links: site | project page
WebUtils favorites used to feel like a small feature attached to a directory. The latest redesign gives them a clearer job: building a personal toolkit.
Every visitor now sees the heart control on a tool. Signed-in users can save it immediately. Signed-out users are taken to authentication with enough context to explain that signing in will add the tool to their toolkit. The useful part is visible before the account wall instead of appearing only after someone has already registered.
I kept email and password authentication because it already has real users, then added Google and GitHub alongside it. GitHub account linking only happens after the provider returns a verified email. That adds a little more work to the OAuth flow, but it avoids trusting an unverified address just to make linking feel automatic.
The rest of the site moved toward the same developer workspace idea:
- favorites now live under My Toolkit
- the sidebar starts compact and can be collapsed
- the directory shows six popular tools first
- the remaining tools use numbered pagination
- About and Contact moved out of the main navigation and into the footer
The redesign shipped through the protected pull request path with the shared verification gate and all 59 browser smoke tests passing. Production was checked against the exact merge commit, and the live toolkit and tools routes were verified after deployment.
The next question is whether a clearly named toolkit gives people enough reason to create an account. I would rather watch the real registration behavior than guess at another account feature immediately.