Development Logs

Community Bonding Period

• Explored various options regarding nodejs and non-node frameworks.
• Learnt basics of development with meteor, using templating engines etc.
• Also looked into alternative framework Expressjs.
• Discussed with mentors about the choice of framework.
• Packaged three.js for meteor.
• Ran a simple OBJLoader example in meteor.

Development Period

Week 1

'''''19th May

• Worked on Authentication Module in meteor
• Wrote LogIn, Registeration, Forgot Password and Reset password form templates.

'''''20th May

• Completed the views and helpers for the templates and Added validations to the forms
• Modified the directory structure and read Hacking file again and made edits to my code accordingly.
• Pushed the code to github https://github.com/inderpreetsingh/OGV-meteor. Forgot-password form is now able to send the mails but stuck at an error regarding Reset-Password template.

'''''21st May

• Reset-Password error solved, Authentication is complete now.
• Started looking into file upload. Tried a package called dropzone.js. Published my three.js package https://atmospherejs.com/package/ogv-threejs.

'''''22nd May

• Worked on File Upload module, tried various file upload packages.
• At last settled for packaged named formidable from npm.

'''''23rd May

• Having done the first milestone, today I explored other frameworks and read more about the technologies involved. Did some work in expressJS.

'''''24th May

• Uptil now, I was dealing with file uploader in a separate app, today I ported file uploader to OGV.
• Now we can upload files in OGV, currently any files can be uploaded but will soon change that so that it only accepts .g files.

'''''Milestone Set

• Authentication

'''''Milestones Completed

• Authentication
• Got three.js working with meteor
• File uploader partially completed

''''' Things yet to do

• Improve UI
• Add routers

Week 2

'''''26th May

• The ported file uploader started facing errors, mostly regarding styles. I was unable to apply global bootstrap. I couldn't work much due to some power issues at my home.

'''''27th May

• Today, I improved my earlier file-uploader by removing the dependency from formidable and directly use the 'fs' package.
• As I have time, I am still giving Collection-FS a try, so that I don't miss out on anything useful.

'''''28th May

• Read about meteor collections, started working on file manager.

'''''29th May

• I was unable to work, due to some urgent work at home. Will make up for it by working more in coming time.

'''''30th May

• Completed the new file uploader (except validations), and added it into main code. Looking into rendering part and routers.

'''''31st May

• Added Basic router file.
• Each user will now have it's own folder and uploaded files go there.
• Added more comments in the code.
• Implemented the file extension check, now only .obj files can be uploaded (will restrict that to .g files when I deal with g-obj conversion)
• A bit stuck on how to pass errors from server to client via meteor.

'''''Milestones Set:

• File Uploader

'''''Milestones Completed:

• File Uploader

WEEK 3

This week I have my final exam on 3rd June and 5th June, So will be busy a bit there.

'''''4th June

• Routers integrated, now we have different URLs for log-in, sign-up etc.

'''''6th June

• Solved the problem regarding file uploader errors.
• Worked on adding OBJLoader in OGV.

'''''7th June

• added minimal file manager
• added models collection, now each user has list of models in database
• created the universal header as I showed in mockup
• Unable to send verification email at sign-up.
• added lovemeter to each model (dummy yet).

'''''8th June

• File Manager completed
• Styling of existing components
• Verification email works fine
• uploaded to http://ogv.meteor.com/
• more improvements

'''''Milestone Set:

• File Manager

'''''Work Done:

• File Manager
• UI
• Routing

Week 4

9th June

• Solved some deployment problems with ogv.meteor.com
• Forgot Password form stopped working, so corrected it.
• Added preloader

11th June

• Tried to deploy on my own server (facing problems)
• moved from meteor-router to iron-router

12th June

• Corrected some iron-router problems
• Struggling to get OBJLoader working with meteor

13th June

• Tried a lot to get files from private folder to load, but failed.
• Put a mail in meteor mailing list about it.

14th June

• Added model Viewer, and got it working with OBJLoader. Now we can see the 3d OBJ models rendered in OGV.

15th June

• Improved the way model Viewer looks.

Week 5

'''''16th June

• Improved the menu bar (small fix)

'''''17th June

• Today I was back to hacking file, and added more comments documentation and cleaned my code.
• Added keyboard controls to the model viewer

'''''18th June

• Keyboard controls were not behaving correctly, improved them.
• Added canvas render support so that it can work even where webgl is not working
• Started searching about running system commands with meteor

'''''19th June

• Tested the whole app again, and removed few bugs

'''''20th June

• Started working on g-obj conversion
• Re-installed latest brl-cad
• Added lovemeter to models (similar to '+1' or 'like')

'''''21st June

• Added Minimal g-obj conversion function.

Week 6

'''''23rd June, 24th June

• Tried Deployment first on the college server, and then on personal digital ocean droplet. I was able to deploy on digital ocean droplet but still faced some issues with uploader, so then deployed using meteor development server where it worked but with glitches. Will work on these issues soon.

'''''25th June

• Faced problems with previous file uploader, started using collectionFS.

''' 26th June

• New file uploader is almost ready, and I wrote a blog post for my mid term evaluation at http://ishwerdas.com/journal/gsoc-mid-term/

'''''27th June

• Was unable to work because of some urgent work at home.

'''''28th June

• Completed working on collectionFS.
• Worked on file extension check.

Week 7

30th June, 1 July, 2 July, 3rd July Did not work much.

'''''4th July

• Extension check completed
• Working on better way to show errors

'''''5th July

• Tried to understand g-obj conversion
• Started writing a separate server method for converting file

'''''6th July

• Need to store files in a separate directory after g-obj conversion. Able to store them, but trying to figure out a way to get a public url of them to view.

Week 8

'''''7th July

• Can store files in a separate directory, but could not find a way to get it's public URL. Till now, I have been working on converting all uploaded g-files at once, also tried to get it working for file whenever it's uploaded.

'''''8th July

• Changed the logic of storing .obj files and the .g file in different directory, instead will add a meta information on each obj file that will contain info about which database it belongs.
• Stuck on an error while getting path of the uploaded .g file, won't be able to convert until I get the path.

'''''9th July

• Instead of converting files on upload, I will instead now convert files while viewing. This solved the error I was previously facing in converting files. Now g-obj conversion is working.

'''''10th July

• Tried to get the converted files in CollectionFS but could not find a way to do it.

'''''12th July

• I got a solution in meteor mailing list, which is about using transformWrite handler and creating a new FS.File object for each OBJ file. I have been able to get transformWrite handler working but facing some problems with creating new FS.File object.

'''''13th July

• Whenever I created new FS.File object, I got this weird error about meteor fibers. So I learnt more about how "non-blocking" code works and what are meteor fibers but still I could not make it work.
• I posted my problem as issue on CollectionFS github. There, I got another logic to work on. Now instead of transform write I was to work on "stored" listener. https://github.com/CollectionFS/Meteor-CollectionFS/issues/362

WEEK 9

'''''14th July

• Worked on stored listener, but could not get it to work.
• Asked again on CollectionFS issues, could not get the new "stored" logic to work but was able to solve the error I got in transform write handler.

'''''15th July

• Added multiple obj loader to the model_viewer.
• Tested new obj loader with various heavy .g files.

'''''16th July

• Improved the conversion, and removed some bugs.
• Tweaked model_viewer to show some big files.
• Tested with various large .g files.

'''''18th July

• More testing, laptop hangs at big files.
• Worked a bit on drag and drop uploader

'''''19th July

• Added server side converting progress

'''''20th July

• Corrected and update the repository.

Week 10

'''''21st July

• Added drag and drop functionality to the uploader.
• Working on user dashboard
• Improved File manager to show only files that have been converted

'''''22nd July

• Added User roles to the authentication for having admin and normal users.
• Made one default admin user and one default normal user.

'''''23rd July

• Added User Dashboard and admin templates
• Added config.js, a file that store configuration variables

'''''24th July

• Sign up form stopped working, solved that problem.
• Added log-in/log-out buttons in the header
• Started working on concept of models feed, a list of uploaded models with description and option to like, comment and share. Kind of like timeline on facebook.

'''''25th July

• Worked on design of model feed.

'''''26th July

• Wrote model feed template and views.
• Working on model feed, a bug was introduced in file manager, which I solved.

'''''27th July

• Improved dashboard template with extra fields.

Week 11

'''''28th July

• Started working on comments section, designed it, wrote it's template and views and hence added it's collection.

'''''29th July

• Comments section completed.
• Improved some dirty code.

'''''30th July

• Started working on 'love' button (analogous to like on facebook)
• Wrote templates, views and made love button working.
• Removed a bug from model viewer. Actually model viewer stopped working when we refreshed it. Dig into the problem and solved it.

'''''31st July

• Improved menu bar, added buttons for file manager, dashboard etc.
• Worked on generating embed code for model.

'''''1st August

• Took a break today, din't work much. Did add some icons to model viewer though.

'''''2nd August

• I deployed OGV at http://104.131.212.220/
• Improved routing, preloader a number of small fixes and improvements.

'''''3rd August

• Added images to file manager
• Improved model thumbnail image view template
• Improved model viewer
• Set 70% as acceptable conversion rate.

Week 12

'''''4th August

• Took a break for a day.

'''''5th August

• Worked on user dashboard, now users can change their name and write a brief description about themselves (will be used in profile pages).
• Working on adding profile picture, a bit stuck on how to store profile picture in database, so that I can easily grab a url and if there's no pic uplaoded yet a default pic can be seen.

'''''6th August

• Able to add profile picture to user through user settings, also added them in model feed.
• Improved the styles of comments and lovemeter
• Worked on admin settings, added collections and fixtures for it, changed the code to get settings from database (earlier they were hard coded).

'''''7th August

• Improved the structure of database regarding profile picture and model's owner. Actually earlier I used to add full user object to model's owner field but that became problem when user object was updated through some other way (for ex:- changing profile pic)
• Now user can change admin settings from the website.

'''''8th August Had to go out of town, so could not work.

'''''9th August

• Improved and added a new Error/Notification mechanism.

'''''10th August

• Read about deployment procedure (on various platforms) and also re-read about coding standards and documentation.
• Gave a seminar to college juniors about OGV and BRL-CAD. They got really excited to be working in OGV.

Week 13

'''''11th August

• Added embed code generator
• Made the icons in model viewer working
• Started working on documentation

'''''12th August

• I am stuck on how to show comments on model_viewer page , the technical part is done, I am able to retrieve comments but I am stuck on the UI part, like where to gracefully put them so that it plays well with the model viewer.
• Enabled extension and file type check on profile pic uploads and thumbnail image uploads.

'''''13th August

• Completed the comments part.
• Started wrapping up the code.

''''' 14th August

• Started working on developer documentation and improving the code.

''''' 15th August

• Worked on User documentation and Developer documentation, read Hacking file again.

''''' 16th August

• Improved security of some models.
• Completed Developer documentation and wrapped up the code. Latest and complete code is on github now.
• Started working on pagination (to improve page load time).