Kiss it Goodbye - Death of a CI Application

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]
I don't really have daily opportunities to develop CodeIgniter applications. I'm either designing, doing front-end code, or developing against other frameworks, like Drupal. I had been playing with basic application ideas for awhile: CMSs, blogs, project management... yawn. Then I started thinking about creating a tool built on CI, for CI. After some feverish late-night thinking and sketching, I had put together an idea for a CI Application Management System. I called it EngineRoom.

The elevator-pitch I had for it was:

A browser-based GUI for managing your CI applications; an interface for config files, error logs, et. al.; ideal for development and staging servers.

At nearly every chance, I was working away at EngineRoom, and it was going splendid.

Then my hard drive crashed. I had no backups. Nothing. Source code: gone. Designs: gone. All that remains is [url="http://williamsconcepts.com/ci/screenshot.png"]this screenshot I had uploaded to show a friend[/url]. It shows the dashboard for one of the applications being managed.

I don't think I'll revive the project any time soon. It's too hard to take a loss like that and just start over from the beginning, especially when it was a side project that I probably had no business spending time on in the first place. If anyone would like to run with the idea, feel free to pick my brain (at least all the ideas are still up there )

So long EngineRoom. We hardly new ye.

[eluser]wiredesignz[/eluser]
That's a damn shame Colin.

From the look of the screenie it would have been an awesome system. Gotta say I like your design skills too.

Maybe after a suitable mourning period you might rethink your decision. :lol:

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]
Thanks wired. I suppose I should never say never. Perhaps once I get over the loss I'll come back to it. Actually, losing the source code doesn't sting nearly as bad as losing the PSDs.

It sure was cool to manipulate the app outside the context of a file browser or IDE. Also seeing things visually. For instance, on the database configuration page, there were icons for each group configuration, then one was marked as default group. Of course, on the backend it was actually writing PHP code, which was a bit shaky... Sigh... I'm buying a backup HDD ASAP! :-P

[eluser]manilodisan[/eluser]
Wow man...looked so nice. I'm sure it was a real help for many of us subjective and so addicted to CI. Shame shame shame...

[eluser]Référencement Google[/eluser]
The importance of backups for people that build their life on data...

[eluser]Colin Williams[/eluser]
I don't start a professional project without SVN or some other form of backup running; I just need to start doing that with personal stuff.

[eluser]Mirage[/eluser]
Colin -

Sorry to hear about your loss. What you were building there looks like something that had grown waaay too significant to not have a backup or repos.

Same as you I have learned the hard way. I think we all do. I agree with wired - once you get over it - give another shot.

-m

[eluser]Xeoncross[/eluser]
Sorry to hear about that loss - it looked like a great project.

You know, for the right price you could pay someone to place the drives in the HD into a new HD - or even do it yourself depending on the model.

That is assuming that it was not the actual discs that were damaged.

[eluser]Michael Wales[/eluser]
I know all about losses Colin - just lost my thumbdrive yesterday. Luckily for me, I had recent backups on my laptop.

The screenshot looks nice - to bad we won't see it soon (maybe in the future?).

[eluser]johnwbaxter[/eluser]
If it was windows and the drive still spins you will need:

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

It is superb.