Lmst

#MastodonStarterKit

Work for a #NonProfit leading a small team focused on #SQLServer, #DotNet, #CraftCMS, #ReactJS and now #Salesforce.

Love learning and posting about the #Fediverse - the people involved, the apps created.

I tinker with my #MastodonStarterKit, #HomeLab projects, and brush up on coding skills when I can.

👀 Grew up closeted #LGBTQIA in the 80s rural south.
🏳️‍🌈 Married
🎵 #GenX, #Introvert, #Music lover.
🐶 Over-involved #DogDad.
✌️ #Kindness in all things.

I'm back to the #MastodonStarterKit. I'm more than done ADDING features - and actually removing them as I prepare for release.

Made some decisions:

Removed all but Home, Local and Global timelines
Considering removing Lists and Hashtags as well
Stripped out all excess code that isn't being used
Removed themes :sadness:

I have to remember, the idea here is to create a jump-starter for various languages, not to re-create every Mastodon feature in the book!

A screenshot of Mastodon Starter Kit, on an new "starter" branch that strips out many of the features I originally included as I began to learn about how Mastodon works.

@kainoa 😆 Well I have to travel for work over the next two weeks so at least not for a bit! And I HAVE to finish this other project i was working on - #MastodonStarterKit, then maybe #CalckeyStarterKit soon after? I'm tired already. #CalckeyPlugins #AiScript

I’ve been neglecting #MastodonStarterKit, and likely to stay that way until July. I’ve found myself using it to do light browsing. You can’t reply, like or boost. Just view posts. Obviously not a full fledged app but I enjoy the simplicity.

This bit I added is my favorite. If someone posts with visibility set to followers only, it is shown with a highlight around it, calling out that the person made a special point of showing me that information. Wish the real apps would consider similar.

Screenshot of my homegrown Mastodon app. The Scooby Snack theme is used, and a purple glow surrounds a post that is only visible to followers and mentioned.

#MastodonStarterKit has reached a feature freeze. Now I'm working on cleaning up the existing code.

**The final round of features:
**
👁️ Filtering

🎨 Switching between five themes is now possible (Scooby Snack, Pink Panther, Mastodon, Dracula and Boring Blue)

📱Added PWA capabilities, because I've never done it.

**Items I shelved:**

🧘‍♀️Wellness Dashboard (You filtered 25 and hid 100 items from your timeline)

:mastodon: Display of author's fediverse platform and link to platform homepage.

I was up too late having fun adding a few themes to the #MastodonStarterKit because sometimes you just need to do silly things. Here's a scooby-doo theme and I have to say I kinda like it! Maybe I should make it a Mona app theme. 😆

A Mastodon timeline from a custom built client. It is displaying a timeline of content that is associated to the #scoobydoo hashtag. Colors displayed are all colors that are associated to the Scooby Doo cartoon series - blues, greens, browns and purples.

Tonight, I realized that when a post is submitted with visibility set to "Followers Only", none of the #MastodonApps display that intent other than a tiny lock icon (sometimes). It's not differentiated well.

Yes, it's not a direct message, but it IS something the author wanted to specifically share with their followers rather than the general public.

In my #MastodonStarterKit, I tried a border glow for them. Makers of official apps can do better - this is just a concept! :blobcatcoffee:

A screenshot shows a status with the visibility set to "Followers and Mentioned Only". The border around the status is glowing, and the visibility is called out in text for accessibility.

#TIL about #VueJS computed functions and refactored a bit of code.

Mastodon filters are complete - my little #MastodonStarterKit won't have a notification or account profile feed, so those aren't going to be added. Needs a bit of testing.

Also, I used #ChatGPT for the first time as a development partner...and...I found it extremely helpful while learning something new.

I get that it's not 100% accurate but it's a constant, calm partner that doesn't get annoyed with all my questions. 😄

Screenshot of my mastodon starter kit showing a timeline with plenty of debugging information displayed inline as well as in the console. The current focus is determining exactly when to apply warn and hide filters.

Jumped back into #MastodonStarterKit code after a week hiatus. It's ugly right now. But I'm learning a lot.

#TIL a good lesson in Vue child/parent component property inheritance.

I think most developers would be horrified at the way I'm going about this. But it's a side project, just to pick up an understanding of what's happening behind the scenes. This isn't a polished production ready app, and never will be.

A ugly view of debugging code showing exactly why a filter was returned. Working through the logic of when it should and should not be displayed.

Work is distracting me from #MastodonStarterKit.

I'm stuck on filters - they're not as simple as I thought.

Filtered posts are included in API responses, so developers have to write logic to determine if they display.

Seeing that some apps always hide/warn on filters if one is returned, but that's not what the logic calls for.

Filters can have expiration dates, options can be set for which timeline / area they show…so I definitely see why you’d just hide by default! Much easier that way.

#MastodonStarterKit - Cards are done! Worked on images as well, tho I think I went a bit overboard with some CSS animations in the early morning hours so probably going to rethink that tomorrow.

Writing up my thoughts on the complexities of Mastodon cards tomorrow, too. It’s still somewhat of a mystery, but I’ll share what I know.

Cards are finally done and showing appropriate sizing and images!

Work on the #MastodonStarterKit continues.

Each app handles link preview cards differently, and some just gave up on trying to interpret the best display, onlying show condensed preview cards to simplify things.

It’s a bit of the mystery how and when Mastodon decides to return embed code for a specific link type after it’s been submitted.

I’ve spent so much time with it, I decided to create a new blog post to cover my research and logic choices. Coming soon, here’s a sneak peak.

A preview of my upcoming blog post about Mastodon Link Preview cards.

#MastodonStarterKit was stuck in my head all day. Added the following - and decided this is all the scope creep I'm going to allow - no more added features - just fine tuning the existing items.

🪪 Card refinement when no image is attached.
⚠️Content Warnings added
🙈Sensitive Media added

Testing sensitive media…y'all… 😳

Screenshot of the Mastodon Starter Kit, now with better card display logic, polls, content warnings and sensitive media logic. I’m going to stop! This is it! No more features. LOL.

More progress on the #MastodonStarterKit. I'm getting a bit out of scope here, but I decided to try my hand at the basic display of polls today.

Not sure if all these items will make it into the starter kit, but having fun figuring it all out.

☑️ Added a "Poll" timeline for testing purposes.
☑️ Added basic display of polls (no voting)
🪪 Cards looking better!
🌄 Image attachments - needs work.
❓No Results Returned card added

Next: Content Warnings and Sensitive Media

Screenshot of the Mastodon Starter Kit (Vue Edition). Adding polling and some other pleasantries.

A view of a link card, showing an open graph image for RetroStrange.TV and the associated description under an image. This is actually a streaming video link, which I’d love to get working in-app like the official Mastodon app, but for now…just a link.

Completed a lot of work on the #MastodonStarterKit this weekend, but time to switch back to the real world.

It’s really starting to come together. 🥳

* Consolidated CSS
* Added Like, Boost and Reply Counts
* Added Favourited, Boosted, and Bookmarked Flags
* Configured theme support because why not and it was fun to learn
* Cards…the bane of my existence…are looking a bit better.

I have no idea when I will feel comfortable publishing to GitHub, but I’m having a blast with it regardless.

The Mastodon Starter Kit with Vue now has themes, visual representation of Favorite, Bookmarks, Likes and Boosts. Cards are getting there….

More fun with the #MastodonStarterKit in #Vue that I’m working on.

Tonight I added a few things:

🤖 Bot Identifier on each post
📱 Display the app used to post, only available on local posts
📝 Moved all styling into a CSS file
🐞 Debug view enhanced with more documentation links

Things left to do:

Card displays just don’t look as good as I want.
Review the code for accessibility issues.
Add micro formats to the posts and account info
README guide
Banner? Maybe.

A card view of a specific post. It shows that this post was added by a Bot using “BellevueADSB”.

#Introduction

Coding is in my soul. Work for a #NonProfit doing #NonProfitTech. I am a #DevManager to a close knit team with a mix of #SQLServer, #DotNet, #CraftCMS, #ReactJS.

#WeekendProjects have me happily tinkering with a #MastodonStarterKit and #IndieWeb concepts.

👀 Grew up closeted #LGBTQIA in the 1980s rural south which certainly affected my perspective.

🏳️‍🌈 Married for 21 years.
🎵 #GenX, #Introvert, #Music lover.
🐶 Over-involved #DogDad.
✌️ #Kindness in all things.

#MastodonStarterKit

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