For example, businesses typically have their data stored in an operational database like Microsoft SQL Server. To build a custom business intelligence solution, we build a data warehouse on top of your database. A data warehouse is used to pull information from the operational database so it can be used for reporting and analysis. Reports can then be created using an online analytical processing tool (OLAP) and your front-end tool of choice. The OLAP tool performs data calculations, and your front end tool enables you to view and analyze the data within the report.

If you have a database already in place, it may have been implemented with basic tools that are very limited. For instance, one of Microsoft’s free tools that comes with SQL Server Express edition is called SQL Server Reporting Services. You can create reports with this tool, but the reports are pre-determined and cannot be tailored to specific user needs. You can still filter, sort, and search the data, but if you need to build a customized interactive report, you’ll need a tool that offers that capability. This is where an operation will meet a severe limitation in what they can get out of their data. To overcome this limitation, Microsoft also offers very powerful, customizable tools that can be integrated with their database services.

So for businesses who can benefit from the ability to build their own customized reports, we implement a data warehouse with a front-end tool that allows them to get precisely what they want from their data. There are numerous front end tools to choose from. One that is very common is Excel. Excel is very well liked because not only is it powerful, but most users are already familiar with it. So it’s easy to learn and users quickly adapt. There are several other tools available that are built specifically for business intelligence, some of which are more powerful and user friendly than Excel. Ultimately the option you choose should be dictated by how well the tool fits your requirements.

In addition to this, if you have several departments that utilize data for their own specific purposes, we can integrate multiple data warehouses with your database. It’s not uncommon for companies to have a separate data warehouse for marketing, another for operations, and so on. Each data warehouse can then be integrated with other systems. This is a great advantage to companies with a complex operation that need a high level of customization from their reporting and analysis. It keeps an operation flexible and scaleable, and doesn’t confine you to any single platform.

Initially, there are a few basic requirements that every CMS should fulfill. Those are: an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, user friendly access to content, and the ability to make basic changes without technical knowledge. The theme with each of these requirements is user empowerment. This is an important concept for two basic, yet very critical reasons. First, by enabling users to perform tasks which they previously relied on IT to perform, you’re expediting and maximizing user effectiveness. Second, as a result of enabling users, you can potentially eliminate a large burden of menial tasks/user requests which were weighing down your IT team. If users can do simple content management themselves, IT can focus on heavier items. By consequence, you’re maximizing everyone’s effectiveness.

Before choosing a specific CMS for your business, it’s necessary to gather requirements and perform an analysis of your needs. From there, you can evaluate each system in light of your requirements. Keep in mind that your ability to support the system from a technical perspective also needs to be considered. If you have a technical support group and your requirements are fairly straight forward, then an open source solution may be a good fit. If you have complex requirements or need customer support, you’re more likely to benefit from a commercial solution.

There are several content management systems to choose from. Three that we often implement are SiteCore, Kentico, and Sitefinity. Between these three, there is a large overlap in features. For the sake of this article I’ll focus mostly on SiteCore which is the most complex of the group. On the surface, a robust content management system should provide social media integration, business application integration, and a multi-device access design. SiteCore offers these features as well as the ability to:

• Create and manage multilingual sites

                         -Set up unique workflows related to language and translation

                         -Integrate with translation systems

• Deploy and manage hundreds of sites from a single platform

                         -Share content across every site

• Personalize content based on specified segments of visitors
• Export Static Content
• Manage Marketing Campaigns
• Manage Advertisement

One attractive characteristic of SiteCore is its flexibility. The system permits you to customize your own extensions. In turn, companies have the ability to adapt SiteCore  more precisely to fit their needs. SiteCore is also very cost effective to customize because it allows developers to utilize existing tools like Visual Studio and Intellisense to develop content and extensions. This saves time and resources because it eliminates the need for developers to learn a new set of tools to develop within SiteCore.

Another great aspect of SiteCore is that it offers cloud integration. This was introduced fairly recently in 2010, but it has proved to be extremely practical. Using Azure, a cloud computing system run on Microsoft data centers, SiteCore allows you to upload web-applications globally without causing system slowing or downtime for the users. Essentially, this means companies can increase the functionality of their websites without investing in IT infrastructure. SiteCore websites aren’t bound by hardware and IT limitations, so companies have a much easier and more effective reach to global markets.

If your content management needs are fairly basic, there are also free CMS versions available that might be more cost effective. If this is the case, your only expense would be the implementation of the system. Integrant can offer a full consultation to help you determine which route is best for your company.

The following statistics were recently released by the IT association, CompTIA. Except where noted, this information comes from their 2nd annual “Trends in Cloud Computing” study, which surveyed 400 IT firms and an additional 500 business professionals who are responsible for IT decisions within their companies.

• 56% of current cloud users plan to increase cloud investment by more than 10% in the next year.

• 56% of small and medium businesses use cloud solutions for collaboration/project management. (Source: 3rd Annual Small and Medium Business Technology Adoption Trends)

• 4 in 10 respondents made money from cloud integration work within the last 12 months.

• 66% of end users would like a clearer definition of cloud computing (up 6% from last year).

• 1 in 5 firms has a partial roadmap or no roadmap for their cloud business plan.

The study found that users desired a better understanding of types of cloud technologies, such as software as a service, platform as a service, and infrastructure as a service. In addition, users wanted more info on deployment models such as public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid models. If your business is interested in learning more on these topics, start by taking a look at our blogs: Migrating to the Cloud, and Services in the Cloud. And as always, feel free to comment or email us to ask questions or share your experience!

Before we get into the potential benefits, let’s revisit the definition of cloud computing. In our last post on the topic, we defined cloud computing as, “…the practice of paying a cloud service provider for the use of their remote infrastructure. This means that a cloud provider supplies you with remote servers on which you can host your software and data. These servers can then be accessed by your users through the internet.” The basic idea is: scaleable database infrastructure, on-demand, over the web. With this setup, you can remotely host and run just about anything from applications like Exchange and SharePoint, to custom software, to product databases, and so on. In fact, you could feasibly eliminate your entire data center by pushing everything to the cloud. So there’s a great range of scalability and possibility.

The on-demand aspect of the cloud is one if its attractive benefits. Theoretically, you could call a cloud company, tell them how much server space you need, request that SQL Server and Windows be installed, and they could have it ready for you in a day or two. From there, you’ll have the option to scale up or down according to your needs. Another benefit is that you can relieve your company of building and managing a data center. As you may have already experienced, having your own data center is not an inexpensive or carefree endeavor. It takes IT staff, hardware, software, security strategies, and continual maintenance to keep a data center up to speed. Don’t get me wrong–depending on your operation, this can be a justifiable and beneficial route. However, as a general rule, if hosting your own data center distracts your business from being focused on your hedgehog, then a cloud service will most likely be more effective and yield a better ROI.

As always, I recommend the crawl-walk-run approach. Start small with one or two cloud applications. Use them for a while to determine if the cloud model is a good fit for you. During this time, evaluate the cloud vendor you chose. Is their security adequate as promised? Do they offer thorough reporting? As you get a feel for it, you can slowly move more and more to the cloud. But take your time and make sure you revaluate at each step. Depending on your operation, migrating everything to the cloud could, and should, take even as long as a year for businesses that are new to this model.

To start using this control you must download the required assembly “Microsoft.Practices.Web.UI.WebControls.dll” Add it as a reference to the project, and add this code to the web.config so it can be shared within the project:

</strong>

&nbsp;

<add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/><strong>

Add the following code in the page section using Microsoft.Practices.Web.UI.WebControls. When using this data source to bind or display your data to the UI, you need to control the binding process that occurs when the “OnSelecting” event fires. Also, since this event will be raised it needs to be controlled in the code.
 We need to control this event behavior to minimize the unnecessary database calls (since we are binding the grid from the database). Each time there is a post back as a result of page load sorting, paging, or any command fired in the page, this event will be raised and a database connection will be opened. In turn, data will be retrieved and displayed more than one time.

To control this event, I will use a Boolean flag saved in the ViewState. This flag will be used by getting its value or setting it inside our GridView “OnRowCommand” event and in ObjectContainerDataSource “OnSelecting” event. First, we need to add the GridView and the ObjectContainerDataSource to the page as follows:

</strong>

&nbsp;

<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" DataSourceID="ObjectContainerDataSource1"

AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataKeyNames="" AllowPaging="true" AllowSorting="true" OnRowCommand="GridView1_RowCommand">

</asp:GridView>

<Microsoft:ObjectContainerDataSource ID="ObjectContainerDataSource1" runat="server"

DataObjectTypeName="TestProject.BusinessEntities.Employees.Employee"

TotalRowCount="0" UsingServerPaging="true" UsingServerSorting="true" OnSelecting="ObjectContainerDataSource1_Selecting"/>

&nbsp;

<strong>

Now we need to provide the IsSortOrPageCommand property declaration. This property is used to store the value that indicates that the event is sorting or paging. We only need the “OnSelecting” event to be performed when we have sorting or paging. The other behaviors, such as the search or page load, will be handled individually so we can separate the page behaviors from each other:

</strong>

&nbsp;

private bool IsSortOrPageCommand

{

get

{

if (ViewState["isSortOrPageCommand"] != null)

return Convert.ToBoolean(ViewState["isSortOrPageCommand"], CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

else

return false;

}

set

{

ViewState["isSortOrPageCommand"] = value;

}

}

&nbsp;

<strong>

After adding the previous controls, we need to configure their events:

</strong>

&nbsp;

protected void GridView1_RowCommand(object sender, CommandEventArgs e)

{

if (string.Compare(e.CommandName, "Sort", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == 0 ||

string.Compare(e.CommandName, "Page", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == 0)

{

IsSortOrPageCommand = true;

}

}

&nbsp;

protected void ObjectContainerDataSource1_Selecting(object sender, Microsoft.Practices.Web.UI.WebControls.ObjectContainerDataSourceSelectingEventArgs e)

{

if (IsPostBack && IsSortOrPageCommand)

{

if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(e.Arguments.SortExpression))

{

// Get the sort field and direction from e.Arguments.SortExpression

}

else

{

// Get the sort field and direction from your default values

}

&nbsp;

// Do the search (bind process)

_presenter.OnSearch();

&nbsp;

// reset the flag

IsSortOrPageCommand = false;

}

}

&nbsp;

<strong>

Now we can utilize this improved control ObjectContainerDataSource and achieve the maximum benefits with the maximum performance from the aspx page.

Compatibility Testing:

Compatibility Testing is the general term for a nonfunctional test that is performed to ensure the compatibility of an application with the computing environment. This test will contain a number of objects like operating systems, browsers, databases, hardware platforms, and others. It can be performed manually or by means of automation tools.

Browsers and operating systems are perhaps the most important objects to be tested, so I’d like to focus a bit on these two.

Browser Testing:

This is a test of software applications that are related to internet or external websites. It is performed by running the application under certain versions and types of browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and so on. It is also known as “user experience testing” since it’s related to the user’s experience of the website while using different browsers.

Why is Browser Testing applied?

• To check that the users have the same user interface across different browsers.

• To validate that the applications behave and respond the same way across different browsers.

Operating System Testing:

This type of testing is performed on software desktop applications to evaluate how well they perform with certain operating systems like Max, Windows, and so on.

Why is Operating System Testing applied?

• To verify that the applications are running perfectly across different operating systems.

How helpful is Compatibility Testing?

• It allows you to find out how well applications perform within certain environments.

• It helps development teams understand the criteria that the application needs to achieve.

• Users will find out which application best fits their existing setup.

• It ensures performance in the computing environment for which it is intended.

• It reveals which changes are required to make the application compatible with certain environments.

The best approach to Compatibility Testing:

• Testing products should take place within the recommended, primary computing environment.

• It should define compatibility issues that are risky and unacceptable for the related product.

• Create a test plan that lists exactly which tests will be executed under which environments.

• Begin executing the test with your experienced testing team.

• Execution should include subscribing to known browser testing web sites that are available on the market, and then choosing different combinations of the operating systems and browsers that simulate all possible environments. Use virtual machines to simulate environments that are not found on the browser testing site.

1. Requirements, test case management tools, and defect tracking tools are very important to the success of any project. They are used to keep accurate and realistic tracking of work items. Yes, you can always use Excel sheets, but the effort of linking & maintaining all these sheets correctly is extremely time consuming and nearly impossible. Use Excel only when it’s a helpful tool, not a burden. Your judgment is the key!

2. Keep an open channel between quality and development teams by meeting to brainstorm ideas together. This is extremely beneficial. It’s not recommended to work in isolation, especially when the project has many “what if” scenarios. Early communication can prevent many issues and increase each team’s productivity.

3. Always update the project manager/technical team leader with a current status and any testing concerns. It’s always better to address concerns than to defer them. Even small concerns have potential to cause significant problems down the road if they aren’t resolved early.

4. When conflicts occur between quality and development on an issue:

• Discuss it with the project manager.
• Create a log in the defect tracking tool and be sure to accurately categorize your issue in terms of type, severity, and priority.
• During the defects review meeting, determine a solution to the problems with respect to their value to the client and the risk of leaving them unfixed in the system.

5. Change requests should always be communicated with the entire team (development and testing) at the same time. Never leave anyone behind. Share all knowledge, especially business information.

6. If an immediate change request interrupts the testing cycle, conduct an immediate rapid impact analysis to address the affected modules and establish an effort estimation. If any testing delivery dates change, be sure to communicate them clearly with the project team lead and the project manager.

7. Whenever any change occurs in the approved and communicated implementation for a specific module in a way that will affect the expected output of a test scenario, this change must be communicated to the testing team. Otherwise, the quality engineer will consider it a deviation from the expected behavior, which will be interpreted as a bug.

• The golden rule I’ve discovered over the years I’ve worked in this industry is to Keep it Simple and Stupid, or KISS. In other words, don’t think of any problem as a big deal. The difference between how I started as a fresh grad and now as a developer, is the way I approach problems. Now, I compartmentalize things. I examine problems in an abstract way to get a bigger picture and to break the problem down into pieces. This allows me to see things clearly and handle issues in manageable portions.

• Development is a way of thinking. I remember in college whenever the instructor presented a dilemma, each student had their own way of thinking and all of them were correct. A solution isn’t wrong if it works.

• Be patient with any dilemma or problem.

• It’s very important to have the right analysis and requirement gathering before you start implementing any functionality.

• Common sense and logical thinking help all the time.

• Be detailed oriented.

•  Acquire different specializations that complement each other.

•  Stay up-to-date with new technologies.

• Always think out of the box.

• Never take the shortest path to solve an issue.

• Every phase of the development life cycle has unique value that contributes to the best solution.

• Stay focused and use tact when facing interpersonal struggles in the work environment. When someone graduates from university, they become eager to begin the next phase, work. New graduates don’t always realize that work environments can often be full of interpersonal issues and aggravations that might make them wish they could return to college. But this can be overcome by maintaing a professional demeanor and not allowing such distractions to derail your focus.

In making this determination, the court had to define package software as it differs from custom software–one of our favorite topics! The case sought to further clarify what type of software should be deemed a Technology Transfer Agreement, since TTA’s are by law exempt from sales and use tax.

The State Board of Equalization–the organization responsible for state tax collection–previously excluded package software from the definition of a TTA. However, a dispute involving the package software which Nortel Networks sells to PacBell brought this discrepancy to the attention of the California Supreme Court once again. Patrick Leone, CEO and CPA of Sales Tax Solutions, explains in Spidell’s California Taxletter, “The software in question was copyrighted, contained a patented process, and enabled the licensee to copy the software and make and sell products that embodied the patents and copyright. This type of software qualifies as a TTA, and is exempt from sales and use tax.”

According to the article, Nortel was awarded $29 million in tax refunds. So what’s the significance? Because of this monumental precedent, the BOE is awarding retroactive refunds to both companies and clients who have paid sales and use tax when buying or selling package software. Mr. Leone encourages companies and clients to inquire about their eligibility, explaining that, “This is a major case that will have far reaching applications to many businesses.” The article also mentions that Sales Tax Solutions is offering free consultations to determine if you or your clients are eligible for a refund. You may contact them here.

So there you have it–even the California Supreme Court is participating in the Package v. Custom debate!

“The jQuery UI Datepicker is a highly configurable plugin that adds datepicker functionality to your pages. You can customize the date format and language, restrict the selectable date ranges and add in buttons and other navigation options easily.

By default, the datepicker calendar opens in a small overlay onFocus and closes automatically onBlur or when a date is selected. For an inline calendar, simply attach the datepicker to a div or span.”

If you have a row in GridView which includes a column for the date, you can use a jQuery calendar in edit mode to change its value. Suppose you have a GridView with a date column like this one:

In this GridView we see a column for the birth date. If we want to change its value, we can click in word and on the left we’ll see the following:

Next, I want to link this to a jQuery calendar within the textbox. This way it will be displayed when the user cursor enters the textbox to change values.

I used the jQuery calendar from jqueryui.com in this example. The code to be used is as follows:

<html>

&nbsp;

<head>

&nbsp;

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script>

&nbsp;

<script type="text/javascript" src=" calendar.js"></script>

&nbsp;

<script type="text/javascript">

&nbsp;

function pageLoad(sender, args)

&nbsp;

{

&nbsp;

if (args.get_isPartialLoad())

&nbsp;

{

&nbsp;

$("#<%= EmployeeGridView.ClientID %>").find("[id$=txtBirthDate]").datepicker({ dateFormat: 'dd/mm/yy' ,changeMonth: true, changeYear: true});

&nbsp;

}

&nbsp;

}

&nbsp;

</script>

&nbsp;

</head>

&nbsp;

</html>

&nbsp;

First, we need to add a path for the jquery.js and calendar.js files in the head tag.

Second, we will write the code which links the calendar with the textbox:

1-    EmployeeGridView:name of gridview.

2-    txtBirthDate: name of textbox inside gridview.

3-    Datepicker() method form jquery calendar.

When loading a page, we will write this code to get the ID of the GridView. Then we will access the textbox by its ID. We attach it to the date picker method so it displays the calendar and set the value when the user selects the date.

In summary, here are a few advantages of using jQuery:

• Convenient, close to a Windows GUI
• Much easier to use than plain JavaScript
• Fast
• People writing code don’t have to worry about browser differences
• Reduces Server Load as fewer round-trips
• Widely used, good community support
• Many components already developed
• Open Source