There is a great writing from Stripe which explains their process for database migration : - Dual writing to the existing and new tables to keep them in sync. - Changing all read paths in our codebase to read from the new table. - Changing all write paths in our codebase to only write to the new table. - Removing old data that relies on the outdated data model.

https://stripe.com/fr/blog/online-migrations

This is really a great tool! I really see using it, first to prototype quickly (wireframing) and then to customize it when I want to produce the real content. I'm on a Rails stack so any way to produce HTML or SLIM would be a great addition.

I really understand the problem you are tackling : you haven't found a BugTracking system that works for your company. Especially because you are in the web development field so you know exactly what you want.

But I think that the problem is not that "Some are great but expensive, others haven't changed in years, most are too complex and are re-hashes of the same product." The problem is that they have not been built for you.

This is why there are so many bug tracking, to-do list and project management solutions. Savvy people aren't satisfied with what they found because it does not fit 100% with their ideal solution so they want a custom one. So they say: "Hey look what I've build! It's so much better than the others". It's true for you and maybe for some other people but it's not true in general. It's just that everyone wants a custom bugtracking, to-do list or project management app.

+1 Yes.

I had an an old boss who did not grasp this principle and was convinced he would get rich writing a similar tool because all the other's where rubbish and not what he needed.

He even talked to several other small business owners who felt the same and thus was convinced that he would sell to them fine. He didn't realise that when he showed them the actual tool they'd want something different ...

Anyway, I left that company many years ago :-)

> The problem is that they have not been built for you.

As well as not being built for you, it was also not built by you. I believe NIH syndrome is responsible for the glut of half-finished programmer tools that litter the SaaS market.

That's not to say that there is not room for another bug tracker, nor that there is anything wrong with a touch of NIH syndrome here and there.

Yes, exactly. And I know what I'm talking about, I created my own project management app, half for fun, half to be completely tailored to me ;)

The service looks great! In what format are the google docs stored on Dropbox/Basecamp?

Files are converted to MS Office format.

Great tool ! Simple and focused. Maybe two things a little more helpful : 1. The ability to press Ctrl+Z to undo 2. A global reset button (not so important as we can refresh the page)

I would love to try this on an iPad with a pen.

Interesting idea but how can you assure that your service will stay in business in 100 years (for instance), so that my story will be published at that time ? Am I missing something ?

Also, be careful, your design is messed up on Mac / Chrome (see the screenshot : http://cl.ly/8ixo)

Thanks for this great summary and thank you all guys, it was a great start I think ! The buzzwords session was really fun.

I completely understand your desire to know how the 'magic' works. But the good thing with open source frameworks is that you just have to checkout the sources and see how things are working internally.

If it's too complicated at the beginning you can start by trying to develop your own micro framework to get more confidence with this and then retry understanding how the magic works.