I've never been happy with anything I've ever found. But not having good UML, or at a minimum some clear class diagrams, makes it difficult to move forward with design on a team. Especially if you're a team deeply engrained in Agile concepts wrapped in Scrum. UML Tools? Visio? Visual Studio? Other? ...
I'm setting up a site for a client which has a few different sections of the site, dedicated to certain major functions, running off different apps. For example, a blog (running off WordPress), a forum (phpBB), a store, etc. Because of all the different applications, my initial thought was to separate out the major pieces into separate...
I currently have several websites which live on separate domains: www.app1.com www.app2.com www.app3.com Each has its own authentication mechanism - some query active directory via web service, others have their own user database. The goal is to have Single Sign On through some technology or product that doesn't require users to re-...
I'm having a debate with some engineers and trying to decide on the right choice here. I'd like to get your thoughts on this topic. Totally subjective. We've built an API for an iPhone app. It connects to our pre-existing business layer. The API is stateless but requires authentication for most calls/actions. But because there is authe...
I'm new to the MVC framework and have just run through the NerdDinner sample project. I'm loving this approach over form-based asp.net. I'd like to spin of a more sizable side project using this same approach. Do you see anything in that project that would prevent me from enlarging the basic structure to a more complex website? Exa...
The platform is ASP.Net 3.5sp1, with an Oracle db. We've considered both MyGeneration and Entity Framework for time and convenience in the DataLayer (and maybe some base classes in the Business Layer). My questions are: 1) Any pros and cons of using Entity Framework vs MyGeneration? 2) Any thoughts on using MyGeneration to generate...
I have created a few Event and Command classes for use in my Cairngorm projects. For example, I created an class that extends com.adobe.cairngorm.control.CairngormEvent that allows me to set callback functions upon completion or failure of the corresponding Command. To accomplish this, I also had to create a new Class that implements co...
I am looking to set up a central point of control for settings that exist across several web servers, server applications, and possibly even internal desktop tools. The current situation is that I have a settings file on each webserver or within each application, with Global Variables defined: Admin Email, Where to store uploaded files,...
In many applications the "create new record" and "edit existing record" forms are very similar or even identical. Is it a good idea to use the same code unit for these two (same winform or html page or whatever) or would it cause trouble in the long run? ...
Hi, I´m having some trouble deciding in which way to go... I've got this application which consists of one base project, and one project for the application, the application project contains code targeting a specific system, system application. The base project is an abstract class containing abstract methods which each system speci...
I have 2 objects to create that are identical except for that they refer to my dev and test WCF services. Basically, these are the object for the service itself, and the object for a DTO created by the WCF data-contract. In my test client, I create either the 2 objects related to the dev WCF service, or the 2 objects related to the tes...
I came across a situation where I would like to step back through the app's methods up the "tree" until I decided to catch it (if I do) - like an exception; it's raised through all the code until you catch it or hits the roof. The general concensus is that you only use exception for exceptions. That being the case, what would be the me...
Hello I'm currently building a web app for a UK company with many outlets in the UK. I want to implement a 'find my nearest' based on the following. Postcode Landmarks So the user could enter either to get a list of their nearest. I've done this before using postcode data in a database and then using Pythagoras to figure out the nea...
I had a conversation with one of our architects recently and he summarized his use of SOA as "The only time we'll use services is when we need async actions otherwise we'll use go direct to the data store" I thought about this statement and it seems fairly logical as services work well in a publish subscribe model, but I was wondering i...
I've been reading up on DNS, and I've been quite interested on custom application directory partitions. Active-Directory uses them, but, as a developer, how can I extract the most out of them? What possible applications and real-world scenarios could I address and solve using custom application directory partitions? What problems can be ...
I've inherited a really poorly designed PHP spaghetti code project. It's been gaining a good bit of traffic recently and is starting to have performance issues on top of the poor monolithic code base. Its maxing out performance on a chunky 16GB dedicated machine when it really shouldn't be. I'm planning on doing some performance twe...
I'm writing a second interface to a database application to get around some shortcomings of the original interface. Unfortunately, if I create new records, expected audit trail records will not be generated. It sure would have been nice if the database design had worked such details into table triggers, or else provided a stored proced...
Hi, From past few months I am working on projects in latest dot net frameworks. I feel that in latest dot net versions "services" are encouraged over components. Is that correct? I have seen in silver light (I am a beginner in silver light) all the DB layer operations are exposed as services. I don't know right now component program...
A variety of apps out there, like Firefox, Fring, Skype run on a variety of platforms. How do they manage their code? Do they have different UI for different platforms? As in, Firefox have to use Cocoa on Mac, WinForms or equivalent on Windows, QT equivalent on Linux. How is it possible for the same source code to show diff UI just by co...
What tools do you use to speed up documenting application design. Namely, creating wireframes, flowcharts. What other methods do you find essential . Is the general consensus that use cases are vital, or is a good functional spec document easier and quicker ...