Development Log

A timeline of our journey, building Simple Money Tracker one feature at a time.

Milestone 38: Security Hardening (v2.35.1)

Performed Comprehensive Security Audit: Conducted a full review of the application's security posture.
Patched Critical Vulnerabilities: Fixed critical and high-severity issues including Broken Access Control (IDOR), business logic flaws in payment processing, open API endpoints, and potential XSS vectors.
Enhanced Input Validation: Implemented strict, schema-based validation on all critical API routes to prevent malformed data.
Strengthened Storage Security: Updated Firebase Storage rules to a whitelist approach, only allowing safe file types.
Improved Authentication Flow: Secured server-side actions by rigorously verifying user identity tokens, preventing unauthorized data access and user spoofing.

Milestone 37: Gamified User Statistics (v2.35.0)

My Stats Page: Implemented a new 'My Stats' page to provide users with a gamified overview of their application usage.
Achievement System: Introduced a badge and leveling system based on user actions like logging expenses, completing goals, and paying off debts.
Login Streak: Added a visual calendar and streak counter to encourage daily engagement.

Milestone 36: UI Enhancements & New Weather Feature (v2.34.0)

UI/UX Optimizations: Refined the public-facing landing page UI for a better user experience.
Background Customization: Added a curated set of default background images for each color theme and improved the UI/UX of the background selection page.
New "My Weather" Feature: Implemented a weather module allowing users to search for weather information by city, automatically detect location, and compare weather across up to four cities simultaneously.

Milestone 35: System Architecture Refactoring (v2.33.0)

Comprehensive Refactoring: Overhauled the i18n system and data access layer, breaking them down into smaller, feature-specific modules. This significantly improves stability, accelerates development speed, reduces minor bugs, and boosts page load performance.

Milestone 34: Multi-Language Support (v2.32.0)

Multi-Language System: Implemented a comprehensive multi-language system supporting 14 languages: English, Vietnamese, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Thai.

Milestone 33: Contact, Debt, and Lending Feature Enhancements (v2.31.0)

Integrated Contacts with Debts and Lending: Users can now select an existing contact when adding a debt or loan, and directly add a debt/loan from the contact list.
Enhanced UI/UX: Added avatars to Contacts, Debts, and Lending pages for a more visual and intuitive user experience.

Milestone 32: AI Assistant Integration (v2.30.0)

AI Assistant: Integrated a Dialogflow CX conversational agent to answer user questions based on project FAQ documentation.

Milestone 31: AI-Powered Search & Performance Tuning (v2.29.0)

AI Search Integration: Implemented an AI-powered search and Q&A system using Google's Gen App Builder to provide users with instant, intelligent answers to their questions.
Performance Tuning: Updated the `apphosting.yaml` configuration to set a minimum of 1 running instance, reducing cold starts, and explicitly defined CPU and Memory for better AI performance.
Robots.txt: Added a `robots.txt` file to improve SEO and guide web crawlers.
UI/UX & Bug Fixes: Addressed various minor UI inconsistencies and bugs to enhance the overall user experience.

Milestone 30: Performance Optimization & Bug Fixes (v2.28.0)

Cloud Function Optimization: Reduced the execution frequency of all 4 scheduled Cloud Functions (Notifications, Birthday Emails, Subscription Checks, Monthly Reports) from 24 times/day to 4 times/day, significantly saving backend resources.
Timezone Logic Refinement: Overhauled the logic in all scheduled functions to correctly calculate and compare dates based on each user's individual timezone, ensuring all time-sensitive operations are accurate.
Bug Fix: Fixed a critical issue where the Monthly Report email was being sent with data for the wrong month.
Dashboard Chart Fix: Ensured that charts on the main Dashboard and the Group Dashboard display a 'No data' message gracefully instead of breaking when there are no expenses to show.

Milestone 29: Birthday Gift Feature & UI Tweaks (v2.27.0)

Birthday Gift Program: Implemented a new feature to automatically send users a 7-day Pro trial as a birthday gift. This includes a daily scheduled Cloud Function, a secure token-based activation system, and email notifications.
Birthday Profile Field: Added the ability for users to set their birthday in their profile to receive the gift.
UI Optimizations: Made minor user interface improvements, including optimizations to the 'Customize Background' feature.

Milestone 28: UI/UX and AI Enhancements (v2.25.0)

UI Optimizations: Optimized the UI for the 'Expense Calendar' and 'Budget' pages for a more intuitive user experience.
Enhanced Group Feature: Added a new 'Expenses Detail' tab within the Group feature, allowing for a granular view of all transactions shared within the group.
AI Coach Optimization: Optimized the data flow and pre-processing logic for the AI Financial Coach, adding new data visualization charts to provide users with a clearer financial overview before generating the AI analysis.
Bug Fix: Fixed a critical bug where the AI Natural Expense Input was only recognizing the current date, ignoring relative date descriptions like 'yesterday'.

Milestone 27: AI-Powered Expense Input & Optimizations (v2.24.0)

AI-Powered Expense Entry: Implemented 'AI Natural Expense Input' on the header bar, allowing Pro users to add expenses using natural language (e.g., 'coffee 5.50 yesterday').
AI Model Optimization: Optimized the AI Financial Coach prompt and natural language expense flow for more accurate and reliable structured data extraction.
UI/UX Enhancements: Added hover effects to feature lists and made other minor UI improvements across the application.
Background Customization Completion: Finalized the customizable background feature, ensuring stability and performance across the app.

Milestone 26: Mood Insights & Background Customization (v2.23.0)

My Mood Enhancements: Added the ability for users to write a monthly 'Emotion Note' to reflect on their mood and spending. Implemented a 'Mood Trend' chart that visualizes the average mood score over the year. Added subtle animations to the 'My Mood' page.
Customizable Background: Introduced a new 'Customize Background' feature in Settings, allowing users to personalize their app's look and feel.
UI/UX Optimizations: Optimized the 'Expenses Calendar' view by removing unnecessary gaps between days, creating a seamless and more space-efficient grid layout.

Milestone 25: Public Page UI & Critical Bug Fixes (v2.21.0)

UI/UX Refinements: Refined the public-facing landing page, including the hero and features sections.
Critical Bug Fixes: Fixed a critical bug where the Firebase Messaging Service Worker was not being correctly registered, disabling push notification functionality.
Trial Pro 30 days: Offer free trial of Pro features for 30 days for new customers, no credit card required.

Milestone 24: UI/UX Improvements & AI Features (v2.19.0)

Simple Storage Sync Fix: Resolved a critical bug preventing the storage synchronization button from appearing correctly.
UI/UX Enhancements: Improved the pricing and billing pages with feature-specific emojis and dynamic star animations.
AI-Powered Note Formatting: Integrated a new 'AI Format' feature into the Simple Note function for automatic Markdown conversion.

Milestone 23: Performance Optimization & Feature Completion (v2.18.0)

Analytics Integration: Activated web analytics to gather user traffic insights.
Expense Data Flow Overhaul: Implemented a new data strategy for the Expenses feature, including optimistic UI updates and a JSON data source to reduce Firestore reads.
My Mood Feature Completion: Finalized the 'My Mood' feature, allowing users to log and visualize their emotional spending habits.

Milestone 22: My Mood Feature (v2.17.0)

Mood Tracking: Implemented a 'My Mood' page allowing users to analyze spending patterns based on recorded moods.
Data Visualization: Added charts to visualize mood spending distribution and trends over time.

Milestone 21: Dashboard & Usability Enhancements (v2.16.0)

Dashboard Charts: Added 'Debts Breakdown' and 'Lendings Breakdown' pie charts.
Optimized Expense Tracking: Implemented a 'Quick Add' feature in the Calendar View.
Enhanced Budgeting: Introduced a 'Month View' for budgets for year-at-a-glance planning.

Milestone 20: Recaptcha and UI refinements (v2.15.1)

reCAPTCHA Badge: Added Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise badge for enhanced security.
Minor UI/UX Improvements: Improved user interaction on mobile devices for certain UI elements.

Milestone 19: UI/UX Improvements (v2.15.0)

Minor UI/UX Enhancements: Implemented small visual adjustments and usability improvements across various components.
Performance Tweaks: Optimized the rendering of some data-heavy components.
Bug Fixes: Addressed minor styling inconsistencies on mobile devices.

Milestone 18: Enhanced Subscription Management (v2.14.0)

Provider Logos: Integrated provider logos into the Subscriptions feature.
UI/UX Improvements: Enhanced the 'Add/Edit Subscription' dialog with an advanced combobox.

Milestone 17: UI/UX & Bug Fixes (v2.13.0)

UI/UX Enhancements: Redesigned the Help page for better readability. Implemented a storage usage synchronization feature.
Bug Fixes: Fixed bugs related to AI Coach access and app crashes on the Help page. Redesigned the Budget page.

Milestone 16: Simple Storage Feature (v2.12.0)

New Pro Feature: Implemented 'Simple Storage' for Pro users to upload, download, and delete files.
Advanced Gallery View: Integrated `yet-another-react-lightbox` for a rich gallery experience.
Performance Optimization: Optimized storage usage tracking by moving calculations server-side.

Milestone 15: Real-time Push Notifications (v2.11.0)

Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM): Implemented FCM to deliver real-time push notifications.
Proactive Alerts: Users now receive instant alerts for upcoming or overdue items.
Backend & Client-Side Integration: Updated Cloud Functions and client-side logic to handle push notifications.

Milestone 14: Enhanced User Experience & Pro Features (v2.10.0)

Full Emoji Icon Set: Expanded the category icon selection to include a comprehensive library of emojis.
Optimized Email Notifications: Improved logic and templates for Pro subscription expiry/expired emails.
Monthly Financial Reports: Implemented automated monthly summary emails for Pro users.

Milestone 13: Automated Subscription Email System (v2.9.0)

Automated Email Notifications: Implemented an automated system to notify users about their subscription status (7-day reminder and post-expiry).
Timezone-Aware Scheduling: The scheduled function now runs hourly to accurately check for expiring subscriptions.

Milestone 12: UI Refinements & Critical Bug Fixes (v2.8.0)

Group Dashboard Fix: Resolved a critical layout issue in the Group Dashboard dialog on mobile.
Event Log Pagination: Implemented pagination for the Group Event Log dialog.
README Update: Comprehensively updated the project's README file.

Milestone 11: Bug Fixes, UI Improvements & New Features (v2.7.0)

Critical Bug Fix: Fixed a data leak bug in the 'Groups' feature where member data was not properly deleted.
Icon-Only Sidebar: Added a new, permanent icon-only sidebar for desktop view.
Enhanced Mobile Note Creation: Overhauled the note creation/editing dialog for mobile.
Notification Bell Effect: Added a 'ringing' animation to the notification bell icon.

Milestone 10: UI/UX Enhancements & Mobile Optimization (v2.6.0)

Optimized Mobile Views: Refined mobile layouts for 'Simple Message', 'Currency Converter', 'Simple Notes', and 'Linked Storage' pages.
Enhanced Status Bar: Implemented quick-setting dropdown menus in the status bar.
Mobile-First Note Creation: Introduced a full-screen dialog for adding and editing notes on mobile.
Improved User Greeting: Optimized the main application header to display a time-sensitive greeting.

Milestone 9: Major UI/UX Overhaul (v2.5.0)

Visual Redesign: Introduced new 'holographic' card styles and animated icon toolbars.
Enhanced Mobile Responsiveness: Comprehensively redesigned the mobile view for key pages with a card-based layout.
Group Page Redesign: Completely revamped the Group page layout for mobile and desktop.

Milestone 8: UI/UX Refinements & Bug Squashing (v2.4.0)

UI Polish: Refined the user interface across various components for better visual consistency.
Billing Page Enhancements: Improved the layout and clarity of the billing page.
Bug Fixes: Addressed several minor bugs to enhance application stability.

Milestone 7: Subscription Email Notifications (v2.3.0)

Email Service: Implemented a system-wide email notification service using Nodemailer and Cloud Functions.
Subscription Expiry Logic: Created a scheduled function to check for and notify about expiring Pro subscriptions.

Milestone 6: Backend Refactoring & Notification System Upgrade (v2.2.0)

Cloud Functions v2 Migration: Upgraded the scheduled notification system from Cloud Functions v1 to v2.
Robust Notification Logic: Refined notification logic to correctly trigger based on user's timezone.
Code Quality & Linting: Performed a thorough cleanup of the Cloud Functions codebase.

Milestone 5: Monetization & Feature Tiering (v2.1.0)

Billing Page: Created a dedicated billing page to showcase Free and Pro plans.
One-Time Payments: Integrated PayPal Payment Links for one-time purchases of Pro access.

Milestone 4: Collaboration and Communication (v2.0.0)

Group Functionality: Implemented a 'Groups' feature for shared financial spaces.
In-App Messaging: Built the 'Simple Message' system for private communication.
Advanced Profile Security: Added login history tracking and a secure account deletion flow.

Milestone 3: User Engagement & Admin Panel

Feedback & Suggestions: Created pages for users to submit ratings, problem reports, and feature suggestions.
User Profile Management: Enhanced the profile page with name/password updates and custom avatar upload.
Admin Panel: Built out an admin section to manage user-submitted content.
Security Hardening: Implemented Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise (App Check).

Milestone 2: Advanced Features & Data Visualization

Dashboard Implementation: Built a comprehensive dashboard with summary cards and charts using Recharts.
Advanced Data Management: Added search, sort, and CSV export/import capabilities.
AI Financial Coach: Integrated Genkit to create an AI assistant for personalized financial advice.
Currency Converter & Notes: Added real-time currency conversion and a secure note-taking feature.

Milestone 1: Core Functionality & UI Setup

Initial Setup: Bootstrapped the Next.js project.
UI Foundation: Integrated ShadCN UI and Tailwind CSS.
Core Layout: Created the main application layout with a collapsible sidebar and responsive header.
Authentication: Implemented email/password and Google sign-in with Firebase Auth.
Data Models: Defined Firestore data structures for Users, Expenses, Budgets, and Debts.
Core Pages: Built foundational pages for Expense, Budget, and Debt management with full CRUD functionality.