History of my side projects and products
Since the beginning of my career I work as an employee in the field of web development or frontend development. In my spare time I work on side projects sometimes. Most of the side project I started were supposed to be learning projects I guess. I started to be more serious about my personal projects in 2022. Below is a list of what I did and many details that you may find interesting:
| title | description | notes | technology | period | status | future |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UCC Area | A component to provide user generated content via a web site builder to be embedded on any website. See this article if you want to know more! | WebComponent, Grape.js, Nest.js | 2022/11 - today | continued / not released yet | Finishing a proof of concept and start building and polishing features from the existing code from that proof of concept. | |
| Markee | A markdown and rich text editor that works in the browser. See this article | React, Quill.js, LightningFS | 2022/01 - today | continued / not released yet | I will need to finish the backlog until I believe it is good enough to be released. Missing: Responsive layout of the file tree, editor and preview and possibility to synchronize to a Git repository | |
| henripodolski.com | This website | If you are reading this, this website is still live. | Next.js, React, Storybook, Magnolia CE | 2022/04 - today | live / continued | I will update dependencies on a regular basis and add new features and content every now and then |
| twitch-tools | A website which can be used as a frame for my 21:9 format monitor to scale to twitch 16:9 format in OBS studio while streaming me coding on Twitch. This frame contains a header and footer to provide textual infos, a chat protocol and chat auto responders | JavaScript, Node.js, React, SCSS | 2022/04 - today | continued | Chat protocol has a bug that needs to be fixed. | |
| next-mgnl | An open source starterkit to build websites like this, with Magnolia CE features like headless CMS API, in page editing (website builder with mapping to components) and Next.js. | This starterkit is also the foundation for this website. Meanwhile this website is more up to date. | Magnolia CE, Next.js, TypeScript | 2021/08 - today | continued / needs updates | I will update the dependencies and transfer and integrate best practices I learned while using this starterkit as a foundation for various websites. |
| Traim | A which should make use of web cam, tensorflow and machine learning to detect exercises, like push ups, squats etc. to support the user, by counting sets and detecting correct exercise execution. | I spent a lot of time on this project but I put this aside, because the tasks that were remaining in the projects backlog, tended to be 10 times more challenging then what I was/I am able to accomplish (or it just felt like this whenever I started to learn something new for those tasks). | TensorFlow, WebCam API, Angular, PWA | 2019/11 - 2021/04 | to be continued (probably) | I still like the idea and I will come back to this if the technology is more supportive to achive something more valuable as a beginner in machine learning in a shorter amount of time. |
| FearAndGreed | A fear and greed app that was supposed to use the API of Crypto Fear and Greed Index, started as a learning project for React Native and Expo, but haven't finished learning nor the app | As far as I remember the app was able to render basic pie chart graphics and managed the output of some data. | React Native | 2021/01 | discontinued | I do not have urgent need to learn a new technology like React Native right now, because my web frontend and backend development skills are on high demand. |
| nodebook | Inspired by some data science tutorials I wanted to build something like jupyter notebook for python, but written in TypeScript and JavaScript | I ended up with something that was able to put in code using a code editing library which executed the code in order and managed to do basic imports. I stopped the development at that moment I realized that I'm able to do it, but polishing the app and making it usable for others would have been a huge invest of time. | TypeScript, Electron, JavaScript |
2018/11 - 2019/01 |
It was interesting to build it, but I will only try to build something like that, if someone is willing to pay me for that. | |
| static-starter | boilerplate project for a static website | Maybe I wanted to explore how to build such a tool. Never used for anything productive as far as I remember | Webpack, Babel, SCSS | 2018/11 - 2019/01 | discontinued | I won't invest time in this again, because there are better options. If I will need something like this again, I will use something that already exists and build upon that. |
| html-demo | A boilerplate project to teach HTML to my older son. An code input field that outputs the HTML provided to a text-area as rendered HTML | My older son lost interest pretty quick. Maybe the teacher is to blame here?! | Angular, HTML, CSS | 2018/11 | discontinued / idea is worth to give it a second try | My younger son will be in the age to give it another now/soon. But maybe using something more interesting like learn coding with minecraft. |
| Automated trading platform for coinbase | A platform that trades automatically based upon algorithms and configurable investment parameters (amount, period of time, maximum loss) | I ẃas not able to find a suitable algorithm to implement swing trading. I started to learn a littlebit of data science and machine learning, but nothing serious and not to that extend that I trusted in that to put real money into it | Nest.js, Node.js, SQLite, REST API | 2018/02 - 2018/03 | discontinued, started coding | I learned that to learn skills that are necessary to cover such a topic, would require a couple of years of studying mathematics, economics, data science and machine learning. I decided that I like to spend my time with something else instead. |
| bitspacker | A new attempt to create an API first CMS | Gave up on that for the same reasons I gave up on webjected. | Angular, Node.js | 2017/02 - 2017/07 | discontinued, not finished | Same as Webjected CMS below |
| ewacs | An Angular boilerplate with Clarity as Angular component lib, Bootstrap for grid and Node.js and express.js (ewacs = express, webpack, angular, clarity, scss) | I build this and as far as I remember never used it in a project. | see description | 2016/11 - 2016/12 | discontinued, outdated dependencies/ tech stack | I use Next.js to build those kind of projects. I will probably start something new, if I will need something like this to build Angular apps again. |
| complay | A declarative JS DOM framework | I stopped developing this, because we started using VEAMS.js which was better maintained by Sebastian Fitzner (a former colleague) of mine | JavaScript | 2016/06 - 2016/09 | discontinued, not finished | I use imperative UI libraries and frameworks like Angular or React now. If I will have an idea for a good UI web framework I will start it from scratch. |
| generator-veams | development and build tools for VEAMS framework boilerplates and blueprints | I supported the VEAMS open source project with contributions to generator-veams only, which was mostly in use in projects at our company. The project was developed by a former colleague. The generator-veams module was only a small part of the VEAMS framework, that provided best practices, project and component blueprints, own CSS, HTML and JS components, etc. | JavaScript, Grunt.js | 2014/01 - 2017/02 | finished, no longer maintained | The VEAMS framework and the build tools were a very good fit, for the projects and workflow we worked on back these days. The downside was that developers had to learn a framework, that was only valuable working on these specific projects which made use of VEAMS. VEAMS was a very opiniated stack. |
| formell-ui | Project starterkit or blueprint based on Backbone.js | I don't even remember what it was or should be good for, I barely remember that I build this. | JavaScript, Backbone.js, Exoskeleton.js | 2015/10 - 2015/07 | discontinued | outdated tech stack |
| DataToJS | A wrapper for converting YAML, JSON or XML strings to JS object in browsers or in nodeJS | DataToJS on Github | JavaScript | 2015/07 | finished, most probably outdated | I will probably update this one, in case I need such a conversion from YAML, XML, JSON again |
| contium-desktop | A minimalistic desktop app for project time tracking | Was a side project to learn Electron probably? | Electron, JavaScript, HTML, CSS | 2015/06 - 2016/06 | discontinued, not finished | Not interesting for me as a side hustle anymore, because an Excel sheet does a better job without the hustle and Electron is no longer interesting for me. |
| webjected API CMS | A CMS that provides content as an API (similar to contenful or strapi, but with a much leaner approach) but with WYSIWYG editor | I spend a lot of spare time on that (started the development 3 or 4 times and learned a lot for my daily permanent job), but gave up on it, because tools were released (open source), that were much better than the stuff I was able to provide at that time and I decided to use those tools instead. The WYSIWYG editor for such a CMS was a good back in these days. | Node.js, JavaScript | 2012/12 - 2016/08 |
discontinued, not finished |
With Magnolia CE CMS, which is the CMS behind that website, I have exactly what I need. I won't invest in this again. |
| cAPPabilities | A plattform for pitching your project ideas to find people who have the missing abilties to make those ideas reality or just to call for hands to distribute work on those projects, that are to big to handle for a single person. | A quickly realized that this kind of platform (even as an MVP) will take a lot of effort to implement. That was the reason why I putted that idea on ice | Ruby on Rails | 2013/07 | continuation considered (idea, code from scratch), started implementation | The idea is still a good one and I do not know if there is an audience for that. Maybe worth to have a second look on it from scratch |
| Wordpress plugin for series of videos | Freelance work: Wordpress custom fields plugin to display and play a series of videos | popcornJS, JavaScript, Wordpress, PHP | 2013/05 | contract work for customer, finished | At the moment I do not plan to do contract work for customers directly | |
| Puild | Interactive art installation for a touch screen integrated in a table and displaying an UI where photos could be arranged on the table from a stack of photos. |
The final product was for a friends vernissage (final assignment in arts studies) The whole technology was new to me and there was a tight deadline. |
HaXe, PureMVC, C++ |
2013/04 - 2013/05 |
released, finished | It was hard, but if I will definitely do it again, if such an interesting project comes across, but with way more time to finish. Maybe using OpenCV or something... |
| Wordpress Plugin for a customer | Freelance work for a shop API integration into wordpress | Wordpress, PHP | 2013/04 | contract work, finished | At the moment I do not plan to do contract work for customers directly | |
| coverletter-creator | Tool for creating HTML files to send out application letters and CVs in HTML, filling out templates with personalised data, containing a contact form that could be send using web sockets | I used the tool during that time to apply for a new job. I have not changed jobs since I build and used that tool. The tool is outdated now, that is the reason why I have not used it anymore, even if I send out one or two applications every year to check out what my options are. |
Node.js, express, socket.io, JavaScript |
2012/12 - 2013/09 | discontinued | It depends if in need to write many applications again or not. Tech outdated - I would rather start from scratch, then using this old code. Idea to have some kind of personalisation for hiring companies from HTML templates was a good idea. |
| Evernote-Editor | Attempt to create a custom editor for Evernote | Managed to connect to Evernote via API for creating notes. I believe I did it for learning purposes but I lost interest after I realized that I'm able to do that. | Ruby on Rails | 2012/10 | discontinued | started alternative tool: Markee |
| Everknow | Evernote clone | Gave up the same day I started it, because I figured out that I am not experienced enough doing that, at that time | Ruby on Rails | 2012/10 | discontinued | started alternative tool: Markee |