Show HN: My Project Management and (eventual) Collaboration Tool (Server down)

http://www.thetaboard.com

by dclaysmith • 14 years ago

23 23 14 years ago

dclaysmith12• 14 years ago

Hey everyone. I've been working on and off on this for the last 9 months or so (god has it been that long). I wanted to learn backbone.js, improve my javascript skills, and build a tool that I felt had been missing. So I build ThetaBoard--a (very) simple tool for managing lists and projects.

Unfortunately, Trello came out in September and was fairly similar to my original vision. I thought about stopping development but my vision for ThetaBoard is a bit different than Trello so decided to atleast get an MVP out there and see what people thought. Would love to hear your suggestions and ideas. Especially any areas where tools like Trello aren't really scratching your itch.

marketmonkey• 14 years ago

Just had a play. Looks good. A few comments:

  - SUGGESTIONS
  - Switch the screenshot and demo button around (button on right)
  - Improve the quality of the screenshot
  - Pre-fill the blank slate with some demo items
  - Allow users to download data (json/xml etc.)
   
  - BUGS
  - When using the demo, press save, then [browser back]. I get a JSON representation
   
  - QUESTIONS
  - Does it allow multi-user access?

Keep it up.

dclaysmith12• 14 years ago

Thanks a ton. I put the landing page together last night and I'm not much of a designer (tho was pretty happy with how it turned out). Definitely needs better screenshots (and it doesn't work on the ipad right now so should probably drop it!)

Data export coming! and yeah, I prepopulate the initial board with some default columns but should throw a couple stories in there.

It doesn't currently allow multi-user access but it's (fairly) useless without it long term. The free/personal plan isn't collaborative (that's my initial plan). When/if I add some premium plans it will obviously have to have multi-user and realtime updates.

Thanks.

dpcx• 14 years ago

I like this. I do have some comments:

  - When dragging from one board to another, unless I drag to the right location, I can't drop. It would be nice if I could drop anywhere in the board
  - Keyboard shortcuts?
  - A way to save a story without using the mouse
  - If I drag from the To Do board, I can drag (forever) to the right. This isn't a problem, per se, but is definitely unexpected behavior.

dclaysmith12• 14 years ago

   * I think I just need to add some padding into the jquery.ui.sortable to make them more "accomodating"
   * Thanks. I had some simple keyboard shortcuts in place (ctrl+n, ctrl+s) but found a couple of bugs in the library so temporarily removed them.
   * Saving without a mouse: hitting tab currently should do it but keyboard shortcuts coming soon.
   * Yep, hadn't noticed that it flies off to the right. Thanks!

entropie2• 14 years ago

Does not load here.

dclaysmith12• 14 years ago

Yeah. I thought I had resized the server instance last night but it looks like it failed. So it's now running on a 256MB instance... on w/ support. Check back soon!

entropie2• 14 years ago

Works now. Interesting. Are there any hotkeys? I think it would be nice to move an item via Ctrl + left. Also some colors for priorities..?

webbruce• 14 years ago

same, no loady

import• 14 years ago

Looks nice! My suggestions;

Keyboard shortcuts (N for new to-do, Shift-S for saving item). An API, or a Mac/Win app or terminal tool.

dclaysmith12• 14 years ago

Good ideas. Probably go API first...

dclaysmith12• 14 years ago

Ouch. Server swamped. Rookie mistake. Resizing it to a bigger instance. Check back soon!

vineet2• 14 years ago

I like it. Solving Project Management pains is hard. There are way too many tools that don't work. I like your approach - having a very fast interface to add and move items makes a significant different.

That being said, how do you intend to be different from Trello?

dclaysmith12• 14 years ago

Thanks! One of the things I'm trying to do design wise is eliminate/minimize pop up screens and multiple pages, etc. I want everything to accessible from one screen.

My plan is to add functionality--initially realtime collaboration--and then comments, tasks, assigned users, point/time tracking, etc. but make all of the features opt-in and customizable.

I consider this the real minimum viable product. Just a list of items. Priority represented by position in a list. Status respresented by WHICH list. An unobtrusive backlog. An accessible archive. I want people to be able to use it at this level of simplicity a year from now.

vineet2• 14 years ago

Those sound really good - but aren't they exactly what Trello is already doing?

dclaysmith12• 14 years ago

Any way to change a title of a post after 2.5 hours? Wouldn't mind removing the "(Server Down)" part... If anyone (pg, moderator of some sort) wants to help, the original was:

Show HN: My Project Management and (eventual) Collaboration Tool :: Θ ThetaBoard

jastanton• 14 years ago

Using a column name as "<script>alert(1)</script>" I get an error.

dclaysmith12• 14 years ago

I think I'm glad.

nishant123001• 14 years ago

very nice, intuitive and simple. I love to use it.

Show HN: My Project Management and (eventual) Collaboration Tool (Server down)

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