Entries Tagged 'Glancer Project' ↓

Long night on Glancer yesterday. Got the talk pagination to work and fixed a few other things. Just when I was winding up, saw Atul’s announcement about the Foss.In schedules being put up! Have added the same track color codes to Glancer now.

BTW, all these features are not yet uploaded. We are working with the Foss.In team right now to integrate Glancer with Foss.In. All delegates will be able to use Glancer with their delegate registration code. You will have to just enter additional profile details to find people with similar interests. The talk and speaker details will be available and you can shortlist talks and print a customized “work book” for yourself.

It’s coming soon! I am posting this because I know people are waiting for Glancer Beta.

Here’s a small update on Glancer.. What has been accomplished in the last few days:

• Changed city from Kolkatta to Kolkata (thanks to Indranil Das Gupta for pointing out the mistake)
• Zoom level - added provision to zoom out slightly into negative. So that people on the boundary can be seen
• UI cleanups
• Added very simple About Us / Feedback dialogs
• AddedLogout option
• Edit Profile added Yes!
• Detect if full profile not present, show profile page on login (since we will be integrating with Foss.In delegate data)
• Edit Preferences - change weight assigned to different matching criteria

Next item on todo list is the Talk Scheduler. It’s going to be major! I think we should be ready with the next delivery by Tuesday!

We released Alpha of Glancer on 14th, and have received superb response! I posted on the Foss.In/2005 mailing list about Glancer and it triggered a lot of compliments (including a few grumbling notes about Flash).

I am tempted to quote a few items, but am resisting it. You can read the whole thread here.

Overall, people liked the “coolness” of the app. They liked the way friend finder works. They liked the registration process and even the “incorrect login shake”!

We got feedback. People want edit profile option, privacy policy should be highlighted, it does not work correctly on some systems (the text does not display) etc. We are working on these items and will have them covered in the next version.

In the meanwhile, I am also talking with Foss.In people about the best way to integrate Glancer with foss.in website.

Keep your fingers crossed. I think you will like what’s coming next on Glancer!

Ok, so here it is! Glancer alpha is out. Checkout: http://www.glancer.net/

It’s still in Alpha, but works well overall.

We encourage all Foss.In/2005 delegates to register on Glancer. It will allow you to find people matching your interest easily. Then you can meet those people at the conference. Registration is a simple process. You have to enter your contact details, occupation details and select the topics and technologies you are interested in. You can select as many topics and technologies as you like. We match people based on the city, occupation, topics and technologies. Each match is considered as one point. The more the points, the better the match is. Note that we don’t have an “edit profile” option yet, so enter complete details at registration

BTW, after you register, you can search for “nirav” or “kartik” to find out how the matches come up.

The source code will soon be put up.

Send in your comments / flames to support (at) glancer (dot) net.

PS: I believe everyone who will register, will find it cool!
PS2: Requires Flash 7 player! Done with Openlaszlo and PHP5.

Glancer is going good. The WSDL Blues are finally over. I was struggling with WSDL file creation earlier. Once that was solved, I had a tough time putting web service security in place. Integration of web service security with Laszlo was another hurdle. But it’s through now!

BTW, the plotting of matching people on the Match Map was more difficult than I thought. I am not a trigonometry guy and couldn’t figure out how an icon will be placed on the cirlcle, given its degree and distance. I struggled for 3 hours, then gave up. Called in for help. Just turned around and asked people in the office! Surprisingly (for me), they said: “Oh, that’s simple! x = r cos theta and y= r sin theta”. And I am like, “Umm, well.. all that looks right, but tell me how it will work!”. It’s sometimes amazing how easily I forget things! I was a top scorer in Maths in school, and had done all this trigo stuff very well then. But I can’t make out a sin (sine) from a sin now!

Once that was solved, I had late nights over shift of origin and shift of quadrants! We wanted to show the matches in a circular way (from A to Z on the cirlc), and Flash’s 0,0 starts at top left. I think we have a pretty good solution on that now.

As a matter of fact, it’s been extensively long nights for the whole week. Stayed over for 3 days, went home at 2 twice, and it’s already getting midnight today. It’s been a good experience though! Lot of learnings! We only have a half an hour slot to speak about all these experiences at Foss.In though! I will have to be very choosy!

Oh, the big thing! We will have alpha version of the app up on Monday. Stay tuned!