Continuing to play around with image uploading so it is more dependable - here is a sample of 25 random images from my ssd - of the 25 I asked it to upload in sequence initially, two partially failed, and eight failed to materialize altogether, and the node express api did not crash, which is a huge improvement.

This was accomplished with adding only one async call in the image upload loop to the angular side, but I have a feeling that continuing to tweek the node api will also potentially alleviate more issues. Regardless, errors can happen, and what with no proper error handling on the server, I should not be surprised my results are unsatisfactory. Some work has been done on the node side, but it’s mainly trial and error as I am a JS idiot.

Anyways - that’s one small improvement on the backend down - hopefully many more to go.

I finally managed to add server side rendering to the site - which has been on the wish list for a year now. The only real benefit is meta data and cards, making it nicer to share links (cards do look great on discord) and I guess SEO, which, who cares? This is not a money making endeavour.

While everything works well enough, the code behind this site is a mess as I worked from a copy of the non universal site with the expectation that it was an experiment and with little regard to code quality.

But, here we are…I’ll clean it up, I guess.

The biggest hang-up was configuring nginx on the production side as the proxy settings were wrong right from the start. Nothing more infuriating than something working fine in dev and then breaking in prod - hours of confusion later and all it took was a lucky google search. Sometimes it’s best to walk away when you’re stuck on a problem and the answer usually comes to you - and by that I mean it comes to you via some random dude on GitHub. Comment left for that gentleman - a sincere thanks, stranger.

On the plus side, the path of debugging led me to add a few new back end features I would likely not have.

For the moment, this bookends the recent changes to the site, which also includes style, comment, and routing updates. I’ll let the site ‘breath’ for a bit before I resume updating it in the new year.

Up next is getting the site updated to current angular version without breaking anything, making administering the content and data less of a mystery, and updating the backed node express server to not be a complete disaster (image uploading can be hit or miss). Wish me luck.

P.S. The images are random tests from the b-roll. The header image (currently a skull on a beach by an old crt) was generated by open ai’s dall-e via a similar prompt.