HN Explorer

Show HN: My never ending weekend project - recikeep.com

10 points by bowline_nc ↗ HN
I'm nearing the finish line on a side-project that has taken me longer than I care to admit. I'd really like to get some feedback from you guys if you would:

http://recikeep.com

The site is centered around a bookmarklet with some extra server-side processing. You "recikeep" a recipe and the ingredients are all parsed out into Qty/Measure/Ingredient/Prep (as best as I can), and then you build menus from what you have kept. Since the ingredients are parsed out, I can generate a shopping list from your menu that's a combination of all of the ingredients across the recipes.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

21 comments

[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 37.8 ms ] thread
nurik
I really like the logo!
bowline_nc
Ha - thanks, I realized how much I was lacking in artistic ability with the logo...hence text-only... :)
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
cjbos
This looks like something I would use, great site and idea. Can you add your own recipes as well, there are a couple of "Family Secret" recipes I have that I cook regularly.
bowline_nc
Thanks for checking it out. I'm in the process of allowing folks to create recipes - it's part of my finishing touches that should be done in the next day or so.

If nothing else, seems like people could use it for those staples in their grocery lists.

Please let me know if you have any other feedback with it.

cjbos
On the Shopping List page, should the button read "Edit List" not "Edit Menu". Looks like I can use that for the secret ingredient, I can just use a recipe online close to what mine is, then add the one or two things to the list.

* Also was pleasantly surprised to see ColdFusion. Are you using CF9 or one of the open source servers?

bowline_nc
Yeah - using Railo and have been really happy with it. Was a little worried about memory issues, but it's pretty efficient.

For the buttons, I was thinking that Edit Menu let's you add/remove recipes from your list (or multiply them). "Add Items" will let you put additional items on your list but not associated with any specific recipe.

Though for your secret ingredient, you could actually edit a similar recipe and then put in your own ingredient(s). Once it's in the db as an ingredient, the shopping list would be able to parse it out and lump it together with everything else.

I'll definitely put recipe creation in there sooner than later.

bowline_nc
Not sure if this message will ever see the light of day, but just wanted to let you know that I put the recipe creation in place earlier today.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

cjbos
Great, thanks! Uploading my seco recipe now :)
ariabov
I really like the color combination and design you went with - clean, simple, and friendly!

I do have suggestions for the sign up form:

- The warning message is too long, you dont need to explain people that in beta version not everything may be working (especially if you are only targeting HN crowd)

- Change "Facebook Addict" & "Online Hermit" and their description. I see that you are trying to give your product some character and emotion but on Sign Up page this just over-complicates the process that should straightforward and intuitive. As a user, I have seen a thousands of Facebook vs. roll your own prompts to sign up and wont read the description below.

- The "I want some privacy!" box also seems redundant to me. People who care about privacy wont use Facebook and sign up directly.

bowline_nc
Duly noted and I completely agree. I think that I was staring at this thing for so long I forgot that not everyone will know what's going on in my mind.

I just changed those suggestions over.

Thanks for checking it out!

AznHisoka
can you parse from regular recipes found in blogs and websites?
bowline_nc
I can, but not as well. All you have to do is highlight the ingredients then click the bookmarklet. I parse out your selection into the ingredients if there's some kind of delimiter in there (coded, like tags or line breaks). The recipe name just takes from the title of the page.

So I normally copy the title of the recipe into my clipboard, highlight the ingredients, then click the bookmarklet. You can then paste in the recipe title and you're good to go.

It works surprisingly well for most sites.

gragland
Love it! This is something I've wanted to exist for awhile. I tried emailing you from the contact form on recikeep but it redirected to a blank page: http://recikeep.com/processContactUs.cfm

I have some partnership ideas I'd like to discuss if you'd like to email me at gabe.ragland[at]gmail.com

bowline_nc
Well that's embarrassing - I woke up to a ton of errors from the contact us page this morning, so it was not just you.

Should be fixed up now, but I'll shoot you an email offline.

Thanks for checking it out!

websymphony
I like the design and snappiness of the site. I see it is a coldfusion site, are you using any particular framework or just something of your own?
bowline_nc
Thanks, and it's all homegrown - I was tempted to try FW1 as a starting place, but decided that I did not really need to for this...