Introducing MyCycling Dev
Date Posted: 24/06/2009 17:36 by Peter Grace
It may have taken three years, but I’ve finally got round to developing some new functionality for MyCycling that everyone can try out and hopefully benefit from. As the welcome blurb explains, the Dev site is a means for me to get the new functionality out for you to use as quickly as possible and get your feedback early enough in the development cycle for the direction to changed if required.
Although the functionality available is very limited so far, it is part of an overall process of rebuilding MyCycling from the ground up. You may not be aware that the original MyCycling was created as a Final Year Project whilst I was at university, when I didn’t really have any sort of appreciation of what makes a maintainable, scalable application. Having tried and failed a few times to add new functionality and/or revamp the website, it became obvious that the original code was just not up to scratch. With the new object-oriented approach it becomes much easier to reuse code, so things like unit conversion that used to be a real pain are now much easier.
So why now? After a couple of years in which my main goals have been on the bike, culminating in the 2008 Etape du Tour, I realised that I probably ought to try and get my career moving, and in the process started to try and learn a few new skills that would stand me in good stead for the future. Not long after starting a new job in March my position became at risk of redundancy (fortunately it looks like I should be safe now!), and it was at this point that I really started to kick on with a new release of MyCycling as a vehicle to get up to speed with technologies such as C#, ASP.NET MVC and jQuery (my current area of expertise is mainly databases).
I would like to think that now I’ve got the ball rolling I’ll be able to stick with this and continue to deliver new releases aimed at providing the sort of functionality and usability that you’re all looking for. There will no doubt be periods when things go a bit quiet, but my aim is to gradually add a bit at a time to the Dev site so that eventually all of the existing MyCycling functionality is covered, plus a lot more, to be determined by your feedback.
The main purpose of this blog is to act as a point of interaction from which I can decide what works, what doesn’t, and where I should focus my development time. Now that the first couple of features have been published, the next few weeks will probably be focussed on bug fixes and refactoring.
There is a separate blog entry for the Add Bike Ride page, which I would encourage you to comment on if you have any feedback at all about that functionality, good or bad.
For general comments, feedback or ideas just post them below (you’ll need to be logged in). At some point I’ll probably blog on what functionality to cover next, which I very much what to be driven by you. I’ve got a few ideas for improving the routes functionality, especially now that you can create maps from your Garmin device, but if the demand is for other things then that’s where I’ll concentrate my efforts.
I hope that you’ll find this blog useful, and most importantly enjoy using the new features on this site.
Happy Cycling!
Comments
Pete (01/07/2009 21:44:03)
Thanks very much for the support and encouragement. It's certainly not too late to suggest new fields, that's really the whole reasoning behind why I've come up with the Favourite Fields section, knowing that different people will want to record things in different ways. It means that hopefully I can add as many fields as people request without cluttering up the interface (except for maybe the first few times that people are logging rides and working out what fields they want to use).
I'm thinking maybe the best way to implement Perceived Effort would just be as a standard integer text field, whereby you can put whatever number you want in depending on the scale you like to use (perhaps with an upper limit of 100 to keep things sensible). If you've got a better suggestion though let me know.
drumsmasher (02/07/2009 20:09:44)
Thanks Pete, but if you put things in a text box, would it record the stats at the end of the month and be available in the excellent format you already provide?
Pete (02/07/2009 20:42:18)
Yes, although I say text box it would be stored as a number and so could be averaged etc. when analysing the data. That said, I'm not planning to integrate new fields into the 'old' website, so until I develop the corresponding functionality in this version (which hopefully shouldn't be too far off), the data you enter into new fields is being stored for future use but is only accessible through the Export Bike Rides function.
gesmi (01/07/2009 10:04:33)
HOw exciting. I had been assuming this was a "dead" site which had been done by a student and was now just floating around. I've been using it all year but at the back of my mind was a niggling doubt that perhaps I should be saving my own data not relying on a site that I just happened to stumble accross. Now it turns out there is a real live cyclist behind this! Good luck with the career/site development. Cheers. GEsmi
numbnuts (26/06/2009 09:02:09)
Feeling absolutley fantastic at the moment.Climbing like a mountain goat and riding like a train.London2Paris bring it on!!!!!!
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drumsmasher (01/07/2009 20:03:18)
This site has been a massive help to me as i am one of those "freaks" who likes to analyze all my data. The new additions such as wind direction help because this can make a massive difference to times. Would it be too late to suggest a "perceived effort" box? I know that intensity is already there but a perceived effort of say 1 to 10 or 15 would make it more accurate. I usually go by heart rate/av speed/wind but just having either low/med/high intensity might not offer enough scope. Please dont take this as any criticism as i have already said this is a great site and will continue to recommend it. Good work that man!!