Web geek. Dad. Philosopher Hack.
Here’s a simple solution for capturing screenshots and optionally prompting the user to download the image by changing the MIME type using meteor-router:
Check out the repository here:
AppBoxr console, inspired by Meteor:
So I’ve been working on an app framework that can live within Slatebox for some time, thus AppBoxr was born.
I’m trying to simplify app development much like the amazing Meteor framework, but within a .NET context. What I’m doing here is small in scope, and I intend it to be a micro-framework. My hope is that well-crafted sub-apps are easy to create and deploy within the .NET ecosystem, and this is just my first baby step in that direction. This idea is in its infancy. I have some ideas on how this could be abstracted away even further using a SignalR proxy server, so that apps consist wholly of “javascript / css / html” — I’m not sure yet.
Anyway, hope you find it interesting :)
Apologies to those of you frustrated with the image searching and the image exporting; we’ve fixed the issues and continue working on the education dashboard. Thanks for all your patience! Please let me know if either image searching or image exporting is not working as you expect.
Have fun :)
Whew. It’s been a crazy last three months. Slatebox, the open-source, Prezi-style, ZUI (zooming user interface) engine is nearly ready for developer consumption!
While Slatebox has traditionally been known as a mind-mapping tool (and will continue to grow this functionality as SlateMind), its horizons are shifting to align with the forthcoming developer preview release. The Slatebox developer platform is intended to provide a viable, full-stack replacement for traditional application user interfaces. Instead of the fragmentation found in traditional UIs, interfaces built using Slatebox rest on top of an infinite canvas: whether panning or zooming, the “Slate” will deliver the UI in an expressive, non-linear form.
What do we know about applications so far? The single most important truth: “feature-reach” software is dying software. A close second: technology is not an end in itself, and protectionism is medieval. Software must always be delivering beautiful content with an incredible user experience. So. The Slatebox development platform is both opinionated, and open source.
Opinionated? Yes. The application structure follows specific conventions. The deployment is through a GitHub service hook. The entire app consists of structured javascript and CSS files, with optional “callouts” to a proxy app built in whatever language you’d like, as long as it adheres to RESTful principles. You will easily be able to spin up a hello world app in less than five minutes.
Baked into every app is the goodness of the real-time web, thanks to the amazing work of SignalR — an open-source library for delivering real-time communication.
Create a github repository, set up the Slatebox service hook, then “git push origin master” and your app will automatically be deployed for your testing on the Slatebox app store.
I’m very excited! While not stellar quality, the little video provides a snippet of the first app I’ve been creating using the platform for TIES, a consortium of school districts in Minnesota. Stay tuned for more information
Slatebox is more beautiful than ever with a completely new logo and design. Enjoy!
We’ve also spent time deliberately casting a wider vision throughout the site by rebranding the core mind mapping app as SlateMind, and emphasizing Slatebox as a platform for ‘off-rail’, real-time applications instead of merely a single mind-mapping app. We are committed to mind-mapping as ever, and SlateMind will be the defacto standard app that ships with every Slatebox account, but as we reach out to developers, it’s increasingly important to convey Slatebox as a platform that provides a unique user experience for a multitude of applications far beyond the scope of just mind-mapping. Slatebox has always been designed as a platform, and the re-branding done today is in sync with the long-term vision.
We’ll have plenty more to come!
