This is an update on my surprised report of problems with the ebay-paypal connection and how they hadn’t done a proper path for users when an error occurs, as mentioned in the previous article.

A week later they have created such a path.

The error is still occurring for me, but now I get a pretty page when the error occurs (it is still occurring and I still dont know what the problem is), and on this page a link that takes me to the old integration method between ebay and paypal. Exactly what they should have done in the first place.
Except it still doenst seem to work right because when I follow the link paypal considers me a new account, even after I log in, and wants me to enter card details. Thankfully I have found out that if i take 1 item at a time things work…

But to me it is fine - there will always be weird errors and things, and the thing is to not leave the user out in the cold, as I was with a text error pointing me to an unserviced email address…

Although I suspect they havent quite done it the right way, I suspect they have added exceptions to catch the error within the application and handle it within the coded app, but that for any unplanned error people might still be getting the basic text error. I hope not but human nature and development pressures being what they are…

Anyway to me the ideal way is to both
a) check the result of any transaction within the application and catch any error, and handle a recovery path within the application
and
b) not assume there won’t be fundamental errors that the code can’t catch (or that havent been thought of) which then push the user back to the server layer - and to therefore provide a path for the user on these standard error pages when that happens

Note: this is a talk-out-loud piece written wearing the hat of an average user - it is not written wearing the hat of the web and software professional - that’s why it is in my personal blog and is written in light conversational style.

In the past I have often said that as cool as I thought many rich-online-applications that seek to replace desktop apps, I hadnt really started using any of them. But recently a shift has started to happen, and it hit me in recent conversations about some images and patterns I used on my site - all of them had been whipped up playing with online applications.

So I guess it is time to reverse the pattern of posts saying “web app x, tested, stopped using” to spread some love to the ones I do end up using.

1. Aviary (& donationcoder)

When I first heard of aviary, I really wanted an account. I registered my interest but alas never made the cut. Luckily for me some of the delighful people on the Donation Coder site had some invitations to share, and I got to get my hands on one. I am amazed as to what can be done with image manipulation online nowadays. I guess I shouldn’t be, having been in the web development field for long enough, but it’s actually different seeing first hand what can be done, and how smooth it works.

Screenshot: Vector editor in opera

Even though I only just dabbled with the tools, I ended up paying for aviary, in part to support them and get them to implement all the promised apps, and in part because the ability to have access to tools such as these from any computer or any OS really will make my life easier when travelling. I can access them on a friend’s computer, I can use an older laptop, or a netbook, because I only need the RAM and CPU to run the application and view the result, not to process the image. And of course I can boot on FreeBSD or opensolaris or anything with a modern browser available, and aviary should work. No more “crap, I wanted to quickly whip something up on this photo but the machine is booted to BSD and running something and I dont want to switch” (of course I might get the whole virtualisation thing finalised and wont have that problem at all anymore, who knows? But that is another story)

As I said, I mostly just dabbled with the apps - especially peacock, which is just like pipes but for images generation.

Screenshot: Peacock with my little triangle experiment

I was playing with triangles, which are my favorite shape (as much as one can have a favorite shape). At the time I was trying to create a set of nice sharp triangles as a basis for a website design - another idea which didnt really make it through. But the background based on triangles I created in peacock was used on this site for a while, and is still my background on my computers. It doesnt look quite that great on white, but it is a transparent png and creates a fascinating depth effect on a dark background (don’t take my word for it, look!)

See this on aviary

Out of the full applications they are planning to do, I am most interested in the font creator and probably the “real medium” painting simulator. And I am a bit disappointed they seem to have cancelled any idea of web design tools. It will be interesting to have access to things like sound editing without having to install any application, since I need it maybe 2-3 times a year (at the moment I just use wavosaur when it happens, since it is a no-install app). We’ll see!

Edited: one thing I forgot to mention about aviary is how people often share their creations, complete with all the actions used in their creation. This makes it a great learning feature, because not only can I admire what people created with the tools, I can also see how they did it.

PS: Donation Coder is a great community, by the way. I joined it a while back because I wanted to donate something back for some apps I was using, and as an addict to independent software this was a great place - full of addicts like me, and developers. It is also a very supportive learning community. I should write a bit about them, but just go check the site, the software offered on it, and the discussion in the forums.

2. Colourlovers

I have been working on a slight update of the colors used on different sections of the site (not that you could tell, like half of what I ever do it hasn’t made it onto anything visible). Now I am a)lazy b)not a designer so I thought it would be fun to use a webapp to play with color schemes. So I found Colour Lovers a few months back and played with it a bit. Created several palettes at random, some of which became the currently half-finished themes on the site.
I also played at creating patterns from those palettes and others, and in spite of the rather limited set of available patterns (especially ones that use the full set of 5 colors), I had a bit of fun. Since I was just messing about I cannot comment for the app’s suitability for production work, at first glance I would say it is not sufficient. But it might be a good one to get a bit of inspiration in a way that does not kill concentration, prior to going to work in the professional tools.

Screenshot: Colourlovers

I particularly enjoyed the option to submit an image and have the system offer colors from that - although I mostly found that some of my favorite photos of my own turned out to make rather lousy color palettes. What works in a photo does not work in a flat color setting.

In the end though, Colourlovers, like other very narrow fun-social websites before them (eg: wordie) is something I can see myself using in short bursts followed by months of forgetting about them, especially since for the pure work of palettes and texture, aviary mentioned just above has some pretty nifty tools.

See the patterns on colourlovers

both files are to be considered released on CC license, attribution required (a link to this post would be enough)