Shift

Shift IRC

2008-08-27T16:40:59-11:00

We are now running #shift on irc.freenode.net if anyone would like to join in the IRC chat. Pitch us ideas, yell at us, or just stop in to say hi.

If you already have an irc client installed, just click irc://irc.freenode.net/shift to join in. For those that don't, you can grab the free Colloquy.

See you there.

~ Nate Todd

What do you need from Shift?

2008-08-26T06:58:10-11:00

Hey guys. Things are going pretty good around the shift campus these days. We just had a very talented coder join up with the project, so we hope to get things moving faster in the near future.

We are starting to compile a list of features that we would like to see in Shift. This list is not limited by reality; Anything we can think or dream of, we're writing down. We realize, however, that Shift will ultimately be used by everybody, so we are opening up this process to community contributions.

Here's the deal:

Think hard about what you need from a database manager (nothing is too crazy, but realistic ideas help us all)
Write it all down (be descriptive!) in the comments section of this post (we aren't going to open up the wiki for spam reasons)
We will copy every idea over to the trac wiki for all to see
If desired, comment on the ideas in this thread OR join the public #shift irc channel (info to be disclosed once it is up)
We will sort through them and set implementation milestones on the feasible ones (Shift 14.0 anyone?)
You get credit in the source code. Not necessarily an incentive, but hopefully a nice "thank you"

The wishlist is currently residing at http://trac.shiftosx.com/wiki/WishList.

If you want a say in how Shift moves forward, speak now or forever hold your peace. (Ok, that's not really true...)

~ Shift

Yes, 64 is bigger than 32.

2008-08-21T17:36:44-11:00

Well, I don't want to speak too soon, but this is pretty cool. We are targeting 10.5 so we figured, hey, why not?

(Click image for larger version)

~ Nate

New Icon

2008-08-18T14:36:59-11:00

Lauren has been working on an icon set for Shift for several weeks now. We would like to introduce the new icon for Shift.

As always, please let us know of any suggestions or comments.

Ticket #98: Blog Spam

2008-08-18T13:47:31-11:00

Ok, we have been upgrading chyrp as it plows along to v2.0. I must say, it's not bad as blogging software goes, but the database is rather embarrassing. There is a groups table and a permissions table, but instead of joining those with an associative entity there is just a list of permissions in a permissions field in the groups table. Not joking.

Anyway, one of the changes as of late was the migration from Akismet to Defensio for spam blocking. Can't say I'm too happy about that because now everything is marked as spam. However, we get about 50 real spam messages a day, so not using it really isn't an option.

So, until we take a look at fixing things (or redesigning this whole site), just know that your messages may get marked as spam. We will just keep checking in on them and approving any valid messages.

Thanks, Nate

A Bundle of Bundles

2008-08-06T12:20:09-11:00

Allow me to preface this post with a disclaimer: It may be a little technical in the way of OSX development. I will add Wikipedia links for those still interested in reading on.

What is a bundle?

A Bundle is ultimately a folder in file's clothing. They are a great part of OSX and you already use them everyday. They allow people to write code for a program without muddling through the actual code of the program. Essentially, people can jump into the project without having to familiarize themselves with the existing code-base of Shift.

I know what a bundle is; get on with it!

We wanted to add support for RDBMS in a completely modular fashion. This way someone could easily add support for something like PostgreSQL without ever having to touch Shift code. We are in the process of nailing down a Formal Protocol which can then be implemented by different people to add support for a specific RDBMS. The planning for the protocol is definitely in it's infancy right now. If you're interested in getting involved with Shift or possibly adding support for a specific RDBMS you can see our notes on what we've started in the wiki. Our goal for the 0.5 release is to have support for both MySQL and SQLite in Shift. We've set up a separate repository for the bundles. To checkout the repository just paste this into terminal:

svn co http://svn.shiftosx.com/bundles

Once the protocol reaches a comfortable level of maturity I plan to add a semi-in-depth guide on creating a bundle. Until then I'll leave you with this screenshot.

Jonathan

New Core Team Member - Lauren Herda

2008-08-05T11:55:07-11:00

Hey everybody. I'd like to introduce you to the latest member of the Shift Core Team: Lauren Herda. She will be taking on the Lead Designer role and will be in charge of the visual direction and branding for the Shift Project. She has already begun work on new icons for Shift and you can follow her progress on the Shift Ohloh Page.

Posting has been slow as of late, but we are still working hard and have some very, very cool things to release in the next few days. If you can't wait, check out the current 0.5 branch and you will see a small bit of the fruits of our research and labor.

Until then, - Nate

BRB

2008-07-03T11:35:56-11:00

Just wanted to write a quick note to update you all on Shift. There has been a little bit of development done on 0.5 since the last update, but we have been distracted as of late by a paid iPhone development job. On top of that, Crossman leaves for vacation today and gets back the day I leave on another business trip. Ugh.

Anyway, things are still alive over here, but it will probably be another week or two before any more commits appear in trac. We will still be monitoring the blog and trac, so feel free to connect with the team at any time.

Shift Mockup PSD

2008-07-17T12:43:55-11:00

In the spirit of OSS, here is the mockup from the 0.5 post below. It's nothing magical, but we would love to see people hack it up and/or tweak it to make it better. Feel free to link to it in the comments or email it to nate(at)shiftosxcom and I'll put it up for review.

mockup_v1.zip Note: may require CS3

Note: I've temporarily disabled the download until it can be cleaned up. Thanks Stefan.
-Jonathan

And we're back!

Donations? Logos? Leprechauns?

2008-07-17T16:51:45-11:00

Time for a few quick updates.

We have received a couple requests to put up a donation button. While we really like the idea of making a little bit of cash (really, who doesn't), Crossman and I have decided to hold off on any donations at least until the release of 0.5. We feel that we need to get a release out there before this really becomes a legitimate project.

Thankfully, Shift has received a decent amount of attention lately. Thanks for the kind words in the comments and on the interweb tubes. To those who offered to help, thanks a million. To those who didn't, and can, you really should. We are looking to keep the core of the project small at the moment, but we need contributors to UI, logo/brand development, testers, and brainstormers. However, if you are a true cocoa ninja, there is definitely a place for you here. MySQL experts (and after 0.5, other databases) are totally welcome as well.

We have some new ideas and hopefully some new mockups coming down the line. We also will be drafting a requirements list on the trac wiki here in the coming weeks to help guide development through 1.0. Please post any feature requests so we can get them in there.

Let's be honest, most database apps suck. We have the power to make a better mousetrap, so we're going to do it.

Leprechauns? No comment.

Shift is on Ohloh

2008-06-05T23:24:41-11:00

Just a quick update:

Shift is now on Ohloh. Check it out at http://www.ohloh.net/projects/shift

Shift 0.5 in Development

2008-07-17T12:45:31-11:00

About 4 days after 0.2 went out the door, Crossman and I had a planning meeting to discuss the future of Shift. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Crossman, this UI sucks. Bigtime.
Crossman: Yup.
Me: I mean it's horrible. Steve would cry.
Crossman: Yup.
Me: So we are in agreement? The UI has to go.
Crossman: Yup.
Me: Ok, so what are we going to do about it being a document application? I'm thinking we really want to move this to a source list and tab implementation.
Crossman: Uh huh
Me: This means total rewrite. You know that, right?
Crossman: Yup

So, a mockup or 2 later and some clever hacking by Crossman, Shift 0.5 development is underway. And we would like to introduce it to you now.

What you see below is version one of a Photoshop mockup of the general Shift UI. You can see we have moved to a favorites system where the databases are listed in a source list on the left-hand side in true iTunes fashion. The toolbar is minimal because most table operations will be handled either through contextual menus or actions at the bottom of the source list. External windows (Server vars, etc...) will be pushed out to HUDs. Functionality will be added to Shift to allow for the CRUD of stored procedures in RDMSs (note, we mean more than one...) that support it. View support as well. The schema view is probably the most experimental aspect and will be covered in-depth at a later time. However, think Quartz Composer for databases...

This (below) is where we currently stand. The source list is built out from your server favorites and is editable. Pref panes are in place. Sparkle auto-updating is already in place and will be set to update the alpha releases. We may even come up with a system to target your updates in a pref pane to grab the latest nightly or just point releases. Things are underway and we will be redesigning the entire database connection layer from CocoaMySQL to generalize the application. In other words, this isn't just about MySQL anymore. However, MySQL will likely be the only database engine supported to the 1.0 release stage.

This post has been a bit long-winded. I hope we can garner some support in the OS X database developer community and get some interest in this project. If you have any desire to contribute to the development effort ($, time, code, graphic design, beer, hugs, etc...) please let us know.

Oh, and if you want to build this mess that is Shift 0.5 and give us any feedback, grab it with:
svn co http://trac.shiftosx.com/shift_dev/branches/0.5

Shift 0.2 Released

2008-05-21T21:54:00-11:00

Well, we know it's only been three days since 0.1 was released, but we really wanted to get 0.2 out the door as fast as possible. We did some more rebranding and built in some stuff that should make things easier from here on out.

Here is a full list of changes for 0.2:

Sparkle auto-updating support. The feed isn't yet active (more news on that soon), but will be within a few days.
New option in prefs that allows checking for updates on startup. (Wouldn't enable until we get the appcast feed up, however.)
New logo. Until we get something custom and shiny, that is...
Completed re-branding. All source files have been renamed to new conventions
Removed non-functioning SSH support. Will come in a future build.
Removed legacy code.

That's really about it. Grab the new build at the downloads page and we will push new updates via the auto-updater.

Thanks,
The Shift Team

Features for Shift 0.2

2008-05-19T02:19:29-11:00

Here are some of the updates coming in version 0.2:

Removal of SSH tunneling. This is actually a desired feature, but it is non-functioning under the latest code-base of CocoaMySQL. The way they were going about it was pretty messy so we decided to just can all the code and rewrite it properly down the line when we are more comfortable with cocoa and the project.
Fully assimilated project files. Currently the application strings are all set for Shift, but we will be moving all the files and classes over to the new name as well.
New logo. No clue what it will look like, but it will probably suck. Neither of us currently working on the project have any icon design experience at all, so whatever ends up being used for 0.2 will probably be temporary. This is just necessary to fully remove all CocoaMySQL branding.
Auto updating with Sparkle. This will be by far the biggest improvement to Shift in this release. Sparkle is the same framework used in Adium for auto updates. Sparkle will allow us to push out the new releases with minimum fuss. We have the majority of this functionality operational.

As always, you can get the latest code from the 0.2 branch to get the latest updates. (There is no guarantee that this code will work perfectly or even compile, so caveat emptor.)

Shift 0.1 Released

2008-05-19T01:34:37-11:00

Well, we have our initial release of Shift. The 0.1 release is merely a direct port of CocoaMySQL with a name rebrand. We wanted to get something out there so people could start using it and know that the project is underway.

We will have a 0.2 release coming soon which will include Sparkle support. Sparkle will provide us a seamless way to push out automatic updates to Shift. Because we hope to be releasing on a fairly regular basis, Sparkle is a big part of our future plans for Shift. Please keep an eye out here for the 0.2 release.

Download Shift 0.1