

Show HN: tyto - codez
http://jh3y.github.io/tyto/

======
quarterto
Please don't take the this the wrong way, usability is _hard_ and hey, you
actually built something, which can be a goal in and of itself, but: please go
read a book on usability. Designed for Use by Lukas Mathis [1] is a great
introduction. The first few things that stood out for me:

• It's my first time seeing the page, I want to know what it _is_. I
definitely don't want to load a config. The default config should be the first
thing the user sees, as it does a reasonable job of explaining the concepts.

• The button for adding a card is tiny and far away for where the cards get
added.

• The menu being hidden by default means its items are not at all
discoverable. It could still be collapsible, but open by default if you want
users to actually use it.

• Pressing ESC in the initial modal ends up in an irreversibly (without
refresh) broken state.

• The only way to save appears to be exporting a JSON file. You should look
into LocalStorage or IndexedDB as a way to autosave so the user doesn't lose
their content by inadvertently closing the tab, navigating or refreshing.

• Deleting a column is instant and irreversible. You should have confirmation,
or, even better, undo.

I'm guessing you've built this to fulfil a personal niche, so kudos for
getting it built. God knows I never finish anything I build for myself.

[1] [http://pragprog.com/book/lmuse/designed-for-
use](http://pragprog.com/book/lmuse/designed-for-use) (or if you google hard
enough there are _ahem_ totally legit free PDFs)

~~~
codez
Don't worry I won't take it the wrong way. I am looking for criticism,
suggestions and feedback.

This was a personal project and a tool I kinda build for myself but then
people showed some interest in it and made little suggestions here and there
but it has never had a wider audience which is why it's here.

I will certainly look into that book for an xmas gift for myself :)

1\. if I load the default config as standard, do you think that that is
enough? or should there be some modal still introducing it in some way?

2\. how would you tackle this? I have it in the menu as well but I wanted the
ability to add a card to a particular column without using dropdowns etc.
hence the icon on the column.

3\. another user has suggested scrapping the menu altogether and I think this
is something I will do and move to icons in the header.

4.Wow, thanks for pointing that out. This may be a bug with twitter bootstrap
then as I am using their modal as I didn't want to spend time writing my own
for a first iteration.

5.Cool, I will take a look at them, I haven't been too sure on save options.
The initial idea was that developers wanted to save something they could then
send to a PM who could load the same thing make changes and maybe send back.

6\. There is a confirmation if the column is not empty, you should be asked if
you wish to do so and that all cards will be lost.

Yeah it was built as a personal thing, I was using post it notes a lot and
then I changed desk and had no post it notes or I would lost a post it with a
load of things on, simple things like hex colors for some css or ring this
person and it kinda went from there.

I really appreciate the feedback so thank you very much for your time to give
me it and thanks for the link to the book to, I will certainly look at
checking that out.

Thanks again!

~~~
untothebreach

      > 5.Cool, I will take a look at them, I haven't been too sure on save options. The initial idea was that developers wanted to save something they could then send to a PM who could load the same thing make changes and maybe send back.
    

To me (and I am no usability expert so, ya know, 'grain of salt' and all
that), this sounds more like an "Export" operation than a "Save" operation. I
agree with the parent that localStorage or IndexedDB would be good, and
combining one of them with auto-save would be even better. Perhaps the 'Save'
button in the menu could then be changed to 'Export' or something?

EDIT:

Also, the use of localStorage could make this 'todo' from the README partly
obsolete:

    
    
      > online persistence if there was demand. this does however mean accounts which isn't cool but maybe the notion of guest accounts and persistent accounts whereby multiple boards could be saved.
    

LocalStorage wouldn't enable a user to get their boards from anywhere, but
could help, as the parent says, with the 'oops i closed my browser' case.

~~~
wiresurfer
how about exporting/saving/backing up to a cloud storage provider like
skydrive/dropbox. That should remove the need to maintain accounts. You can
use the javascript dropbox sdk to replicate/backup the local storage file onto
the cloud. When a user accesses it via some other computer, simple ask him to
login to his dropbox account and you can sync the local storage once the
access is available. Just my two cents

~~~
codez
hey wiresurfer!

Thanks for your input, it's much appreciated. I am very interested in getting
this part of tyto working. Do you think personally that dropbox is the best
option for this feature? or do you think maybe offering skydrive, google drive
and dropbox would be better? I also need to think about how this would be
tackled from a UI perspective too to be honest so any opinion you may have on
that would be much appreciated too.

Thanks again for the input! feedback has been great!

------
bbx
Very neat. I'm the kind of person who likes having everything laid out before
him, i.e. I don't like organization that relies too much on depth. For
example, I usually prefer prefixing my file names rather than splitting them
into subfolders.

It's a version 0.0.1, so here's my 2 cents: the only thing that really bothers
me is the menu. The whole UI is quick and responsive, but this menu opens very
slowly. The thing is, I don't think you actually need it. Why hide tools that
users will probably interact with a lot? There's so much space in the header,
left to the logo. Just put the buttons there and forget about the menu.

You're not the only one I see making this "mistake": not appropriately using
the space available, especially when there are only a few elements to show.
The greatest misuse I see is dropdowns [1]. On a personal level, I hate them
(because, like I said, I prefer having all my options available before my
eyes). But on a more general level, dropdowns are often used for a few items
only, and remove any sense of hierarchy. They're just hidden lists of
frequently-used options, put on the same level of importance.

To give an example related to your app: "add item" is on the same level as
"email". But the former is both frequently used and non-penalizing (you can
undo it easily), whereas the latter is rarely used and makes you leave the
app, which might make the user lose some valuable data.

[1]: [http://jgthms.com/dont-use-dropdowns-for-a-few-items-
only.ht...](http://jgthms.com/dont-use-dropdowns-for-a-few-items-only.html)

~~~
codez
Hey bbx. Thanks very much for the feedback. Yeah the menu is a strange one,
because I wasn't sure whether people would like something tucked away or
something they could see but then having just icons for buttons, do you think
that would communicate enough? or is it worth it for people to just have that
short learning curve for what the icons do? This was my first prototype;
[http://jsfiddle.net/WtGYx/2/](http://jsfiddle.net/WtGYx/2/) I had icons in
the header for that one. It's really great to have people to discuss this with
because obviously UX is important as the goal is to make it as simple and
intuitive as possible. I have to kinda agree on the dropdowns front ha. Thanks
again, really appreciated.

~~~
bbx
Well, I think the solution is to NOT have something tucked away (like the
current menu). You have space in the header, use it! Especially for buttons
that will be frequently used.

And don't use icons _only_. Users went mad when GMail replace text-buttons
with icon-buttons. [1] Just use text! Or use text with icons, but not icons
only.

[1]:
[https://support.google.com/mail/answer/2473038?hl=en&ctx=mai...](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/2473038?hl=en&ctx=mail)

~~~
codez
Ahh ok that's really good to know, I'll take a read of that article there.

How about flat buttons? Your opinion on them?

Thanks again by the way, this is really helpful!

------
niyazpk
I really really really wish I could take feedback as well as @codez is taking
in this thread. Incredible attitude man.

Congrats for launching. Good luck!

~~~
codez
hey nizazpk!

haha thanks very much for the compliment!

I am always interested to share things and what makes it even better is when
people will have some insight, suggestion, opinion or criticism that I can
take on board as the more feedback, the better a piece of work can become. It
really helps and I'm really amazed and grateful for the amount of feedback
tyto has received.

Thanks again!

------
sambeau
Looks good!

The one thing I'd like to see changed is that the button to create a new card
is dangerously close to the button that deletes a column.

Adding a card is a frequent action so deserves such a prominent spot, deleting
a column is not.

Perhaps you should add an 'edit column' mode where moving, creating & deleting
columns is exposed: e.g. on double clicking the space around columns?

~~~
codez
hey sambeau!

the positioning of the new card button has been a piece of feedback that has
come up a fair bit it seems and I'm really happy people have brought it up. I
wasn't too happy with it's placement but wasn't sure where to put it but knew
there needed to be that functionality.

Hmm interesting about an edit mode for columns. Could you elaborate on this? I
would have had maybe the ability to move and delete a column but adding a new
one should be from the header menu no? Your opinion is very appreciated so
thanks for your feedback.

Thanks again!

~~~
sambeau
I'd hate to re-design your app in an off-the-cuff remark… but… hey-ho!…

My thinking was that editing columns would be a rare even - you'd set your
board up once and then use it with perhaps an occasional decision to add or
delete a column.

Your real-estate is valuable and should remain uncluttered - a UI element (be
it label, icon, button) must earn it's place especially in prominent positions
- the top right of a column is (in the western world) a valuable place plus
each column has a limit to how many UI elements they can support before
getting confusing.

Thus, the decision you have to make each time you place a UI element is where
are the prominent positions where UI can go? What are my most common
interactions? Where can I put my less common, yet still essential,
interactions?

So - here the obvious thing to do is to concentrate on the cards - creating
new ones, moving them from column to column, deleting them. I'd give
prominence to these interactions as their buttons are the ones that will be
consistently pressed.

Then you are left with what to do with the ui for setting up a board. You
generally have two options - chuck the UI into a lesser-used area of the scene
(generally a lazy idea) or (my preferred option) add a mode.

Modes get a bad rap as they are considered to be 'non-discoverable' but I find
that a good mode is often a simpler solution - you get a clean slate and all
your good UI positions are available for reuse.

SO - a good column editing mode would involve an option to switch into a mode
where you can no longer edit cards but instead manipulate the board -
add/delete columns, move things around.

There are various possibilities for entering the mode - the most obvious of
which is a button. However you could play around with clicking the area
between columns - as its a large unused target area. The downside might be
that it isn't obvious what you'd have to do to discover it - the temptation
then is to add instructions.

Have a play - I suspect it might work.

~~~
codez
hey sambeau!

thanks for getting back to me.

there are some good points you make there. A button or switch to go into
column edit mode would be most appealing to me I think personally. I like that
idea and I will certainly have a play with it.

as for adding cards, where do you think this should live? some people have
suggested at the bottom of columns. This does sound good, my only problem is
that what if the user has to scroll to find this functionality? with an icon
at the top of the column this is clearer IMO, if columns had a mode then I
guess the remove column icon wouldn't be visible at the same time as the add
item icon. I'd value your opinion on this part of the UI.

Thanks again for your feedback and input!

~~~
sambeau
Add cards should have pride of place at the top. You don't want to scroll to
find it.

~~~
codez
hey sambeau!

thanks for getting back to me. Where would you prefer to see this? or how? I
like the way the icon is now as it isn't intrusive although some people claim
they want something more like trello offers for adding cards. I have thought
maybe a button below the column title like a faded anchor for adding cards
maybe? your thoughts?

Thanks again for your input and insight!

------
why-el
It's great. I used it right now as I often have things I need to remember but
I can't just dumpt it in my team's Trello. I think you can go ahead and brand
it as a light weight Trello for a niche that wants privacy/is lazy and just
wants something quick.

LocalStorage can take you miles ahead if you indeed make sure people use this
as I described above. I certainly would.

~~~
jaredstenquist
You can create multiple boards in trello, mixing personal and business. This
means you can keep all of this stuff in the same system, but not have them
appear in your Team's trello.

Isn't that way simpler? That's how i do it anyway.

~~~
why-el
True, except that currently there is no way to silence Trello or scope
notifications to one board. If I am there, I will get distracted.

~~~
codez
this is interesting to know wrt to trello.

Thanks.

------
Kiro
So basically it's a lightweight version of Trello? Seems great anyway and I
will probably try it out for my next project.

~~~
codez
Hey Kiro,

Thanks for the feedback it's much appreciated.

Ah yes trello! I was having trouble remembering that name. It's been a couple
of years since I briefly used that. Has it always required a sign in off the
top of your head?

My goal wasn't a lightweight trello but to be compared to is a great
compliment so thank you very much and many thanks for the feedback.

If you do try out tyto, please let me know how it goes for you, I'd be very
happy to take on board any suggestions or feedback you have from using it.

Thanks again!

------
jalada
Sometimes the page loads just blank, with no modal. Can't get it to do it now
but it happened on my first load.

~~~
codez
Hey jalada,

Yeah I had this issue once or twice when developing it but I made the
assumption that maybe grunt-watch wasn't catching up or something but someone
else has said the same thing.

Do you mind me asking which browser you are using? I developed it using
firefox and chrome. Another user has suggested maybe (if my interpretation is
correct) getting rid of the intro modal completely which would solve this
problem.

I really appreciate the feedback so thank you for commenting.

~~~
jalada
I was using Firefox when it happened :)

Good work!

~~~
codez
Thanks for that. I am certainly going to see if I can tackle that issue.

Thanks again :)

~~~
gavinpc
The screen is also blank (forever) if you have cookies blocked. This is so
common that I guess very few people whitelist cookies. Still, I thought you
might want to know.

~~~
codez
hey gavinpc

Thanks for the heads up! will certainly keep that in mind.

------
oso2k
codez, for those focusing on the UI aspect, I'd say those are minor issues. If
you'd like to make this more usable, add templates/examples somewhere for
things like Quad Charts [1], Kanban [2], Zachman Enterprise Architecture [3],
Lean Canvas [4], Business Model Canvas [5], etc. Great job!

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_chart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_chart)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_board](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_board)

[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachman_Framework](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachman_Framework)

[4] [http://blog.spark59.com/2012/the-different-worldviews-of-
a-s...](http://blog.spark59.com/2012/the-different-worldviews-of-a-startup/)

[5]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas)

~~~
codez
hey oso2k!

Thanks very much for the feedback! That's actually a pretty awesome idea to
add different templates for those things. My question for that is though, how
would a user choose this from a UI perspective? Would they say define in
config a special template and then use that? Maybe I can come up with ways to
change the current templates to work in this manner and provide them as
templates that could be swapped out. Or, would you like to have something like
that become available from clicking a button? I think I could do that using
requireJS.

Thanks again for this feedback and input! This is a really cool idea and a
feature that would be pretty awesome to get implemented.

Much appreciated! :)

------
edelans
Congrats ! I like the lightweight minimalist approach. The email feature is
really neat ! A reason why I tried but stoped using trello, asana or others is
because I thought it was overkill for early stages, and all we needed was a
todo list inside a mail, but the mail clients doesn't make it easy and
practical...

I agree with the feedback on the menu, and the possibility to rearrange the
items in the same column.

~~~
codez
hey edelans,

Thanks for the feedback, minimalist and lightweight is certainly my aim.

Yeah the email feature is something I am quite happy with, that came from one
of my other projects where I have made a chrome browser extension for sticky
notes that you can drag around a page and then email back to yourself (can be
seen on my github).

Yeah the menu feedback seems consistent so certainly something I am going to
look into. I am wondering if I might need to implement the drag and drop
slightly different to get rearranging working properly as intended but I'll
take a look.

Thanks again for the feedback, it's much appreciated.

------
darklegend
Nice little project. I'm not quite sure if it's a bug or if I just can't
figure out how it works correctly: Drag and Drop of entries. Whenever i drag
something it seems to be push to the bottom. I think it would be better if I
could freely rearrange the items. E.g. from position 2 to position 4.

Keep the good work :-)

~~~
codez
hey darklegend!

Thanks very much for the feedback, it's really appreciated.

Hmm yeah that would seem to be the ideal behaviour for sure. I just gave it a
go and it seems you can rearrange downwards but not upwards and also not as
you would wish. So if you drag something down in the same column it will go to
the end of that column. This definitely isn't ideal. I had initially started
implementing using my own draggable implementation but then reverted to using
html5 draggable with contenteditable. I ran into some styling issues when
dragging items whilst trying to remain responsive. Basically the items were
styled at 90% of the column width but when you dragged them out they grew to
90% of the page and then shrunk back again when they were dropped but I was
unable to hack the drag move in a way to maintain size without there being
some jump in width which I didn't think looked pleasant.

This could certainly go down as an issue if you would like to add it or I can
add it to the repo.

I'll try to keep it up and thanks again very much for the feedback, it's
really appreciated!

------
Monk_NT
It's nice! I'm actually curious about naming it tyto. It reminds me of Josip
Broz Tito (a historical figure form equally historical Yugoslavia) who, by
local legends, got his nickname Tito because he would hand out tasks by
pointing at it and saying "Ti, to!" (translated roughly "You, do that!").

~~~
codez
hey Monk_NT!

Thanks for the feedback, it's much appreciated.

Well I wasn't sure what to name it but that kinda just stuck for me ha. Haha
that's a good little story that I was unaware of, thanks for that!

Thanks again for the feedback!

------
bromagosa
I like it, my local Trello! :)

Just one small suggestion, it'd be nice if columns were draggable as well.

~~~
codez
Hey bromagosa!

I do take a massive compliment when people are mentioning Trello :)

Using it locally allows you to do whatever you want with it too!

... columns draggable... Now why didn't I think of that?! That's a really good
idea, thanks! I can certainly look into that as a feature to add, that would
be pretty cool. I would probably need to play around with that a bit as I can
see there certainly being some behavioural issues when implementing that but
I'd imagine it to certainly be doable.

Thanks again for the feedback! it's really appreciated.

------
codez
hey all!

just wanted to say to all those that have given feedback, input and insight
into tyto and/or have starred, forked or started watching the repo

"THANKS VERY MUCH!"

All of it has been very good and so helpful with taking the project forward. I
wasn't sure if people would take their time to show interest or give some
insight etc. so once again it is very appreciated and thanks for your time. I
will try to get changes implemented and new features and things ironed out as
soon as I can and report back.

THANKS AGAIN!

p.s if you know of people that would be interested in getting involved or
using tyto please share it with them so it can get better exposure and a wider
range of feedback, insight etc.

------
mhsutton
well done on building this. Sometimes making is its own reward.

Some feedback:

I had no idea what it did and the opening screen about loading config etc was
confusing. I would have preferred like a tour with tooltips instead. Though
once you get into it and play you soon figure out what it does.

As a fellow maker - I generally have really basic UI and leave menu items
visible and learn from these forums what to do with them. So I suggest
expanding your menu and have it always available. (like the menu animation
though, could be a little faster).

What problem were you trying to fix? Did you try something like Trello.com
before you decided to build this? It's cool if you built it just because.

~~~
codez
hey mhsutton,

Thanks for the feedback, yeah I was happy to get something done that I am
happy to use and share. My idea has been to create something easy enough for
people to use and customize and make their own.

Yeah the loading config modal seems to have thrown a couple, that was another
comment that was made. Someone also suggested maybe ditching the intro modal
and just letting people discover for themselves.

as per the menu, thank you for that, that's been brought up and I'm thinking
based on other feedback of moving the menu items into the header so you don't
have to open and close it. the tab was something else I created as a UI
component and I guess I just wanted to have a go at using it in real world
environment.

I had used trello quite some time ago but couldn't remember it and I guess the
thing I like with tyto is that I don't need an account and its just a simple
UI. My main thing was to implement whilst learning and brushing up on some
tech using templating languages like handlebars.

Thanks again for the feedback and I'll look at moving the menu.

~~~
jinesh
@codez: the intro modal had me confused as well so I realigned a few of the
elements - [http://imgur.com/a/FQkUm](http://imgur.com/a/FQkUm) \- to make it
more self explanatory...yup, having a slow day at work :)

~~~
codez
hey jinesh!

That's awesome, thanks for that, it actually does look much better like that.
I may change the template to fit in with that structure if you're ok with
that. Some people have expressed not having the modal at all so I may change
the default behaviour to not show it on load (this is just an option in the
config).

Thanks again for the feedback! it's really appreciated and good work!

~~~
jinesh
Sure @codez, feel free to use it (y)

~~~
codez
Thanks!! I'll look to make that change :)

Good stuff!

------
sspiff
I love it, but is there a reason why you limit the height of the box in your
demo app? I'd much rather have it use up all of my screen height, and scroll
the entire page, rather than the white rectangle part like it does now.

~~~
codez
hey sspiff!

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. Err, I guess I just put it together
with styling that worked for me. The great thing about how it's written and
using less, tweaks can be made real easy so I can certainly look into making
changes to it so it works in a way that fills up more screen real estate. I'll
look into this, if you'd like to add it as an issue to the repo, feel free or
I can add it later.

Thanks again for the feedback!

~~~
sspiff
Hi, thanks for the reply! I see you already mostly fixed the issue, with the
box now scaling relatively to the screen height. I'll file an issue about the
scrolling behaviour.

~~~
codez
hey sspiff,

yeah dustywusty submitted a pull request with some pretty good little changes
in.

I am actually trying to think of a way of sort of hosting discussion on the
different issues but kinda struggling on a strategy with regards to how to get
people to supply their input. I can use issues on github but when it comes to
UI and UX design I'd love some kind of forum almost for it to show balsamiq
mocks or the likes.

Any idea with regards to this issue would be awesome.

Thanks again for the input! it's really appreciated.

------
Taurenking
Hey nice project you got there!(if you're the developer)

At first it wasn't really working actually(I guess it was the config/menu
thing), but after few reloads everything went smooth...

This is Dope! Starred :)

~~~
codez
I'm actually why it didn't start up straight away for you. Do you mind me
asking which browser you were using? I am currently only really playing with
it in firefox and chrome but I think I have seen where you load the page and
nothing happens but when you refresh it arrives so to speak ha.

~~~
damon_c
I had that same issue with Safari on Mac. One refresh did the trick.

~~~
codez
Yeah this is strange, I am going to look into this and maybe if the intro
modal disappears then this bug may disappear too hopefully.

Thanks again for your feedback, it's much appreciated!

------
blehn
If you like this, check out my app:

[http://listwerk.com](http://listwerk.com)

I'd say it's a little more polished, though still in need of some key
features, namely a mobile app.

~~~
codez
hey blehn!

I haven't had a good look at your app because it requires a sign up, although
the home page looks good. However, as there is no demo of it in action without
me poking around I can't truly make an opinion of it unless signing up etc.

That's where tyto differs and that's where its charm lies. It's intention is
that there is no account necessary and that the UI is simple and maybe not
completely polished to most peoples tastes. The source is completely open and
it's aim is that it's easy to learn the codebase and what's going on so that
people are free to take it and make it into whatever they want, however they
want, wherever they want.

tyto is definitely going to be made mobile friendly in the future and that's a
major goal to have it working responsive to device.

I hope that clears it up a little.

in early conception I had toyed with the idea of tyto being an acronym for
'tool you take over' for this reason.

Thanks for sharing!

------
ehosca
JIRA Classic Task Board

[https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/AGILE/Using+the+Cla...](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/AGILE/Using+the+Classic+Task+Board)

------
bshimmin
I had a look at the CoffeeScript source. Is there some reason why you're not
using CoffeeScript's `class`? It would save you having to do all the
`tyto::foo` and `tyto = this` stuff.

~~~
codez
hey bshimmin!

I did start out using class in coffeescript but I couldn't get it to work
quite how I wanted to at the time but I was brushing up on my coffeescript and
it is a really valid point and therefore I shall probably revisit this to
refactor into that form. It does make sense after all.

Thanks for the feedback!

------
heydanreeves
Pretty cool demo. Just a little tip for op, @codez, if you apply float: right;
to the menu container (.actions) the buttons will look better while sliding
in/out.

~~~
codez
hey heydanreeves,

Thanks very much for the feedback! and thank you very much for that little
tip, haha I spent a while thinking, hmm this doesn't look right, it's funny
how like when you're stuck into something you can sometimes overlook simple
things that are going to fix an issue. "float: right;" _palms face_

Thanks for the feedback, it's really appreciated!

------
elwell
Just a small suggestion:

CoffeeScript recommends the use of 2 _spaces_ for indentation (I'm seeing a
_tab_ of size 8 in your code on github).

~~~
codez
hey elwell!

thanks for the heads up, this has been noted and it's my fault. I use tabs
constantly because I find it easier to read and I haven't been converting back
or tidying up correctly so jslint will kick up a fuss as will coffee linting I
would imagine.

I am certainly going to look into this and see if there is some preprocessing
tool that can help me and my hard coded ways haha

Thanks again! I'll look to sort this out.

------
onion2k
Serialising the config json object to localStorage and pulling it back out
again on a reload would be useful.

~~~
codez
Hey onion2k,

Thanks very much for the feedback.

I will look into using localStorage, this has also been mentioned in another
comment. Have you experience with this yourself?

I'll have a google around, are there any drawback with that approach you can
think of?

Thanks again for the feedback, it's really appreciated!

~~~
onion2k
Yes, I've used localStorage. It's supported well across all the main browsers,
it's reasonably quick, and it'll store more than enough data for your app.
It's really just a case of doing (assuming you include JSON2.js);

    
    
      var ls = window.localStorage;
      var config = JSON.parse(ls.getItem('config')); //load the config
    
      ls.setItem('config', JSON.stringify(config)); //save the config
    

That's pretty much it. You'll need to protect against the config not being
there, but that's just a matter of using a default empty object if config is
null.

~~~
codez
Thanks a lot for this, it's really helpful to get an idea of how this would be
used.

How would you suggest this is used then?

People have the option to save a file or to localStorage?

Or should it just do it in the background without people knowing or maybe it's
set as a config option?

You opinion on this is really appreciated so thanks again!

~~~
onion2k
In a few things I've made that use it I do it in the background so state is
maintained between sessions (load the data during initialisation, save it on
any state change). It's important to inform the user that it's storing things
locally, and include a UI element that allows the user to clear all the data
easily, and possibly let users switch storage off (for shared computers). I
use it in mobile things so that's not really a problem for me.

~~~
codez
hey onion2k,

this insight is really appreciated as it will really help to improve tyto. How
would you suggest maybe showing this information to the user? a modal or pop
up? or something less intrusive just like a spinner when it saves? Or should
there be some intro that asks the user if localStorage is ok to be used? Maybe
a disappearing banner? then a button could easily be added to the header for
removing said data maybe.

I guess I will really need to assess how many buttons make their way into the
header really. What's you opinion on drop buttons or maybe some of the actions
being icon buttons and some text plus icons? I'm just thinking of screen real
estate and the responsive element.

on mobile I would like the traditional hidden menu I think when it comes to
it.

Thanks for the insight and feedback again, it's really appreciated.

------
knes
Thank you for open sourcing it, for people like me who are learning how to
code it s awesome!

Thanks!

~~~
codez
hey knes!

Thanks for the feedback, well I have used it to brush up on a few things and
I've tried to write it in a way so that it's easy to pick up so I hope you
find it useful.

If you have any questions, suggestions or other feedback, don't hesitate to
contact me. I'm more than happy to help people out.

Thanks again for the feedback!

------
sekasi
Very nice. As mentioned below, it shouts for a UX/ExD review, but I'm
impressed nonetheless.

~~~
codez
Hey sekasi,

Thank you very much for the feedback!

It's in it's infant stage and I am certainly embracing the UX comments, they
are very appreciated. Plenty for me to make changes to and put back out there.
So, any suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks again for the feedback!

------
zytek
Does now work on Firefox 19 (yeah, I know..). The popup does not display. Only
blank board.

~~~
codez
Hey zytek,

Thanks for the feedback!

Hmm have you tried refreshing the page? This does seem to be an issue
currently.

Otherwise maybe there is an issue with requireJS or bootstrap modal.

Thanks again for the feedback!

------
leokun
Looks like one could use this as a agile style whiteboard/stickies
replacement.

~~~
codez
hey leokun,

Thanks for the feedback! yeah that was kinda the intention and inspiration
with tyto, I wanted something simple that people could use. Maybe it could
work on a smartboard or something.

Thanks again for the feedback, really appreciated!

------
meowface
I like it. Minimalist, but all the required features for a good task
management app.

~~~
codez
1 point by codez 9 minutes ago | link | edit | delete

Thanks very much for the feedback! It's really appreciated. Any suggestions or
the likes I am more than happy to take on board. I am just trying to get some
exposure so I can see if it will gather some interest. Thanks again.

------
bcoughlan
Good job for a pet project, excited to see how it progresses over time.

~~~
codez
hey bcoughlan!

yeah me too! that's why I wanted to share it at this stage and see if could
generate enough interest to take it much further. The more feedback generated,
a better picture can be made of how far it can go and in what direction. To be
honest I am just really pleased that as many people have provided feedback and
shown interest as they have. It's majorly appreciated.

Thanks again!

------
easytiger
Blank white box for me

~~~
codez
hey easytiger!

I'm sorry to hear that, have you tried refreshing as some others have had this
problem too it seems.

Thanks for the heads up!

------
loceng
Love the little owl logo and the wing movement. Keep that.

~~~
codez
hey loceng!

glad you like it! it was a little thing I wanted to add so it wasn't overkill
but was just there to sort of add a little something if you know what I mean.

Thanks again for the feedback!

------
bukka
How would this compete with Trello?

~~~
codez
Hey bukka,

That's not the intention with tyto.

tyto has come out of a common problem with managing and organising things for
me personally and colleagues past and present, and my wanting to see if I
could implement my own tool for tackling that issue.

The codebase is meant to be easy to read so that people can easily take it
away and make it their own.

------
sidcool
Looks like Trello.

~~~
codez
Hey sidcool,

Thanks for the feedback.

That isn't the intention with tyto but people do seem to be bringing up
trello.

Thanks again!

~~~
sidcool
I wasn't trying to sound condescending. It's a very well made application.
Thanks for your efforts!

~~~
codez
Oh no sorry, I didn't take it that way at all so no worries.

Thanks again for your feedback, it's really appreciated. Feedback for tyto has
been great.

------
wehadfun
This is awesome!

~~~
codez
hey wehadfun!

Thanks forthe feedback, much appreciated!

------
erict19
Very cool

~~~
codez
hey erict19!

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated

