So, it's taken a while, but I have finally uploaded the latest version of DD software. There's a number of changes which you might notice...
The login screen is now quite different. It uses an emerging open source backend to perform the authentication. I was using Hanko in development but discovered a project called 'Better Auth'. It's open source, and is extremely powerful and flexible.
It is sufficiently powerful that you won't need to change your passwords when you login, I have imported them across as is. That is provided you've logged in since the re-launch back in September last year. If you've not, then you will need to request a new password through the 'Forgot My Password' option.
You'll also notice the ability to login using PassKeys. You'll of course first need to set one up before you can login using it. I will create an entry over the weekend dedicated to how that is done on various devices - though bear in mind I am mostly Apple these days so it'll likely be iPhone and MacOS centric 😁
A 'Remember Me' tickbox allows DearDiary.Net to remember your login for 7 days if you tick it. If your device gets lost or for whatever reason you want to revoke access for that device you can find the ability to logout other sessions under the Profile -> Login option. That's also where you set up PassKeys 😀
The themes have had some tweaks to hopefully improve their looks.
A new sidebar replaces the old hack that was the 'entry list' component. This one is far more robust and lighter.
The entry list is now 'lazy loaded' so if the sidebar isn't open your whole diary isn't loaded just so you can read one entry. If the sidebar is open, the lazy loading will happen while you're reading an entry and doesn't hold everything else up while it waits to load. Diarists such as KSmiley and Yetzirah (and a few of the other 'old timers' with thousands of entries) should appreciate that one.
I have removed the 3 month calendar sidebar and reduced it to 1 month. Most screens aren't big enough to display all 3 calendar months and that made scrolling from month to month really awkward and clunky. It looks a lot cleaner now. You can still use the drop down year/month selector to jump to specific months and years.
There's a little addition in the sidebar too ;-)
Your background picture, if you have one, should inhabit the entire screen area rather than being confined to smaller spaces. However, I have noticed that this isn't actually loading at the moment so that'll be a fix once I finish this entry!
The 'Settings' menu item has been deleted and the items thereon are now under the 'Profile' menu instead. I think it was just the diaries you follow that was under Settings.
The whole site now uses our home-grown Moozemail to send email notifications.
The site is now running on React Router 7 with nested routes and templates and that opens up some coolness for the future potentially, particularly around customizing diaries. A lot of the code got refactored because some of the original stuff wasn't, shall we say, ideal. I'm sure in a years time I'll still wonder what the hell I was thinking with some of the code, but hey ho.
The system now blocks common 'disposable' email domains from signing up. I will be working on the ability for diarists to delete abusive comments on their own diaries, and the ability to block other users - as well as setting up so that only approved followers can leave comments should you desire.
Support for user avatars is also on the horizon as Better Auth supports that natively. New users can upload an avatar when they create their account but it won't show anywhere yet...
The sidebar works a lot better on mobile than the old 'drawer' system did. Mobile support in general should be considerably better than it was. Though I am old and still feel that mobile screen is too small for sensible journalling!
I'm sure there's other things too - I just can't think what they are now.
Hope you like it - please, if anything is broken, do let me know either by leaving a comment, or sending feedback using the 'Contact' envelope at the bottom.