Shaun MacRae » Software

43 Essential Controls for Web Apps

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:54:32 +0000

Colleague at work found this great list of must-have web controls.

http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/essential-controls-for-web-applications

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Dreamhost

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:45:58 +0000

I’ve been using Dreamhost services for a few years now and thought I should finally write about my experiences. They’ve all been positive.

Not surprisingly, Dreamhost are a host provider. They’re a Unix shop with a wealth of support for all my favorite open source technologies. They provide shell access to your domain but also have a very rich web panel for doing almost everything.

The web panel allows you to configure account users, email users, ftp users, database users, databases, applications (one-click installs for various open source apps including CMS, forum, gallery, etc type software). By default, domains are stacked with admin tools, like phpmyadmin and squirrelmail, but Dreamhost also integrate with Google Apps if you prefer to host your email, calendars, documents, and even web pages with Google using the Apps product suite (highly reccomended). In both scenarios, standard, common-sense subdomains are automatically set up on your behalf, like mysql.[domain].com, mail.[domain].com, calendars.[domain].com, documents.[domain].com, etc.

Other dreamhost web panel tools include backup/restore, task scheduling (cron), stats reporting, subversion, htaccess / webdav, etc.

All of that, plus unlimited hard disc, plus unlimited bandwidth, plus support for an unlimited number of domains and emails, plus great service – all for $5.95 US / month. Trust me, it is both too good to be true, and true at the same time.

Dreamhost hosts this site, but I’ve also set up 3 other accounts (1 account hosts 18 domains) on Dreamhost, and in each case there was not a business need that couldn’t be satisfied by their offering quickly and easily.

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PHP Picasa

admin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:11:07 +0000

I decided a while back to upgrade my photo gallery software. At that time I was using my own online file store and a simple recursive browse algorithm to manage the organization of all of my photos. For the base case I would fire up a flash slide show that I found for $50 somewhere on the internet several years back.

I really liked my own custom written stuff for managing the nested file structure because it meant all I had to do was replicate my local file structure on the server and the app would dynamically create the browse logic. I could have albums inside of albums inside of albums, which helped me to organize by year, then by event, then by sub-category.

But I had to replace the slide show software. It was really choppy for slower internet connections and was not smart enough to strip the size / quality of the images for display on the web. As well I was restricted to one size (small), and overall it was just dodgy all around.

So I started looking at online gallery software, including packages I could install on my server and maintain myself as well as fully-hosted packages. The self-hosted options sounded appealing because then I would be unrestricted by storage and would have full control over the data and could even customize the software if needed, particularly configuring it to match my website theme, etc. The fully-hosted options sounded appealing because then I would not have to worry about maintenance and as new features / fixes became available I would reap the benefit without having to do anything.

Having had recent pleasurable experiences with Google apps, I decided to check out their Picasa software. It is gallery software fully-hosted by Google with online administration, as well as an option to download a client application for managing your gallery. I opened an account and decided I really liked the UI / look and feel and most of the functionality. The slide show quality was much better than what I was using as well. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the fact that I had to have a completely flat album structure. There was no way to store albums within albums.

When I started looking around it seemed most gallery packages followed the same line of thinking and did not support the concept of nested albums structures.

It really bothered me at first, because I thought that it must be a common requirement. I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t supported.

So I decided to link the Google slide show functionality with my own custom browse algorithms. This worked quite well because Google provides links to slide shows for posting on web pages or in blog articles, etc. I was able to keep my dynamic browse stuff and just add in a look-up for slide show content in my base case event. It wasn’t perfect though, because it meant any time I uploaded a new album to Picasa, I needed to copy / paste the slide show content into a database table on shaunmacrae.com.

Then I begin to think about data storage / retrieval paradigms on the web in general, particularly in the case of Google.

Google taught me when I first opened my Gmail account that I did not need to organize my email. They taught me by making it very difficult to create overly complicated, nested folder structures for archiving my emails, so that I would be forced to use the less onerous options to tag, or even better, simply search for keywords in the email’s from, to, subject, body, or whatever! This was pretty easy for me to adjust to, and as a result I don’t spend any time whatsoever filing and organizing emails anymore. My Inbox has over 20, 000 messages and if I need something I just search for it.

Then Google taught me when I first opened my Google Docs account that I did not need to organize my documents. They taught me also by making it very difficult to create overly complicated, nested folder structures for archiving my documents, so that I would be forced to use the much less onerous options to tag, or even better, simply search for keywords in the document’s name or body content, or search / browse by file type, date created, modified, etc. This was more difficult for me to adjust to. The thought of having all my documents in one folder just seemed wrong and so different from how most windows users would think of organizing files. Eventually, though I did get used to it. In fact, due to others having trouble adopting to this new paradigm as well, Google eventually decided to support nested directory structures (ironically powered behind the scenes by the same tagging functionality we were all objecting to), so that users could create these massive, complex structures. I thought ah cool, I can create nested directories now and began doing just that. 2 weeks later I moved all of my documents out of the directories and deleted the placeholders. I was just tired of having to think about where I put things. I found myself always using the search facility to find things anyway.

So that was it. Picasa was following the same paradigm, and because most of the other leading gallery software providers were also, I was forced to flatten my directory structure and start to think about attaching classifications to albums instead of structures for albums.

At around the same time, I learned about Picasa’s open API options for php development. I quickly found that others were building there own apps powered by Picasa and even offering their own custom PHP Picasa APIs – in particular Cameron Hinkle’s can be found here. As part of departing from my dependency on nested albums, I was able to harness the power of the these open APIs to create a new browsing interface based on flattened albums. Cameron’s stuff is really good, and easy to use. I am only using a small fraction of the functionality, but plan to build in pagination, searching, etc. along the way. To give a feel what I’ve done with it so far, here is my gallery. To give you a feel for some of the other stuff it’s capable of, here is Cameron’s gallery.

So at this point I had a fully self-sufficient custom gallery app. I would upload new photos to Picasa via the web upload functionality or via my Picasa client app, and the rest was taken care of.

Then I got my Mac. It turns out IPhoto has exporters for Picasa and Facebook! That made my day. My IPhoto gallery remains synced with my online apps and the website remains synced with them. Then I got my iPhone, which syncs to iPhoto automatically as well!

For me, this is all a testament to the power of open source / open API software i.e.) notice Microsoft were not mentioned once in any of this.

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Amazing Google

admin — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:39:31 +0000

The days of thick-client applications that need to be installed on your computer for personal use are over. Yes, the hardcore gamers will continue to run their applications locally, and custom business applications will continue to be developed as a hybrid of both windows-based, and web-based, but for the average joe, there is no longer a need.

The convenience with web technology for me is that I can access my applications and data from any computer with a browser and a connection. On any given day, I may spend several hours on several different machines (x hours at client site, x hours on consultant’s laptop, x hours on home pc, …). I don’t like a) needing to install / set up various applications on each machine locally (every time I work on a new machine / OS), b) needing to manage updates for those installations, c) needing to transfer data back and forth between various machines. For these reasons, I have been on a relentless quest for some time now to replace all of my every-day windows-based applications with web-based ‘equivalents’.

Not surprisingly, the programs I needed to replace included a long list of Microsoft products like Outlook for email, and Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Notepad for document management. I had also installed some calendar and to-do list applications, and at least a couple of photo organizers locally.

Also not surprisingly, it has been the long line of Google products mostly, that have stepped up as web ‘equivalents’. Actually, in most cases, the Google products are even better, which is amazing to me as a developer who understands the complexities involved with providing a rich user interface over the web. I was having a tough time letting go of Outlook though. Even though I’ve had a Gmail account for some time now, I was still using Outlook to manage my email because of my need to manage multiple email accounts. It turns out, Gmail does that too!

I thought it might be worthwhile sharing my positive experiences with these products, not because I am a Google poster boy, because I genuinely appreciate the tools and features provided by the products.

Why do I use it?

Basically ulimited storage space (7GB and counting!)

Incredible search capability. This concept has revolutionized the way people manage email. I used to have hundreds of folders (with folders nested among folders) with dozens of message rules for managing placement of incoming messages, and I would try to file EVERYTHING somewhere … just in case. With Gmail, I don’t do a thing. I currently have 8,798 unread messages. Mail comes in, Gmail displays a short preview beside each message subject in my inbox, at which point I decide to look at it or not. No filing necessary. If I want to find something, I simply search for it.

Multiple accounts. I have 1 Gmail account, but 4 other accounts that I feed through. Gmail downloads my messages from the various pop servers at set intervals, and allows me to respond to each email from the account it was received into (default), or any other account I like.

Gmail integrates with Apple Address Book which can be automatically synced with Apple IPod and IPhone devices.

Quirks

Poor signature features. You can only have one signature that can only be turned on or off (can’t be added at compose time), and it always appears at the bottom of the entire email message instead of beneath your latest response (as it should).

Why Do I Use It?

Great integration with Gmail. I can quickly and easily create events based on email message content, and events are automatically created based on Google Calendar invitations and other external calendar invitations. With all my mail accounts feeding through Gmail, all of my calendar invites follow. This means that my Google Calendar is automatically synced with my work calendars.

As long as my browser is open, I can receive pop-up notifications as reminders for events.

I can have my calendar send me text messages on my cell phone as reminders for events.

I can publish my calendar. Of course I can make events private or public as they come in, so that they display on my published version as ‘busy’ if they contain sensitive information.

I can have several calendars set up and quickly and easily display combinations of them (Work Calendar, Personal Calendar, Family Birthday Calendar) and other public calendars (Calgary Flames Calendar, Stat Holidays Calendar). Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to have more than one calendar incorporated into my published calendar, but I am not yet convinced that it is not possible.

Google Calendar integrates with Apple ICal which can be automatically synced with Apple IPod and IPhone devices.

Quirks

Google Calendar automatically responds to event organizers when I accept an invitation. I would like to have the option to not send a response.

Why Do I Use It?

I can access all of my documents from any computer with a browser and an internet connection.

I can organize my documents into online folders.

I can import Office and Open Office documents.

I can export my documents as Office and Open Office documents (for those who haven’t ditched those crappy products for Google Documents).

Great integration with Gmail. When I receive documents as attachments, I can easily open them as Google Documents. I can also email up to 10 documents to my Google Documents account (bulk upload).

Google Documents can be shared much more effectively. This means that presentations can be controlled from one computer and viewed from another computer without the use of other complicated web-based presentation software. Documents and spreadsheets can be edited in real-time by two different users on two different computers, because the documents are merged on every key stroke. Any document can be published with configurable sharing options.

Google Spreadsheets have amazingly flexible reporting capabilities. Once my data is in a Google spreadsheet I can easily generate a report that groups, filters, sorts my data any way I like. That report can also be printed, published, or embedded as a widget in any web page I like.

Quirks

I can’t upload files that are not Documents / Spreadsheets / Presentations. It would be nice to upload PDFs and such, even if I can’t edit them via Google Documents. It would be nice to have all of my files in the same place.

Why Do I Use It?

You can mass upload files to your web account via a thick client application, such that you don’t have to upload one file at a time. This also helps keep your local photo albums synced with your web account.

Thick client application has a pretty good editor and 1 touch fix-er-upper.

Web version has multiple security options, great search capability for public albums, quick album downloads for others when sharing (based on security settings), and most importantly a pretty good user interface, with configurable slide shows that even go full screen!

You can automatically generate and configure slide show code for you own personal website. The flash slide show service offered by Picasa is much faster and displays better quality images, then others that I have tried out.

Picasa integrates with Apple IPhoto which can be automatically synced with Apple IPod and IPhone devices.

Quirks

It would be nice if it was all web-based. It would be nice to just upload everything and manage it from my Google account rather than have to install an application locally and manage two copies of my data (with limited functionality on the web client).

You can’t have albums within albums in Picasa. For someone like myself with thousands of images, it is difficult to have such a flat album structure and maintain any kind of organization. It would be nice to somehow group collections of albums at the very least.

The automatically generated slideshow code references an album id instead of an album name. I have an application that dynamically generates slideshows using a different service. I can’t wire it up with Picasa because the Picasa slideshow service expects an album id that is generated by Google. The only way to set up my slideshows is to auto-generate the code for each album and paste in a bunch of static html (or best case, store the album ids in a lookup table which needs to be updated for each new album).

Why Do I Use It?

Collects feeds from my various Google applications and geek blogs. I should probably try Google Reader out, but I think that I would still use iGoogle for maintaining one page with maps, weather, wikipedia and dictionary.com widgets, etc.

Quirks

Slow to load when all I want to do is search (although I might get around this by having one tab that is empty and just for searching).

Why Do I Use It?

I can create an itinerary with multiple destinations.

I can get directions for driving, walking, or even public transit!

I can view street maps, satellite images, or street cameras.

Quirks

None

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Alt-Tab Powertoy for XP

admin — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:05:02 +0000

A colleague of mine found out that I was a heavy alt-taber and suggested trying out the Alt-Tab Powertoy for XP.

The XP Power Toy replaces the program icons you would normally see (very confusing when several instances of the same program are open) with actual screenshots of your open windows. You can also use use the alt-tab-arrow key to quickly move to the window you are looking for. Very cool!

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