The luxury of working by one's self is that plans can change very rapidly with little communication overhead. ;) However, here are a few things I'd like do with FanConcert this week and next. Notice they all have a high impact and priority in one way or another, which is how agile processes are meant to attack. I've talked about specifics of these issues in blog posts over the past two weeks.

I'd like to reorganize FanConcert away from being object-centric, especially with respect to its Rails controllers. The object-centric approach works fine for many Rails apps, but for FanConcert objects have such similar operations that it's violating DRY, making it difficult to share code and tests. Another disadvantage is that the URLs aren't as readable as they could be. FanConcert is well unit tested but during this re-org there could be some breakage -- please keep your eyes peeled for weirdness.

I'd like to get the payment system in, not because I need money (I do) but because it's an area I think will need lots of work and flexibility. Initially I'd like it to support 6 and 12 month subscriptions as well as donations (if someone feels like being more generous than the subscription cost while FanConcert grows). Gift certificates will follow shortly after that, which you'll be able to buy for other people without having to sign up yourself.

I also want to get an initial run at translation in, not only to see how it impacts URLs but also the user interface and usability. A user should be able to see a translation mistake and fix it (get their vote in) easily. Collaborative translation will be a big competitive advantage and a distinguishing feature of FanConcert. The sooner I get it in, the sooner people can start translating.

The output templates I talked about earlier may be a lot of work, so they won't be going in immediately. However, I should think of their probable impact on URLs and other aspects when reorganizing FanConcert.

Editing and moderation will go through some minor changes during the re-org but stay mostly the same. Arbitrary attributes would be nice, but I'm thinking they'll be pushed back. Weighted moderation is coming but it's just not a top priority right now, when the number of users is so low.

Update 11:57 AM - I forgot something big: I should start using Rails caching now. Caching is dependent on so many other factors that it's a serious integration issue. Sure, at the root it's about performance but it forces a type of separation and grouping of pages/URLs I should be following anyway. I realised (in time) that it's not the type of thing that can be easily bolted on later if things aren't organized properly. For those reasons I don't consider it premature optimization, I consider it prudent planning of an integration weak spot.