Last week, I posted that you can now use external Javascript libraries when creating sketches in the public studios (studio.sketchpad.cc and p5js.sketchpad.cc.) I extended this functionality to support another popular request: you can now create multi-file sketches by load code from one Sketchpad sketch into another Sketchpad sketch. This means, among other things, that you can better organize your code into files that can be edited independently, you can reuse classes across multiple sketches, and you can even make use of classes built by others people on Sketchpad.
When I launched the new studio for P5.js earlier this summer, I was happy to have finally addressed a long-time limitation of Sketchpad: sketches in this studio could include and make use of any of the growing collection of P5.js libraries. Unfortunately, the ability to load in external libraries and sketches came at the cost of additional confusion in using the editor, as each P5.js sketch needed to be wrapped in a <script> tag. In order to un-break this experience, I’m introducing a better, simpler, and <script>-free mechanism for loading Javascript libraries and other resources: HTML Additions.
With the introduction of HTML Additions, the ability to load an external script is no longer limited to the public P5.js studio. The public Processing.js-based studio.sketchpad.cc and select private studios now provide a way for you to load external libraries, scripts, HTML, CSS, etc. This has long been a top request, so I’m happy to finally make it available.
How do I load libraries?
After rebuilding my personal website last month, I switched over to serving it over https. This had the unfortunate side effect of preventing me from embed Sketchpad sketches on my website, since the embedded iframe wasn’t also served over https. This was enough motivation to make some changes. As of today, the “embed” code included in the footer of any canvas of a sketch created in the public studio at studio.sketchpad.cc or created anonymously at sketchpad.cc can be embedded in a web page served over https (like this one!)
The feature request sitting at the top of Sketchpad’s UserVoice forum is for the ability to remove a sketch from your studio account to keep things tidy. I finally had a chance to build this in yesterday. From the list of your sketches, click through to view the sketch that you’d like to remove. If you were the original author (rather than just a subsequent editor), you’ll be able to click a “Delete this sketch” link to remove it from your account. Un-clutter away!
This post is drawn from a longer post on my twosigma blog.
Update: Video slides from the presentation are now at the bottom of this post.
Viewing sketches created by people in the Studio was always possible, but wasn’t pretty or easy. Here’s what you had to work with:
In an attempt to have something tangible to show for my time spent on Sketchpad, I picked a few of my favorite canvases from the Studio Gallery to print on a deck of MiniCards. A small box of sketch snapshots arrived in the mail today, and I’m liking these a lot. Nice work, sketchers!
On the last blackboards of Richard Feynman:
One of the great features of Etherpad is that you could create a new document with one click on the homepage, and share it with others by mailing them a URL. No signup hassle, no up-sell, just click and go. I left this in, of course, when I built Sketchpad, but the real action now happens inside the Studio, which requires account sign-up/sign-in. I added some windows to the studio so outsiders can peer in, but there is still a real wall between the sketches created within the Studio and those created from the big button on the homepage. People do some great work outside of the studio, only to realize afterward that no one will see their creation. So I added a new feature that I think is a pretty nice solution: The ability to throw a sketch over the wall into the studio. To avoid metaphors and keep things clear, I just call this “save for later.”
Dennis Daniels is more effective than you are at getting his feature requests heard. Why? Because every one of his requests comes in the form of a screencast video uploaded to YouTube. He has, literally, thousands of them online already, and he added seven to the count this week while looking at Sketchpad this week. I have to say, I have not seen a more effective way of requesting a new feature, suggesting a change, or demonstrating a bug. Each one the screencasts that Dennis recorded about Sketchpad has been both fun for me to watch – he appreciates many of the my favorite Sketchpad features – and difficult as well, as he struggles to find things that I built but didn’t make easy to discover. His screencasts are one part feature request and one part user testing session. For me, the guy who’s building the application, it’s a fascinating mix. Here are links to a few of them:
Part of what I love about Studio Sketchpad is that it’s an environment for creating digital animation that is focused primarily on process, and only secondarily on the product. When you find yourself impressed by the final version of something that someone built on sketchpad, you’ve only really scratched the surface. Don’t believe me?
