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Weekly Vusfy update #33

Hello everyone,

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

Welcome to the 33rd instalment of the Weekly Vusfy progress updates. I am pleased to say I have been busy this week, and there are quite a few items to go through this week. :)

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.

Fix failing test due to daylight saving time ending

Last week, I fixed a bug when viewing Vusfy’s calendar. Long story short, Vusfy’s calendar was not aware of the user’s time zone, and now it is. One of the tests I wrote relies on being ahead of the GMT time zone. However, the Sunday before this one, the clocks went back, and the time zone I was using in the test was now the GMT time zone, albeit with a different name.

To fix this, I simply use a time zone that will always be ahead of GMT, regardless of daylight saving or not.

On mobile, give more space to the links at the top of the list of goals

You are viewing your list of goals. At the top, there are a few links. On mobile, before this change, depending on the resolution of your screen, some of those links may have been cut off, which is less than ideal.

Now, I have remedied by allowing the links to go to a new line if there is not enough space for them to fit all onto one line. Thank you for your patience :)

Fix JavaScript error in browser’s console

Before this fix, when you visited Vusfy’s homepage while you were not logged in, you had an error in your browser’s console. I am pleased to say I have fixed this.

Add examples that showcase Vusfy’s features for new users

When a user signs up, they start from a clean sheet. Hence, they lack goals, events, and so on. This makes it harder for the new user to see how Vusfy can benefit them.

Recognising that this is a shortcoming, I have improved the situation. Now, when a new user signs up (temporary or not), they will have an example goal, an example event, and occurrences for both of them.

The end goal is to provide examples to help them kickstart their usage of Vusfy.

Improve how I use credentials behind the scenes

I am talking about credentials that Vusfy uses to access things like its database, external services, and so on.

I have recently found out that there is a way to raise an error if any of those credentials is missing. So, I implement it. I like the idea of having an explicit error if any of those credentials is missing.

Add global search function

Recently, I found myself wanting to find something I had saved in Vusfy. But, I could not remember if it was a goal or an event. So, I had to go to the events page, to use the search field. Of course, it was a goal and not an event, so I then had to go to the goals page to search for it.

What I have describe above is not a good user experience, so I have created a new search field, on the home page, that can search goals, events, and rewards by title. I believe this will improve the user experience. :)

It has just occurred to me that I should also search, by title, through goal occurrences and event occurrences. While I am at it, I should also be able to query goals, goal occurrences, events, event occurrences, and rewards by their description. Excellent ideas for future improvements. :)

Conclusion

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

Cheers,
EpiHandle