2016 in Review and What’s Coming Up in 2017

As 2016 draws to a close, I wanted to cover what we’ve done with the PipeTool.com this year as we’ve accomplished a bunch of stuff.   We added the advanced search capabilities, a tobacco calculator of doom, some new badges, resolved issues with review notes truncating and added a new feature to the review notes to be able to post multiple reviews on the same original for a follow up if you re-visit a particular tobacco.

We resolved the pipe picture issue and implemented a better backup method.  We kept coming back to how we calculated tobacco ages and fixed it several times – including grams vs. ounces.

We added the “smoke” feature which is very cool I might add, you can choose how much to subtract when you smoke out of your open jars/tins  – or you can leave it to default to 3 grams.

We added some more pipe materials (olive wood, metal, cob) for instance.  And we added the ability to export your pipes.

Lastly, in 2016, we crossed the 1000 user mark and gave away a great pipe from americanpipemakers.com which was a ton of fun.

What does 2017 Hold for ThePipeTool.com

When we look at the future next year for thepipetool, we’re doing a full re-write of the site because the base framework is currently pieced together in a way that it’s not conducive to good maintenance and updates.  So the re-write will be an update that will change the look and feel a bit, keeping up with the latest standards of user interface, and the backend will get a massive update on speed and performance.

While I don’t know if it will happen in 2017, we do plan on doing an iOS and Android version of the site with actual apps that will tie to the website and database to have even better interfaces.

This work, of course, is made possible by my pocket book and your continued support of the site which helps offset the cost of development and hosting.   I appreciate everyone that continues to believe in the project and helps out by donating just a little bit.

Happy a Merry Christmas or other holiday you may celebrate this time of year, and a Happy New Year!