July 2022

Submitted by Jeff on

Did some more changes to the WhereAreGames PWA and learned some new Web API's. Had a chance to try out the Web Share Target API and File Handler API. The Share Target API, was a bit tough to get going, as it requires the Service Worker to capture the request and save it. Then you have your app to check the Service Worker to see if there was a request and have it send it back. There are a lot of moving parts that seems over complicated. Given the complexity of the Share Target API, the File Handler API it much simpler and more direct. The issue with the File Handler API is that it currently only works on Desktop in Chromium browsers. Which kind of defeats the purpose I was planning for the mobile side.

I was looking at both API's because I needed a bit easier way to import a BattleScribe .ROS and .ROSZ file for the Army List viewer. Some of the users I showed it to where having some issues finding the files they needed. I noticed that BattleScribe has a share option, which allows you to share multiple types of outputs one of which is the BattleScribe files. So it made sense to use the Share Target API at the very least. With the File Handler API, I figured users can use a File viewer on their mobile device and be able to see WhereAreGames in the file open options. It should make it bit easier to use.

I also moved some menu stuff around which thanks to some input, makes it bit better organized. I still need to rewrite the menu, as it works just not well. I am sure there is a better way to do a menu. I think some of counters need to be upgrade to some new types as well. We will see what inspires me next.

Usage for the PWA's seem to be pretty constant. WhereAreGames seems to have about 4 - 5 users that have hit it more than once. There are more visits, but they seem to either be junk or people just checking it out(I am guessing more of the former). Dynaballot, seems to be more junk access there doesn't seem there are anyone that likes enough to log in and use it. There where 10 unique visitors and none were repeats. Though ran into the group I built it for, and they do remember it.

SEO, still seems to flat lined. No exciting changes. Though I still get more hits on Bing than on Google. This site and my other blog site gets lots of hits, just not a lot of clicks. Though they have more content than an application does.