Go Code It

Hi everyone..

I know that a lot of people are currently mourning the loss of Trinket. It is unfortunate that another platform has had to leave us. I guess that’s old news now though. In this quick post I’m going to give a solution and if anyone can help…a request.

I’ll start with the request.

Trinket Downloads…there’s a small problem.

I’ve tried to contact Trinket without luck and although this might be a bit of a stretch I’m reaching out to see if anyone has any contact with them. It’s extremely helpful of them to provide easy downloads of your Trinkets so you can back them up and use them elsewhere.

However, the Trinkets that are downloaded do not include the task instructions, meaning any platform you import them into will then need you to add the instructions. You can of course still access your Trinkets for a short time online and grab the instructions from there. The current situation means that if you want to keep your instructions you are going to have to do that manually.

My question for Trinket would be…

Are they able to allow the instructions to be downloaded in the zip along with the trinkets themselves? That would be a lifesaver for many.

If they don’t add these to the downloads then if you want to keep the instructions it will be necessary for you to back these up yourself, or face recreating them later.

There is little incentive for them at this point to offer anything more than they have already but I can always live in hope.

I’m also looking out for further Trinket download zips to test my importer with so if anyone has any I’d love to have a copy of them if you are willing to send them to me!

Possible solutions to the Trinket problem

1) Go Code It Trinket Importer

I’m just about to launch my Trinket Importer. If you have Trinket projects that you have downloaded from Trinket, you will be able to import them directly into Go Code IT in the same way you were able to import your old Replit exports.

I’m just doing the usual security checks and adding some polish but it’s pretty much ready to go.

The imports will build Go Code It projects for you from the Trinkets, ready to use. Basic imports will be as quick as uploading your zip file and checking the import was done correctly.

It’s important to note though that there is currently no solution to the missing instructions! These are missing from every export from Trinket and currently the only way to recreate these will be to add them manually.

My importer will make this a little easier for you by directing you to copy over the instructions from your original Trinket. Depending on the number of Trinkets you want to import this may take a little time, but I encourage you, if you want to keep this part of your course, to complete an import before Trinket disappears for good, or create a back up of the instructions text.

Again, this will be a problem no matter which platform you choose to move your Trinkets to.

2) Trinket Open Source

As you may know, Trinket made their source code open source. Very generous and helpful. As such other sites have sprung up running the source code and replicating the platform. There are several popping up here and there – search for community based Trinket projects and you’ll find quite a few. It’s pretty easy to set these up without much investment so we are likely to see quite a few more.

Being the way I am I do have some reservations about these platforms and I would probably say use them with discretion. As it’s a relatively easy task to set up a Trinket clone, the origin of these sites will become more difficult to determine. The one that I have found so far with the clearest ‘origin’ is provided by Strive Maths. Strive Maths is a Singapore based company which presents it’s own issues for UK based schools. I don’t know much about them but I’m also now always concerned when I hear the phrase free forever…consider me let down too many times. However, having read up about the company I can see they are clearly in a very good position to host the site for free right now.

Ultimately, these open source solutions, if I can set aside all concerns for a moment, do seem to represent a possible solution to those left without a Trinket platform and want the same.

You can use the export you got from Trinket and import it directly into the new open source Trinket projects and be back up and running again.

However, the imports still do not have instructions and you will need to recreate them. There’s really no way around that right now.

Go Code IT or Trinket Open Source

I guess obviously I am biased here and I’d always say you should use Go Code IT. When I set out to create Go Code IT I didn’t set out to create a Trinket or Replit (or Coding Rooms if you remember it) clone. I set out to create something different and new, focussed on exactly what teachers need and constantly evolving.

I also set out to make sure that in terms of all the extra things that teachers and schools need, you are covered. There are so many more factors involved when creating a site for UK schools that don’t need to be a consideration for anyone using the cloned source code and delivering for free.

I like to think that even if a fully secure, fully covered platform for an open source project became available from a company that can truly deliver free forever, that Go Code IT would still deliver so much more.

However, if you are looking for a quick fix to your Trinket problems, looks like you are going to be spoiled for choice soon!