It would be great if someone would make an API for API’s. Like a nerdy version of FriendFeed in reverse… Single, simple way to transport data to a lot of apps at once.

We released a brand new version of the reordering function on Jumpchart this morning. A lot of users requested an improved version of this feature — as the old one could get a bit confusing on larger projects — and we think we’ve nailed it with this one. As a base for the code, we used the NestedSortable library for jQuery. The new function works perfectly on all major browsers, but if your project has more than 100 pages, Safari for the Mac or Google Chrome for Windows offer the best performance.

Load times were one of the major problems we faced during the implementation of the new feature. In order to make the library work correctly, we saw a 40% increase in size of our Javascript files. Besides having bigger files, we also had too many fragmented files — this meant a lot of independent HTTP requests per page loaded, which is never good for performance.

The solution we came up with for both of these problems was to write a packer that would automatically compile all Javascript files necessary for the app to run inside one single file (which we creatively call full.js). That would solve the problem with the multiple HTTP requests, but not quite the filesize one. In order to fix that problem, we used a method called minification, which basically consists of removing unnecessary code from the source code in order to save space (we used the JSMin library for this purpose).

As a result, we ended up reducing 20% of the filesize problem, and load times are roughly 50% shorter.

We hope you guys enjoy the new feature and the snappiness.

See the new reordering function in action

The first version of your app should be targeted at the novice… everyone is a novice when you release.

There are lots of sites online to help you come up with names for things. This one is the best: http://www.dotomator.com/

But what about a name generator that automatically polls other web services to help? Just key in a few words, and you could get:

• Synonyms
• Pop Culture terms
• Latin translations
• Foreign Language translations

Combined with the ability to jumble these together to make brand new terms, and search for whether the domain is available would be super cool. Let’s face it, it’s a big world, and new names are getting increasingly hard to come up with.

As always, – send us a case of beer when you get your first VC check…

We generate lots of ideas at Paste. It’s not really feasible for us to work on all of them, as we’re a very small team. We’ve decided to start putting our extra good ideas out here on our blog. If you have use for them, or hopefully can improve on them, – go for it. Send us a case of beer when you get your first VC check…

We imagine wherecanwepark.com as a simple app that ties to google maps. It allows you to flag nearby lots, and spaces so that people can easily see the prime spots nearby. Would be really cool if you could check about parking validation, and meter fees. Would be even cooler if there was a way to show spots via street view.

Local advertising seems like it could be a goldmine. A mobile version, or an iPhone app implementation would a great add.

Ideally you could just visit “http://wherecanwepark.com/Account-name” to pull up the map, and details automatically.

Let us know if anyone tackles this one.

Our stats for Jumpchart daily usage have looked like this since almost the beginning. The peak is always a Tuesday, and trails off to the weekend. Everyone starts off the week so productive! Also interesting that more people work on a Sunday than a Saturday…

We got an email through to support today that touches on a subject other people have been wondering. We’re including the original email, and our response.

“Whats the status of development now that yammer and present.ly has released their apps. is is still in active dev. What can we expect.”

And our response:

Thanks to writing to us about Staction. Both of the products you mentioned are great products, and could be quite useful for what they’re designed for. I can see several similarities with those products and ours. However, we’ve been developing Staction for quite some time, (well before we even knew of the other two products) and we’re on our own trajectory.

It’s very easy to get caught up thinking you have to compete with the other products on the market. It is business after all, -but we’re tend to take a different approach. We’re competing with ourselves. We believe that we’ve got a really great product in us that fits the way we work. It’s not just about lines of code, it’s about an idea.

We really embrace the ideas of rapid development, but we have a different take on that subject as well. Paste is about trying new things, and thinking of new ideas. Sometimes when you’re pushing your own envelope, you don’t get it right the first time. You need to keep grinding away at it until it feels right to you. We tend to believe if we can hit a homerun for ourselves, a lot of other people will like it as well. We get to a working version very quick, but that doesn’t mean we’ll release it just because it’s done… We use the beta as an actual beta. We test a lot of ideas, and only put out a few.

In short, we’re working daily to make Staction better. We’ve got a major rev to the interface we’re testing right now that’s been created based on watching ourselves, and our users interact with the app. We’ll take some time with that one and see where it goes. Believe me we’re just as anxious as you are. But not so anxious that we’re ready to sign our name to something that’s not up to our standards, just to have it finished quicker.

Thanks for helping us improve Staction in the beta.
-Joe
Paste

We just launched a new version of Staction that, besides some outstanding minor tweaks and fixes, adds support for Internet Explorer 7. We’ve been testing it this week and we feel it’s pretty smooth.

We’ve made the decision to not support earlier version of IE. 2 basic facts led us this direction:

• On all the Paste sites, the average of visitors running IE6 is below 4%.

• IE6 is an old browser with rudimentary support for Javascript and CSS; this is specially crucial in Staction since the app is rather complex in the client-side code. Staying away from it will allow us to focus more on things that really matter and that actually move the app forward. We also feel that the sooner developers start dropping IE6 support, the sooner people will be forced to upgrade, which will be a good thing for everyone involved.

If you’re an IE7 user and wants to try Staction, don’t hesitate to enter our beta newsletter to get an invite key. Also, if you find any bugs with it, we would be happy to hear!

With the Staction beta going great, we turned our attentions to a quick experiment we’ve had on our back-burner. http://pleasenotify.me is our take on the simplest type of project management. It works like this: You fill out a quick form to email someone a task. If they don’t mark it complete by the time you specify, both of you will be notified. You’ll both be reminded daily until it’s finally completed.

It’s probably not going to replace your current PM app, but it’s great for several things:

• Collaborating with people who are not in your company / group.
• Reminding yourself to do something
• Sending tasks from mobile devices (There’s an iPhone/iPod formatted version)
• Really lightweight project management. Absolutely no fuss, or extra stuff.

A few of the cool things about it:

• No account needed, no password, no nothing. Just fill out the form,and the rest happens in your

• It’s free.

Give it a shot, and see what you think.

We added a feature to staction late in the game. While we’re firm believers in the chronological view of workflow being the most important, we recognized a need to check project overviews quickly and easily.

What eventually evolved was what we call the Overview page. It’s available for virtually everything in the sidebar. The small page icon next to every entry will expose a page that looks like this:

At first we thought of it as a secondary or tertiary feature, but it’s really proved to be quite useful. We know it’s not that obvious in the interface right now, – but for everyone participating in the beta, please give it a try, and let us know what you think.

Update on beta: So far, the bugs have been pretty easy to track down, and the server has held against the limited demand. We’re quite optimistic, -especially with great coverage like this