Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Dear WriteMaps Users,
Thank you all so much for using this service over the past 4 years. WriteMaps has been an incredibly fun project to develop, and an invaluable learning process in what it takes to run a user-focused web application. Most of all, I've been both honored by your faith in WriteMaps for use in critical client project deliverables, and thrilled at the idea that it was at all useful in your work.
Unfortunately, it is with deep regret that I announce that today I'm beginning a phased closing of the service. While I'd really love to see WriteMaps live on for those who still enjoy it, I'm no longer able to personally maintain the service day-to-day, and I've been unable to find the right team to continue the project in my place. Perhaps I'll place the source code on Github for others to consume and rebuild, but its logic will need to be separated from a closed-source CMS first - it won't be a quick process.
The idea of closing a public website, particularly one that I made myself, is not something I take lightly. I'm a firm believer in the longevity of content on the web, and yet, the reality of the situation is that nothing on the web self-sustains: every site's content lives and dies by its maintainer's ability to pay hosting and domain fees, and in the case of a service like this, maintain the ever-increasing content that people trust will be there whenever they sign in.
I've been thinking a lot lately about the long-term role of apps on the web. When we speak of content longevity on the web, are we mostly referring to the documents, or the services as well? Are apps merely temporary services that we use to manage our daily lives, at best helping us generate the documents that we care about keeping for a longer term? I'm not sure I have an answer, but I do feel there's more long-term value in the content we produce than the app that we used to produce that content. I'm more tied to my vacation photos than the site that I use to host them (though I do love that site as well).
It was never very expensive to run this site. I never made money from the site, and I did pay for all of the hosting myself (save for a few small-but-much-appreciated donations. Thanks!), but the monetary costs were never prohibitive throughout the product's lifecycle. The primary burden of running WriteMaps was the stress of being responsible for other people's data. WriteMaps never experienced any significant data loss (thankfully!), but I was constantly concerned with whether my backup procedures were sufficient, and as I'd imagine any web service would, I did have to field several middle-of-the-night calls from distressed users with corrupt sitemaps (all recovered okay, to my knowledge). In the end, the real necessity of ongoing maintenance is the reason I need to close the site down: I won't be available to maintain the service responsibly moving forward, and simply letting it go unwatched would be a disservice to the people who use it.
A Pretty Good Run
For a small personal project, WriteMaps enjoyed some relatively great success. As I closed the registration form last night, I noticed there are currently 62,560 registered accounts in the database. WriteMaps was covered on some popular blogs and magazines, and received several accolades from colleagues I greatly respect. For me, it was also a great learning experiment: it was the first thick-client web application I'd ever designed and built.
Changing Times
WriteMaps was originally built with the intention to help streamline the planning stages of web design and development. At the time, planning website deliverables often included a static hierarchical representation of the site's pages and their relationships to one another, styled in an org-chart format. These types of sitemaps work well for simple page & directory hierarchies, but they aren't very good at describing dynamic application workflows as they tend to be quite binary in terms of relating pages to one another. On today's web of dynamic apps and partial page updates, the idea of a static hierarchical sitemap seems less and less relevant in a future client deliverable process.
That said, WriteMaps does have many active users, and I understand that many people still find it useful in their work. While registration is currently closed, the service itself is still open to those with existing accounts, and I have no set date in mind for when it will be completely turned off. It's likely that I'll disable editing before shutting the service off completely, still allowing people to export their content for a while without continuing to expand the database.
Existing Users: Please Export Your Content
In the interest of ensuring that the content generated by WriteMaps lives on, I've provided a few ways to export your data. As I have a feeling many of you will find a spreadsheet to be the easiest way to manage content generated in WriteMaps, I've spent the most time on the CSV export, which will download a file that should open in programs like Excel and Numbers. Other export options are available - HTML and XML sitemaps. These formats will display your content in a dialog that you'll need to copy and paste into another document to save.
To export a sitemap, simply open your sitemap and pull down the "File" menu in the WriteMaps interface. There you'll find the export options.
Until Next Time
I'll post again soon as the next phase of shut down approaches. At this time, I'm not sure if that phase will simply disable editing, or close out the service entirely. Either way, there will be sufficient warning.
Thanks
Again, thank you so much for using WriteMaps, and I'm very sorry for the inconvenience this change will likely cause. If you have any questions or comment, please write to me personally at scott [at] scottjehl.com.
Scott Jehl
Posted by Scott on 09/21 at 08:33 AM
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Thursday, April 09, 2009
It's been a while since I've blogged on here... apologies! I just wanted to post a quick update about the next version of WriteMaps which is well underway!
The feature requests have been rolling in and I've been talking with individual WriteMaps users to see how people use the app so that this next release will address common needs. Above all, there are a few features that are in clear demand among WriteMaps users. They are:
- Wireframing: Beyond the url and notes fields, there's not much you can do currently for planning each page's content and general hierarchy.
- Page colors and/or icons: Being able to distinguish single or grouped pages in a sitemap is handy.
- Company branding: Giving your sitemaps a custom look and feel with your logo and colors.
- Import/Export Options: Saving and opening locally saved files. Also the ability to import XML sitemaps would be handy.
- Performance: Loading large sitemaps can be quite slow depending on your computer and browser
The good news is I've got several of the above features working quite well in development (though I won't say which... ). I've also tackled a multitude of minor bugs here and there and just might even have a new interface underway as well!
Stay tuned for updates as I'll probably post some screencaps as things start shaping up more. Thanks again for using WriteMaps and as always, please hit the contact form if you have any suggestions, requests, or questions!
Posted by Scott on 04/09 at 08:31 AM
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Sunday, June 01, 2008
Since its launch just over a year ago, WriteMaps has had the great fortune of being reviewed and supported by a slew of great websites. In fact, the word-of-mouth (err text..) has been so powerful that WriteMaps now has nearly 13,000 registered users without ever using paid advertising! I'm extremely humbled by the support of the WriteMaps community and am constantly amazed as more and more users are showing up every day. I'd like to extend a huge thanks to everyone who is out there spreading the word for this application - it means a lot!
Interested in Supporting WriteMaps?
WriteMaps is completely free to use and although we just might add a more feature-rich paid plan in the future (*hint hint*), the features that are free now will always be free. If you enjoy using WriteMaps and would like to show your support, we would greatly appreciate your help. Here are a few ways to show your support that we'd gratefully offer to you.
Blog Badges
If you'd like to show your support by placing a WriteMaps badge on your website or blog, we've designed a few for you to choose from:
Donating to WriteMaps
Donations greatly help cover the cost of hosting and developing WriteMaps, and every little bit helps. If you are interested in donating to WriteMaps, please use our Paypal donation form and we'll be sure to thank you personally.
Sponsoring WriteMaps
If you would like to make a donation in return for recognition on the WriteMaps site, we just might be able to work something out. Just include a note about your company with your donation and email a logo image. We'll include your logo/blurb on a sponsors page displaying the companies who have helped contribute to WriteMaps. I should note that this in no way constitutes a legally binding sponsorship agreement, but rather, it is a way to gain recognition for your company as a supporter of free and open web application development. For that, we'd be honored to display your logo and a quick blurb about your company.
Thanks again!
Again, thanks so much for your support! WriteMaps has become the application it is today because of its incredible user community.
Posted by Scott on 06/01 at 09:23 AM
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Printing on WriteMaps has always been more difficult than I'd like it to be. Some browsers helpfully tile a large sitemap across several printed pages while others simply print a crop of the top left portion of the map. Since the majority of browsers seem to do the latter, I've received numerous messages requesting better print control and I've been working hard at figuring out a good solution. Tonight I added a new print preview feature to the application to give users more control over their print output. You can get to this preview screen by selecting "Print" in the WriteMaps toolbar File menu, as shown:
Clicking print will bring you to the new print preview interface. A dotted red box represents your paper size and you can adjust its dimensions using the text inputs at the top of the page. This will give you a good idea of how much of your sitemap will fit on your printed page. This tool becomes particularly useful for printing large sitemaps, because you can drag and zoom your sitemap around to bring different sections of your sitemap into the printable area. This allows you to make printed tiles of your map which can be pieced together after printing. Here's what the print preview looks like:
I hope this helps everyone out! Feel free to leave a comment and let me know how you like it. Also, as always, if you notice any buggy behavior, please use the feedback form to report it so it can be taken care of right away. Thanks!
Developer Footnote
Many of the features such as zooming, dragging, and page sorting are all made much more possible due to the incredible jQuery UI library. It's really surprising how quickly I can now go from concept to production with features that would have taken weeks or months to develop in the past. I should admit as a disclosure that I'm a member of the jQuery design team, but I certainly have no part in the magic that is jQuery and jQuery UI. So that said, keep it up guys, you're making the jobs of designers like me a whole lot more enjoyable!
Posted by Scott on 04/29 at 04:15 AM
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Friday, April 25, 2008
Google's Webmaster Central Blog posted this morning that it is dropping support for the OAI-PMH sitemap protocol in favor of the XML standard. This is good news for WriteMaps users who have been using our application's export feature for their XML sitemaps. WriteMaps uses the standard XML sitemap schema specified at Sitemaps.org for its XML export. Looks like the standard has caught on and is here to stay!
Link: Retiring support for OAI-PMH in Sitemaps
Posted by Scott on 04/25 at 10:29 AM
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Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Ever since WriteMaps launched, I've received several emails per week requesting the ability to sort pages. Many a glowing review has been tainted with this caveat, but despite my best efforts, it just wasn't going to come easy. Well Finally, tonight (or this morning I should say...) I'm happy to announce that you can now sort your pages to your heart's content. Simply click on a page in your sitemap and drag it around. As you drag your page over the rest of the map, highlighted 'drop zones' will appear as guides to let you know where it is safe to drop.
You can sort pages that have child pages as well. And like the other editing features in WriteMaps, sorting is tracked in your undo menu so you can always revert back to where you were. I'm very excited to finally have this feature up and running so please give it a spin and let me know what you think! And as usual, if you run into any problems or obscure bugs, please use the feedback form so we can get in touch with you and resolve the issue quickly.
Thanks and enjoy!
Posted by Scott on 04/08 at 01:42 AM
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Thursday, April 03, 2008
Yesterday was moving day. The time had come to move WriteMaps to a better, faster, and more reliable server environment. Despite prolonged down time, the move went very well. I'm happy to announce that WriteMaps has settled into its new home quite nicely, with noticeable speed improvements when browsing from page to page.
I want to thank all the WriteMaps members for their patience during the move yesterday. I always aim to keep downtime to a minimum and it appears that this move will help with that moving forward. The new hosting environment also opens up some new technical opportunities which were unavailable on the previous setup, and I expect this to result in some cool new features and speed improvements in the very new future! Thanks again and enjoy!
Posted by Scott on 04/03 at 07:45 AM
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Monday, February 11, 2008
A year ago today I launched WriteMaps as a public beta and it has been really exciting to watch it grow to its current state. In the last year, WriteMaps has been covered on some great websites such as Ajaxian, Smashing Magazine, Mashable, Rev2 (twice), Boagworld, nClud, pathfinder, Ajax Magazine, WebWare, Download.com, Killer Startups, Startup Squad, DZone, Web Resources Depot, Thought and Theory, Interface and Functionality, and IamAaronMartin, among Many others. It has also been featured on the Boagworld Podcast and published in CT Magazine in Germany.
WriteMaps had over 1,000 sign-ups in its first week and a year later it is about to hit 10,000 registered users! I want to send a big thanks to all of the people who have helped promote WriteMaps and have contributed ideas that have helped it become what it is today. I have a lot planned for WriteMaps in the near future and I can only hope that this year proves to be as successful as the first.
Posted by Scott on 02/11 at 09:27 AM
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Sunday, January 27, 2008
Here's an interesting implementation for the more technical WriteMaps users out there. Henri Berguius recently posted an article demonstrating how he has used WriteMaps to generate site structures in the Midgard Content Management System. Henri developed a PHP script that accepts WriteMaps' exported JSON data and parses it into a site wizard in the content management system. Henri also mentions that he would like to see WriteMaps "provide an API we could hook to" in the future, which is an interesting idea to consider. Many users have requested some sort of page generating functionality in WriteMaps and it's great to see a working example of how that might be accomplished. So if you use Midgard CMS or are considering parsing your WriteMaps data into other systems, check out Henri's post!
Posted by Scott on 01/27 at 01:54 AM
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The January issue of German CT (Computertechnik) Magazine has featured WriteMaps in a software review. The article highlights the features of the application and recommends it as a site planning tool. According to Wikipedia, CT is "the fourth most popular German language computer magazine with a sold circulation of about 367,000", so this is great news for WriteMaps. I was fortunate enough to get a couple copies in the mail from the nice people at their US offices. Thanks CT!
Posted by Scott on 01/27 at 01:34 AM
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Saturday, December 22, 2007
WriteMaps has been gaining a bit of popularity lately and it has become very apparent that we have outgrown our current hosting setup. In response to this, over the next week or two WriteMaps will be moving to a much more robust hosting environment. I will be sure to keep everyone updated on the move and thanks in advance for your patience.
Posted by Scott on 12/22 at 11:05 PM
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Sunday, December 16, 2007
I came across a great application recently called "Fluid" (http://www.FluidApp.com) which lets you run your web applications like a standalone desktop app. You'll need Mac 0SX Leopard for it to work, but Fluid itself is free! After a quick install, it will prompt you for a website URL, and from that it will generate a Mac application and drop it in your applications folder. You can then drag it to the dock and use it like a normal Mac app, complete with all the benefits of expose! Here's a snapshot of WriteMaps in my dock:
By default, Fluid will use the favicon from the website as the application icon, but it's easy enough to replace the application icon by selecting the application, then getting info (command-i), and dragging a .icns file over its existing icon in the top left of the info window. If you use WriteMaps enough that you want to install it on your desktop using Fluid, here is a link to the .icns file you'll need for the application icon (Right-click the link and choose to download the file).
Download WriteMaps.icns File
Posted by Scott on 12/16 at 07:58 PM
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Several users have reported difficulty accessing their shared sitemaps in Internet Explorer. In these cases, WriteMaps was reporting a "Malformed JSON.." error in Internet Explorer while other browsers were loading the sitemaps without a problem. As of today, I'm glad to report that this bug is fixed and shared sitemaps should have no issues opening in Internet Explorer (6 or 7). I apologize for any trouble this caused anyone. If you continue to experience any issues, try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page. If you still have trouble, please contact us with details.
In other news, the page info icons have been upgraded to be a little "smarter" now. A few people had pointed out that they didn't like having to click the icons to see if there were any notes for a particular page. To solve this problem, the page info icons now come in two flavors: light gray or blue. If a page has notes or a URL specified, its icon will be blue to let you know there's something in there. The screencap below demonstrates.
As always, please feel free to send any feedback you have. Enjoy!
Posted by Scott on 12/16 at 03:25 PM
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Friday, December 14, 2007
Just a quick post to update everyone on some progress that was made with WriteMaps today. First of all, I was informed of a bug (via Ajaxian comments) where sometimes deleting and then adding the same page would throw an error. This issue has been resolved now - thanks for the tip! Also, a few people had requested that page notes allow line breaks in the text (multi-line notes). This is now implemented as well.
Lastly, I received feedback from several members requesting an option to export an HTML list of a sitemap. Since I am trying to avoid adding features that are not going to be useful, I've decided to allow people to demo this feature on a trial basis before integrating it into the UI. If you're interested in trying it out, grab this bookmarklet : WriteMaps: Export HTML. You can use it any time you have a sitemap open to export your sitemap as a simple unordered list with links. This could be used on your site as a clickable sitemap/directory. I should note that it is currently disabled for Internet Explorer users due to the way IE's rendered markup looks. So if you get a chance to try it out, please let me know if you'd like it in the file menu!
Posted by Scott on 12/14 at 02:52 AM
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Rey Bango has posted a great review of WriteMaps on Ajaxian today. Thanks Rey and Ajaxian for spreading the word!
Also FYI: we are getting a good dose of traffic from the post so we'll do our best to keep things running smoothly but I expect the site to be a little less responsive this morning. We're looking to move WriteMaps to a different host as we've started to outgrow our current package. Priorities would be speed, lots of DB space, good support, and last but still very important, relatively low cost (pretty standard list, I know...). Anyone have any recommendations?
Posted by Scott on 12/12 at 06:30 AM
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