Comments for Roommate App Development Blog

Comment on Testing Roommate App by Heff

Heff — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:21:50 +0000

@Keith. Thanks for the feedback. If you do ever get more time, I might have some stuff you can help with.

@Mark. Thanks for your comment. You obviously have some very specific demands for you bill management solution, and I can appreciate that. Before getting to each of your questions, I’d love to know how much you’d be willing to pay monthly for an app that at minimum included the features you mention above. As much as I LOVE this project, between a full time job and a girlfriend, the amount of time I have to spend on it is limited. If I thought there was more income potential that would be a different story, but we as roommates tend to be a thrifty bunch.

So to quickly answer your questions:

1. I can pretty much guarantee there will never be an offline version. I’m a web developer, and with the ubiquitousness of the internetz, I don’t feel there’s a strong need. iPhone however, definitely.

2. Your data is as safe as any other web app you trust out there. And probably even more so considering I’m using updated versions of Rails along with community accepted best practices. Besides that, while many apps collect addresses and phone numbers, I don’t require any info beyond name and email. I’m not really sure what investigations would require roommate bill splitting info. I can tell you that I will never reveal any personal data to an outside source, though if mandated by law, I guess I would have to? Not sure how that works, but I’ll do everything in my power to protect your data.

3. I’ll put data exporting on the list of new features. That’s one I think most people could get behind.

4. Sorry, not gonna list out my competitors for you. Google a few terms and you’re there. They do exist, but I can tell you that as far as I know, Roommate App is the only one that focuses only on roommates, and that allows for both roommate specific features and simplified interfaces that aren’t possible in other apps because it wouldn’t serve all of their audiences. Feel free to look around and let me know how we measure up.

Comment on Testing Roommate App by Mark Clifton

Mark Clifton — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:14:48 +0000

I really like your concept, but I have some concerns. I don’t think any of these ideas are foreign to you or your blog readers; however since the documentation is limited and I have not seen a succinct reference to these concerns I will try to lay them out nicely, as this is exactly what I am looking for when using your site:
1. Offline availability.. I’m thinking I would take much more advantage of an app like this if I could serve it without needing to be online. Since my roommates all live in the same place, why depend on connectivity? Can I serve a local copy of the app, then simply sync up to an online location later?
2. Privacy: although nothing I would bill roommates for / vice versa would be that interesting to an outsider, this should be a point of concern. From an outside point of view, the easiest way the data can be compromised is by guessing or finding out the password to get to the data, but still, what safeguards are in place if someone who DOESN’T have access to the password(s) hacks into your database? At the very least, someone can use the data for data mining purposes? Do we have assurances that this can’t happen? Also, this is kind of a tangent but people may be worried if they have their data somewhere that can be seized for evidence in an investigation, or for other reasons by the government, etc. when it doesn’t really need to be anywhere but in their own personal storage.
3. Data reliability: Can I download a backup of the account data online? Even if I can’t VIEW or work with the account data, it would be a nice peace of mind in case this project is terminated or the server is corrupted / etc to download a list of all transactions in xml/csv form or whatever, with current balances. Even as a weekly scheduled email option would be nice (even if it’s just the last 3 months / 300 transactions).
4. List of sources / competition: although this may not be in your best interest, it would be nice to see what inspired you to add certain features and make design decisions, as well as point out flaws or features that you’ve chosen not to implement as it is not part of your overall goal for this site. It seems like this project was started partially for the purpose of determining how easy and clean it would be to write an app such as this in Rails. That’s all fine and dandy but I want something that I can rely on that will manage my complex roommate billing scenarios.

Comment on Testing Roommate App by keith

keith — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:10:49 +0000

Hey Man,

I just wanted to say good job. I was about to develop my own application like this but I am impressed by what you got going on here. I am a PHP developer but also interested in Rails. I will be paying close attention to the app and this blog. If I had more time I would donate any help I could. Good luck and I appriciate the blog postiing.

-Keith

Comment on Roommate App Is Secure! by Mike

Mike — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:54:09 +0000

Hi, nice posts there thank’s for the interesting information

Comment on Shhhhh! It’s launched. by Heff

Heff — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:36:20 +0000

Thanks Eric. I’m actually in an annoying back and forth process with my SSL certificate company (Starfield Technologies). I was hoping to have it taken care of before launch but they’re taking forever. I hoped it wouldn’t be too big of annoyance having the security warning, but I forgot that some browsers make it a lot more obvious when there’s an issue. Anyway, the site is still secure to use, the certificate just isn’t confirmed yet.

Thanks again for letting me know.

Comment on Shhhhh! It’s launched. by Eric Tate

Eric Tate — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:36:49 +0000

hey, I get this error message when I click on any of the links on the homepage. security)

Secure Connection Failed
roommateapp.com uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate is not trusted because it is self signed.
The certificate is only valid for *.roommateapp.com

(Error code: sec_error_ca_cert_invalid)

* This could be a problem with the server’s configuration, or it could be someone trying to impersonate the server.

* If you have connected to this server successfully in the past, the error may be temporary, and you can try again later.

Or you can add an exception…

Comment on The Beginning of the Middle by Heff

Heff — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:54:18 +0000

Heh, uh so, not quite done… Got a new wave of motivation though, so end of the year? Possibly sooner, but I don’t want to keep leaving these comments.

Comment on The Beginning of the Middle by Heff

Heff — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:35:28 +0000

So…I’ve missed some of these dates. No excuses here, just didn’t get it done. Though, the Amazon FPS goal was a little optimistic. That’s a pretty complicated system that I’m gonna need some help with.

November 1 is a new goal for launching the site, but that’s coming up soon so it’s time to cram.