Status: I am preparing the Beta release.
Soon I will send out beta links to all the event providers that responded and allowed me to include their events. They will have the first chance to try out the search and make sure their events are displaying in an acceptable way. After receiving and acting upon feedback, I will then officially release the search link to everyone.
The main release is not the end. The system is built in a modular way, so I plan to continue adding more features and more event sources over time.
Change Log
- 01-10-26 Fixing little issues here and there to make things look a little nicer, I'll probably send out the emails tomarrow.
- 01-01-26 I think it is ready to release a beta version out to the event organizations. Compiling contact info and preparing for release.
- 01-01-26 Lots of odds and ends off the TODO list. Minified some javascript and styles for UI performance.
- 12-26-25 Added distributed cache for default search results. Results are now cached and shared across all users, significantly improving performance.
- 12-24-25 Added show/hide all toggle button to search pages.
- 12-20-25 Fairly large refactor of the Database code layer to simplify and standardize data access patterns.
- 10-19-25 Finished upgrading container deploy. Various small logging and recording upgrades.
- 10-18-25 Consistently named database columns. Slightly improved deployment process for large containers.
- 10-11-25 Integrated Playwright using containers. Allows gathering more complex data. Now showing new events from MakerWorks and RiversideArtsCenter.
- 10-06-25 Upgraded Aws Lambda functions to deploy and run within docker containers.
- 10-05-25 Improved privacy and terms of service pages.
- 10-04-25 Fix broken data sources. Added AnnArborSymphonyOrchestra events.
- 9-28-25 Handful of fixes and improvements to the way the automated jobs run and the way they record their statuses to help with administration.
- 9-06-25 Added new Meetup.com Event Scraper and a small section to allow completely optional small donations.
- 8-16-25 Setup new email address for contact/business using new domain + website hosting cost saving AWS optimizations.
- 8-10-25 Visual/rebranding changes to use 'A2EventSearch' instead of 'A2ea' in the logos and around the website.
- 8-03-25 Added More Event Scrapers. Now showing Zingerman Bakehouse cooking classes, and Michigan Theater live events.
- 6-29-25 Took a break, back, round of minor bug fixes and got running scrapers back to 100%.
- 4-11-25 Finally got distributed Caching working in all the places that needs it.
- 3-16-25 Improving Distributed Caching strategy to improve performance and save money.
- 3-14-25 More admin functionality. Can Manually edit events.
- 3-01-25 More admin functionality. Can Manually add events.
- 2-22-25 More admin functionality. Can exclude events from being searchable if it is needed.
- 2-15-25 Working on admin tools. Building Event Manager page.
- 2-8-25 New Page Notification Admin tool. Allows easily adding notifications to the top of pages if I need to, for whatever reason.
- 1-26-25 Advanced Search Page mostly fully working. Allows event searching on many new fields and in new ways.
- 1-19-24 Added better Unauthorized page instead of always just redirecting back to login. New page better explains when areas are accessible or not.
- 1-19-24 Split 'advanced search' into it's own section away from main UI. think i'll just require 'basic' login to access advanced search.
- 1-14-24 Now Scraping all upcoming Penny Stamp Speaker events.
- 1-5-24 Created branded Cognito domains auth.a2ea.com, auth.a3ea.com for login redirect, instead of the messy AWS urls.
- 1-4-25 Restricted access to some of the admin and user specific sections, this allows in future to put personalized and better debug and administrative functions in website.
- 1-4-25 Can now create users, login, logout. Some day, users, 100% optionally, can set up custom event notifications via their accounts, and other cool things.
- 1-3-25 Cognito Set up to handle user management.
- 1-2-25 AWS SES set up to allow for transactional email notifications (email verification or password reset messages).
- 12-24-24 Now Scraping Events hosted by Spark.
- 12-20-24 The way system scrapes and retains data for past events is more consistant and configurable.
- 12-20-24 More responsive search page. Page more cleanly prevents searching on dates that are not allowed.
- 12-19-24 Now Scraping reccuring events from Circ Bar
- 12-19-24 Fixed bugs with reccuring event scraper type
- 12-1-24 Added Run Details into scraper admin page. Helps better see at a glance if something isnt scraping.
- 11-31-24 Events can now be multiple event types, and the scraper system that catigorizes them works slightly better
- 11-30-24 Now Scraping AAComedyShowcase Shows
- 11-23-24 Now scraping UOM College Sports ( basic data only, not totally happy with quality of the data source)
- 11-10-24 Upgraded adminstrative tools, now better visibility from admin page when system/scrapers are unhealthy.
- 11-02-24 Website now secure with HTTPS. Urls like http:// now route to the https:// version of the site
- 11-01-24 Adding intelligent caching to search page
- 10-26-24 Trying to search and browse events on a phone is now slightly less awful
- 10-26-24 Built Buildscripts to Bulk Deploy all the Utility Lambda functions at once
- 10-20-24 Built UOM Scraper, may add more sections to this gradually to gather data from more subsections
- 10-20-24 Added Time to the dates which can search between
- 10-19-24 Built 'The Ark'' and 'The Blind Pig'' scrapers
- 10-19-24 Ajax-ified the search page, no more full page refreshes, back button works in browser and able to do a couple cooler ui things now.
- 10-14-24 Search page UI Improvements and new advanced search section that dosnt work yet
- 10-14-24 Setup new A2EA Email address so people wont bother me at my personal email
- 10-13-24 Added support for events that do not have an end time.
- 10-13-24 Now getting data for UMS Events
- 9-27-24 Added support for importing and searching multi-Day events
- 9-27-24 Built tool to allow manually entering events outside of the scraper system
- 9-27-24 Now getting data for AA Disctrict Library Events
- 9-20-24 Website UI Updates
- 9-15-24 Split everything into 2 enviroments, Test and Prod for the website/database/scrapers/Aws Setup/configurations/etc.. more time consuming than it sounds.
- 9-15-24 Created a Production Database
- 9-15-24 Now getting data for A2gov events
- 9-15-24 Scrapers database created
- 9-08-24 Built Winform Tool to help with the process of running/building/troubleshooting scrapers
- 9-08-24 Refactored base classes to allow for storing more data types about events
- 9-08-24 Consolidation and DocumentDBData TestData lambdas are built and scheduled to run daily.
- 9-08-24 Added a favicon
- 9-01-24 Scheduled DocumentDBData_Lambda to run a test record into the scraper database once per day.
- 9-01-24 Made public subnet, internet gateway, nat gateway, private subnet and now lambda functions can be configured if needed, to 'see' the internet
- 9-01-24 Created lambda to test internet access.
- 8-24-24 Created logo and styles/fonts
- 8-24-24 Built basic datascraper, got it to run locally
- 8-23-24 Website can now get data out of the db, (with SSL certificates)
- 8-17-24 Website hosted and working on the domain name
- 8-16-24 Set up load balancers, and private subnets
- 8-16-24 Built Test lambda to add some data into the db when ran
- 8-16-24 Successfully pushed a Lambda task from local into AWS via scripts (no more manually copying files)
- 8-16-24 Built basic lambda function "MyFirstLambdaFunction" which runs when test fired from AWS
- 8-10-24 Started project
For full historical notes, check the project changelog or contact the site owner.