Moving on from Time-blocking Project
A while back I posted on here about creating a time-blocking project. The idea for it was essentially to create a new front end for Google Calendar so that users could get more visual precision (with events shown in 5 minute increments). Some school commitments kept me pretty busy in the months that followed, but I finally dove into it this summer. I made some solid progress on the backend, but I've now decided that I'm going to shelve the project and work on a different idea instead.
I still believe that the concept has utility, but it's now become clear that building out the UI will take much longer than initially expected. Calendar UIs are heavy-- I definitely underestimated the number of different permutations when dealing with multiple calendars and different event sizes. It will take a long time just to produce a functional beta product (never mind a good-looking one) and this isn't something I want to commit to right now.
On top of this, working so closely with the Google Calendar API introduces security hurdles. Before an application that uses the GCal API can be published, it needs to be vetted by Google. This process takes time-- there are threads online about people who have waited as long as four months just to hear back. If I ended up in a situation like this, it would extend the project's timeline even further, adding to my reasoning for moving on to something else.
Anyways. Will keep plucking on another idea. And on the bright side, I learned a lot about Django and working with OAuth 2.0 APIs to access gated user data. I think the knowledge I gained in these areas will be handy down the road.
As a calendar-obsessed guy who also wants better than GCal, I'm bummed to hear you're moving on (although I totally get it). Do you have a screenshot or demo you can send me about what you've built? You obviously thought about this a lot, so I'm curious what your long-term vision was.
Hey man, ya happy to share the vision, I actually ended up shelving it when I started working on the front-end mockup on Figma, so I don't have any flushed-out screenshots or demos. High level though, the plan was to have four columns on the left 2/3rds of the screen with calendar events that could be visible in five-minute increments. And then there was a magnifier that would highlight and expand a chunk of the calendar on the right-most 1/3rd of the screen. The magnifier window would move around. I do actually have a basic mockup of the columns and the mini window, will send it your way!
Wow, interesting. That's definitely a new take on things. I'll check it out, thanks!