FlySource - Fly Fishing Software

FlySource Status Update

2012-03-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long long time since I've even thought of FlySource. I've been receiving a lot of emails lately from people having problems trying to connect to the FlySource server (it must be fishing season!). Unfortunately the FlySource server software is getting old and frail and I am having a hard time keeping it running. I'll do my best though, but I have a feeling it is dying a slow death until version 2.0 is released.

And speaking about FlySource Version 2.0... I pulled the source code back from the archives the other day and had a look at where I left off. I can feel an urge coming to re-start the development effort but I have a huge problem though. I've learned so much over the last year that the 2.0 source code looks so archaic. I would love to do some major rewriting, but that is a huge time effort and I'm afraid that if it gets out of hand I'll stop working on it again. I'm going to try and bring some sections of the code up-to-date and try hard to avoid a huge re-write mess that is very tempting to get into.

FlySource V1 Update

2011-03-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

{EAV_BLOG_VER:fef63a51dd888c9e}
The FlySource sharing server was recently revived in the depths of my basement running on a newly configured Linux server.

I have noticed that 99.99% of the FlySource users don't know how to set up port forwarding in order to get the peer-to-peer fly pattern sharing features to work. I wish I knew how to eliminate this but I just don't.

So, I've thought of a change I can make to improve the sharing of fly patterns. Today, when you login to FlySource, the server checks if you have the necessary sharing port open on your computer and firewall. If if is not open you are not allowed to connect.

I'm going to change this so that if the port is not open, you will still be allowed to connect but others will not be able to download fly patterns from you; it wouldn't work anyways. This change will rely on SOME people getting their networks configured properly for sharing. If nobody does this, then no fly patterns will be available for downloading by anybody.

In hindsight, adding peer-to-peer to an applicatio with such a small community such as fly tiers wasn't a great idea after all. But it does work. Kind of.

More Mac Java News

2011-03-18T08:31:00.003-07:00

Apple has just pushed out a new Java update for OS X. So, it seems Java may survive on Mac for a while yet. I still have my sights set on releasing an OS X version of FlySource 2.

FlySource server is back up...

2011-02-26T08:34:00.000-08:00

I revived the FlySource sharing server this morning. I think it works. My new Linksys router is acting differently than my previous one and I can't connect FlySource within my local network.

I could make a coding change to correct this on the server side but that's not on my todo list for today.

If anyone wants to try connecting and letting me know if it works or not it would be appreciated.

Mac OS X version of FlySource in Limbo

2011-02-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

Recently, Apple announced that Java was being deprecated in Mac OS X. FlySource is written in Java so this news is not for those waiting for FlySource on the Mac (myself included).

http://weblogs.java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici/archive/2010/10/24/apple-drops-java-and-more-so-what

Server Info

2011-02-22T11:26:00.000-08:00

I am now actively in the process of configuring the new FlySource server. I hope to have it up and running by the end of February at the latest. I'm going start hacking away at FlySource V2 again during my work lunch-hours as well. 2011 will be the year that I get FlySource off my to-do list!

Server Time Again

2011-01-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

I've been getting a lot of emails lately asking when or if the FlySource server will be started up again. Well, I'm caving in to public pressure (ha ha) and will be starting the server up soon. I have acquired a small computer that will be perfect for the job of serving up fly patterns to the masses. Once I get it all configured I'll let everyone know it's ready to serve :)

P.S. I still don't have a timeline for releasing the next version of FlySource because I'm still wound up in iPhone projects. I do want to make a FlySource app some day. If you would use such an app, drop me an email and let me know. I'd love to hear suggestions for what you'd like to see in it.

iPhone Crazy

2010-11-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. Sorry for the lack of updates lately... I've gotten myself deep into an iPhone programming project that has been consuming all my free time for the last few months. Needless to say this has hindered my FlySource development greatly. However, I've gotten a really good handle on building iPhone apps and this will be a good thing when it comes time to create FlySource for iPhone. I hope to get back to FlySource development soon but in the short term I'll be polishing off my iPhone app and concentrating on getting it into the App Store.

Too much flying...

2010-09-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

Nothing to report on the FlySource front lately. I've been doing a lot of flying related stuff and work has been really busy. I'm still thinking I will have V2 ready sometime late-fall this year.

The Server's Going Down!

2010-07-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is a tough time of the year to be doing any sort of hobby development work. I'm just so darn busy with other things. I am still chugging away at V2 albeit slowly. I don't have any new features to report on right now but I have done some work underneath-the-hood to improve things. Actually, taking this sort-of mini-break from V2 may be a good thing. When I start working on it again in my usual obsessive manner, it'll seem like a fresh start again and that's when I seem to be most productive.

In other news, I just posted this message on www.flysource.net.

July 15, 2010 - The FlySource sharing server will be going offline indefinitely starting sometime over the next few days. I have vacation time coming up and don't want to leave the power-hungry server running unattended. I decided it won't be started back up again because it is not being used very much these days and is fairly expensive to run and takes time to maintain. Taking it down will save me on power costs and let me focus my time more on developing FlySource Version 2. When Version 2 is released, there won't be a requirement for the current server even though the file sharing will be greatly improved.

I figured this was the best thing to do right now since there isn't a lot of activity on the server and it's a pretty big to leave running 24x7. It is being neglected by me and I think it's even a little bit sad that not many people come to visit it. :( And my kids will be glad that they won't hear the constant sound of the cooling fans while they are watching movies.

Bug Refinement

2010-06-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

I'm revisiting what I've done with FlySource bugs. Like I mentioned before, bugs are a weak area of mine. I just throw things in the water and don't really understand what they are and as long as the fish bite them I'm happy. Today in lieu of a lunch break at work, I did some reading and then decided to make some changes to the bug editor and file format.

I changed "Latin Name" to "Scientific Name" and in the notes/detail field I added a few editing sections for general information, identification, and imitating fly patterns.

One other change I've already made throughout the app is to remove those green "Go To" arrow buttons. On the bug screen for example, the Common Name and Website Reference field labels are now hyperlinks that do stuff. I'm thinking that if you click common name, FlySource will search and display matching fly patterns in your library. The website reference link will launch your web browser and go to the URL specified in the bug file. These hyperlinks are a cleaner implementation and helps keep things aligned on-screen a bit nicer. I always thought those old go to buttons really made the screen look jagged and I'm glad they are gone now. Am I nitpicky or what!

Here is the latest bug edit screen. I really like it. It's simple, clean looking, and actually contains a lot of information. If you're into bugs and there is something here that just doesn't sit well with you, let me know now otherwise this may be fixed in stone for a long time!

Slow week...

2010-06-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

After working like a madman on FlySource lately, this past week has been completely opposite. I dragged my butt into work late almost every day of the week so I had to work through my lunch-hour to make up the time. I usually get a lot of coding done during lunch break so I missed out on that this week. I also broke a tooth and had to get a dentist visit in there too and make up the lost work time. Maybe next week I'll get back on track.

Anyways... I was able to find some dev time on the bus and one evening to work on the search results screen as seen below. I now have all the file editors (fly patterns, materials, insects, etc) generating full search index data for use by the search engine. I'm thinking the searching is maybe a bit too powerful and maybe overkill. But it's been interesting to implement and it's working so it'll stay.

I'm getting really annoyed at myself for not having finished/fixed the thumbnail generation as seen in the above screen and all the others. Pictures just shouldn't be getting cut off like that. I'll get to that some day soon.

Up next is refining all the new files that have been added. I want to get the fields nailed down because they affect the search indexing and some of the other features that I'll be working on next.

Development will be slow for the next week or so. You see, I had a spectacular mid-air with my pylon racing plane in Regina last weekend and I have to get another ready for a race in Edmonton June 26-27. I'm also one of the organizers of the event so next week will be the start of the chaos to get everything ready. If you're in the Edmonton/Morinville area at that time, you should stop by the event and check out some of the top R/C racing pilots in Canada. If you do, make sure you stop by the pits to say hi!

Searching for Something

2010-06-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

I've probably ran FlySource V2 a few hundred times over the last few weeks and I need a change in scenery so I changed the background image temporarily just so I can look at something different for a while. How refreshing! This isn't the final graphic, I'll come up with something nicer later on. I have some ideas to give FlySource that "wow" look without making it look too toy-ish or cluttered. Stay tuned!

Also, I've put all the editing screens and views aside for the moment and started working on some other features. I'll return to those again soon to polish them up. I have started on some new searching features beginning with a bew "Quick Search" screen, seen below. By typing in a word or phrase, you can search your entire library or a specific type of information. The dropdown list will let you search all FlySource files or you can choose a specific file such as Water Bodies.

Here is some programmer talk for you... The search is implemented using Lucene, a free open source searching library. It is very easy to use in Java and is very powerful. On the Quick Search screen you can use AND, OR, NOT to limit or enhance your search terms. There are even some proximity features that I haven't figured out yet but may prove to be useful. You could search for the word MUSTAD near HOOK for example. Not sure how useful this all will on the quick search screen but when you see the Advanced Search screen you get a better idea. I'm going to save the Advanced Search features as a surprise but it is safe to assume that it will find "anything anywhere" without all that firewall and port forwarding nonsense that causes you havoc in Version 1. Well, maybe it won't find "anything" but instead "anything flysource".

Search results will be displayed in some sort of table format. I haven't worked on that yet but it's coming soon. For now, here is what the search results for "old man" look like:

Ha, I bet you're thinking "What the heck is that?" Yeah I know it isn't too useful looking but I see the information I need to go and grab more details for everything that was found. I just have to turn this into something you can use, but that will be next week.

I'm taking a break from programming for a few days while I partake in my other hobby - pylon racing model aircraft. Flying a 170 mph model around a 2 mile course is as exciting as catching a rainbow on a hand tied fly! Okay, the racing thing gets my adrenaline flowing but catching that rainbow is just as exciting but in a different-magical kind-of way. Dunno if that makes sense or not but you now what I mean, right?

Oh, I almost forgot something else I worked on. I have added a nice little chunk of code to initialize the FlySource directories on disk the first time it is run. Up until that code was in place, I had to manually create several directories or FlySource would throw a bit hissy-fit because it had no place to save its stuff. Now with this in place, I can start thinking about packaging V2 up to give to other people to try. I'm not there yet, but that time will be coming soon so all you testers who have volunteered to help, hang in there :)

Hatching some Hatch Charts

2010-06-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

I've have added Hatch Charts to FlySource. Once again I've roughed everything in, I'll spend some time later on to finalizing the contents of the hatch chart file and the editing screen. Here is what the hatch chart entry screen looks like so far:

My next step is to clean up some of the coding that I've done over the last few weeks. Each screen I've built so far is a bit better in some way than the previous screen I coded. This means that the last screen I just finished (Hatch Charts) is quite more advanced than the first screen (Fly Patterns). So, I'd like to spend some time bringing each section of coding up to the latest and greatest. This is going to be very tedious and I'm not looking forward to it, but I'll sleep better at night knowing the entire program is built consistently and to the best of my ability.

After the clean up phase, I'm going to package up the application and give it to a few close friends for them to try.

For any programmers following this blog, FlySource is sitting at about 12,000 lines of code and is definitely the largest hobby program I've ever written. I'm going to estimate that by the time I implement all the features it'll be sitting at 20,000 lines. That's actually a lot of code for one guy to churn out in his spare time :)

Chopping Block News

Two suggestions I received from fellow FlySource users were to add a leader calculator utility and an article/book/information manager. Tonight I decided that I won't be adding these features in Version 2. The busy part of the summer is about to begin and I know I won't have the time to research and add these features right now. Maybe in version 2.1. Sorry to whomever asked for them...

Waterbody Management (aka fishing spots)

2010-06-05T23:54:00.000-07:00

Another late night programming... I've got an initial cut at the water body editor in place now. This feature will let you store details about your favorite fishing spots. It's a lot like the creel survey entry screen and I have some ideas in mind how to link the two together. It's really late so that's all for now, I think this will be the end of FlySource programming for this weekend. I have to do a few things around the house and also get myself ready for an upcoming model airplane race that I am participating in in Regina next weekend.

Creel Survey - First Look

2010-06-05T09:29:00.000-07:00

After three cups of coffee and a 4 hour coding marathon, here is the first view of the new Creel Survey Entry screen. This can be used to log details from your fishing trips and I hope people find it useful. Personally I record a few details of my fishing trips in a small notebook I keep in my vest. Some of the details I log are the date, location, fish caught (I always release!), who I was with, and some details about the weather, how to get there, etc.

Looking at this screen, I can see that I have some cleanup work to do to pretty it up: align the labels, input fields, etc. It's fully functional but needs to be refined to my nitpicky standards :) I'm going to do that another time though, that's enough work for this morning.

I have to give some credit to Greg Scratchley for his ideas on the contents of the screen survey file. The FlySource creel entry is modeled after a creel survey he designed and built for a popular fly fishing site.

Looking a bit forwards in the FlySource development, I can see the water body and article screens going together quickly. However, the hatch chart may take a bit more time depending on how simple or fancy I make it.

Also, someone suggested that I add a leader calculator feature. I'll have to look at my notes to see who and what was suggested and to determine if it is a good fit with the other features. I could go on forever adding new features but I have to draw the line somewhere or I'll never get it done.

I have a good idea of how the new file sharing features are going to work. My plan is to eliminate the firewall and port forwarding issues that "all" non-techy people are having with the old version of FlySource. So, if you're looking forward to snagging the thousands of fly patterns out there today, hang in there, file sharing V2 is coming soon.

Your Bugs Are Done

2010-06-03T21:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight, thanks to the magic of Skype, I gave my buddy Lance Taylor a remote demo of FlySource V2. As he might say, "I haz influence" on what goes in to FlySource. He's been great providing ideas, feedback, etc. If you see me online and I'm available, look me up on Skype and give me some feedback too. It helps to keep me motivated when I can share what I'm working on with others.

As I suspected, Lance helped me discover that I was missing one important piece of information on the bug screen: the insect order. This identifies the insect as a mayfly, caddisfly, midge, etc. You'll notice on the new bug screen shot there is a new dropdown list labeled Insect Order.

I also added a "go to" button beside the Common Name field. This isn't working yet, but what it will do is search your fly pattern library for any matching patterns it can find for the insect. I'm going to add this functionality later once I get all the screens done.

I'm going to leave bugs alone for a while now and move on to the next item on the task list - which is what you might ask? I'm not sure yet, but I think I might tweak the fly patterns a bit to make sure they link to the insects. And then perhaps I'll start on the creel survey (hey, this might be handy if I get out fishing soon!).

[update] It's late and I should have powered-down but this new idea just popped into my head... I was browsing around over at The Streamer List and noticed a few people are posting .fly files in the forum. This is a great idea! There is also information posted on how to get a .fly file attached to a forum post into FlySource. While power-users may think this is trivial, keep in mind that we all know people that don't know what the c: drive is, nor the "My Documents" folder. So, instead of using the typical download, copy, and refresh procedure, why not allow someone to cut and paste the contents of a .fly file directly into FlySource? So simple, everyone knows how to cut and paste right? Uh, maybe not. But I think this will be a nice feature for those that can do it. Somewhere on the very rough import screen shown below I will add an edit box where a .fly .mat or .bug file can be pasted and automatically loaded into FlySource without even looking at an attachment. The challenge will be to have someone post the contents of the .fly file (which is plain-text XML by the way) into the message body instead of attaching it as a file.

More Bugs

2010-06-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

After doing a bit of research on entomology as it relates to fishing, I've decided to keep the insect editor quite simple. Implementing a complete entomology system would be more than I can handle right now with my limited knowledge on the subject and my available time.

The screen below shows the first attempt adding an insect to FlySource. It seems to be simple enough for the casual user with room for more advanced users to put lots of information.

Bugs bugs bugs...

2010-06-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

No, not programming bugs. Fly fishing bugs. I've added a a new .bug file format to FlySource to store and share insect information. Entomology isn't my strong point so I'm going to spend some time researching this area in order to get a better understanding of what type of useful information should go into the .bug file. If you have any ideas of what you'd like to see added to FlySource, feel free to send them to me @ kumbach@gmail.com

As promised, here is a picture of the new FlySource bug editor running on Linux. Strangely, it looks just the same as on Windows 7 and Mac OS X except for the window decorations!

I'm a Mac

2010-05-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

It's back to work tomorrow so I moved the FlySource source code over to my Macbook to get it ready for coding-fests on the bus during the commute to and from work. I like developing on the Mac during the work week because it allows me to work on FlySource whenever I have some free time wherever I happen to be. The screen shot below is FlySource V2 running on Mac OS X. I was pleasantly surprised that all the FlySource work I did on the weekend on my Windows 7 PC "just worked" when I ran it on OS X. Java is amazing. I'll post some pictures of FlySource running on Linux too next week.

Snow Day

2010-05-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

It's been raining and snowing around home today so I had a chance to stay indoors and do some more V2 programming today. Today I added the fly tying functions from V1 into V2. The only new feature I added was the ability to add more than one picture to the material file. The sample screen below shows a Mustad hook with two pictures; one of them is being displayed in a pop-up window. This isn't too exciting I know... I wonder if anyone is even using the materials feature of FlySource?

Coding Frenzy

2010-05-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I am in a real coding frenzy now and just finished re-coding the Fly Pattern editor from the ground up. This has been a week long effort of coding during lunch hours at work and *gasp* geeking out at the back of the bus on the commute to work (don't laugh, I get almost 2 hours of coding time on the bus!). I've built a good foundation that can be used to quickly implement the materials screen and the other new screens too. Behind the scenes I'm really happy with how things are being built.

Here is the latest screen shot of the fly pattern editor. Click on it for a larger view. The Elk Hair Caddis pattern shown in the example below has 31 step-by-step pictures that I shamelessly scraped from a website. The elkhaircaddis.fly file size is about 974KB. If you look closely, you'll notice some new html-ish tags that have be entered into the detail text. Look for "[picture 1]" or "[picture 2]". What these tags do is link the detail editor to the picture list. As you use the cursor or mouse to move around the Tying Instructions section for example, the matching picture will scroll into view and will be highlighted. This is really neat stuff! I'm sure I will make some improvements over the next while, but for now I'm going to move on to coding some other features. I've seen enough of the fly pattern editor window for a while...

In case you're wondering what the main FlySource screen looks like, here it is so far. It has changed a bit from the previous version, hopefully for the better. I'm aiming at providing a simple uncluttered user interface that is as easy to use as possible. Soon I'll start posting images of FlySource running on Mac OS X and Linux. So far most of the development work has NOT been done on Windows.

Multi Images - Now Working!

2010-05-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

The most requested new feature has been to add the ability of adding more than one picture to a fly pattern. This is a fantastic idea because it will allow for tying instructions to be included. The screenshot below shows the first idea for this new functionality. On the right side of the window is the scrollable "list" of pictures. This is where step-by-step instruction pictures can be added. (Note: The fly pictures you see are only test images.) I am also planning on adding a slide-show function to help walk through the pictures and the tying instructions. This will be really neat. Thanks to all who suggested these features :)

FlySource V2 - From the Ground Up

2010-05-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

A while ago I decided that underneath the hood, FlySource could have been built way better. I also think that the user interface is really "clunky" in some places. So, I decided to rebuild FlySource from the ground up in order to provide better performance and make it even easier to use. Finally, I have has finished a new application framework and can now start implementing new features and enhancing existing ones. FlySource is now database driven and even with several thousand fly patterns it is lightning fast. With that many patterns, FlySource will start up almost instantly! Don't worry though, the fly patterns are still being saved in XML format for easy sharing via fishing forums and email.

Mac OS X and Linux users rejoice! I have been developing FlySource 2.0 on Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows 7 and it will be released on all three platforms simultaneously! I have promised this in the past but this time it will happen. I'm also a Mac-keener now, so you can be assured there will be something special added for Mac users. (Hint Hint to iPhone/Touch owners!)