This document tracks the progress of the BlocklyCollab application from start to finish.
- Configured Next.js project with TypeScript
- Added Blockly library integration
- Set up basic project structure with pages, components, and styles directories
- Created basic BlocklyWorkspace component
- Integrated Yjs for real-time collaboration
- Set up Firebase for persistent data storage
- Implemented user awareness with cursor tracking
- Created block serialization and synchronization system
- Fixed XML data errors in block serialization
- Improved cursor appearance to look like an actual pointer
- Enhanced error handling for block synchronization
- Added landing page with modern design highlighting key features
- Created authentication pages (login and signup)
- Implemented responsive design for various devices
- Added feature cards to explain the platform benefits
- Styled components using CSS modules
- Added Clerk integration for user authentication
- Implemented official Clerk middleware for route protection
- Created login and signup pages with Clerk's SignIn and SignUp components
- Set up protected workspace route with automatic redirects
- Added UserButton component for account management
- Configured proper authentication flow with login/signup/logout redirects
- Configured Vercel deployment
- Set up environment variables for Firebase
- Fixed production build issues
- Deployed to custom domain
- Implemented a complete project/room management system
- Created new dashboard page displaying all user's projects
- Added room history tracking in Firebase for each user
- Improved workspace UI with better room information display
- Added user avatars showing participants in each room
- Enhanced connection status with visual indicators
- Implemented proper error handling for Firebase quota issues
- Optimized Firebase usage to reduce quota exceeded errors
- Added share functionality for easy room collaboration
- Created improved room joining and creation interface
- Enhanced real-time updates of room participants
- Implemented in-memory caching system for Firestore data
- Reduced write operations with debouncing and throttling techniques
- Consolidated room state into more efficient document structure
- Added batched writes for related database operations
- Improved error messages for quota exceeded scenarios
- Enhanced user avatars with proper styling and overflow handling
- Added API endpoint for reliable room cleanup on page exit
- Used navigator.sendBeacon for better connection cleanup
- Fixed COOP (Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy) errors in auth flow
- Improved workspace layout with better visual hierarchy
- Enhanced connection status indicators with clear visual feedback
- Changed cursor implementation from screen-positioned elements to SVG elements embedded in the Blockly workspace
- Cursors now properly stay anchored to workspace coordinates rather than screen coordinates
- Implemented directional indicators for out-of-view cursors that appear at the viewport edge
- Added click-to-navigate functionality to jump to other users' cursors when they're out of view
- Cursors now properly scale, rotate, and move with the workspace viewing transformations
- Fixed cursor position discrepancies between different clients
- Enhanced error handling and logging for cursor positioning
- Added proper cleanup for cursor elements and event listeners
- Cursors now behave like Blockly blocks - they stay in place during panning and zooming
- Implemented missing setupBlocklySync function in collab.ts
- Added setupCursorTracking function for inter-user awareness
- Fixed TypeScript errors in function signatures
- Updated function parameters to match component usage
- Improved error handling in collaboration setup
- Enhanced cursor tracking with user identity display
- Added proper cleanup functions for all event listeners
- Created a comprehensive file management system in projects.ts
- Implemented project creation, retrieval, updating, and deletion functions
- Added projects.tsx page for users to view and manage their projects
- Updated workspace.tsx to support loading projects by ID
- Enhanced BlocklyWorkspace component to handle project XML loading
- Added proper Firebase security rules for the new collections
- Fixed serverTimestamp() issues in arrays for Firestore compatibility
- Added links between dashboard and projects page
- Improved type safety with proper Timestamp handling
- Deployed the updated project to Vercel production environment
- Added updateUserProfile function to firebase.ts for updating user profile data
- Implemented user caching mechanisms in Firebase utility to reduce read operations
- Updated signup page to collect additional user information (name and school)
- Removed landing page and redirected users directly to login screen
- Optimized Firebase reads and writes in collab.ts with proper caching
- Implemented batch writes for related Firebase operations to improve performance
- Added throttling and debouncing using lodash to reduce Firebase write operations
- Fixed TypeScript errors and improved type safety throughout the application
- Enhanced error handling for Firestore operations with clearer feedback
- Improved memory management with proper cache expiration policies
- Created more efficient presence tracking to minimize Firestore operations
- Enhanced setupBlocklySync function with safer Blockly.Xml access patterns
- Implemented robust fallbacks for accessing Blockly API in production environment
- Added retry mechanisms for Blockly.Xml method access
- Fixed WebSocket connection issue with proper URL construction
- Ensured the room ID is properly formatted for WebSocket connections
- Improved WebSocket connection logging to aid in debugging
- Completely rebuilt cursor tracking implementation for better reliability
- Added explicit cursor visibility through enhanced awareness protocol
- Implemented throttling for cursor updates to reduce network traffic
- Improved awareness state initialization to include immediate cursor position
- Enhanced error handling throughout the cursor tracking functionality
- Added explicit cleanup of cursor elements when users disconnect
- Fixed cursor positioning to accurately reflect user's pointer location
- Added better debugging information to track collaboration status
- Fixed issue where newly created rooms wouldn't appear in user's room list until cache expired
- Implemented cross-module cache invalidation between projects and rooms
- Added Firestore-based cache invalidation markers to ensure consistent UI state
- Enhanced getUserRooms function to check for invalidation markers before using cached data
- Fixed communication between room and project systems to maintain consistent state
- Improved WebSocket connection handling with simplified room ID format
- Added proper cleanup of cached state when creating new resources
- Reduced unnecessary Firestore reads while ensuring data freshness
- Implemented a timestamp-based cache invalidation strategy for better consistency
- Added comprehensive error handling to protect users from unexpected crashes
- Implemented proper file management system in the dashboard
- Created landing page with information about app features
- Fixed build errors related to function signatures in collab.ts
- Updated user presence tracking to use a more efficient userIds array and subcollections pattern
- Added connection status indicators for better collaboration experience
- Implemented user metrics tracking with comprehensive permission model
- Fixed circular dependency issues between modules
- Added Firestore rules for proper security enforcement
- Created detailed documentation for development and deployment
- Fixed WebSocket connection issues by correcting domain name in client code
- Updated WebSocket server to properly extract room IDs from URL paths
- Added CORS support and improved error handling in WebSocket server
- Enhanced cursor tracking and user awareness features to improve real-time collaboration
- Implemented more efficient cursor tracking algorithm to reduce latency
- Added user presence indicators to show who's currently editing
- Improved error handling for cursor tracking and user presence
- Added room management functionality with the ability to close individual rooms
- Implemented an admin function to clear all rooms in Firebase for maintenance purposes
- Added UI components (Close Room button and Admin Controls section) on the dashboard
- Created deleteRoom and clearAllRooms functions in collab.ts to handle room deletion
- Added proper error handling and confirmation modals for room deletion operations
- Updated styling to support new admin controls and room management UI
- Set up a new Next.js project with TypeScript
- Install and configure Blockly
- Create a BlocklyWorkspace component
- Set up basic styles
- Configure Next.js for Blockly compatibility
- Create basic page layout
- Add Firebase configuration for authentication and data storage
- Implement user authentication
- Create room creation and joining functionality
- Implement basic Blockly workspace synchronization using Yjs
- Set up WebSocket provider for real-time collaboration
- Add cursor tracking for collaborative editing
- Implement user awareness features to show who's editing
- Configure Vercel deployment
- Fix WebSocket connection issues for improved reliability
- Enhance cursor tracking and user awareness
- Switch from XML-based synchronization to per-block synchronization for better real-time collaboration
- Fixed cursor visibility issues and added a dedicated room status indicator to show who is currently in the workspace
- Fixed the navigation flow so the back button from projects and rooms takes users to the dashboard with the appropriate tab selected
- Enhanced the dashboard to support tab selection via URL parameters (dashboard?tab=projects or dashboard?tab=rooms)
- Improved workspace navigation with consistent "Back to Dashboard" buttons that return to the correct tab
- Removed references to the standalone projects page to ensure consistent navigation through the dashboard
- Fixed block glitching issues by increasing position update thresholds from 1px to 5px to prevent unnecessary micro-adjustments
- Increased synchronization timeouts from 50ms to 200ms to reduce update frequency and smooth block rendering
- Improved overall stability of the collaborative editing experience
- Disabled viewport synchronization to prevent workspace view jumping when users pan or zoom
- Enhanced workspace navigation so each user can now control their own view independently
- Fixed ghost blocks issue by adding delays to the sync process (300ms for create/move, 200ms for changes)
- Prevented temporary blocks from being synchronized during drag operations
- Added better error handling to protect against sync failures
- Optimized block synchronization with improved timing to ensure only final positions are shared
- Disabled viewport synchronization to allow independent user control of workspace view