Archive for January, 2007
January 31st, 2007
Just came across this great article about web development, user experience and RIAs by Bruce Eckel, author of Thinking in Java. It suggests that Java has run it’s course as a web platform and that html, css and javascript can’t be stretched much more and that one of the best options going forward is Flash/Flex. Click here to read the article.
You should especially check it out if you don’t know much about Flash and Flex as a development platform or if your only concept of Flash is of pop-up ads. The platform has matured rapidly and since the Adobe acquistion of Macromedia it has now become a major figure in the RIA world.
January 26th, 2007
A lot of work we deliver uses Flash Player so we’ve encountered almost every issue under the sun that clients can have when they ring up and tell us “it’s not working”. You get the mix of ActiveX issues in IE, dodgy installs of the flash player, browser or server caching of older versions of work, incompatible drivers and a sprinkling of abnormal client behaviour! The joys of figuring out why the application doesn’t work for one guy in outer Mongolia even though it works for the the other 9,999 employees is indeed profound 
We generally use SWFObject to embed Flash in a web page. If you are still using the default embed code or not using any detection you should switch to SWFObject, it’s a JavaScript method that allows for progressive enhancement.
There’s a handy little Firefox extension called FlashSwitcher which is useful when you do a lot of Flash work. It allows you to switch between different versions of the plugin by just clicking a button on the bottom right of the toolbar window.
January 25th, 2007
I finally got round to checking out the much hyped Ruby on Rails development framework. I know I’m a bit slow getting to it but it’s hard to find time to do everything! We don’t use it at work because it doesn’t fit in with our Microsoft platform oriented clients. In fact the whole open source area is not something any of our clients seem too keen on working with.
It’s an open source web framework that makes developing database driven web applications very easy. I downloaded it and started some basic work and within a few minutes had it connected to one of our SQL Servers here and then with one line of code and some incredibly clever naming conventions you can manipulate your database tables at the drop of a hat. I’ll have to spend some more time checking it out, in between the .NET, Java, JavaScript, ActionScript and everything else I’m currently doing.
From a quick glance it appears that Blacknight are the only company in Ireland that offers hosting for it. Whatever anyone else says about them it’s good to see an Irish hosting company keeping up to date with the latest developments.
January 18th, 2007
Just updated to WordPress 2.0.7, a couple of security fixes and the like. Apparently version 2.1 is due out soon. Looking forward to that. WordPress (which, for anyone wondering, is the software that powers this blog) is a great piece of kit. It’s powerful yet very easy to use. Setting it up was pretty straightforward, upgrades are a breeze and I’ve never had any problems with it. Plus it works pretty nicely with Google too for those all important search rankings.
The site seemed to go down for a while last night but that must have been linked to the hosting. The hosting has always been excellent though, that’s the first time I’ve ever noticed a problem. It’s hosted in the US though and recently I’ve been thinking it would be better hosted here in Ireland. Seeing as I don’t have a .ie domain it would help with Google’s Irish search rankings to have it physically hosted in Ireland.
Hosting365 are the main Irish Hosting company I’m aware of but recently there’s been a lot of discussion/argument by some of the top Irish bloggers about the quality of Irish hosting services and in particular their customer service so I reckon I’ll hold off on this for a while until I can establish what’s what.
January 15th, 2007
Started messing around with the Yahoo Maps Flash API. It’s a very cool piece of work. Plenty of potential there to showcase the power of Flash. I haven’t had a chance to do anything great but I’ve got it showing a bunch of sports venues around Ireland (mostly GAA grounds). Handy if you need directions to Croke Park or somewhere like that - You can zoom right in on the map to see the exact location of each ground. Click here to see the sample.
The locations are all read in from an georss file and plotted using their latitude and longitude. Trying to find the exact location of a venue in Ireland, outside Dublin, is quite tricky - but that’s to be expected I suppose
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