I’ve spent some time over the last day breaking out the #postcard backend for my #sharedPhotography app, in anticipation of actually finishing it. I can’t enable international printing until I switch to lob.com, and I can’t switch to Lob until I reconfigure the layout mechanism to accept a configuration for fulfillment.
The real fun will be when I bring this back into #swiftui to rebuild on device real time preview.
Good news: new configuration service is live for allowing different layouts and different vendors for postcard fulfillment.
Bad news: Lob doesn’t allow 6x9 mailings to be sent internationally.
At least the switch is done though, so I can start a/b testing the actual #postcard quality. Additionally, I can do international mailings, so it was worth it.
Client-side reimplementation to use the new fonts is done, and the server has been updated to render these correctly. One minor bug where the selected font is forgotten if you preview and then go back to edit, but other than that this is ready to go.
Side note: I really, really want to get back to the #letterSet app, but I promised myself I’d finish this one first.
The thing about testing an app and API with transactional print mail integration is that every so often you accidentally send yourself a real #postcard with test data. I have some hilarious ones heading my way this week… better me than you?
Any iOS developer who has opened Photos in the simulator should recognize this photo, and if they ever opened Address Book they should recognize the From address as well. In testing the new postcard print provider, I accidentally sent a real postcard, so now I have this memorialized in print.
I’d like to introduce you to my new song (to the tune of Robin Williams on the Aladdin soundtrack):
🎵You ain’t never had an #AppClip like me!🎵
An upcoming feature in my app is using AppClips for actually interesting things. Via a custom url experience, I can have a QR code that loads a web url on Android, and an AppClip on iOS. Payment is handled by the original sender, so no need for cross-platform payments.
Thanks @inck
for the card!
Just realized, much to my chagrin, that my data model for postcard relationships is a linked list: any postcard can have zero or more parents or children. I thought this was just a thing for tech interviews?!
This doesn’t change anything, as I’ve had the data model implemented for almost a year, but it is funny to me nonetheless.
A plethora of newness: fun flippable exploration of cards, new #SwiftData model that can now store n postcards that you’ve sent previously, onboarding that teaches a la “Super Mario Bros” Level 1-1, and a bunch of other under-the-hood improvements.
The fun really starts to happen when you have sent many #postcards already.
I was unhappy with some transition states between different screens, so I built a new example to test how to programmatically transition between experiences. Even with #swiftui, this was surprisingly annoying to do by hand, rather than with a NavigationView or the like.
Also I have a nice UI for opting into specific test views on device. This video shows my first Easter Egg: what happens if I have 52 postcards on screen at once?
erin sparling