Snppts is back: calling all UI rockstars!

While this is not new, we have taken a slightly different approach. I am talking about Snppts. As you can see under the link, we have launched it before and unfortunately it wasn’t a big hit. With all the new attention for good looking UIs, we thought it was time we try this again! But this time with a bit different approach. In this post I will tell you a bit of history about Snppts and how you can contribute today.

What is snppts.dev? #

Great question! After working with Xamarin.Forms for a while, Steven and I decided that sharing great looking UIs should be much easier. Every now and again we came across a beautiful UI crafted in code or with XAML, but it wasn’t getting the attention it deserved.

Because of this we created snppts.io. With this aggregator we wanted to be the go-to resource for good looking UIs for Xamarin.Forms. And it worked, for a bit. We got in some great snippets with cool UI stuff, but attention faded. Not in the last place because we got busy with other projects. Not to mention our day jobs. From there we got into this downwards spiral of: the project doesn’t get much traction because we don’t give it much attention and we don’t give it much attention because there is no traction.

Ultimately we decided to seize Snppts existence with the upcoming domain renewal. Because the domain was pretty expensive and we wanted Snppts to be a free service and thus paying out of our own pockets, and factoring in the low popularity we decided to stop and that was it.

Return of the Snppts #

But boy were we wrong! A little while after we pulled the plug, I opened up the accompanying Twitter feed. There were quite a few people wanting to notify us the site was down and asking if we were coming back. Apparently we had a bigger fan base than we realised! Also, more and more beautiful UIs are popping up but aren’t really aggregated anywhere.

Based on these heartwarming reactions we decided to give it one more try. We solved the expensive domain by replacing it with, the more appropriate, .dev tld. Also we changed the way how people can contribute. For this, we turned to how planetxamarin.com does things.

Since we’re all developers, we know how to handle Github, right? So now you can simply add your snippet to the website by editing our web app source directly! Then open a pull request and see your snippets being merged by us. This makes it much easier for you because you won’t have to create an extra account and we don’t have to provide all kinds of plumbing for the approval of snippets, password resets, etc. We just use the PR system of Github. Easy peasy!

With all of the source now being open, this also makes it easier for others to contribute. Not just by gorgeous UI designs, but also in features that you would want to see in the system altogether.

Lastly, we have added a way for you to spread the word that you are a proud contributor and support us in the process. You can now add this great badge to your website. If you do, please link it back to snppts.dev. We hope that you are as excited as we are. We can’t wait to see all your great contributions come in!

Contribute yourself, today! #

In the README of the GitHub repo we put all the information to get you started. If there is anything you’re missing, please let us know so we can improve. Also, we’re happy to see any issues, or even better, PRs to help us make things even better.