Archive for the 'grittr' Category

Grittr: Stay put.

Published
by
shoo
on 10/26/2007
in grittr
. 1 Comment

fade screenshot

I did some more work on Grittr tonight. I like the way it’s coming along.

The big feature that I was working on tonight was the ability to read an article from a referring website right on Grittr. It’s super easy and you don’t even have to use the old Dos prompt to get to it to work. Click the link to the article, the screen goes grey, and then you’re presented the article. By chance you’d like to go directly to the article, there is a link at the top to the right of the title.

Each site structures their links differently, so I am going to have to go back and make some modifications. Plus it looks like I just broke the feature to drag and drop categories around. That’s why it’s still in the ‘Alpha’ stage.

To accomplish greyed out screen effect, I am yet again using another Javascript library called ThickBox. It’s a great script that will do the same effect with Flash, PDF, images, or even a series of images.

As of now, the feature works great with:

http://grittr.com/site/pantagraph

http://grittr.com/site/thedailyillini

http://grittr.com/site/thesouthern

http://grittr.com/site/chicagotribune

I got a report back from GTG today that her coworkers tried out the site, but they weren’t going anywhere if they clicked the links on the main page (http://www.grittr.com). If anyone comes across this issue let me know.

Leave a comment or email me: gotshoo dizzAT gmail dizzDOT com

Grittr: fixes.

Published
by
shoo
on 10/22/2007
in grittr
. 5 Comments

I had a little free time tonight so I fixed some issues with Grittr.

I fixed the issue with the Sun Times - I was not grabbing a date for the articles, so it kept indefinitely grabbing links. They had a weird way of putting together a date for each link.

The main page (grittr.com) now lists out all the sites with their corresponding feeds.

Features that I am working on (or at least day dreaming about at work):

  • Calendar feature - Select a day and check out what the news stories were on that day.
  • Search - duh.
  • Ability to combine feeds from different newspapers.
  • Ability to save a layout.

Any feedback? Any requests for other newspapers? I am trying to keep the number of newspapers down till I work out functionality issues, but if anyone has a special request, please let me know.

Grittr: Now with movable sections.

Published
by
shoo
on 10/11/2007
in grittr
. 1 Comment

screenshot.jpg

After two nights of work, it works. What works? Grittr now has movable sections, which is kind of a feat for me considering I’ve always hated javascript. But I’ve got the handle of it now.

What I like is that it’s fast and has a ghosting effect. You can’t save a custom layout yet, but that will come soon.

Eventually you’ll be able to customize your news with more than just one newspaper and even maybe a 7 day weather outlook. The possibilities are endless.

There are some issues with the story preview and I have to tweak the color scheme, but how does it look on everyone’s screen? I’ve tested it in IE7 and FF2. If you run it in IE6, I am pretty sure it’s going to look crappy (transparent PNGs) - go ahead and upgrade while your at it.

If you’re interested in what Javascript libraries I used:

Script.aculo.us

Prototip

Grittr- A news aggregator.

Published
by
shoo
on 10/2/2007
in grittr
. 12 Comments

Ladies, gentlemen and strange guys surfing the web in their boxers,

I give you the latest creation in the gotshoo.com family:

grittrlogo_whitebackground1.jpg

After getting fed up with navigating newspaper websites, I decided to create a tool that would allow a surfer (you) to browse all articles available on a newspaper website in one scroll of the browser. Nothing is more aggravating than trying to hunt for police beat and being stuck in an endless clicking cycle in high school sports.

Grittr is based off the same technology that operates spfldbloggers.com which fetches feeds of local Springfield, Illinois blogs. Once a newspaper updates their RSS feeds, Grittr will go out and fetch the feeds, store the links, and display the tag lines in a clean and easy format. Clicking the tag line will send the surfer to the article on the newspaper’s site.

I developed the site over a few weekends, in the midst of planning a wedding. The site is in its alpha stage right now, meaning that it works but the features I’d like to add aren’t really present yet. I have been sitting on my hands trying to determine, should I tell everyone? After showing a few people and getting positive feedback, I decided it was time. Why keep a great tool like this to myself?

Right now, I’ve only got a few newspaper sites loaded, but more to come.

SJ-R (Springfield, IL)

Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)

Peoria Journal Star (Peoria, IL)

The Southern (Carbondale, IL)

Chicago Sun-Times (Chicago, IL)

Please let me know what you think, I’ll be posting here the updates that I do.