Pika's Path Logo

About Pika's Path

Pika's Path was created to be a simple and non-terrible way to share your travels with family, friends, and the nemeses who hunt you. I'd made a single-serving version of this site so that family could track my honeymoon drive to Wyoming, and they seemed to enjoy it. And it cut down on a lot of calls and texts we wouldn't have gotten anyway. So, I figured maybe other people's people would enjoy something like this too.

The site is currently under active development; if you're seeing this, you're probably testing it out! Nothing big will be changing at this point, but you may see boxes move around, new features pop in, etc. All changes are documented below.

If you have any feedback – a bug report, a feature request, ill portents of a dark future - please let me know.

Wishlist Features

(this is the Idea Pad, not the Guarantee Pad)

  • The Pals popover is something I keep going back and forth on. It's feasible to either:
    • Have a Pals' activity feed on the Dashboard *and* a popover for managing friends. But I like the Dashboard's focus on *your* info.
    • Have a Pals separate page which contains a feed and friend-management thing.
    • Leave things as-is.
  • Perhaps the ability for users to subscribe to a user's public map for email updates. I dunno, generally I'm anti-email, but that could be one in the spirit of "building for people's people". The whole point of the service is to let me travel and let family keep up, so maybe that feature is congruent with that goal. And call it... "Pika Postcards"??
  • Public/logged-in-user comments on public map points is *notionally* possible. But might be a complete nightmare.
  • A little image preview on the "Add a Location" thing is a, like, "eh, maybe".
  • In principle I know what a Progressive Web App *is*, but... I'll call that a learning experience when I get there.
  • I gotta do more pika art.

Changelog

Version 0.85 - Multiple Embeds, GPX Import Updates, and CSP Stuff - July 14 2025

  • Finally got around to doing Content Security Policy updates.
  • Since I'd built GPX Imports before Multiple Trips, I've updated the former so that it will only replace a user's active trip.
  • Likewise, the Embed Map feature was built before Multiple Trips; the former has been updated so that the Embed button can be found on the Trip Manager control, in the dashboard. Much prettier there anyway.
  • The Paddle checkout process should be much nicer now - it's been updated so that after completing checkout in the pop-up on the Pricing page, you get bumped to a Thank You page which checks to make sure your new features are unlocked before sending you to the (now-updated) Dashboard.

Version 0.84 - Feedback Form - July 13 2025

  • Since I'd done the work to set up Amazon SES/email-send for password resets, I figured a little built-in feedback form would be good to add.

Version 0.83 - Having Fun Making A Website - July 11 2025

  • New addition to the Passport page: Achievements! A ginormous pain in the butt. I don't know why I did this to myself.
    • (It's because I'm a child and I like achievements in software.)
  • A little pika on the dashboard location panel!
    • It does a little hop when you add a point.
    • The source image varies based on user inactivity.
  • A bunch of other little easter eggs!
  • Randomized test for the comment placeholder.
  • Replaced the system confirmation text on the various "delete my data" buttons with an "in-app" modal. Bit more friendly.
  • On a housekeeping note, I'd updated the Delete All Images and Delete Entire Account now that so much has been added since I built them.

Version 0.82 - Anti Meanie Patrol - July 10 2025

  • Still doing my best on meanie defense.
  • Rate limiting is in on both login attempts and map viewing.
  • Now I can log meanies and block more "robustly".

Version 0.81 - CSRF Stuff - July 9 2025

  • Cross-Site Request Forgery protection is in! This may be overkill, but -- a good learning experience.
  • ...but adding all the bits touched so much of the site that it was a bad *testing* experience.
  • Sigh.
  • Fixed a little issue where, if a paid user deleted a trip, their "active trip" didn't get updated (or set to null if that was their last one).

Version 0.8 - Multi-Trips! - July 8 2025

  • Users with Pioneer status now have access to create/use multiple trips!
  • You're able to create new paths, switch the active ones, rename, and then delete the last points and entire trips individually.
  • Each path gets a special public URL (pikaspath.com/username/pathname. /username defaults to the active path).
  • So many little database updates and bugs. I really hated doing this. I'm giving myself a full "point update" for this :D
  • Also did some optimizations around the way I call the Nominatim API. Optimizations like... it's no longer the same code in two places, sigh.
  • While I was being super-mad at the public map code, I added a few other options besides OpenStreetMap (satellite, topo, and dark mode).

Version 0.76 - Menu, Home, and Layout Improvements - July 2 2025

  • Fixed the dumb thing I'd done where the menus were included on each page as separate code. Now they're all pointing to the same template.
  • Now the Pals feature works on Prefs and Passport, too.
  • ...and I've hopefully fixed a lot more scroll bleeds relating to Pals.
  • The About page you're reading now was also re-done so that logged-in users get the new menu bar, too, so it's a little bit more nicely-integrated into the other logged-in pages.
  • Moved the Export Data stuff from the Dashboard to the Preferences, joining the Import GPX section (the latter visible for paid users).
  • Did a lil' update pass through the homepage so the site talks about itself a bit better :)

Version 0.75 - Buggies - July 1 2025

  • Found and squished an XSS issue with the Pals modal.
  • Rewrote the "current streak" stat using SQL, as a test/learning experience. I don't think it really matters now, but if someone had hundreds or thousands of points logged I think it'll be a lot zippier.
  • Addressed a scroll leak on mobile in the Pals modal for users who aren't following anyone.
  • Also some other improvements to help the stats be more memory-efficient. If the site ever has enough users where this matters that'll be nice, but until then, another good learning opportunity!

Version 0.74 - Passport - June 30 2025

  • The Passport feature is in! It just stamps a location you've visited. Pointless, maybe fun?
  • It's supported by a new table which has only id, user id, region code, and creation date. Data is recorded to this table in parallel to you adding a location point to the *actual* location table, but not deleted when you delete some/all points, so there's no retention of specific data just to make this work. It's just a lil' dumb guy off to the side, like my cat Momo.
  • Added the "current streak" and "longest single day" statsm for funsies.
  • Otherwise, just testing the heckers out of the Paddle stuff and trying to fix little bugs.

Version 0.73 - Password Reset Emails! - June 29 2025

  • Wahoo! Password reset emails are in and seem to be... working!
  • They are using Amazon SES, so every reset password can be one twelve-thousandth of a cent more in Jeffy B's retirement account.

Version 0.72 - Boring Payment Stuff - June 27 2025

  • Doing work to integrate Paddle stuff so that upgrading user status to paid is possible.
  • ...and the necessary testing to make sure the site actually behaves correctly with what Paddle does!
  • A lot to learn with this one, but nothing fun.
  • Pricing page is in and functional with Paddle Sandbox.
  • TOS and Privacy Policy is live.
  • I *said* this was boring stuff.

Version 0.71 - GPX Import - June 23 2025

  • GPX import for "fancy" users.
  • That's it! Trying to find and squish mobile bugs, basically.
    • Funkiness around the journal view has been addressed – some scroll-bleed conditions.
    • Funkiness around the focus toggle has also been addressed.

Version 0.7 - Sharing, Privacy, Reverse Geocoding, and Indices - June 22 2025

  • For "fancy" users, added a new Advanced Sharing and Privacy section in the dashboard:
    • Embeddable iframe code, so that the current map can be shoved into a blog/etc. 2007-style.
    • A password-protection option for the public map. I was kind of torn making this a "fancy" feature, but was thinking that anyone with truly unique security needs probably shouldn't be using a location-sharing tool to begin with. So, figured it would pair well with fancy users' ability to upload images.
  • Re-did the index page to be smarter; if a user is logged in, it'll send them right to their dashboard.
  • Added "About" to the user dashboard menu, since due to the above logged-in users would not be able to see the About/Changelog otherwise (hi).
  • Friends list! I mean, "Pika Pals" list! A quick addition to allow users to basically bookmark others' pages.
  • Better favicon.
  • Reverse geocoding is in earlier than I expected (a service called Nominatim actually makes it so very easy)! I think it's now integrated nicely into the map and journal view. Nominatim is so neat.

Version 0.63 - Public Map Improvements and Barely-Useful Data Fun - June 21 2025

  • Dashboard now has little statistics!
  • Public trail color is now customizable in User Prefs! Might be nice for accessibility.
  • Replaced the "View Full Comments" accordion on the public map with the new Journal View popover. Even with the first-draft single-user site I'd made, the View Full Comments thing got overwhelmed pretty quickly with longer trips.

Version 0.6 - I Hate Images - June 20 2025

  • I think I finally cured weird image rotation bugs on mobile?
  • GPX and CSV location exports, all-image exports
  • Location auto-detection in and apparently working!
  • Added a password change screen and flow.
  • Improved the mobile view a bit for the dashboard and prefs.
    • Lil' hamburger menu rather than an awkward lefterly scroll.
    • Responsive logo size so as not to squish the buttons.
    • Collapsible "My Path Preview", which should remember state.
    • Little spacing fixes in the mobile views.

Version 0.5 - Initial Guy - June 18 2025

  • User registration and login system is in.
  • Dashboard for adding/deleting location points and comments works.
  • Public, shareable map pages for each user.
  • Added a toggle to switch between focusing on the whole path and the latest point.
  • Timezone detection and selection on public maps.
  • Initial "fancy" features enabled, including image uploads and support on the maps.
  • Drew a cute pika.
  • User export and deletion functions in.
  • Display names and "header comments" are in.

Version 0 - A Basic Thing - May 2025

  • A single-user map so that family could track my honeymoon.
  • Basic map with a trail and comment popups.