Ready for testing. Here is the URL

[irvshapiro]

@MiniPilote Alan @vankichline @AndySchmitt @Timon42 @Lowteck @Ender5r

Folks, we are ready for testing.

https://test.makewithtech.com

Just go to the above link and make sure you read the instructions on the home page. There are more detailed instructions in another post in this forum.

Thanks. Irv

[vankichline]

Hi, Irv!
Just wanted to ask how you want to receive feedback, and to what level.
I haven't created an account yet, but have some bug reports on the intro page, attached.

[vankichline]

Finished an initial walkthrough and took some notes. More to come when I have a bit of time...

[Timon42]

Hi Irv,

I just tried a few things and here are my notes.

Happy New Year!

[vankichline]

A short report:

On the Thingiverse page:

I typed "platonic" into the search string, and clicked on "Cubic system special forms"
There was one scad file and seven stl files.
I can view a picture or a 3D projection of the stl's.
I can download or customize the scad file.

It would be nice if I could download the STL files here, too. One of them might be just what I need.
I can confirm that in this view, but then getting that file is convoluted.

If I click on the customize (tilted cube) icon, then I cannot navigate back to the previous page with the browser's 'back' button.
Instead, I return to the search page, with only my search string preserved and nothing selected.
This can be frustrating, because after a search with a general search string, the object I selected may take many 'next page's to locate again.

Feature suggestion: a 'Recent' list of objects I've selected in this session, or at least a 'favorites' list.

Clicking on customize, I come to 'Model: cubic_forms.scad' and the description begins:

null // [0:cube,1:rhombic dodecahedron,2:tetrahexahedron,3 pentagonal dodecahedron,4 octahedron,5:tetrahedron,6:icositetrahedron,7:tria k is tetrahedron,8:triakis octahedron,9:deltoid dodecahedron,10:hexakis octahedron,11:diakisdodecahedron,12:hexatetrahedro n,13 pentagonal icositetrahedron,14:tetrahedral pentagonal dodecaheron]

The leading 'null //' part should be removed and the list should be unwrapped.
Ideally, the content could be converted into a numbered list in HTML, which would be quite easy to read.

[irvshapiro]

Thank you for your testing. This is a very early version of the parser in this ALPHA Proof of Concept. I will take a look at the model you specified and see what is going wrong.

On the bottom right of each page is a button that saves "feedback". I am using a product called BugHerd to collect bugs. Just click on this button and you can leave your feedback in a form right on the page that will track the bug back to the location you were on.

I agree the navigation needs work and will make sure that it is reworked for the full site release.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to get hold of anyone at Thingiverse so I am doing my best to interpret the API terms and conditions. I do not allow you to download the STL files because I am concerned Thingiverse will block my API access. You can click always download the STL files from the Thingiverse page.

The goal of this POC is to test out the ID of a Thingiverse front end that focused on OpenSCAD. I will consider adding the ability to download STL files when they are included with a SCAD file.

[vankichline]

My last post was a bug report message and was blocked as spam, so I will go back to uploading text files.
Have you considered using an online tool or github for tracking bugs?
The attached bug was pretty serious. It made me think I could not use the system at all.

[irvshapiro]

@Lowteck The app should now work correctly on Safari. Thank you for reporting this. Ironically I do all of my development on a Mac but use Chrome and Edge as my browsers. I have now tested on Safari, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox and they all start up fine.

[irvshapiro]

You should see a feedback button that looks like this.

[irvshapiro]

@vankichline Well, your input pushed me to spend my Saturday night coding. I believe I was able to address many of your concerns. I hope navigation now works as you would expect. It returns you to the correct search page, with the tables filled in, and it also includes the files you were looking at when you switched off the page. Going back to the home page clears these values. This did introduce one minor bug, which you probably will figure out. That is a bit of a challenge for you. :-)

I reworked the display of ranges as you suggested with one per line. I have begun to consider how much work will be required to change this to just using these values as input ranges and selectors. This will require some refactoring of my data structures, which may not be completed before the public release of the POC.

Since the primary reason for this application is to better support customization of Thingiverse models, I decided to allow users to download STL files associated with SCAD files. However, I still do not allow the user to download regular STL files but instead direct them to the appropriate Thingiverse page.

I do not want to lose sight of the fact that this is Proof of Concept to see if this would be valuable to people. However, your comments about the navigation made it clear that I needed to fix it.

Thanks for your help.

[vankichline]

Thanks, Irv!
I will use the feedback button for reports going forward, and I'll focus on the key question for now:

to see if this would be valuable to people

I was a professional software tester for part of my career, so I easily fall into old habits of 'look everywhere, report everything.'

[Ender5r]

Have our tried the "mash your fingers all over the keyboard to see what happens" test yet ?

[irvshapiro]

I am happy to hear about everything. I am going to hold off on releasing this to the wild so I can fix up the customizer to properly display sliders and select boxes instead of text boxes. I look forward too everything you have to say.

[vankichline]

Ender5r, alas, button mashing moved offshore many years ago. That still leaves a lot to cover, though.

[Ender5r]

Ender5r, alas, button mashing moved offshore many years ago. That still leaves a lot to cover, though.

I meant for this PoC.

[vankichline]

@Ender5r I haven't found many bugs that way in web applications. Fuzzing and SQL injection on the other hand are pretty effective but take a lot more preparation.
But Irv isn't really looking for a quality check at this point, he effectively focused me with the question "will people find value here?"
So I am focusing on usability and off-ramps for now (those places where people give up before they reach the payoff.)
There is a high concept-count in the PoC, and from previous discussions I believe the goal is to not let this be a blocker. That means new concepts need to be named well, explained when introduced, and should be referred to consistently. This is the time to decide on terminology, so that's a good thing to consider in feedback at this point as well.