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Draughtcraft.com - New Online Recipe Tool

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Very cool, we are a new club, trying to figure out our path. A club reciepe system would be great. Would be cool to limited stuff to registered club members, but a club could allow certain things to be public.

I am a programmer myself, let me know if you want to share source and have other developers contribute.
 
Hey Everyone,

Thought I'd make mention of a maintenance update I pushed tonight:

* Fixed a bug that caused volumes for recipes to round incorrectly on user profile pages.
* Updated the look and feel of the homepage a bit, and improved various page titles throughout the app.
* Resized some interfaces so that recipes with long names wouldn't overflow their containers.
* Fixed a bug in the way users' full name and username are printed throughout the app.
* Now when you edit mashing instructions and recipe notes, the recipe content area doesn't constantly refresh itself as you type, which helps resolve some of the "jumpiness" complaints I've heard.
* Added shortcut links into the recipe building UI that redirect you to brewhouse efficiency and IBU formula settings.
* Now recipe ingredients are sorted in "natural", not "alphabetical" order. This means that ingredient names like Crystal 120L will come *after* Crystal 90L in the list.
* Adding Carafa I-III, and Carafa I-III (Dehusked) Special into the ingredients list.

Also, you may have noticed that I added a feature suggestion/feedback form to the site that's powered by UserVoice (http://uservoice.com/).

Thanks for all of your help spotting bugs, and great suggestions for features - keep it coming!

Ahhh... much smoother now, very nice. Will play with it more today!
 
Very awesome! I tried to add a recipe but kept getting an error. So I went to recipes and noticed it was in there twice.

I think what might be also helpful is the diastatic power of a malt in order to gander the conversion to starches. But not completely needed by any means.

I love it already! I like that I can share a recipe and I can build one without needing software installed.
 
@stamandster

Can you give me some details on what happened, and what you were doing leading up to the error you experienced so I can look into it?
 
I actually ran into the same thing this morning, and just now again.

Basically, you go to New Recipe, give it a name, click Next and you get a Not Found error. I was trying to create one called "618" and it led me to:

http://www.draughtcraft.com/recipes/154/618/builder/

but with the Not Found custom error page.

If I click my username at the top, it shows up under Drafts and then I can click it and get into the builder.
 
I really like the clean look of your query feature where you can narrow recipes down by 'all-grain' or 'color' for instance. I'm not sure how to best tie this in with your existing GUI, but it'd be nice if you could add a "contains hop(s)" option. Narrowing down recipes that contain one selected hop type would be cool, and if you can figure out a nice way to incorporate it, multiple hop selections would really be nice.

Seems like I'm always trying to find recipes that match whatever hop combos I have in stock. I haven't seen this kind of feature online, so maybe it'd be a good one to set your site apart from the others.
 
@Burgs, @stompbox - the recipe creation issue (404) should be resolved now.

@carrotmalt - Really neat idea. Would you mind submitting at draughtcraft.uservoice.com so others can vote?
 
@Burgs, @stompbox - the recipe creation issue (404) should be resolved now.

@carrotmalt - Really neat idea. Would you mind submitting at draughtcraft.uservoice.com so others can vote?

Done. I signed up and was signed in when I posted it and it still required me to include an email address in order to submit. Don't know if you control this piece, or if it's some uservoice component, but it'd be nice (if you must require email), to pull it from the account already signed in. No biggy if it's out of your control.
 
@carrot

Yea, it looks like there's a way to incorporate single sign on with UserVoice, but you've got to pay for a monthly plan. I'm footing the bill for this project for now, so I'm trying to keep costs down :). Maybe if I introduce a "premium supporter"-esque plan in the future, I'll look into better integration w/ UserVoice.
 
@Wingfan

To get something out the door, I decided to not support IE (due to the significant number of edge cases and little bugs it introduces into the picture). I may add support for it in the future, but for now, I've opted to only support Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera (basically, non-IE).
 
Is IE8 not supported ? I get the message when I go to login about the fresh browser.

Look at is a good opportunity to try out a better browser :) Although,if you're stuck at work/other venue where you can't install Chrome/FF, then that's a downer.

i heart chrome, amazingly fast.
 
I developed this on a Mac, so I'd say so - I actually don't own a real Windows machine.

Because it's in your browser, it should work nicely on almost any desktop operating system (Windows, Apple OSX, Linux) using a recent browser (Safari, Firefox, Opera, Chrome). I won't promise anything regarding your phone :).

The only browser I've explicitly excluded (for now) is Microsoft Internet Explorer.
 
BTW, just so it's clear on an earlier Firefox version note, the 3.6.X line is still being actively maintained by Mozilla. You shouldn't call out 3.6 specifically as older, but check against Mozilla's site to see if the end user's 3.6 minor version is old. As of today 3.6.23 is the latest: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all-older.html -- though you are correct in assuming it's going to go away soon.

Your site is looking really good, giving my copy of Beer Alchemy a run for its money. I just learned that BA 2.0 will require Lion to be installed, which won't be happening for me any time soon. Best to start my move to a web-based solution. :)
 
Which raises another point: if something happens, and you can no longer host the site, will this be something which the user community could have migrated to another maintainer? I always look for ways to continue projects if I can't finish them, give people an "out" for their data, at least.
 
@torque2k

Valid point on FF 3.6. It's hard to keep up these days with their version numbers changing (what seems) weekly :).

In the event that I no longer maintain this in the future, I plan to provide the source to another maintainer. I might even open source it so that anybody can do with it as they wish.

Also, I'm currently working on BeerXML export so that if people want to, they can get their recipe data out.
 
I don't know if you're actively developing with Firefox or Safari. In Firefox 3.6.x, under 10.6, I see some odd display justification on the lefthand side. See the attached pics. The Fermentation section displays properly in Safari 5, but not FF. I haven't tried on my other Mac (running 10.6 with FF 7), but I'll try that later, see if it's an issue with the 3.6 series only.

Screen shot 2011-10-01 at 12.41.10 PM.jpg


Screen shot 2011-10-01 at 12.42.07 PM.jpg
 
@torque2k

In the event that I no longer maintain this in the future, I plan to provide the source to another maintainer. I might even open source it so that anybody can do with it as they wish.

Also, I'm currently working on BeerXML export so that if people want to, they can get their recipe data out.
Both points are great news! If you're not asking for money, you should. This is a great start to a site, and the fact that you regularly let us know what bugs have been fixed and when new features pop up, shows you're a true professional who cares about your work. Thank you!
 
@torque2k

While the service is in beta, it's going to be totally free. I haven't determined how long the beta period will last yet, though it'll likely be for some time to come.

In the long term, I hope for *most* of the app to remain free, or maybe include some form of timed trial. I'm afraid that restricting access to recipe creation too much will stifle the community aspect of it, so I want to be careful. As you can see, I haven't really determined how I want to monetize it yet. I'm not aiming to make a notable profit from this; I primarily just want to cover my operating expenses. I've also considered donations, but in my experience, nobody really donates to free software (at least, not enough to matter).

In the end, there will definitely be some form of incentive for having participated in beta, though I'm unsure of what that is yet.

My biggest goal right now is just to build a really useful software package.
 
You are off to a really good start.
You mentioned beer.xml export.
What about beer.xml import. We have lots of recipes in other apps.We already had to type those in once.
Is this feasible? I could see where it might be tough to match things up in your database of ingredients.
But on the other had it would encourage me to contribute to the site if I don't have to type them in again.
 
@nate

Yep, import is planned at some point, too. I just planned to do export first because it's a lot easier (for the reason you mentioned). The hard part about the BeerXML standard is that ingredients (hops, fermentables, yeast), etc... are all really just random strings. Since DraughtCraft has a set of ingredients (which I think is important for a community-driven app like this), it's kind of difficult to correlate ingredients in imports (that could come from anywhere) with the set list of ingredients in DraughtCraft. At the very least, there would probably need to be some form of import wizard that let you map imported ingredients to ones in DraughtCraft (and made good estimated guesses to get as close as it could).

It's on my radar, though :).
 
I think an import map would be essential, similar to how most contact managers (like Outlook, Thunderbird, Address Book, etc.) do this. They make decent first guesses, but ultimately it's up to the end user to fine tune it.

As for donations, think of how HomeBrewTalk does this, with the Premium Supporter tag. $25/year is not too much to ask. Figure you normally upgrade your software once every two years, and something like this would normally be $40-50 for a license... $20/year wouldn't be too much to handle for most homebrewers.

Some options for supporters: picture uploads attached to recipes, a voting system which only applies to recipes by supporters, a different print layout, maybe even a "call me" button on supporters' recipes (contact the creator for hints, recipe mods, etc).
 
Another display issue in FF, and a couple of requests...

First, the requests. Let's say I add an item, like Briess Light Liquid Extract. I later decide I wish to change that to DME (maybe I need more mouthfeel). Would it be possible to click on the item in the recipe and, instead of getting more info about it, have the Extract items list pop up so I could pick DME instead? Maybe have the info off to the side in a little info icon instead? AND, if I DO do something like the above, could the site flag me and say, "Changing from LME to DME will affect the OG of the wort. Would you like to change the amount?"

EDIT: Also, how do you call out which fermentables are steeped? I only see the option to Boil...

Second, in the Hops section, could we have more times? 5 minutes as the last addition leaves some room for more additions. I like to have 1 minute, as well, maybe others would like 2 minutes?

Also in the Hops section, I note that, when I add another hop addition, it gets mixed in with the existing ones (probably because you are defaulting to 60 minutes, so that's the sort order). Maybe you can put it at the bottom of the list, and highlight it (or frame it) while it's being added?

Finally, attached is a pic of the initial recipe entry page in FF 3.6. Things are floating all over the place! :tank:

EDIT: Also, the Boil and Ferment sections are showing on the same page, and adding yeast is not working. After firing up Safari, I now see why; in FF, when I click on Ferment, I get nothing, so no yeast options show up. Safari shows it correctly.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed adding my first recipe. Everything seemed to be there, once I go into Safari.

Screen shot 2011-10-01 at 2.27.01 PM.jpg
 
Can we have our nickname show on the recipe instead of our full name (if we've filled that part of our profile out)? I like people to see my nick, which I use here...

EDIT: Also, can you make the large FEEDBACK button larger, and flash red and yellow, for idiots like me?! Sorry, I didn't even think to post these reports that way. My bad. :)
 
OK, I did find a good reason for using this forum: I wasn't able to upload screenshots of the interface to UserVoice. :)

See attached. This is Google Chrome in OS X 10.6.8 on the left, overlapped with FF 7.0.1 on the right. Chrome version looks tight; FF version looks all loosey goosey, even though I've enlarged each browser's window to the same size.

Screen shot 2011-10-01 at 5.29.24 PM.jpg
 
I think an important thing also is to be able to comment on the recipe's and link to your personal adjusted recipe's too. Something like a matrix of changes would be kinda neat but not required.

Also, the ability to comment on others recipes (but moderated by the recipe creator) would be helpful in a similar vein to the above suggestion.

Also, I think that'd be nice to have something where if you're stuck for a yeast that you can create a "suggest a yeast" button from other users. So, right now you have a listing in find recipes but I found a recipe without a yeast chosen, maybe a listing for unfinished or incomplete?

Possibly a user finder :) ? And the ability to "move" a recipe to another user, just in case they weren't on the site to begin with but you know they came up with it and when they do join you can give them the recipe without loosing stats.

I also think $20 a year would be worth it with a bit more tweaking. What I think is great is that you keep the interface nice and clean but allow those with more experience to have additional tools at their disposal, maybe and "advanced" interface?

And when I view my own recipes to see how it looks printed, the "views" goes up. Maybe this will lead to artificial stats? I don't know if this was requested but perhaps the ability to sort by final gallon size of recipe; ie 1-4,5-9,10 and up?

Oh and thanks Ryan for all your hard work!!
 
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