Okay, so I wanted to share a bit about something I worked on recently, just a personal project I nicknamed secretlover3. Sounds a bit funny, I know, but it was just a working title that stuck.
It all started because I was getting really annoyed with how I managed some of my notes and links. I’d save stuff everywhere – text files here, bookmarks there, random notes on my phone. Finding anything specific was becoming a real pain. I thought, there must be a better way, something simple I could build myself just for how my brain works.
Getting Started
First thing, I just grabbed a piece of paper, believe it or not. Sketched out what I wanted it to do. Basically:
- Let me dump text snippets or links into one place easily.
- Tag them somehow so I could find them later.
- Maybe have a super simple search. Nothing fancy.
I wasn’t aiming for a big, complicated application. Just a helper tool for myself. I decided to try putting together a basic web page thing first, something I could run locally. Seemed like the quickest way to get a visual interface going without much fuss.
The Actual Doing Part
So, I fired up my code editor. Decided to use basic HTML, CSS, and a tiny bit of Javascript. Kept it really barebones. I spent the first evening just getting the basic structure down – an input box to paste stuff, a button to save it, and an area where the saved items would show up.
Getting the saving part working took a bit longer than I thought. Initially, I just had it storing things in the browser’s local storage. Simple, right? Worked okay for small bits, but then I tried pasting a longer article snippet and things got sluggish. Plus, I realized if I cleared my browser data, everything would be gone. Not ideal.
Okay, plan B. I decided to set up a really simple backend. Nothing heavy, just something to catch the text and save it to a plain file on my computer. That felt safer. Spent a good chunk of time figuring out how to make the front-end talk to this little backend script smoothly. Lots of trial and error there, lots of checking the browser’s console to see what errors were popping up.
Adding the tagging was the next step. I made it so when you saved something, you could add tags separated by commas. Then I built a basic filter – click a tag, and it would only show items with that tag. That part actually came together quicker than the saving mechanism. Felt like a small win!
Finishing Touches (Sort Of)
I wouldn’t say it’s ‘finished’ finished. It’s still pretty rough around the edges. The search is literally just basic text matching, nothing smart. The interface is plain, just black text on a white background mostly. But, you know what? It works for me.
I’ve been using secretlover3 for a few weeks now. I dump links, code snippets, ideas, whatever, into it. When I need something, I either filter by tag or just search a keyword. It’s way better than digging through random files like before.
It’s not revolutionary, and the name is still kinda silly, but it was a fun little exercise. Felt good to actually build the thing, troubleshoot the problems, and end up with something genuinely useful for my own workflow. Sometimes these small personal projects are the most satisfying.
