Projects
The projects listed here were created either because of an actual problem that I had (like taking backups of my computers and my code) or just because I found something cool that I wanted to play around with (like controlling an USB Missile Launcher).
I also try to use some new libraries/tools/technologies in each project that I’m not familiar with, for learning purposes. And I’ve seen too many projects that look interesting, but lack even the simplest “how to get started” example…so I always create full documentation, installers etc. for my projects whenever possible.
Here is everything I created so far, in reverse chronologial order (newest first):
SCM Backup
What I needed:
An improved version of Bitbucket Backup, a previous tool of mine.
Bitbucket Backup supports Bitbucket only, and I needed something to backup my GitHub repos. There were some more reasons, all of them together made me decide to start a new project from scratch.
What I learned:
- Writing a command-line app with .NET Core, updating multiple times from beta to 3.1, encountering the usual quirks of a brand-new language/toolset
- More unit/integration testing, again with xUnit.net and without a mocking library (.NET Core was so new that there was no other testing library available, and no mocking library at all)
- More Dependency Injection (this time with Simple Injector, the only DI container for .NET Core available at the time) and some software architecture
- Using Git/GitHub regularly and solving all kinds of weird issues which probably most first-time Git users run into
- Building a website with GitHub Pages, documentation with Read the Docs and setting up custom (sub-)domains for both
- Setting up CI on AppVeyor, including automatic deployment to GitHub Releases when pushing tags
Sindorf trödelt
What I needed:
An informational website for an annual garage sale in my home town. Requirements:
- Sellers should be able to register with their addresses and pay via PayPal
- A list of registered adresses and a Google map with markers should be re-created daily via cronjob
What I learned:
- Building a static Jekyll site with dynamic PHP parts, and running it locally under XAMPP
- Implementing and troubleshooting a PayPal “Pay now” button
- Creating files for the Google map (based on this one) and the address list with Mustache.php
- Creating a map for printing with custom map tiles with OpenLayers and Maperitive
Google Calendar Backup
What I needed:
A backup tool for my Google Calendar with the ability to run unattended
What I learned:
- Downloading files from the internet from PowerShell via .NET
System.Net.WebClient - Each Google Calendar has a secret download link
Tasko
What I needed:
A ToDo app for my Android phone. I could have used an existing one, but decided to write one myself for learning purposes (mobile app with web service backend)
What I learned:
- Creating a web service with ASP.NET Web API (and Basic Authentication, but I later switched to token-based authentication) and hosting it on AppHarbor
- Using a NoSQL database, in this case RavenDB
- Writing a native Android app
Two complex Jekyll sites
What I needed:
Convert one site (originally built with a CMS) to Jekyll and create another one from scratch.
(Both sites and their source code are private, but I wrote multiple blog posts about what I did with Jekyll, all without using plugins)
What I learned:
SimpleLeague
What I needed:
Insert database-driven HTML tables with results and rankings into an existing site created with a CMS (in a minimalistic way, i.e. without creating a full-blown plugin for the CMS)
What I learned:
- Modern/object-oriented PHP (the last time I used PHP was nearly 10 years ago)
- Loading data from a MySQL database with PDO
- Using the PHP implementation of Mustache for templates
- Loading SimpleLeague tables into a Jekyll site with jQuery
This site (2013)
What I needed:
Migrate existing WordPress site/blog to a static site generator (I decided to use Blogofile first, later switched to Jekyll).
What I learned:
- Setting up a new site with Blogofile, and later converting it to Jekyll (source code here)
- Creating a responsive HTML template with Bootstrap
- Writing custom Mako (for Blogofile) and Liquid (for Jekyll) templates
- Displaying Markdown files from my Bitbucket projects (again)…and again in Jekyll (with caching)
- Automating FTP uploads with WinSCP, later auto-deploy with SSH from CI
VBA Helpers
What I needed:
A reusable library of VBA helper functions, to avoid having slight variations of the same functions duplicated across several projects.
What I learned:
- Unit testing in VBA with AccUnit and SimplyVBUnit
MissileSharp
What I needed:
Send commands to an USB Missile Launcher from my own code, without using the control software that came with it.
What I learned:
- Communicating with an USB device with Hid Library
- Building a WPF app (the MissileSharp Launcher) with MVVM and MahApps.Metro
- More Dependency Injection, this time with Autofac
- More unit testing, this time with NUnit and Moq
- Building a ClickOnce installer
This site (2012)
What I needed:
A web site to feature my projects and (maybe) a blog. I registered the domain years ago, but never had a site until then.
What I learned:
- Setting up WordPress on rented webspace
- Displaying Markdown files from my Bitbucket projects in WordPress
Recordset.Net
What I needed:
Convert .NET POCOs into ADODB.Recordsets, in order to gradually migrate existing MS Access applications to .NET (Access client needs to read data coming from .NET).
What I learned:
- Reflection basics
- Writing unit tests with xUnit.net
- Creating a NuGet package (and testing it on the preview site)
Bitbucket Backup
What I needed:
Automate creating local backups of all my private and public Bitbucket repositories, running without user interaction after being set up once.
What I learned:
- Calling Bitbucket’s API with RestSharp and Json.NET
- Cloning/pulling Mercurial and Git repositories with C#
- Dependency Injection with Ninject
- Setting assembly version from build script with MSBuild Community Tasks
RoboShell Backup
What I needed:
Convert existing batch files for Robocopy backups (computer→NAS and NAS→USB disk) to a more comfortable tool, with all settings in a config file.
What I learned:
- Windows PowerShell basics
- Building a setup with WiX
- Using TrueCrypt and VeraCrypt, and integrating them into RoboShell Backup
