencies regularly publish updates, and this week, I have applied the latest batch of them.

Use the user’s time zone to show highlight today’s date in the calendar

I had noticed that, when viewing Vusfy’s calendar, Vusfy computed today’s date based on the server’s time zone (which is UTC). Instead, it should be using the user’s time zone. As a user, I care about today’s date in my time zone, not Vusfy’s server.

Allow users to try Vusfy without registering

This is the big feature I have been working on for a while.

I was working on improving Vusfy’s home page, and I wanted to highlight how Vusfy can be useful to prospective users. My first idea was to improve the text on the home page (which I will still do), but the sad reality is that people do not read.

My second idea was to create a short video. However, it is a mediocre solution, because as I add features and change Vusfy’s styling, I would need to keep redoing the video.

Then, I had the winning idea: why not let people try Vusfy for a short period of time, without needing to register? So, I went and implemented it.

When you visit Vusfy’s home page, and you are not logged in, you will see a button to try Vusfy without registering. Click on it, and Vusfy will create a temporary user for you, which you can use for a limited amount of time (72 hours, or 3 days if you do not fancy doing maths). After the 3 days are up, Vusfy automatically deletes your user.

If you would like to keep the user, you just need to provide an email and username.

Since this temporary user is saved in a cookie, if you want to keep using Vusfy with this user on a different device, you need to copy paste the ID you see on the home page somewhere. Then, go to Vusfy’s log in page, copy this ID in the temporary user id field you see, and you will be logged into Vusfy. No email and password required.

Conclusion

Thank you for your time, and until we meet again, take care of yourselves.

Cheers,
EpiHandle