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APIs for importing locations
An important aspect of the new backend is the ability to import new locations.
[... 254 words]New call queue ready to test. Also geography.
I just shipped the first working preview version of the new /api/requestCall API [#54]—the API that our caller app uses to get the next location that the caller should be contacting (and lock it so that other users don’t call it at the same time).
Weeknotes: Datasette and Git scraping at NICAR, VaccinateCA
This week I virtually attended the NICAR data journalism conference and made a ton of progress on the Django backend for VaccinateCA (see last week).
[... 773 words]The simplest possible call queue
Today I’ve been working on the queue calling mechanism for the new Django backend.
[... 471 words]Git scraping, the five minute lightning talk
I prepared a lightning talk about Git scraping for the NICAR 2021 data journalism conference. In the talk I explain the idea of running scheduled scrapers in GitHub Actions, show some examples and then live code a new scraper for the CDC’s vaccination data using the GitHub web interface. Here’s the video.
[... 289 words]Replaying logs to exercise the new API
22 days ago n1mmy pushed a change to help.vaccinate which logged full details of inoming Netlify function API traffic to an Airtable database.
API ready for testing, first video status update
To celebrate GitHub’s new support for drag-and-dropping mp4 files into Markdown, I decided to switch things around a little and include a video update with today’s blog entry.
[... 656 words]Drawing the rest of the owl
My ambitious goal for the day was to get the new Django/PostgreSQL preview into a state where we could start sending example API requests to it from the help.vaccinate app.
Trying to end the pandemic a little earlier with VaccinateCA
This week I got involved with the VaccinateCA effort. We are trying to end the pandemic a little earlier, by building the most accurate database possible of vaccination locations and availability in California.
[... 1,154 words]Django admin customization, JSON in our PostgreSQL
My progress slowed a bit today as I started digging into some things I’m less familiar with—but I’ve found some tricks that I think will help us out a lot.
[... 1,089 words]Importing data from Airtable into Django, plus a search engine for all our code
I made a bunch of progress on the Django backend prototype-that-soon-won’t-be-a-prototype today.
[... 935 words]Spinning up a new Django app to act as a backend for VaccinateCA
My goal by the end of this week is to have a working proof of concept for a Django + PostgreSQL app that can replace Airtable as the principle backend for the https://www.vaccinateca.com/ site. This proof of concept will allow us to make a go or no-go decision and figure out what else needs to be implemented before we can start using it to track calls.
[... 762 words]Getting started
Here we go then... I’ve signed up to work on this project full-time, four days a week!
[... 609 words]Cross-database queries in SQLite (and weeknotes)
I released Datasette 0.55 and sqlite-utils 3.6 this week with a common theme across both releases: supporting cross-database joins.
[... 720 words]Open source projects: consider running office hours
Back in December I decided to try something new for my Datasette open source project: Datasette Office Hours. The idea is simple: anyone can book a 25 minute conversation with me on a Friday to talk about the project. I’m interested in talking to people who are using Datasette, or who are considering using it, or who just want to have a chat.
[... 786 words]Weeknotes: Finally, an intro video for Datasette
My big project this week was this Video introduction to Datasette and sqlite-utils. I recorded the video a few weeks ago in advance of FOSDEM, but this week I put together the annotated version. I’m really happy with it, and I’ve added it to the datasette.io homepage as a starting point for helping people understand the project.
[... 690 words]Video introduction to Datasette and sqlite-utils
I put together a 17 minute video introduction to Datasette and sqlite-utils for FOSDEM 2021, showing how you can use Datasette to explore data, and demonstrating using the sqlite-utils command-line tool to convert a CSV file into a SQLite database, and then publish it using datasette publish. Here’s the video, plus annotated screen captures with further links and commentary.
Weeknotes: Mostly messing around with map tiles
Most of what I worked on this week was covered in Serving map tiles from SQLite with MBTiles and datasette-tiles. I built two new plugins: datasette-tiles for serving map tiles, and datasette-basemap which bundles map tiles for zoom levels 0-6 of OpenStreetMap. I also released download-tiles for downloading tiles and bundling them into an MBTiles database.
[... 350 words]Serving map tiles from SQLite with MBTiles and datasette-tiles
Working on datasette-leaflet last week re-kindled my interest in using Datasette as a GIS (Geographic Information System) platform. SQLite already has strong GIS functionality in the form of SpatiaLite and datasette-cluster-map is currently the most downloaded plugin. Most importantly, maps are fun!
[... 1,334 words]Weeknotes: datasette-leaflet, datasette-plugin cookiecutter upgrades
This week I shipped Datasette 0.54, sent out the latest Datasette Newsletter and then mostly worked on follow-up projects.
[... 552 words]Datasette 0.54: The annotated release notes
Datasette 0.54 is out today, with a number of foundational new features. As I’ve done for previous releases, here are the annotated release notes with some additional commentary.
[... 1,276 words]Drawing shapes on a map to query a SpatiaLite database (and other weeknotes)
This week I built a Datasette plugin that lets you query a database by drawing shapes on a map!
[... 950 words]Weeknotes: Still pretty distracted
Not a lot to report this week. U.S. politics continues to make it extremely difficult to focus on anything substantial.
[... 727 words]Weeknotes: datasette-export-notebook, PyInstaller packaged Datasette, CBSAs
What a terrible week. I’ve found it hard to concentrate on anything substantial. In a mostly futile attempt to distract myself from doomscrolling I’ve mainly been building some experimental output plugins, fiddling with PyInstaller and messing around with shapefiles.
[... 732 words]APIs from CSS without JavaScript: the datasette-css-properties plugin
I built a new Datasette plugin called datasette-css-properties. It’s very, very weird—it adds a .css output extension to Datasette which outputs the result of a SQL query using CSS custom property format. This means you can display the results of database queries using pure CSS and HTML, no JavaScript required!
Weeknotes: A flurry of not-quite-finished features
My Christmas present to myself this year was to allow myself to spend a week working on stuff I found interesting, rather than sticking to the most important things. This may have been a mistake: it’s left me with a flurry of interesting but not-quite-finished features.
[... 2,249 words]Weeknotes: Datasette internals
I’ve been working on some fundamental changes to Datasette’s internal workings—they’re not quite ready for a release yet, but they’re shaping up in an interesting direction.
[... 760 words]Building a search engine for datasette.io
This week I added a search engine to datasette.io, using the search indexing tool I’ve been building for Dogsheep.
[... 1,391 words]Build v.s. buy: how billing models affect your internal culture
Something to pay attention to when making a build v.s. buy decision is the impact that billing models will have on your usage of a tool.
[... 410 words]datasette.io, an official project website for Datasette
This week I launched datasette.io—the new official project website for Datasette.
[... 1,971 words]