Category: Cool Stuff

Sanative Launches Flex-based Conference Center Search for IACC

Over the past two months we have been busy collaborating with Cardinal Communications to develop a new conference center search utility for the International Association of Conference Centers. The previous tool utilized image maps in conjunction with JavaScript menus to guide the user to various pages to find the conferences centers they wished to research.

The objective of the new application was to provide an easy way locate a conference center in an intuitive interface that also allowed filtering based upon regions and keywords. Cardinal Communications provided the project management, design and backend database interaction (in addition to the new website and design!). Sanative worked with Cardinal to develop the Flex application, utilizing Google Maps API, which provided a fast an effective way to quickly locate and view details of conference centers without the need for page loads.

One of the significant challenges in developing the solution was loading and displaying over 280 properties in a single interface and still making these properties easy to find. The use of the filtering functions allows the user to filter data in real time according to their needs. Since the data is loaded into the application at initial load, there are no wait times to load the desired properties.

The application also provides the client with the capability to create new content tabs within the Flex application using their content management tools. Delivery of images or Flash content can be pushed to these tabs to highlight information on the website in a flexible and user-friendly manner.

The Flex application interfaces with ColdFusion and Microsoft SQL Server to provide a robust and scalable backend that will be utilized to enhance the application in months to come. The client has already realized the power of the solution and is excited to begin working on Phase 2. We will tell you about that in coming months!

0 comments - Posted by TJ Downes at 5:04 PM - Categories: Site Launches | Cool Stuff | Adobe Flex | Adobe ColdFusion

Getting Mylyn working with VisualSVN 1.5.2 and Trac 0.11

Recently we moved our Subversion system to VisualSVN Server. The primary purpose for doing this was to provide easier maintenance of our SVN repositories. So far we are really liking the system and the ability to easily manage our version control.

Using Trac was is also a requirement for us. It is a valuable tool for us in managing bugs, issues and tasks. The folks at VisualSVN have made this integration easy with a tutorial and easy install package you can find here. In all, it took about an hour to setup and configure VisualSVN Server with Trac. Moving our repository to VisualSVN Server proved a bit more work. Since we had a single repository for all of our projects we decided that in the process we would also split our repository into a seperate repository for each client. This would allow us to archive more easily, as well as provide a seperate Trac for each client we work with. I followed the instructions on the 2 Tablespoons blog which made the entire thing a simple process, albeit a bit time consuming. If you are doing this on Windows platform keep in mind that the "cat" command can be replaced with "type".

Lastly, and the reason for this post, is we wanted to get Mylyn up and running in our environment. Mylyn is a great plugin for Eclipse that allows you to manage tasks in Trac via your Eclipse IDE. I did a fair bit of research on the tool and found a lot of good feedback, and something we needed desperately in our shop. Unfortunately, it's not as easy to get up and running on VisualSVN Server for a couple of reasons:

Mylyn does not work with Trac 0.11 out of the box. You need to add the XMLRPC components. Stephen Moretti provides a great blog post on how to get around this on his blog.

Due to the way VisualSVN Server is setup, the above method did not work very well. I received errors from the easy_install process and could not continue. Not to be discouraged, I searched around for an easier method. After a bit of toying around, I realized Trac has a built-in plugin instaler in the admin. All it requires is a Python egg to be uploaded and it handles the rest!

You can find out more about the XMLRPC plugin on the Trac Plugin site. I simply downloaded the zipped source and unzipped it on the server. From there, I followed the instructions on the page for installation, which creates an egg:

# python setup.py bdist_egg
# cp dist/*.egg C:\directory\you\copied\XMLRCP\source\to

Once this is complete, you will find a file named TracXMLRPC-1.0.0-py2.5.egg in your {source directory}\trunk\dist folder (where you unzipped the source of the xmlrpc plugin).

Log into Trac, navigate to the admin page, choose the Plugins link and use the Install Plugin form to upload the egg you created. Once the file has uploaded and installed you will now see a plugin in your list named tracxmlrpc 1.0.0. Expand this plugin and check off the following:

• XMLRPCSystem
• All the component with ".ticket" in the module name
• XMLRPCWeb

Restart VisualSVN Server and you should be good to go!

In the past few days of using Mylyn we have found a much higher level of productivity and we are also finding it much easier to distinguish what change orders are. We have given a couple of our more technical clients direct access to Trac to enter issues into the system and they love it. If you're not using SVN/Trac/Mylyn I definitely recommend spending the time to get setup and learn it. The payoffs are well worth it.

0 comments - Posted by TJ Downes at 5:39 PM - Categories: Technical Articles | Cool Stuff

Sanative Sponsors Northern California Flex and AIR Pre-release with Adobe's Ryan Stewart

Flex 3 and AIR are getting close to launch and in preparation, Ryan Stewart from the Adobe Flex/AIR product team is traveling to select cities to show off the great new features and help prepare us for this exciting launch. Ryan Stewart will be in Sacramento to speak on January 23rd at 6:30 PM.

Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder.

Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, extending rich applications to the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write desktop applications using the same skills that you’ve been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.

Read more about the event, and RSVP, at the NorCal Flex User Group website. All are welcome, the event is casual and there will be food and drink provided by Adobe and Sanative!

0 comments - Posted by TJ Downes at 11:52 AM - Categories: Adobe AIR | Cool Stuff

Adobe Flex for Web Applications

In a few of our articles we have discussed Rich Internet Applications and Adobe Flex. In this post we will get more in-depth with Flex and give you a better idea of what Flex is, how it works, and why we feel it is an excellent solution to build your web applications.

Simply put, Flex allows developers to create applications that offer a rich user interface and a host of multimedia capabilities on the Adobe Flash platform. Most internet users are used to Flash as the pretty intro movies to websites, or flashy sites that offer smooth animations and sound. For example, if you have Flash installed and browse to Adobe's website homepage you will notice a very nicely done header with clean animations, video, audio or a combination of all three. This is an example of using the Flash platform to create rich multimedia experiences that run on any operating system and browser supported by Flash. Since Flash is installed on over 90% of desktop computers worldwide it has become a widely accepted format for delivering content.

Now, leveraging the Flash platform, developers can also build applications which allow us to create very user friendly interfaces that are fast and visually appealing. Additionally, displaying multimedia assets such as video and audio are quick and easy and the developer no longer has to worry about plugins and platform support.

A good example of this are the backend tools we built for the Roxie Cinema. The Roxie Cinema had a need to have a tool to manage the data which published movie information and showtimes to the site.


Additionally, they wanted to be able to publish multimedia assets such as audio, video and images without the worry of plugin support. As part of the requirement editors had to be able to preview these assets after uploading them. Utilizing Flex and Flash we would build an integrated solution without the need for expensive third-party tools and develop these tools quickly and at a relatively low cost to the client. The result has been a tool that allows management of all the website data via a single attractive user interface that is very responsive.

Additionally Flex easily integrates with many back-end technologies including ColdFusion, PHP, Java and .NET. Because of this it has become rapidly adopted by developers of many disciplines.

One of the most exciting capabilities of the Flex platform is the ability to push data to the user with LiveCycle Data Services. A good example of this might be an application which allows remote users to collaborate in real time on a document.

Let's say Kyle and Stan are working on a document that outlines a fundraiser event for Kenny's family, who's home was destroyed by Mecha-Streisand. Kyle has been grounded by his parents and is not allowed to leave the house, but he can access the internet. Using his super-secret password he gains access to Stan's website and loads the fundraiser document into his web browser. As he works on the document Stan will see Kyle's changes in real time. Stan notices that Kyle has a few typographical errors and decides to edit Kyle's work. While he is editing Kyle's document is updated in real time to reflect the changes. This can occur because the server realizes that the document has been changed and pushes those changes to all users who are working on that document.

There are many applications that this can prove invaluable for, such as providing real-time updates to news and information widgets without the need to refresh the page, or providing timed requests to the server. Real-time collaboration between you and your clients and vendors becomes an affordable and realistic application, even through your website.

Hopefully we have perked your interested in Flex. If you would like more information about Flex please give us a shout. If you are interested in seeing some Flex applications in use take a look at the showcase examples on Flex.org or contact us for a demo of applications we have developed.

0 comments - Posted by TJ Downes at 9:39 AM - Categories: Technical Articles | Cool Stuff

Why Use ColdFusion?

This month we are going to focus on ColdFusion. There seems to be a lot of confusion about ColdFusion, what it does, and how it can actually save your organization time and, most importantly, money.

ColdFusion is a web application server. What does that mean? Simply put, ColdFusion allows you to dynamically publish information to and from a database or other source to make your site or applications interact in real-time with your organization's data. This can include something as simple as a contact form on your website or something as complex as a Customer Relationship Management system.

Many people argue against ColdFusion because it is not free. They argue that PHP, ASP, .NET and JAVA are all free and therefore are much lower cost than ColdFusion. True, the initial cost of ColdFusion, $1299 for Standard and $5999 for Enterprise, is not something to cough at. So why should you choose ColdFusion over any of the other previously mentioned languages?

For starters, ColdFusion has a very easy syntax, allowing entry-level developers to start making basic applications very quickly. It also allows more advanced developers to code their applications in record time because ColdFusion includes many of the tools developers often have to hand-code or integrate manually. ColdFusion code runs on many platforms, and very few changes ever need to be made in the source code to move an application from Windows to Linux to Solaris. 

ColdFusion is also based on the Java platform, giving it the power of Java as well as access to the underlying Java platform and custom objects written by your own staff or third parties. For instance, you may have existing Java objects which run your business rules. ColdFusion developers can leverage these existing objects in their ColdFusion apps with very little effort, rather than rewriting them entirely for their own applications.

ColdFusion has a slew of built in tools which enhance it's capabilities including XML processing, easy file uploading, Flash integration, ability to quickly and easily consume web services, PDF integration and publishing, charting tools, SMS and other gateway integration. There is a huge list of these features available on Adobe's website.

ColdFusion also integrates with many Rich Internet Application technologies very easily. Flex (a Flash-based application development platform) and ColdFusion work together seamlessly to provide some of the fastest development cycles for large scale applications we have seen, with some awesome user interfaces. AJAX and ColdFusion work well together, allowing websites to be updated in real-time without the need for slow page refreshes.

Recently, with the acquisition of ColdFusion by Adobe, many of Adobe's Enterprise level products, such as LiveCycle and Acrobat, now integrate seamlessly with ColdFusion and allow ColdFusion developers to leverage these tools to provide solutions which have been difficult to accomplish without extensive Java development. With the release of ColdFusion 8 in mid-2007, developers will see even more integration to Adobe's products, making development of document management systems, presentation and comunication tools faster than ever before possible.

If you would like to learn more about ColdFusion please contact Sanative for a free one hour demonstration of the product and how it can solve problems which exist in your organization.

0 comments - Posted by TJ Downes at 6:34 PM - Categories: Technical Articles | Cool Stuff

Roxie.com - Adobe Site of the Day

We are excited and pleased to announce that roxie.com, the Roxie Cinema at New College website, has been selected to be disaplayed as the Adobe Site of the Day! Sanative developed the Roxie Cinema site in conjuntion with New College staff using Adobe products.

The backend system was developed entirely in Flex and ColdFusion and generates events and calendars based upon movie data imported from TicketWeb. The front end utilized Adobe's Spry AJAX technology, Flash and Contribute for content management.

The website will be showcased on March 21. Feel free to leave us comments on how you like the site, what you think could be improved, or even what you hate!

0 comments - Posted by TJ Downes at 6:17 PM - Categories: Cool Stuff

Cool Stuff: The Samsung BlackJack

Each month we will focus on a new product or technology which we feel is the bees knees. These will be focused toward small and medium organizations and how they can utilize these products in their business to either improve workflow, mobility or significantly lower costs.

The Samsung BlackJack

We like the Samsung BlackJack! This little phone has a ton of power, functionality and fun all in tiny package!

The BlackJack runs on Windows Mobile 5.0. This allows business users to utilize many programs they are already familiar with and use everyday, including Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook. Full synchronization is supported, so your contacts, tasks, calendar, notes and email go wherever you go! Offices utilizing Microsoft's Exchange Server 2003 or 2007 can take advantage of Exchange Server's real-time push technology, eliminating all of the expensive middleware and maintenance associated with other push solutions.

The BlackJack also allows you to play your music and video on the go using Windows Media Player Mobile. With a built-in miniSD card slot you can carry multiple Gigabytes of your favorite files and multimedia with you. It also supports Stereo Bluetooth so you can enjoy hi-fidelity sound with your favorite Stereo Bluetooth headset.

The BlackJack is currently only available on the Cingular network, but we are betting that other networks will have this device available soon. Cingular does offer their EDGE network, 3G internet, on the device, allow high speed web browsing and synchronization in their EDGE service areas. Additionally the phone is quad-band, which means if you travel internationally you can use this phone anywhere.

This device offers many of the features and functionality of the Blackberry and Treo with much more functionality and without the expensive costs of the Enterprise software required for other push technologies. If you are thinking about getting a BlackJack and want to know how to integrate it with your business give us a shout!

0 comments - Posted by TJ Downes at 9:38 AM - Categories: Cool Stuff