Roadmap for upcoming upgrades

I have received some great suggestions from UserVoice, and plan on implementing them. My reason for not doing these already is that they require API interaction that I am not able to test from Baghdad, so I have to waut until I am back in the states in order to get this working.

Texting in debts - I am going to allow users (after phone number verification) to text (SMS) in their debts by simply sending in things such as 'stan owes me $5 for the strip club' or 'I owe Sara $50' from their mobile phones. I have done a little research and I am planning on using ClickaTell as their API/prices seem to be the best. I will be documenting the whole thing on my dev blog if you are interested in how it is done. 

OpenID - Using RPXNow, I plan on integrating OpenID along with Facebook, Google, etc. for my logins. This is in addition my own login system. This will be great for users who are very security paranoid/careful, as I prefer to use symmetric encryption which some people are not happy with.

If you have any suggestions or ideas about how to implement such things, I would be more than happy to hear them.

In an effort to speed up the site before I try to draw in more users

Using Google App Engine and this amazingly simple tutorial on how to use it as a CDN, I am able to use Google's bandwidth and speed to save my server from getting murdered if this site ever picks up a lot of traffic.  Also, I found out that because of this, if your firewall blocks Google App Engine (which mine does) the site will not work as you can't get any scripts or style; I am going work on getting around this (or at least an explanation why it isn't working), but no promises.

Now I can see how often my code Fs up

Using the open-source greatness that is elmah for error catching and logging, I can now see all of the errors the site produces in a nice viewable format. I can't express how great this framework is, anyone who writes Asp.Net code should at least check it out, it will make your life so much easier.

How it was done

Once again, I wrote up a tutorial on how to set this up using MS SQL - so easy it is almost trivial: Installing Elmah for Simple Error Logging.

See that nifty little tab on the left side of the screen? Click it to give me some feedback/suggestions

The great folks over at UserVoice offer a sweet little setup that I can use to track user feedback. If you have an idea or a gripe, put it up there, it won't be ignored... unless you suck.

You can enter debts for tracking, follow, edit, settle and delete them

Now when you log in, you will see that the 'New Debt' button actually works. Just click on it and follow the prompts to add debts. 

As for editing, I implemented a slick in-line editing feature, just click on the field you wish to edit and edit it right there, no postback!

To delete [] or pay up [] a debt, just click on the corresponding icon and it will be taken care of; once again done with some slick ajax... I love you jQuery!

How it was done

Again, I made accompanying tutorials so you can check out how this was done. It is a full tutorial on how to make an Asp.Net ajax interface without using Asp.Net AJAX.  I call it 'Real' Ajax with Asp.Net (not Asp.Net AJAX series : building a complete ajax CRUD system with Asp.Net.

I got this slick idea for a new website

Ok, recently I was trying to recollect everything people owed me. Turns out it was a lot, not to mention I really felt like I was missing some things. Soooo, I had this idea to make a tool that you could use to track the un-official debts in your life, whether or not it is you that owes other people or other people that owe you.

I think this might be extra handy now that the economy is in the dumps, it's like a miniature Mint (which I love) but for non-financial-institution purposes, like when Jimmy owes me $50 from the casino from last weekend.

I am a Software Engineer by trade, so this will be a good learning experience as well as a way to break out some new coding chops. This site will be built in Asp.Net with a healthy dose of jQuery for the AJAX effects. Pretty much everything I do in relation to this site will be put in a comparable tutorial on my development site naspinski.net if you have any questions on how stuff is done from a nerd persepective.