

Ask HN: Feedback on my small app  - jmonegro
http://wrttn.in/2688ee

======
Sephr
You need to improve your XSS protection. Here's an example page I created
where I do XSS through the CSS: <http://wrttn.in/214018>

In the admin page, you should be able to change the type of markup the content
is in (be it Textile or Markdown) and the CSS. Also, I haven't tested it; if
you don't support Markdown Extra, add support for it. The best library that I
recommend for this is Discount
(<http://www.pell.portland.or.us/~orc/Code/discount/>)

~~~
jmonegro
I have basic XSS protection from the main area, but didn't realize I had to
protect the CSS field. Thank you for that.

This is why I love getting feedback from HN: most of the time you will find
something I'd overlooked.

edit: and yes, I'm using Discount (RDiscount, actually, it's running on Ruby)

------
arnorhs
This is useful. I love the simple layout with the editor on the left side and
the other stuff on the right.

I also love the fact that it's a simple notepad but you can add markup etc
when you need to, because sometimes the stuff you write in notepad starts
growing and you really want to just start formatting things right away.

However, I really like notepad.cc better because the text window is bigger.
When I resize your little window using google chrome's default handle, the
stuff on the right side goes below the box etc and I can't get the box in full
screen, I can only resize it to the right.

Since it has formatting, having an easy way to see a preview would also be
pretty sweet.

Over all, good job. It's nice to just paste and start using, but currently it
seems a bit simpler to use notepad.cc

~~~
jmonegro
Thanks for your comments. You can preview what you've done through the
"preview" button, complete with any custom CSS you might have added.

I understand what you mean about the bigger writing space. I've been looking
for the best way of optionally increasing the width, while retaining sidebar
visibility.

~~~
jmonegro
I just updated the app. Check out the new "Go wide" button.

~~~
maushu
You should change the button to "Go narrow" when in wide mode. Just a thought.

Also, disable the textbox resizing, or better yet, make the layout flow
horizontally when there isn't enough space on the side after resizing.

~~~
jmonegro
Yeah good point.

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slater
"Use webkit for the best experience. That means Google Chrome or Safari"

Please don't recommend browsers. What is in your app that Firefox can't do?

~~~
jmonegro
It works perfectly fine in Firefox, but you don't get to see the custom
scrollbars and create button, which use webkit-specific CSS3.

~~~
cloudkj
I'd say just remove the text about recommending specific browsers. As long as
the functionality is the same, a loss of certain a look and feel isn't worth
mentioning to the user and causing a big turn off. At least, that was my
initial reaction when I read that.

~~~
jmonegro
Thanks, I'll take it into account. I actually thought of this, which is why I
decided to phrase it _best experience_.

------
pbhjpbhj
This looks like a really clever way to produce content and inbound links for
SEO purposes. No mention of copyright terms in the instructions - this is
going to be an issue for you.

Also your point 3. says "no ads" but I see ads on the front page, yes when you
read down it's clear but the headline punch is taken away as people have just
seen the fp ad. TBH your ads are pretty neatly done and pretty unoffensive.

~~~
jmonegro
I'm not after SEO benefits. In fact, something I forgot to add was the
robots.txt to stop indexing user pages. I'll add the copyright terms.

By "no ads" on point three, I mean no ads on _your content_.

Thanks for your input.

------
peteforde
My blocking issue is a hard one to beat: what guarantee do I have that this
won't disappear within two years?

You can argue that there is a use case for simple, no-SLA services but if
something is important enough for me to post, it's important enough that I'd
be pissed off if it went away.

~~~
retube
My sentiments too. I don't have a blog, or twitter, or facebook. I do want to
write stuff down sometimes (have been toying with idea of posterous). This
could fit the bill for me. But, yeah - what happens if the site vanishes?

~~~
jmonegro
To answer both your questions, the API system I'm building will allow you to
download all your wrttns.

Also, I'm building export features that will turn your wrttn into a pdf or a
text file.

------
d0m
Stupid question.. but is there already notepad.cc for this and someone post an
application that looked pretty much like this, this morning on HN.

~~~
jmonegro
Notepad.cc is good, but it doesn't give you Textile/Markdown, custom CSS,
automatic media embedding (through oEmbed), and the other features I've
included in Wrttn.

~~~
jacobbijani
Markdown support would be pretty rad, I'm gonna think how I could integrate
that to notepad.cc :)

I like this app though. I think it's purpose would be different than
notepad.cc. Again -- putting stuff in a text box and saving it is a pretty
widespread feature!

~~~
jmonegro
Thanks. Indeed, the purpose is very different.

------
patrickmclaren
Very nice, looks clean.

One suggestion for the home page, the styling for the text link accompanying
the ad looks out of place. Perhaps remove the underline unless hovered, change
to italics (it's a quote/statement of the ad client) and break the text where
the image ends.

~~~
jmonegro
Thanks. I'll look into it.

------
jtheory
Nice clean design -- I like how you've cut out as many extraneous
pages/requirements as possible.

A couple of typos on the about page (I worked as a writing tutor in college
and since then can't seem to stop...):

HTML is valid to, so it won’t [too]

What that means that if you link [means is that]

Email (not the link, but the actual content, formatted and all. [no end paren]

you choose what do do with it. [to do]

That very first sentence is actually pretty awkward as well, but I'll let you
mess with it as an exercise. ;)

~~~
jmonegro
Thanks!

------
justinchen
I like it. Simple and useful for both technical and non-technical people.

------
wildmXranat
I'm not sure if this happened for anyone else, but choosing a markup from the
drop-down list did not change the link to the reference pop-up window.

edit: nice idea

~~~
jmonegro
It doesn't. I only added a textile reference; I will be adding a markdown one
soon. Sorry about that.

------
eataudio
Heh, I like it :D <http://wrttn.in/b0495d>

Seriously though, it's nice! I can see myself using this in future.

------
cloudkj
Oh yea, I also like the integration with oEmbed. First time I've seen it.
Definitely will play with embed.ly when I get the chance.

It appears that you're rendering the embedded content using AJAX? I tried
pasting a YouTube link directly, and nothing happened. Wrapping it in a proper
'a href' tag triggered the embed, so I'm guessing there's no sophisticated
URL-detection.

~~~
jmonegro
you have to put the actual link. For example, either with a <a href=""></a>
or, say "link"<http://url.com> in textile.

------
petercooper
FWIW, I was using <http://jottit.com/> for this previously. I had similar
requirements to you, though I _do_ have a blog. Jottit is good but a little
heavier than your app, so I'll probably use your app for the smaller, cleaner
things where I don't need a subdomain or whatever.

------
thenduks
I like it a lot. The user-facing (content producer, I mean) UI could probably
use an iteration or two for polish, and it seems like the resulting content
pages are a bit broken on the iPad (custom scrollbars == bad news, I figure),
but definitely useful -- and bookmarked!

~~~
jmonegro
Thank you! I'd been wondering how it looked on the iPad

~~~
thenduks
_Looks_ great. Scrolling just doesn't work. Seems to be the same on any mobile
webkit browser (android, i{Phone,Pad,Pod}).

~~~
jmonegro
I see...

~~~
thenduks
I hope I didn't come off sounding rude or anything. Just trying to help :)

I think you'd be safest simply not serving the custom scrollbar stuff to
mobile browsers, they usually have their own 'custom scrollbars' anyway.

Good luck!

------
ydant
There's no way to scroll the page when viewing in Android browser. The page
just gets chopped off and doesn't extend beyond the visible area, meaning no
scroll. If I zoom out I can see more, but even on the linked page that means
it's kinda small to read.

~~~
jmonegro
I'm prepping a mobile version of the site.

~~~
ydant
You don't necessarily need a mobile version, but having the "public URL"
version of a page be chopped off could hurt adoption. The resulting HTML is
pretty straightforward, so I guess there's some CSS problem blocking me from
scrolling.

------
bradendouglass
Simple, API calls, markdown...incredibly handy and brilliant in my mind. Kudos
on the app.

Pastie has this capability, but is it possible to slip some text to the API
via a shell script and bounce back the url?

~~~
jmonegro
Hmmm... very interesting idea. I'll work on that when I finish the full API
(write, not just read)

~~~
bradendouglass
My idea would be to grab a snippet of text and pass it to the API via a
keystroke with a program like Textexpander. The link would come back and be
dumped into the clipboard for easy sharing. Thanks again

~~~
jmonegro
Love the idea. I'll add it to the to-do list.

------
barrkel
A live preview would be nice.

~~~
grinich
Check out <http://markdownr.com/>.

It does live previews for Markdown, Textile, RDoc, and Wikitext. Code is on
GitHub.

~~~
jmonegro
Some inspiration for wrttn actually came from markdownr.com. Originally I set
out to build a similar layout, but I decided against it because of a space
thing.

------
dgrant
Use a different domain that is easier to remember.

~~~
jmonegro
I don't think it's too difficult to remember. But if many feel this way, I'll
consider other options.

------
anonymousDan
I'd move the ads to the opposite side of the text entry area. They kind of get
in the way of the control buttons at the moment.

~~~
jmonegro
I moved the ad down precisely because of this. I will consider your
suggestion. Thanks!

edit: maybe even have a .txt file beamed through the command line.

------
grinich
Any plans to open source this? I'd love to wrap it in Cocoa and use it as a
notes app on my Mac.

------
jokull
Can you add safe HTML as a markup option? Loving this. Nice design.

~~~
jmonegro
Thanks. You can use HTML.

------
jmonegro
I've added a new "Go Wide" button.

~~~
fezzl
Should've been the default. Add a "Go Narrow" button instead.

