RavenPlus Updates - 28th July 2015

Here are some updates on what's happening on my work with RavenPlus and OAuth2 since my last update about 4 weeks ago.

What's Working

I have completed the following functions in RavenPlus:

1. Insert new post
2. Update an existing post
3. Delete an existing post
4. Downloading recent posts (including Blogger labels)

The time taken for item (4) is a little longer because I had to take a detour to learn about Python's 'list', 'tuple' and 'dictionary'. Otherwise I could not proceed. I never had to in my previous fixes as there wasn't a need to.

When Keystrokes Triggered Nothing In Raven/RavenPlus

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I was suppose to publish this post on 28th May 2015. Little did I know then that Google had planned to shutdown the ClientLogin authentication protocol on that faithful day. Obviously, my attempts to publish this blog post failed. If only they had published a notification on my Blogger dashboard (something that I login to everyday) rather then at their developer blogs and forums (something that I did not access until recently).

But irrespective, I still maintain that this is still the most difficult bug fix in Zoundry Raven/RavenPlus for me, despite my work on OAuth2 over the last couple of weeks.

The blog post follows below.

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This must have been the most difficult bug fix for Zoundry Raven/RavenPlus so far. With variables to track and multiple levels of inheritance for certain Python Classes, pretty soon I got confused while tracing through the code. I have to virtually see the code in my sleep before I finally figured out the root cause of this problem: variables not being reset correctly after clicking the "Save" button within the editor. A very common programming mistake, if I may add.

I can only think of 2 states that the Raven/RavenPlus editor could be in at any one time - "Content NOT Modified" or "Content Modified". In the "Content NOT Modified" state, the "Save" button is disabled. Make any changes, by keying something on the keyboard for example, will change the editor from the "Content NOT Modified" to the "Content Modified" state. This should trigger an event to enable the "Save" button. Click on the "Save" button and the state will change back to "Content NOT Modified" from "Content Modified" - and disabling the "Save" button at the same time.

However, I have encountered a number of times when keying in something on the keyboard triggered nothing while editing. The "Save" button remains disabled no matter how many times I banged on the keyboard.

My Contribution To The 2015 MY Garden Birdwatch Survey

The table below is my contribution to this year's MY Garden Birdwatch Survey. I did my counting on 20th June 2015, between 4:00 PM and 4:30 PM from my bedroom windows upstairs. This is my fourth year of participation. Yeah! Me a citizen scientist.

On That Day

Loud chattering at my front gate led me to catch sight of 2 Jungle Mynas. They are not common visitors to my home. So I guess a little bird must have told them about this year's birdwatch survey that I am conducting and they did not want to be left out.

RavenPlus And Blogger's OAuth2 - My Work So Far

Hello! I'm Back

After working for something like 60 odd hours over some 20 odd days, I have finally managed to integrate Google's Blogger API Client for Python (version 3) into RavenPlus. Lots of pain; Lots of u-turns; Lots of challenges; And lots of stress along the way. This is something that I hope I will never have to do again.

I have to write 3 extra Python modules in all. These 3 modules are all to do with publishing to Google's Blogger with authentication via OAuth2, obviously. It is a good thing that Raven was well designed. Existing publishing modules (to Wordpress, for example) are not disturbed. It is a good thing too that there is a Python Client Libraries for Blogger API. Otherwise, there will be more work and complexity.

Unable To Access Blogger/Blogspot From Raven/RavenPlus

I am going to be offline for the next few days, hopefully. Google changed the authentication protocol for Blogger/Blogspot and I can't post anything from Raven/RavenPlus since yesterday 27th May 2015. From what I know, this affects other offline blog editors as well.

This is the error message that I received when I tried publishing to my Blogger blog yesterday:

Not very informative, unfortunately.

A Night Shot Of A Large-Tailed Nightjar

The month of April 2015 must be a lucky month for me. For some reason, I began to get regular visits from a Large-Tailed Nightjar, almost daily for over a span of a month-and-a-half. I don't have the slightest clue if this is just one particular bird. But one thing is certain: when it does come to my front yard, it will very much likely perch on the telephone wire at a distance of not more than 10 feet away from my bedroom window. Without a doubt, an ideal position for taking some photographs with my low end compact digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix L27.

My Daily Prayers

Here's an ancient relic from my alma mater. A card measuring 10.5" x 5.5" with a list of prayers printed on both sides. It is neatly folded in thirds so that it fits nicely into a student's shirt pocket.

The "Save" Button When Switching Tabs In RavenPlus?

I thought I had found the last remaining oddity with the "Save" button in the Raven/RavenPlus editor 3 months ago. Unfortunately, I found another one recently.

I am a bit paranoid while composing my blog post. So, not wanting to lose my work, I have this habit of regularly saving my post after every couple of minutes while editing. I also have a need to dive into the "XHTML" tab from time to time; to insert an Amazon affiliate ad, for example. So this means me regularly switching between the "Design" and "XHTML" tabs while composing my blog post.

Did I Just Modify My Content?

I got confused when I first encountered this flaw in Raven/RavenPlus: The "Save" button in the editor became enabled when I switched from the "Design" tab to the "XHTML" tab. It won't happen the first time round when I made the flip. But it definitely will from the second time onwards, even when there is NO content in either the "Design" or "XHTML" tab. This can't be right.

Do Monitor Lizards Climb Trees?

On the left is a picture of a Water Monitor Lizard clinging onto a mango tree in front of my house. If one needs proof that they do climb trees, well here it is.

In fact, not only do they climb trees, but they can also climb up (on the inside) of vertical cast-iron sewage pipes. I know because one actually entered my bedroom, via my attached bathroom, not too long ago. Not a pleasant thought considering that it had to submerge itself in raw sewage in the septic tank before ending up in my room

Taking This Shot

It is not possible for me to take a close-up photo as Monitor Lizards are shy creatures (but not aggressive as far as I can tell). As soon as they caught sight of me, they will bolt. And they can run at amazing speed.

The picture on the left was taken from my bedroom window upstairs, at roughly about 10 feet away with my Nikon compact camera set at 5x zoom and the scene mode set to "Dusk/Dawn". I don't think it was aware of my presence as otherwise it would have climbed to the other side of the tree, away from me.

Check out that tail length.

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RavenPlus Version 1.0.504

If you have been following my blog, you would have realised that I have made a couple of improvements and bug fixes to RavenPlus since the release of RavenPlus Version 1.0.503. After about a year, I think it is about time I release a new version of RavenPlus - Version 1.0.504 .