2 Project Hephaestus Development Blog

Project Hephaestus Development Blog

Tracking the development of a desktop blogging client that aims to bring blogging closer to word processing

Posts

Four Basic Functions Implemented

The four basic functions (GET one or more posts, create/POST a new post, EDIT an existing post, and DELETE an existing post) are all implemented for Blogger.com blogs!

The aformentioned timestamp problem still exists, but right now, I don't really care. I'll add in support for some more styling and make it public. After that, I hope to have a product people will care about supporting and adding to.

Obviously, PH will be Open Source. I want to attract a larger audience, a community if you will, to help me develop this software. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me release it first!

Greetings from PH

You read that correctly. This post is brought to you by Project Hephaestus. I can now post, using PH, to a Blogger blog. I can't edit or delete old posts just yet, but at least the editing feature should come soon.

This isn't my first post using PH, as I already posted to the PH Testing Grounds (http://phtesting.blogspot.com). Hey, a link! All of the formatting is supported, as can be seen by this post.

There is one tiny problem that I don't know how to resolve: the date posted is behind by eight hours, even when I specify the time zone. Still, I can post and that's what matters now. Hooray for Project Hephaestus!

Update: I can now edit posts as well, as can be seen by this very update. Yes, this update is straight from PH.

  • posted by Avik Das
  • on Monday, March 13, 2006
  • at 2:37 PM
  • 0 comments

Contact with Blogger.com Made!

The interface has not changed much from, except for the blog management pane on the left. This part of the window allows you to see your blogs, and your posts for each blog. In the text window, I'm actually editing one of my previous posts!

As you can see, I can now actually get access to my blogs and posts on Blogger.com! That puts me that much closer to being able to posting via PH. Obviously, that makes me extremely excited. I just have to do a little more work to get everything up and running.

In somewhat related news, I set up a new blog: the Project Hephaestus Testing Grounds. That blog will be were I will start posting, editing, and deleting posts using PH. Also, after I make PH public, people will be able to post there. That too is great news.

But that doesn't mean I'm done. I still have a bit of work before I'll be able to post, edit and delete posts with PH, and more work after that before I can release it as alpha or beta software. Still, I'm ready for the challenge.

  • posted by Avik Das
  • on Saturday, March 11, 2006
  • at 3:29 PM
  • 0 comments

What is Project Hephaestus?

So what is Project Hephaestus (or PH for short)? To make a long post short, it is a project that aims to create a user-friendly, yet very powerful desktop blogging client.

That doesn't help. Let's go into more detail:

A project
This will take some time to complete.
This is my first programming project on such a large scale.
User Friendly
The target audience is the average person who doesn't know HTML but wants to be published online via a blog.
The user will be able to pick up the application and start using it almost immediately, with minimal hassle.
Powerful
Even though all the back-breaking labor is hidden from the average user, a more advanced user should be able to tune the software to his or her needs.
Desktop
Web applications are great and all, but we seriously need some good desktop applications!
Because this application is not accessed through a web client, the user need not be connected to the internet to create and edit posts.
Blogging Client
Access and manage all your blogs, and create and edit posts, all from the sanctity of your desktop

Yes, there is indeed a great deal of effort involved in this, but I plan to see this project to the very end. But enough talk. In case you're wondering what this fancy little application looks like (after all, a picture is worth a thousand words), look no further:

The PH Blogging Client allows for basic formatting, including boldface, headings, and the look of links (though the links don't actually have any behavior attached yet). In many ways, the application is just like any other application you've seen.

Oh, and I made contact with Blogger.com last night using the application. I am well on my way to my first post using PH!

  • posted by Avik Das
  • on Tuesday, March 07, 2006
  • at 10:08 PM
  • 0 comments

The Mandatory Inaugural Post

Remember this date people; the Project Hephaestus Development Blog (or PHDev for short) has just been created. So what is Project Hephaestus? Well, Project Hephaestus (or PH for short) is basically a desktop blogging client; that means that you use PH to post to a blog such as this one, right from your desktop.

In case you're wondering: no, I'm not using PH to post right now. The application has not reached that stage yet, though I'm sure it will very soon. But that very progressing is the subject of this blog. I plan to write about advancements, as well as the future plans, of PH. Whether that means I will announce the latest features in the applications—or even just a few screenshots—this blog will track the PH goes from a buggy, alpha-release product that can't even post to a blog all the way to a consumer-ready application.

PH is not ready to be released to the public just yet—not even as an alpha release. After all, I can't even use it post to a blog! Once again, the day I will be able to release my product will come—hopefully soon.

Now, I'm going to go implement remote posting. I really hope that one of the next few posts will be from the Project Hephaestus blogging client.

  • posted by Avik Das
  • on Sunday, March 05, 2006
  • at 1:04 PM
  • 1 comments

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