Post IndieWeb Summit seems like a good time to set some goals for the year. Well maybe not a whole year, but writing things down at least feels like picking a direction to work in.
For the last few years I've worked on adding all sorts of IndieWeb building blocks to Dobrado, and there's enough pieces to play with that from a scratch-your-own-itch perspective you can stay itchy for a very long time!
But I've decided to step back and have a look at more than my own itches. Or maybe they're still mine, but looking at community goals could also be something to choose to work on? Something we hear a lot in the community is that IndieWeb is just too hard to get started in. I think that's true, but since everyone is a volunteer, there can't be any expectation that anyone is going to fix that problem. All you can do is recognize that it's an issue, and if you have some time and the inclination, work on it yourself.
For me, that means making Dobrado easier to use. Up until now installing the software has meant knowing how to use git and editing config files. After that, keeping it up to date meant more git commands and a basic understanding of how the software worked... not overly friendly! My solution to this was to create a new build system, which creates the updates and also produces a feed which you can follow at: https://dobrado.net/updates
The other half of this project was to create a new module that handles automatic updates by subscribing to this feed. Since Dobrado supports WebSub this update happens straight away. The feed items contain enough information for sites to fetch the update from dobrado.net. It creates notifications when it's updated your site too:
I have quite a few sites running Dobrado, so this change means I won't need to log in to all of them just to pull in the latest changes. It's probably the biggest change to the way I've developed the software in the last few years and I'm still getting used to it!
I'm hoping that has solved the update problem for anyone else that wants to use the software too. The next goal is still how to even get started... I've done some work on that too and will hopefully have more updates soon.
IndieWeb Goals
For the last few years I've worked on adding all sorts of IndieWeb building blocks to Dobrado, and there's enough pieces to play with that from a scratch-your-own-itch perspective you can stay itchy for a very long time!
But I've decided to step back and have a look at more than my own itches. Or maybe they're still mine, but looking at community goals could also be something to choose to work on? Something we hear a lot in the community is that IndieWeb is just too hard to get started in. I think that's true, but since everyone is a volunteer, there can't be any expectation that anyone is going to fix that problem. All you can do is recognize that it's an issue, and if you have some time and the inclination, work on it yourself.
For me, that means making Dobrado easier to use. Up until now installing the software has meant knowing how to use git and editing config files. After that, keeping it up to date meant more git commands and a basic understanding of how the software worked... not overly friendly! My solution to this was to create a new build system, which creates the updates and also produces a feed which you can follow at: https://dobrado.net/updates
The other half of this project was to create a new module that handles automatic updates by subscribing to this feed. Since Dobrado supports WebSub this update happens straight away. The feed items contain enough information for sites to fetch the update from dobrado.net. It creates notifications when it's updated your site too:
I have quite a few sites running Dobrado, so this change means I won't need to log in to all of them just to pull in the latest changes. It's probably the biggest change to the way I've developed the software in the last few years and I'm still getting used to it!
I'm hoping that has solved the update problem for anyone else that wants to use the software too. The next goal is still how to even get started... I've done some work on that too and will hopefully have more updates soon.