Family Photoshare - 2024

I want an app that I can use to share photos and messages with my family that is not owned by Meta. I know that getting everyone I know onto a new app is basically impossible but I can make my family at least have a go at something that I build myself (mostly out of guilt). I have a bit of time on my hands currently and I need to keep my skills sharp. I also want to develop something that I can show to potential employers.

The basic idea is to replace a group chat channel in Messenger with a dedicated app. This makes no sense economically. This will not scale. At all. I really only want to do this for my own sake.

The plan

Back end
- ~~Auth~~
- ~~Post text~~
- User feed
- ~~Create group~~
- Join group
- Leave group
- Post text
- Post image
Mobile (iOS App & Android App)
- Auth
- Join group
- Leave group
- Own feed
- Post text
- Post image
- Group feed

Progress

2024-06-13
So, some progress. I have rebuilt the backend to the point where I should be able to create an account, log in, create a group and join it, and post to the group. I think it’s in the right place to start working on the client software. I’m getting the bare bones of the iOS app working.

Oh, I’ve also bought a domain and renamed the project. It will be called Villain Pics or something along those lines. The main use case of the app for my wife and I will be posting pictures of our dog, Villain. So, you know.
2024-05-21
So I ended up nuking my backend code yesterday by accident. I wanted to start the iOS project and happened to name it the same thing as the backend. Somehow Xcode managed to overwrite the repo and everything was gone. So I’m starting again. This time I’m making sure to push to Github.

I also came up with a bit better name for the thing. I want to call it Table, because I want to impart the feeling of having a conversation around a kitchen table.
2024-05-20
I’m building this backend using Vapor. This is mostly because I want to learn the concepts I need for web backends without the overhead of another language as well. So far I have implemented a relatively simple auth system and posting text. I will work on getting a user feed going next.