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derek_chen

@derek_chen

Joined June 2nd, 2026

  • 11Devlogs
  • 3Projects
  • 2Ships
  • 30Votes
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9h 0m 29s logged

My Progress Summary

This past week (since my last devlog), I started with a visual and privacy redesign.

Bug Fixes

  • Note image uploads didn’t work => They work now!
  • Calendar Validation previously would accept broken links => Fixed now!
  • File uploads didn’t work => I can upload now!
  • Safari kept signing me out => No more!
    I also improved the admin controls and security and resilience of the backend, especially with CSFR refresh handling.

The loading UX was refined into page-specific skeletons (it was so cool seeing it work for the first time), but it took a few tries.

The big change:

Major release for tiers and quotas so that users can’t spam uploads and tier system skeleton for later. This includes admin tier controls (yay for me) and pixel assets generated by ChatGPT’s latest model 5.6

Try it here: https://nest.apstudy.org/join

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5
Ship

With this ship, I have drastically updated the Notes editor from a simple single-user editor into a writing workspace with block tools, rich paste normalization, and advanced features such as a print pipeline and expanded keyboard shortcuts. Sharing features such as public links, per-user shares, and a read-only view; performance optimization; accessibility (WCAG 2.2) compliance; and very, very extensive testing. Other minor fixes and admin panel changes were also included.

https://nest.apstudy.org/join

Let me know what you think! Please feel free to leave any suggestions and let me know of any bugs you find :)

  • 5 devlogs
  • 24h
Try project → See source code →
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8h 41m 1s logged

Major Changes w/ Notes Page/Editor

1. Notes & Folder Sharing

  • Users can now share their notes and even folders with multiple notes files with other Nest users.
  • Public links can be generated to give everyone (even non-users) view-only access.

2. Simplified the Editor

  • Less empty space! Now your whole screen on your laptop is the editor

3. Printing & Formatting Fixes/Updates

  • Clicking Cmd/Ctrl + P now prints the notes page properly with appropriate colors and sizing! This actually took so many hours. Who knew modifying how a page looks for printing took this much time :(
  • Grammarly is now more compatible and less RAM-hungry. I also optimized the notes page to reduce RAM consumption when moving between documents & website pages.
  • Pasting now formats AI and messy text. Copy and pasting from Nest to another website looks cleaner now too (no more extra new lines for no reason like those AI websites).

4. Speed & Accessibility Changes

  • Went with a WCAG 2.2 accessibility friendliness: people navigating can now easily run stuff through their keyboard (which is easy to open/close)
  • Faster loading with lazy-loaded images.

5. Soon to Come: Real-Time Editing + Editor Sharing Access

  • Who knows, it may just be more optimized than Google Docs (with fewer features, of course).
    It will have logic to view other people’s cursor positions & email invitations with roles (viewing, suggesting, editing). And a 30-day version history timeline.

Try it yourself! https://nest.apstudy.org/notes

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3h 59m 1s logged

Admin Analytics Page

I’m getting users! But who knew making an analytics page was so complex? I’m literally using Google Analytics API, which means I’m not hardcoding JavaScript tracking. Rather, I’m outputting the data into an interactive UI.

Fun fact: 72% of users are high schoolers!

https://nest.apstudy.org

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6h 50m 28s logged

Notes Page Design + UI

You always see Google Docs and be like, “That’s a simple UI.” 😭 Or at least that’s what I thought until I tried creating a notes UI similar to both Notion & Google Docs.

  • The goal was to make a lighter, simpler docs page that I can share easily. While, unfortunately, there are no share features yet, the toolbar and hover features are slowly coming together! 😄

Give it a try and let me know what you think: https://nest.apstudy.org/notes

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1h 33m 53s logged

Improved Course Search UI

Changes:

  • More results show now
  • More filters and more details in the saved json
  • Faster pings
  • Seats display on the course preview

Features:

  • Simulate Courses
  • Track courses that aren’t in your simulated schedule
  • Recieve Emails when a class opens up
  • Add as many courses to tracking as you wish

Unfortunately, this is still limited to only Emory University students because the course pulling takes a lot of time and effort.
https://nest.apstudy.org/courses

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2h 39m 12s logged

Backend + Sidebar Fixes

There were a good few small UI bugs that hurt the user experience.
I went through and fixed a bunch, especially the sidebar issue that has been there for weeks.
(The admin button is completely backend and won’t show for any of the other users)
https://nest.apstudy.org/dashboard

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9
Ship

# An Academic Command Center
From now on, your day starts in one place!
Features: central dashboard, calendar, tasks, notes, files, and a chat system.
> Course planning section specifically for Emory University students. Students can save courses, track seats, and simulate their course schedule.
**Build YOUR workspace today!**
https://nest.apstudy.org/join
-# It solves my problems & reduces my stress. Hopefully it'll solve yours too :)

  • 5 devlogs
  • 15h
Try project → See source code →
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2h 58m 59s logged

Admin Backend & Basic Frontend Updates!

I have offically gotten to a stage where I can finally start promoting and having people become early users.

Nest.APStudy is a web platform for student course planning and productivity, combining local Emory course data with user accounts, dashboards, calendars, tasks, notes, chat, file sharing, and related admin tools. User data is stored in VPS-hosted SQLite databases, with Appwrite handling authentication and file storage.
I spent a few more hours working on the backend changes and setting myself up to be in a position to quickly find and repair bugs by connecting the hosting VPS to my admin portal securely.

Take a look and let me know what you think! :)

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Reposted by @derek_chen

2h 45m 41s logged

Created landing page for my Productivity Web Platform

  • Added hero image, animations, showcases of all the website features, etc.

I added some avengers easter eggs if you can find them ;)

As for the actual platform, it is currently not fully functioning because I hit the database limits on my GitHub education plan. I may be locally hosting the database soon.

Check out the website at https://nest.apstudy.org and feel free to leave me any comments/suggestions/hate! I appreciate all feedback :)

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2h 45m 41s logged

Created landing page for my Productivity Web Platform

  • Added hero image, animations, showcases of all the website features, etc.

I added some avengers easter eggs if you can find them ;)

As for the actual platform, it is currently not fully functioning because I hit the database limits on my GitHub education plan. I may be locally hosting the database soon.

Check out the website at https://nest.apstudy.org and feel free to leave me any comments/suggestions/hate! I appreciate all feedback :)

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Reposted by @derek_chen

54m 45s logged

Calendar Page Creation & Polish!

https://nest.apstudy.org/calendar
Weekly view:

  • 7-column time grid starting with Sunday
  • 24 hour scrollable view that auto-scrolls to 7:30 AM
  • Stickied all-day row (if all-day events are present) for multi-day/all-day events!
    Monthly View:
  • 6-week grids with leading and trailing days from the adjacent months (less visible)
  • Multi-day events are shown as spanning bars with row packing
    Options to share calendar (lots of configuration), calendar visibility, previous/next, and easy toggle between weekly and monthly views.
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Reposted by @derek_chen

7h 24m 15s logged

Nest.APStudy is my summer coding project that I started right before AP testing. Yeah, I know… great timing. But I couldn’t wait to start working!

7 APs got nothing on me! Let me enjoy coding and discover the wonderful digital world of cyber, hardware, software, and AI :)
Soon to be up at https://nest.apstudy.org

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Open comments for this post

54m 45s logged

Calendar Page Creation & Polish!

https://nest.apstudy.org/calendar
Weekly view:

  • 7-column time grid starting with Sunday
  • 24 hour scrollable view that auto-scrolls to 7:30 AM
  • Stickied all-day row (if all-day events are present) for multi-day/all-day events!
    Monthly View:
  • 6-week grids with leading and trailing days from the adjacent months (less visible)
  • Multi-day events are shown as spanning bars with row packing
    Options to share calendar (lots of configuration), calendar visibility, previous/next, and easy toggle between weekly and monthly views.
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107
Open comments for this post

7h 24m 15s logged

Nest.APStudy is my summer coding project that I started right before AP testing. Yeah, I know… great timing. But I couldn’t wait to start working!

7 APs got nothing on me! Let me enjoy coding and discover the wonderful digital world of cyber, hardware, software, and AI :)
Soon to be up at https://nest.apstudy.org

0

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