Hi 👋
I'm excited to announce that DevBox 1.3.0 is out! It's a big milestone for the project, with 4 new tools, bug fixes and the web application.
DevBox is a desktop application / browser extension / web application of useful tools for developers. If you are curious, check out the introductory post and website.
Web Application
DevBox is now available as a web application on app.dev-box.app with 10 tools to use for free 🎉 the other 30 tools that can be used with a subscription.
New Tools
There are 4 new tools in this release:
- Added Color Contrast Calculator tool.
- Added Data URI Generator tool.
- Added Hash Generator tool.
- Added HMAC Hash Generator tool.
My favorite new tool is the Color Contrast Calculator with which you can calculate if the given text is readable on a background:
Behind the Scenes
Development wise this release had its challenges:
Make sure that the application works in different platforms / environments (web application, desktop applications, extensions)
I needed to separate the source code for the core of the application - basically the tools. Once that done, I could build separate versions of it: desktop application / extension, public web application (with the free tools), private web application (all tools)
Make sure that the web application loads fast.
Previously the application's size wasn't a factor since all the assets were bundled for the desktop application.
I refactored the code to only load scripts when they are needed. This makes the initial loading times fast. Once a script is loaded then it's cached, so future uses are instantaneous.
Allow users to subscribe to the application.
This was the biggest part. I've built a web server in Crystal which is basically serves the public application (free tools only) when logged out and the private application (all tools) when logged in.
Payment wise I've implemented Stripes checkout sessions - they provide a nice UI to purchase and manage subscriptions.
Users don't need to have passwords instead they log in with a link sent through an email which they used to pay for the subscription.
Let me know your feedback in the comments 🗨️ 🙏
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