SaaS (Software as a Service)

According to Wikipedia:

Software as a service, sometimes referred to as “on-demand software”, is a software delivery model in which software and associated data are centrally hosted on the cloud. SaaS is typically accessed by users using a thin client via a web browser.

In short, SaaS is software that runs somewhere else, usually a centralized server on the Internet. You interact with the software utilizing, typically, a web browser running front-end web page code (e.g. HTML/CSS/JavaScript). There is nothing to “install” (other than a web browser), and nothing to maintain. All software updates and maintenance happen on the centralized server, often totally transparent to the end users.

In recent years SaaS software has absolutely exploded, and there are several reasons for this. First off, web browsers have become far more robust and adept at running front-end web page code. Second, several technologies have been developed that make the development of SaaS software much easier. From software frameworks (e.g. Ruby on Rails, Node.js, Bootstrap, ASP.NET MVC, etc.), to robust Integrated Development Environments, to server functions (e.g. SCSS, Gems, Mongo DB, etc.) it is easier than ever to not only build SaaS software but also host and maintain it. Third, SaaS applications require less up-front investment; instead customers pay for the software over time. Add all of this with steadily increasing Internet bandwidth and connectivity, and you have the ideal environment for SaaS software to flourish.

SaaS software is developed in a unique way, compared to traditional desktop software. For one thing, multiple tools are typically used to build the software. With the abundance of open-source tools and resources available, many new pieces of software are built using pieces of already existing software. And, if this original software was open source, quite often the new software becomes open source too, setting itself up to be a possible component in other future projects.

Often, though, SaaS software solutions are built to be sold, either to a single end-client or to be marketed and sold to individual users. Here at Surge, we have been building SaaS solutions for over 12 years, and during that time, as one could imagine, we have learned a tremendous amount about what works, what doesn’t, and what it takes to build something truly exceptional.

Case in point, many SaaS developers suffer with issues surrounding multi-tenancy. Basically speaking, multi-tenancy refers to software that runs as a single instance but serves multiple distinct users, keeping all data separate. This allows a single web app to serve multiple customers, across multiple distinct user groups. At Surge, we even have out-of-the box code that solves many common challenges, such as multi-tenancy. From working with SaaS solutions for so many years, we have solved countless problems, often developing innovative solutions in the process.

The Cloud

Although the buzzword “SaaS” gets thrown around a lot, “The Cloud” gets thrown around even more. Often, it seems, that “The Cloud” has become a generic term for anything on the Internet. Technically speaking, though, “The Cloud” refers to computing resources (e.g. hardware and software) that are delivered via a network (most often, The Internet). In practical terms, most often, the term “Cloud” refers to highly-robust computing platforms that provide processing and storage which is interacted with over The Internet.

The Cloud and SaaS are commonly used in the same sentence. It is true, that SaaS software is usually hosted/run-from The Cloud. However, Cloud Apps are not necessarily SaaS apps. One has to do with where/how an app runs, and the other is how server resources are structured, configured, and connected to you.

SaaS and The Cloud Are What We Do

Surge has a long history of developing and delivering SaaS and Cloud solutions. From designing the back-end architecture of enterprise apps, to building SaaS applications, to mobile and desktop software development, Surge has the expertise and experience to build even the most complex software products.

Have a SaaS or Cloud-Computing project in mind? We would love to help you build it. Contact us today and see how Surge can help bring your software idea to life.

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“We are delighted to be part of the Surge team.” said Brett Houghton. “Surge is a solid company with a track record of successfully delivering Enterprise software solutions, a loyal customer base, and an amazing team of software architects, designers, developers, and testers with experience building on every major technology platform.”

10X Design is a software consulting company that architects, designs, builds, and deploys enterprise-level, mission-critical applications using the TenFold application platform. 10X Design has successfully implemented applications in Insurance Policy Management, Electric Power Distribution Design, and Project Management for such companies as MGIS, Par Electric (Quanta), and MJ Electric.

For more information about Surge acquiring 10X, please visit the official press release at:

Press Release: Surge Acquires Insurance Consulting Company 10X

About Surge

Surge is a leading software development & consulting firm specializing in web, cloud, SaaS, RIA, mobile, tablet, and integration solutions. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in the Seattle area with satellite offices around the US and Canada, Surge has successfully delivered cutting-edge web and mobile software solutions to hundreds of clients in a variety of industries. For more information visit http://www.SurgeForward.com.

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Offshoring is not a simple, cut-and-dry sort of topic.  There is a lot of rhetoric surrounding this topic, positive and negative, and in this white paper we deal with the hard facts that companies see as common results of their offshoring efforts.

To download this white paper, simply click on the following button:

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One of the amazing things about this day and age, for better or for worse, is just how connected we all are. From mobile devices, to multiple means of keeping in touch with one another, never before have we had so many different tools to stay in-touch. Now, sometimes these tools can be overbearing, in that there is value in unplugging from time to time. However, for the most part, these tools equip us to be able to work (practically) anywhere and anytime.

For knowledge workers, this creates a unique opportunity. That is, the tools needed to complete knowledge work are readily available. In fact, most knowledge work these days is accomplished on little more than consumer-grade tools. Whether we are talking about software development, design, testing, or the other functions that go into creating digital products and services, the ubiquity of tools mean that knowledge workers are not dependent upon a company to provide them the resources required to get their job done. In a telecommuting environment, everyone works on a BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) status, which suits most people just fine. Gone are the days of needing a company’s (often vast) resources to accomplish one’s work tasks. Now, with little more than a notebook, some open source tools, and a text editor, a developer can build great software. Indeed, the era of “Have MacBook, will travel” is surely upon us.

Challenges of a 100% Telecommuting Environment

Even though we have a myriad of tools and resources available to us, there are challenges in running a 100% telecommuting environment. Most of these challenges break down into the two C’s, Culture and Communication. Not that there aren’t other challenges, just like there are with any business, but time and time again we find most of our challenges can be couched in one of these two areas.

Culture is a difficult thing to build when you have a group of people who do not occupy the same physical space (not to mention even the same time zone). Often, most communication is purely task or project-based, which can strip out any sort of company culture. One of the great things about a 100% telecommuting environment is the focus is on the work, and little else, all the time. This creates a very low-stress environment for people to work in, in that it is free of interruptions, office politics, and the various undesirable side-effects that come from working in a standard office environment. However, when most communication is strictly business it can be easy for people to forget about the larger team they are playing for. In a telecommuting environment, it can often feel like everyone is simply an army of one, little more than mercenaries for hire. Because of this, extra care and concern must be made to engage people as a team, and help remind people of the bigger picture of what they are doing. Working alone, solely focused on your own work, it can be easy to adopt a myopic attitude towards what you are doing. To combat this, it is important to make sure to include people in more than just their function, if to only see how the sausage gets made, and how their work impacts not only other people on the project (and vice versa), but also the project itself (as well as the client).

Communication issues are a little easier to address. That is, with everyone spread around, it can be easy to have people get out of touch, sometimes creating holes in project work. To combat this, we adopt an attitude of over-communicating. Maintaining transparency with what everyone is doing does not happen by accident, and in my view, I would rather have our people know too much about what people are doing than too little.

Benefits of Telecommuting

To most people, the obvious benefits of having all employees telecommute boil down to simple cost-savings measures. That is, it is easy to imagine the benefits of having no need for expensive office space, furniture, support staff, and other resources that are needed to create and maintain a typical office environment. However, in my opinion, these advantages are minor. Where the benefits really come in are in two main areas, quality of life and the ability to hire (and retain) amazing people.

In my opinion, the formula of expecting (smart) people to get dressed up, sit in traffic, and spend eight (plus) hours a day in a cubicle does not make a lot of sense anymore. More and more, high-quality knowledge workers are realizing they do not have to do this. Plus, for many workers in larger cities (especially in California), rising rents and property prices mean either having to live further and further away from work, or making other sacrifices about the kind of home they can afford. Just “making it” in larger cities is getting harder and harder (especially for the younger generations). More and more, people are finding the trade-offs involved in big-city living (especially for people with families), just aren’t worth it. Plus, what I think telecommuting proves is that these things are not only not worth it, they are not necessary. That is, who wouldn’t want a zero minute commute, and the ability set their schedule to the hours when the work is flowing (rather than something arbitrary like eight to five)? From personal experience I can tell you one big group that does want (and value) this flexibility; smart people.

By offering a 100% telecommuting environment, not only do we free people up to live wherever they want, but also wherever they are. By de-coupling where they live with where they work, our people have total freedom to live where/how they want. Plus, we can hire the most amazing people we can find, no matter where they are located.

In my opinion, that is the best part of telecommuting, it removes artificial limitations that keep amazing people from doing amazing work. At Surge, we build amazing software by hiring and retaining amazing people and setting them up to do amazing things. By offering a 100% telecommuting environment, we allow our people focus on the work, and we have found that by doing this, magic can, and often does, happen.

The post Benefits of Telecommuting, a Company Perspective appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

The Surge Hub is a tablet-based app that lets your sales force instantly and securely access all of their sales and marketing collateral, including presentations, slicks, brochures, training docs, videos, spec sheets, etc., online or offline, regardless of where the content is stored.  This app can also be configured to show sales reports, enter orders, manage contacts, and much more, and we brand and customize it to fit your unique business.

Surge Hub Key Features:

• Content centrally-managed and updated.
• Private-labeled (branded) to your company.
• Native iOS (iPad) and Android versions.
• Built to integrate with most back-end systems.
• Online and offline access.
• And much more…

For more information about Surge Hub, please visit the official press release at: http://www.surgehub.com/surge-launches-new-mobile-content-management-sales-platform/.  You can also learn more about Surge Hub at http://www.surgehub.com.

About Surge

Surge is a leading software development & consulting firm specializing in web, cloud, SaaS, RIA, mobile, tablet, and integration solutions. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in the Seattle area with satellite offices around the US and Canada, Surge has successfully delivered cutting-edge web and mobile software solutions to hundreds of clients in a variety of industries. For more information visit http://www.SurgeForward.com.

The post Surge Announces Surge Hub, a New Mobile Content Management & Sales Platform appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

Surge, a US-Based Software Development and Consulting firm, announced today it had made Inc. magazine’s annual list of the 500/5000 fastest-growing companies in America. Inc. ranked Surge number 530 on its 31st annual Inc. 500|5000 list, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. This ranking places Surge #45 out of all Software Companies, and #11 of all companies in the Greater-Seattle Area. Members of this year’s list include the most innovative and successful companies in the country. This is Surge’s first year of eligibility for this elite ranking.

“It is an honor to be recognized as one of America’s fastest growing companies,” said Matt MacKay, CEO of Surge. “Surge has grown over 700% during the past three years without taking a single penny of investment money. I attribute our rapid growth and loyal customer base to our amazing team of 40+ employees who consistently perform at the highest levels.”

Over the past three years, Surge has grown 727%, including going from five to 40 employees. This tremendous growth is attributed to Surge consistently delivering innovative custom software solutions, combining robust and highly-scalable architecture with exceptional end-user experiences.

In a stagnant economic environment, median growth rate of 2012 Inc. 500|5000 companies remains an impressive 97 percent. The companies on this year’s list report having created over 400,000 jobs in the past three years, and aggregate revenue among the honorees reached $299 billion.

“Now, more than ever, we depend on Inc. 500|5000 companies to spur innovation, provide jobs, and drive the economy forward. Growth companies, not large corporations, are where the action is,” says Inc. magazine Editor Eric Schurenberg.

Surge plans to continue its impressive growth with a number of new projects, ranging from custom software solutions for several Fortune-100 companies, to the release of Surge’s first product, Surge Hub, a tablet-based mobile sales force automation and presentation platform.

Methodology
The 2012 Inc. 500|5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2008 to 2011. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2008. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2011. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2008 is $100,000; the minimum for 2011 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.’s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/500.

About Surge
Surge is a leading software development & consulting firm specializing in web, cloud, SaaS, RIA, mobile, tablet, and integration solutions. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in the Seattle area with satellite offices around the US and Canada, Surge has successfully delivered cutting-edge web and mobile software solutions to hundreds of clients in a variety of industries. For more information visit http://www.SurgeForward.com.

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This shift in focus has largely been due to the fact that many of these assumptions were wrong. It is often illuminating for a development team, not to mention designers, to watch actual users use their products. Anyone who has ever taken part in a usability test know that, quite often, users use products in unexpected ways. Even companies with a robust UX process (user stories, personas, etc.) can be shocked to see their product used by actual people.

Plus, as the people who build things, it can be easy to forget the people on the other side of the screen. It is very easy to get caught up in the elegance of one’s code, or the ingenious use of new technologies, and completely forget the experience layer of what you are building. And, it is the experience layer of your product that will actually get your product used, and if you are lucky, promoted.

Many of the best user experiences when it comes to software (or websites/web-apps) have to do with what we call “WOW!” moments. Moments where some function works better than what the user was expecting. Software that does more than it was asked to, in a way that is not only delightful, but also unexpected. These moments create delight and delight opens the door for your product to get used more, for more time AND by more people.

Now, that is not to say that WOW moments are easy. In fact, they are usually extremely hard to come by, especially if you are trying to build them on purpose. Most often, these experiences flow out of a mindset, of unapologetically putting the user first and truly looking at your product through their eyes. They come from taking the time to dig a little deeper, to try a little harder, to look at a problem and find the solution that matches “what would be awesome is if it…”

Like a lot of people, I have this experience a lot with my cell phone. Right now is an incredible time to be a consumer of gadgets of any kind, and this especially goes for cell phones. I am often amazed by all of the little touches that go into the product. For me, those are the experience with my phone that stand out. And, because of this, I am not only brand loyal (thus, willing to invest in an entire ecosystem of apps and accessories), but I also recommend my phone to other “power users” I know who would get the same benefit.

Here is one little example. The screen on my phone, like most modern smartphones, is very bright. Even with auto-dimming, the screen is still very bright, especially in the dark. Recently, I spent a lot of time using Google Navigation, and I had a “wow” moment when I realized that the background of the map changes color at night. To lower the abuse your eyes are taking (especially when driving at night, which is especially hard on the eyes), someone was smart enough to think about changing the background color on the map from a light tan to a dark gray. At night, especially when driving, this makes all the difference. But, the best part was realizing that someone had to make it do that on purpose. Someone had to take the time to consider people like me, and what I would be doing with the phone, and made a very smart choice about how to handle my particular use case.

These minor little moments are so special, and so very critical to the adoption of your software. That is, with SO many pieces of software available today, on so many different platforms, being OK is just not good enough anymore. To me, at least, it is these “wow” moments that separates the software I use and the software I don’t.

At Surge, we place a lot of priority and effort in building “wow” moments into software. In our opinion, it has been a big secret to our success. If your software needs more “wow” moments, use one of the contact buttons on the right and let’s talk how Surge can help you create more delight in your product.

The post UX 101: Creating WOW! Moments in Your Software/Website appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

The problem with icons, as we see it anyway, has to do with the common language of the web.  That is, often it is the least common denominator that is used to judge an application’s, or website’s, usability, and icons (especially in the context of the web) just have not been used long enough to establish a common meaning that everyone knows.

For example, what does the icon to the left mean?  This should be simple, we see icons like this almost every day.  However, depending on who you are, it could be a lot of things.  I imagine possible answers would vary wildly among different age groups, different levels of web and/or software use, and different cultures.  That is precisely the problem with icons.  They, often, do not have a direct, concrete meaning.  And, with more and more types of software, and interactive design in general, using icons, sometimes the meanings of icons can be stretched in unexpected ways.

The reason why this happens is usually simple enough.  As a designer, or developer, we often go looking for icons to match what we are trying to say.  For example, we know that we need something for a print function, and the icon above happens to be the first one we see.  We think to ourselves, “Well, that is close enough, paper can mean print, right?”  The problem is, this approach can be backwards.  That is, instead of looking for an icon that roughly matches what we are trying to say, we should look at a given icon and ask ourselves “What would this icon mean to most people?”  Sure, a piece of paper makes sense to use in the context of a print function, but if we asked ten people what the paper icon meant to them, how many would answer “To print, of course!”  Probably not many (if any at all).

Another trap we can often fall into is tucking icons either to the side, or on the top of our designs.  We are already reaping the clutter savings of using an icon instead of clunky text, why not clean up our design even more by moving the icon(s) out of the way?  The reason is, that by making a design too spartan, we make it harder to use.  Sure, our 16×16 pixel icons look pretty, and our application has plenty of whitespace, but no one can figure out how to do anything.

Now, that is not to say that icons are always confusing.  Quite the contrary, actually, icons can be a great way to simplify a user interface and make even the most boring (or promotional) content easily skimmable.  Personally, I think we, as designers of things people use, run into trouble when we rely solely on icons to communicate what we are trying to say.  Icons can be a great helper for intuitive architecture, labels, and function, but they are rarely a substitute for any of these things.

The best design option is often a hybrid approach of using icons and short text.  This way, you can give people an idea what each label means (without forcing them to read each one), and also give them an option to read the labels to know exactly what each function does.  To me, this is the best of both worlds.  You get the easy skimmability and recognition of icons, with the precise labeling of text.

Here is an example of what I mean. Take Google’s revamped design for Gmail (which is shared by many of their applications).  By default, the header functions in an email look like this:

Now, I will grant you that this is a very clean design, but what good does using only icons give you if you have to mouse-over each item to see what it does?  To me, this adds an unnecessary learning-curve to the application.  Sure, you figure it out pretty fast, if you use gmail all of the time, but what if you don’t?  What if you use an email client most of the time and only use online Gmail every now and then?  If that is the case, I think you will find yourself mousing-over the buttons on the page to figure out (or remind yourself) what each one does.  To me, this is introducing a usability problem for negligible design clutter savings.  To put it more simply, it is making something more difficult to use with little, if any, design gain for the user.

Now, imagine if Google had used even a small amount of that ample white space to add labels.  It might look something like this:

To me anyway, this is much more usable, mostly because it does not punish the seldom and/or first-time user.  Plus, it only took a few more horizontal pixels to add the labels.  As such, this solves the usability problem of not knowing what each label means by only adding a small amount of design-overhead to the page.

Of course, my way is not as contemporary as Google’s way, and if design aesthetic is of primary concern, then a minimal-only approach might be warranted.  However, I, like most users, would argue for most applications, simple is always better.

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What this process reminds me of, in a lot of ways, is a media format change.  That is, fixed-pixel layouts (layouts that are the same size on any size screen) are the “Cassette Tapes” of the web world, while responsive layouts (layouts that adapt to varying screen sizes automatically) are the new and improved “CD Discs”.  And, as operators of any sort website or web app, it is our responsibility to stay current (or risk being left behind by our competition).  People are going to choose the provider whose service is the most tailored to them, and with more and more people doing more and more of their web browsing on mobile devices, these choices are being voiced and acted upon today.

The thing about responsive design that is easy to forget, though, is that it is still in its infancy.  Although there are lots of loud voices out on the Internet proclaiming their way is THE way to do responsive design, the fact of the matter is that there are numerous ways to achieve a great experience on mobile devices.

Just like any sort of tool, or design/development methodology, there is no “one right way” to do responsive designs.  There are a lot of things to consider, and usually the best choice will be contextual.  That is, a big part of choosing which way to achieve a great mobile experience is to take into account the needs of the client, and of their customers, and find the method that best matches that context.  That being said, here are the typical ways (great) mobile experiences are built:

Native Application

Put simply, this method involves building an “app” to serve the content of your website and/or web application.  This method has worked well over the past several years.  In fact, most users, if asked, would still prefer using a native application on their phone rather than using a web interface (through their phone’s web browser).   However, the tide is turning with this opinion (in our opinion, mostly due to the growing adoption of responsive design).

Going the route of custom app creation has developed some problems recently, especially when it comes to Android.  One does not have to do many Google searches to hear endless stories about app developers developing for iOS first due to fragmentation of Android (and having to test and support their app on hundreds of different potential devices).  Once upon a time, going strictly iOS-first (and even iOS-only) was a sound approach.  However, with the gains in market share Android has been achieving over the past year (currently at 59%, worldwide), neglecting these customers can create quite an impact in your potential audience.

Additionally, by going the app route, you have to keep your web offering and your app offering in sync (thus, creating two “products” to support).  For some projects, this additional overhead can make properly updating and supporting the product impractical.

Separate Mobile Website

One of the first methods for delivering a tailored mobile experience that became popular was creating two separate sites, a “desktop” version and a “mobile” version.  This method is still championed today, even by the likes of Usability Guru Jakob Nielsen.

The potential problem with taking this approach, much like with a native app, is that you have two websites to support instead of just one.  Plus, both Google and Bing have come down on the side of doing responsive sites when possible.  Simply put, search engines take a user-centric approach in saying that content should not be duplicated across multiple sites, and users should not have to see a stripped-down version of a site (on mobile, content-wise) if they don’t want to.

Responsive Layouts Using CSS

There is a lot going on in this space, since it is so new, but the most common method for serving up different CSS files based on screen resolutions (smaller screens = smaller resolutions) is to use what are called media queries to get the screen resolution the user has, then serve up resolution-specific CSS elements (or even whole CSS files).

In my personal experience, this method works great, most of the time.  However, it is not without its detractors.  Some even go so far as to call Media Queries “fool’s gold” because it does not take into account differing bandwidth concerns and lack of support for media queries on mobile browsers.

Personally, I think this is a bit hyperbolic.  If your audience is primarily US-based (or in Western Europe), the media query support argument is moot (iOS Safari has supported them since v3.2 and Android has supported them since v.2.1, three versions back from current each).  Also, to me, the bandwidth issue is becoming more and more moot by the day, with carriers ushering people on to much faster 4G networks (which makes 3G networks even faster than they were, due to fewer people being on them).

Still, these arguments do have a point in certain scenarios.  For example, if I was designing for parts of the world still using 2G technologies, I would take this advice to heart.  For most circumstances, especially for business applications, though, I just do not think this type of advice applies.

Responsive Layouts Using Javascript

Similar to using CSS, this method uses Javascript to serve different CSS files based on screen resolution.  Typically with this sort of approach, you will want to safeguard yourself by serving the mobile version by default (if Javascript is disabled), since that is a more likely scenario on mobile devices than in a desktop environment.

This approach is probably the most fool-proof, but it does add added complexity.  To me, choosing between Javascript and CSS is usually choosing whichever method the implementation team has the most experience with.  Neither one, in my opinion, is terribly better than the other.  As such, personal technology preference (as well as what makes the most sense for the project) will weigh most heavily in my decision.

So, Which Way is Best?

So, you have decided you need your website/web-app to be responsive, which method should you choose?  Well, unfortunately, the answer is not very satisfying, because it is simply “it depends”.  These are complicated issues, and one-size-fits-all solutions tend to fall-down, sometimes hard, when the complexity gets high.  Plus, these issues are still evolving and maturing by the day it seems, and what works today may not work as well as what works tomorrow.  Just like any technology decision, the best choice will be made only after gaining clear understanding of the exact context you are applying a solution to.

At Surge, we have helped a lot of clients walk through this process.  Typically, these sorts of decisions are not easy, but with important issues like this, they are simply too critical to avoid.  After all, if you knew, today, that between 10%-20% of your website/web-app visitors were not seeing a properly formatted version, wouldn’t you want to fix it?  I would assume the answer is “yes”, and if you are running a website with “normal” sorts of traffic, this IS already happening to you.

The post White Paper: Responsive Layouts – The New Web Design Format appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

Now, it is important to note, that this is not something we usually do on purpose.  When we are building something, especially something complicated, there is a momentum that builds.  Sometimes, this momentum can be strong enough to blow right by the user.  It it a forest through the trees sort of scenario, where we get so focused on the work of design (or development) that we lose the big-picture view, we lose the perspective that lives outside of ourselves (or our small teams), the perspective of the users.

It takes dedicated effort and discipline to truly stay connected with the user throughout the entire design/development process.  As much as we would like to lean against our tried-and-true methodologies, past experience, and general gut-level feel for how things should be, if we are not including the user in our design process, we expose our product to the risk of not truly delivering on a user-experience level.

Our reasons for sequestering ourselves away from the user are often varied, but usually come down to the same basic things.  That is, humans are complicated, and building things for humans is often messy.  This complication (especially if it does not come until late in the project) can easily manifest into re-work, which can be a big morale drain for the entire team.

By adding users into our process (ideally early-on), we may find that some of our assumptions are wrong, or even that there is a better (often more simple) way of accomplishing what we set out to.  Even for projects that begin with very robust user-research/discovery, there are still a ton of assumptions, and even personal bias, that slips into the product.  The only way to qualify these assumptions is to test them against actual people, ideally actual people who would pay actual money for your product.

With most projects, it is simply impossible to build the ideal product completely on your own.  You need your users to have a voice before, during, and after design/development.  Plus, by leaning too heavily on standard UX tools (e.g. personas, etc.), we can be flung far afield because of a very simple problem, personas aren’t real.  They are approximations of real people, and although basing design/development decisions off of them is better than just shooting in the dark, they are still no substitute for real user testing.  By leaning too hard on tools like personas, we end up extrapolating assumptions about our users, which may very well end up being wrong.

With all of this complexity and risk flying around, bringing in an outside development/design team can make the difference in the final execution of your project.  Getting a fresh perspective from an experienced outside team can be extremely valuable for not only seeing what might be missing, but also for challenging the assumptions that have been made with the project.  Now, that is not to say that assumptions are bad.  In order to get anything done, we often need to make countless assumptions to get it there.  No, the bad thing is never challenging these assumptions, and letting them unconsciously cascade, and grow into real problems, with your product.

At Surge, we take user testing very seriously, and we work very hard to give the user a strong, consistent voice throughout the development/design process.  We know that it is only through the rigor of thorough user testing that we will know your product is what it needs to be.

The post Putting the User Back in User Experience (UX) Design appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

We manage a lot of software projects here at Surge. In fact, right now we are managing over 15 unique projects, ranging from mobile apps to large scale business applications. Having this many simultaneous projects requires a well-defined project management process.

While project management has always been important here at Surge, lately we have been even more focused on making sure that we have the right procedures in place to consistently deliver high quality software products in a short time period. Here are a few guidelines that have served us well:

• Keep meetings short and infrequent. The most important reason to meet is to promote accountability.
• Keep interruptions to a minimum. Developers need time “in the zone” to be effective.
• Always use a work tracking system. We use FogBugz.
• Always use a time tracking system. If the system includes analytics and dashboards, you can easily see what people are working on and how productive they are. We created a product called “Meazure” for this purpose and we use it internally.
• Use a wiki to share knowledge.
• Use a cloud-based document management system. We use DropBox.
• Setup your work environment from the get-go to allow people to telecommute. We use hosted source control, work tracking, time tracking, wiki, document sharing, etc. Giving developers this flexibility makes them much happier and ultimately more productive.
• Make realistic commitments and seek to exceed them. Commitments are personal; no one should make a commitment on someone else’s behalf. However, everyone should make commitments.
• Provide transparency to your clients and/or stakeholders. Give them access to your work tracking system.

Having a well-defined project management process and supporting tools is vital to running successful software projects.

Matt MacKay | CEO, Surge

The post Managing Software Projects appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

I have worked with many people over the past 10 years to help them bring their ideas to life through web technologies.  In this post, I want to share some of the experience and questions you will face as you seek to bring your own idea to life.

Enjoy the euphoria, but plan on an adventure

Your idea brings hope for a better tomorrow regardless of whether it is to increase sales, productivity or create a really great new gadget.  So it should come as no surprise that there is a euphoric state of mind that goes with it.  It’s the performance sports drink you need to drink for the journey ahead.

Write it down, but be flexible with it

Write down your idea in a two sentence summary followed by a feature list.  The feature list show every ‘it would be cool to have’ or ‘must have’ you can think of.  This be a reference point that you return to when you are asked the many questions that will bombard you as you seek to define your idea.  It will help you to stay focused.  However, be flexible enough with it to allow it to take shape.  There are many decisions along the way that will influence the reality of your idea at the end.  User experiences, software platforms, code languages and technical limitations all play apart in shaping your idea.  These decisions will impact costs so the more flexibility you have the more solutions can be found when there are constraints.

Shop around

Armed with your feature list, start reaching out to companies who you think could help.  And don’t stop at just one, get a few.  They should ask you a lot of questions and be getting a clear understanding of what you are trying to achieve.  Make sure you feel like they are listening and you can trust them.  There are so many variables and tiny details that often come up later that can throw in a monkey wrench.  Thus selecting a company on price alone is dangerous as they could have left something out, or just aren’t committed to your work.

Focus on the details

Once you have selected a partner to bring your idea to life, you now face as a team the daunting task of translating it into a reality.  This is when the finesse, experience and skill of your partner should shine.  The design team should work closely with you to capture your idea in illustrated specifications, wireframes, and designs based off your feature list.  They will ask you a lot of questions about the usability needs and special considerations.  It can feel tedious at times in the excitement, but their attention to details is crucial to the developers.  Not to mention keeping them from wanting to torture you if you forgot about something and they now have to re-do the entire framework.

Communication keeps your idea from growing extra arms and legs

Taking an idea from a state of perfection and evolving it into a reality requires a lot of communication.  Weekly check-ins reviewing tasks, going over designs, and reviewing work completed are an important part of keeping your idea from growing extra limbs.  It is a good idea to have at least one person in your organization dedicated to attending these to have their hand on the pulse.  Surge believes in transparency in our work and will put up a test environment as soon as there is something to show.

Testing today saves a headache tomorrow

Aggressive testing begins the moment the test environment goes up.  Testing this early in the process allows bugs to be caught sooner and saving headaches later.  Besides our own professional testers, you are given the opportunity for testing yourself as well.  This allows you to experience your idea first hand as often times, things you translate onto paper sometimes don’t work out the way you think they will.  Testing early helps to catch the small but important nuances that make your idea shine.

Release it, but keep on planning

When embarking on a new idea, people can sometimes be short-sighted in thinking about the longevity of it.  The upkeep and maintenance are things to consider but so will additional feature roll-outs after you get back more user feedback as your idea grows and flourishes.  Needs change and evolve so make sure you have a growth plan and allocated budget to draw on so your idea can to continue to flourish.

I hope this introductory post has given you some insight on what to consider.  If you have any questions, please reach out.

The post Getting Started Bringing Your Idea to Life appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

There are many software consulting companies to choose from. However, not all of them are the same. In fact, most software consulting companies differ significantly even if they appear similar on the surface. Most people use price as a factor when choosing a company but what other factors are important? Here is a list of 15 factors to consider when hiring a software consulting company:

Have they built a software solution in the past that is similar to the solution you want to build?

This is an important factor because if the company has built a similar solution they can leverage their domain expertise, technology, knowledge base, etc. to reduce risk on your project.

Can they show examples of their work that represent a similar level of complexity?

If the company can only show examples of websites they have built and you need a sophisticated web application, they may not have the expertise that you require.

How many developers do they have? What are the average years of experience?

Generally, the larger the team, the more capability they have to deliver your solution. If they underestimated the hours they can always add additional experienced resources to get your project done. You should seek to have senior-level developers on your project, which is generally defined as 5+ years of relevant experience.

How detailed is the proposal? Do they provide a line item breakdown of tasks and hours? Do they include time for design and testing?

The more detailed the proposal, the more confidence you can have in the hour estimates. And, every software project requires some design and testing time so these hours should be included.

What technologies do they use? Are they using modern design patterns and programming languages?

Most modern web applications use jQuery, JSON, and MVC and are running as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the Cloud. Mobile applications use iOS, Android (Java), and HTML 5. If they are not using any of these technologies, this should be a red flag.

Did you check references? If so, were they positive? 

Past success is a key indicator of future success. Ask their references if the software solution was successfully delivered and has actual users using it.

How does the price compare? If it is higher than another quote, is the company able to justify it?

Price is certainly a factor in the overall decision but you must make sure you are comparing apples to apples, which can be tricky. Building better quality software requires more time and effort so you should not just base your decision on price if you are interested in an elegant, high-quality solution.

Does the company offer any sort of warranty on their work?

If they do, this is a sign that they are confident in their ability to deliver quality software.

Do they use an agile development process? How mature is their project management process?

There are four primary attributes of an agile development process: 1) Rapid feature iterations, 2) Transparency, 3) Frequent communication, 4) Scope flexibility.

Do they have their own internal QA (Quality Assurance) Team? Do they follow a continuous testing process?

You don’t want to get to the end of the project and find out the system looks great but doesn’t really work. It’s best to catch errors up front by doing continuous testing throughout the project. It is a good sign if the company has an internal QA team and even better if they write automated tests.

Do they have any business partners that can vouch for them?

Client references are important but so are business partner references.

How are their communication skills? Is communicating with them easy or difficult? Are they helpful and engaged?

Positive communication during the sales process is an indication of positive communication in the future, which is vital to the success of any software project.

Do they seem to understand what you want to build? Do they “get” your vision?

You want a long-term development partner who understands your vision and can add value, not just by providing software development services but also by providing advice in other areas such as marketing, pricing, business model, IT, etc.

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Finding a platform for your mobile application is a daunting task.  There are a myriad of options available, all of them with enormous advantages and even larger disadvantages.  Picking the wrong platform could eliminate your greatest feature.  This article is to help you navigate these options and narrow the field to something that works well.

Native Frameworks

At the time of writing for this paper, the most popular mobile platforms are without question Android and iOS.  Writing natively for these platforms is certainly an option.  You’ll benefit from the best performance, have unlimited use of device resources such as the camera, notifications, background tasks and storage, and will have a simple monetization route through application stores.

But this choice is not without its drawbacks.  You’ll be at the mercy of the marketplace arbiters, and Apple is notoriously strict.  If targeting both platforms, you’ll have to write your app twice – once for each platform, and maintenance requires a comparable step up in cost.

Web Applications

Applications can also be delivered via the web, with all the deployment benefits that has, using all the same skills a web developer already has.  Browser applications live outside the walled garden without any 3^rd party dependencies on deployment.  Such applications are easily cross-platform compatible because both Android and iOS are based on a mobile variant of WebKit, which also powers the popular Google Chrome and Apple Safari web browsers.  You can even take the applications offline in a limited fashion using HTML5 local storage.

Of course there are also issues with this approach.  You’ll have little access to device resources, and depending on the type of application you want to write you may be required to rule it out entirely; for example, if you need more than a few megabytes of storage (for videos, pictures, etc.), you will quickly reach the storage quota for an offline web application.  And there’s no ability to upload files with iOS.  A general rule of thumb is if everything you need is available via a desktop web browser, you are safe to do a mobile web version as well.

Cross-Platform Frameworks

Some attempts have been made to close the compatibility gap between the major phone operating systems, and the result have been several frameworks of varying degrees of maturity.  These frameworks are characterized by their ability to unify your codebase, provide access to resources unavailable via the web browser, and attempt to eliminate the maintenance disadvantages of developing natively.  The result is usually much simpler to maintain than two or more native applications.

Many of these frameworks make use of an existing skill, such as .Net experience or web development so some existing staff are easy to train than if they’d gone directly to the platform Software Development Kit.  But learning these frameworks is a specialty skill.  The technology behind them could quickly become obsolete, leaving you with long-term maintenance problems.

Summary

In general, there are some simple questions you can ask to decide which option is best.  If no device resources are required, a browser application is usually a great choice.  And if there is no need to support multiple platforms, a native application will be your best bet.  Finally, a cross-platform framework is available to those that need to support multiple platforms and require access to device resources.

Case Study #1

Requirement: Take and upload photos of a room to a website, with some data tags.  The application must work on any modern smart phone.

This requirement is a good candidate for a cross-platform framework, because it requires a camera and file uploads, but is not complicated in any other way.

Case Study #2

Requirement: Create a football play manager with detailed animations of the plays.

Generally, a “game-like” user interface or custom animations will require a native application.  The Unity framework is a great tool for an app like this, and is compatible with iOS and Android.

Case Study #3

Requirement: Maintenance staff complete tasks, record inventory while offline.  The staff synchronizes at the start and end of their shifts.  It must work on both Android phones and the iPod Touch.

Although there is a requirement to operate offline, a web application is well-suited for this.  It will work on both desired platforms.

Recommendations

Always consider developing a mobile web application first.  Only develop a native application if you’re building a consumer application that you want to monetize through an app store, or you need to access device resources.  If you do develop a native application, you should support at least iOS and Android.

The post Mobile Platform Choices appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

• Achieved fourth straight profitable year
• Acquired Wind-Up Studios, a Seattle based web design company
• Completed over a dozen software development projects
• Established a formal partner program
• Released an open-source jQuery data grid
• Hired a number of talented product designers and developers
• Renewed Microsoft Certified Partner status
• Started a monthly webinar series focused on software development best practices

“Surge continues to grow despite difficult economic conditions,” said Matt MacKay, CEO of Surge. “I am pleased with our 2011 results and expect to continue our rapid growth in 2012 by delivering cutting-edge software solutions to our hundreds of fantastic clients and partners.”

Surge builds new software products and apps 40% faster with 100% precision using its Specs Illustrated software design method and Surge Platform development tools. Surge has an amazing team of super-genius-creative-geeks that bring ideas to life.

About Surge

Surge brings ideas to life through web, mobile, tablet, cloud, apps and software solutions. You dream it, we build it. For more information visit www.SurgeForward.com.

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Brett works with clients to architect, design, develop, and deploy complex enterprise applications, with large and diverse users. Prior to 10X Design, Brett held positions as Director of Development for TenFold in their healthcare vertical, for PCX Systems, a healthcare company that architected, designed, built and deployed a physician order entry, admission, and billing system for Cedars Sinai Hospital, and Buck Consulting. He also led the TenFold training organization, TenFold University, where he developed training programs and helped train many new TenFold application developers.

Brett is PMP certified, and has led project management efforts at Stanford University as a Perot Systems consultant, Ingenix (a United Heath Company), and for projects during his time at TenFold.

Brett started his career with Coopers & Lybrand/PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he performed a variety of consulting services including troubled company restructuring, forensic investigation and accounting, complex bankruptcy management, and various other tax and auditing services.
Brett has performed services across the United States as well as in Europe (Switzerland) and Canada. He also spent two years in South Korea, where he learned to speak Korean and gained valuable international experience.

Brett received a Master’s degree in Accounting/Information Systems from Brigham Young University.

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Matt works with clients to conceptualize, design, develop, launch, and market elegant, powerful, easy-to-use software solutions used by thousands of users around the world. Prior to founding Surge, Matt was the Founder and CTO of RemedyMD, a healthcare software company. While at RemedyMD, he built one of the first web-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Electronic Health Record systems, used by physicians and hospitals around the country, including the Cleveland Clinic. He also filed a technology patent pertaining to dynamically expandable database schemas.

Matt is a seasoned software executive, having worked in key software engineering leadership roles at PACCAR, an international truck manufacturer, and TenFold, a software consulting and technology company founded by former Oracle executives.

Matt received a BS degree in Business Management / Information Systems from Brigham Young University.

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Erik’s prior experience includes working as the first Sales Director for RemedyMD where he was responsible for selling key accounts that generated over $1M (recurring) revenue within a year of launching the product.

While at RemedyMD, Erik forged relationships with key advisory councils and consortiums and established RemedyMD as the “gold standard” data management system within the Bariatric Surgery market. Erik has an extensive background selling innovative and disruptive medical devices. He is a prominent sales executive, having worked with major brands such as Swiss Army Wenger, DaVinci Robotic Surgery, Pfizer, Boston Scientific, and Comcast.

Erik has a unique talent in taking new products and services to market and establishing profitable and repeatable sales cycles. Examples include Trivium Medical Solutions, which became the largest Aesthetic Laser distribution force in the US, and Inhouse Consulting Group, which was recognized as one of the nation’s fastest growing credit consulting firms.

Erik likes to “parachute in behind enemy lines, establish a foothold and drive sales until we dominate the marketplace”. He received a B.S. in Physiology with a minor in Business Management from Brigham Young University and is a former member of the USA Bobsled Team.

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Garrett comes to Surge with 10 years of software experience – including time at industry leaders Siebel and Oracle, as well as smaller startup companies like RemedyMD.

He has countless hours of software design and implementation experience and has worked as a freelance web designer and developer for a variety of clients.

Garrett graduated from Brigham Young University with a BS in Zoology and a minor in Art and Design.

The post Garrett Maudsley – Design Director appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

In this role, he oversees the architectural design for all client projects. Chris is passionate about establishing and enforcing coding standards and design patterns that yield robust and elegant software from the ground up.

Prior to working at Surge, Chris worked as Solution Architect and Integration Lead for an orthopedic electronic medical records system at Medcere, and as Application Architect for billing products at CareMedic Systems.

During his 12 years of software experience, Chris has implemented high volume transactional systems that handle millions of messages per day, and has acquired vast knowledge and expertise in developing enterprise-grade software solutions, especially within the healthcare industry.

Chris believes great software architecture requires “in the trenches” experience; there is virtually no software project too large or too complicated for Chris to handle.

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He is responsible for training new developers, architecting product solutions, and leading the development teams throughout the development lifecycle.

Prior to joining Surge, Tyler worked as a Senior Developer and Team Lead for The Markets LLC, a regional grocery store chain. There he developed applications for managing inventory, product loss, and cashier performance. In addition, Tyler has worked as a freelance developer in high demand for over 6 years, developing websites and web applications for a variety of industries. He is a highly regarded .NET programmer and application architect.

Tyler graduated from Western Washington University with a major in Management Information Systems and a minor in Economics.

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Surge provided full lifecycle software development services, including design, development, testing, deployment, and support. AspirePath was built on the Surge Platform, a framework and code library that simplifies the development of rich, responsive, web, mobile, and tablet applications using MVC, jQuery, JSON, HTML 5 and other technologies.

AspirePath innovations include a flexible skills framework and a drag-and-drop career Pathways Builder. The flexible framework for learning outcomes and competencies enables organizations to capture the occupation-specific skills that employers demand so adult learners are fully prepared to enter employment. With the Pathways Builder, AspirePath automatically tracks student progress along career and learning pathways using a clear, color-coded flow chart.

AspirePath is used to manage education and employment outcomes for high school or college youth, unemployed adults, employed adults seeking career changes or advancement, and incumbent workers requiring professional development.

“We were impressed by how quickly Surge was able to complete the project so we could release Version 1.0 this year”, said Keith Watson.

“We have some amazing synergy with the AspirePath team, ” said Matt MacKay, CEO of Surge. “Our client relationships and satisfaction are our #1 priority and we are pleased to have a long-term partnership with AspirePath.”

About Surge

Surge is a leading software development & consulting firm specializing providing services to clients in the US and Canada. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in the Seattle area, Surge has successfully delivered cutting-edge web and mobile solutions to hundreds of clients in a variety of industries. For more information visit www.SurgeForward.com.

AboutAspirePath

AspirePath is a performance management software system for workforce development, training, and education organizations. This web-based software application enables workforce development and education institutions to prepare people with the job skills that employers need, set a clear pathway for each student, manage courses and employment connections, and report on results. AspirePath seamlessly integrates the management of both employment and education outcomes. For more information visit www.AspirePath.com.

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“I couldn’t be more excited to be part of the Surge team,” said Vida Clement, Vice President of Marketing. “Our combined team is able to provide a wide range of technology services, from websites, mobile apps, and social apps to database systems, business process automation, and system integrations.”

Surge provides rapid software design and development services to clients in the US and Canada and is a key partner to other B2B service companies that recognize opportunities to deliver digital systems and software solutions to their clients.

“This acquisition will help to accelerate our already rapid growth,” said Matt MacKay, CEO of Surge. “We look forward to continuing to build software solutions for our clients that provide the most intuitive and compelling user experiences.”

About Surge

Surge is a leading software development & consulting firm specializing providing services to clients in the US and Canada. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in the Seattle area, Surge has successfully delivered cutting-edge web and mobile solutions to hundreds of clients in a variety of industries.

The post Surge Acquires Web Design Agency, Wind-Up Studios appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

Surge too has invested a significant amount of time in finding the right grid for our needs.  Following the Surge philosophy of reusing open source components where possible, we have settled on the incredibly versitile SlickGrid maintained by Michael Leibman. This grid is especially impressive for its preformance and editing capabilities, for providing near-infinite row support with minimal memory usage, and for an extensible mechanism for cell-editing.

Of course everything is rarely perfect. One unfortunate disadvantage of the SlickGrid is that it uses an OO-style API that is unfamiliar to people accostumed to interacting with jquery widgets in the UI; another, is that it is relatively limited in out-of-the-box editing features. Both are issues Surge has addressed with the MIT licensed  Surge SlickGrid Extensions. These include a jQuery Ui widget which wraps the SlickGrid and allows simple declarative mark-up to define the grid, a standard set of useful editors that are not readily available in the regular SlickGrid, and a suite of other features.

Visit GitHub for full documentation

Note that the original SlickGrid project has recently moved its trunk to version 2. As this move contains many significant changes Surge SlickGrid Extensions officially supports only version 1.4.3. An effort has been made for the widget to work with v2 and the core features have no major issues, however use at your own risk as it is less tested and will on occasion result in surprising behavior.

The following series of articles will act as a tutorial for including and using the surge SlickGrid in your web application.

1. Getting and installing SlickGrid and Surge SlickGrid Extensions.
2. Getting a Simple Grid Showing With the SlickGrid Widget
3. Declarative Syntax for SlickGrid Columns
4. Surge.SlickGrid Additional Options
5. Interacting With SickGrid – Editors and Events
6. Surge SlickGrid Standard Formatters and Editors
7. Applying Client-Side Filters To Surge SlickGrid
8. Dead Simple Bottomless Scrolling with The Surge JSONDataSource
9. Autoheight With No Vertical Scrolling
10. SlickGrid in jQuery Ui Dialogs

See the demo site for the capabilities provided by Surge SlickGrid Extensions

The post Slick Grid Extentions appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

“Specs Illustrated” design method, which produced visual software specifications that closely resembled the final product.
The latest programming technologies, including MVC, jQuery, HTML 5, and JSON, resulting in a rich, highly responsive, and robust web application.
Surge Platform; a development framework and code library that simplifies the development of rich internet applications and mobile apps.
Industry-leading team of technology professionals
Surge handled all aspects of the product creation, including design, development, testing, and deployment, and continues to provide ongoing support and maintenance services.

“Senior Care is the result of the perfect combination of Surge’s technology and our senior’s housing operations expertise,” said Jeff Christie, Chief Business Officer of Senior Care Software, Inc.” Surge has been a fantastic technology partner for us. They successfully captured our vision and delivered a modern, web-based, software product that has no equal in the marketplace. Our project was completed in a few short months and even includes a tool to help migrate data over the Senior Care’s web application when new clients decide to come on with us.”

“Senior Care is a good example of what can happen when art and science converge, ” said Matt MacKay, CEO of Surge Consulting Group. “It is a beautiful software product, in both functionality and design. We are excited to help Senior Care Software grow their business.”

About Surge Consulting Group
Surge Consulting Group Surge is a leading software development & consulting firm specializing in web, cloud, SaaS, RIA, mobile, tablet, and integration solutions. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in the Seattle area with satellite offices around the US and Canada, Surge has successfully delivered cutting-edge web and mobile software solutions to hundreds of clients in a variety of industries. For more information visit www.SurgeForward.com.

About Senior Care Software
Senior Care Software provides innovative, easy to use software solutions for private, public, and not-for-profit Seniors Housing environments. Based in Alberta, Canada, Senior Care has provided software solutions to hundreds of clients in Canada and the US. For more information visit www.seniorcaresoftware.com.

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Firefox

Firebug

FireQuery

Internet Explorer

Firebug Lite

Chrome

Fiddler

The post Useful Browser Extentions appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

Inside of our dialog, we can now access this success call back by doing yourSelector.dialog(“option”, “success”);

Lets give a real world example. This dialog runs the success function passed as an argument when one of the buttons is clicked.

This function displays our dialog:

Now for some of the code inside of the dialog’s ready event.

As is relatively clear in the code, only when the “Choose Highlighted Location” button is clicked is the function we passed into the dialog’s options object called. Keep in mind, this function could be called in response to any event you want, not only a button click!

The post Getting a Value Back from a jQuery Dialog appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

“Super search” is a generic term meaning orderless word search, as that “foo bar” and “bar foo” discover the same results. This code can go anytime after jQuery UI library is loaded.

This code shamelessly uses some of my favorite libraries but could be easily crafted to work without them.

linq.js
underscore.js
And also makes use of the following function:

The post Making jQuery UI Autocomplete “Super Search” appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

var workOrdersQuery = DataContext.Current.Get&lt;EventWorkOrder&gt;().Where(t =&gt; t.WONumber == 3);    // No query has been performed yet!var workOrdersCount = workOrdersQuery.Count(); // This runs the query of SELECT COUNT(*) FROM slx_EventWorkOrder ....</pre><pre>var workOrdersList = workOrdersQuery.ToList(); // This runs a query joining in all relatedtables and selecting all columnsforeach (var workOrder in workOrdersQuery)   // This is also accessing an enumeration of the data set! This performs the same query as ToList()Console.WriteLine(workOrder.Subject);</pre><pre>

As you see in the comments, 3 queries were performed across what is inevitably the same result set. Rather suboptimal. The best idea is to store an enumerated data set. This way the results are stored in memory and the enumerable LINQ provider is used, instead of the Nen data provider which will re-access the database.

</pre><pre>var workOrdersList = DataContext.Current.Get&lt;EventWorkOrder&gt;().Where(t =&gt; t.WONumber == 3).ToList();  // Our query is performed and the result set gets stored in memoryvar workOrdersCount = workOrdersList.Count();  // The count is performed on the collection in memory, not in the database!foreach (var workOrder in workOrdersList)    // This also does not perform a query, but instead  uses the collection from memoryConsole.WriteLine(workOrder.Subject);</pre><pre>

This can be used to move operations to/from the database. Webservers are often more scalable than database servers, and ordering operations can be costly, so it’s often a good idea for the ordering operation to be performed by the webserver.  This can not be done if a limited subset needs to be returned from the database (using Take/Skip)

</pre><pre>var workOrdersQuery = DataContext.Current.Get&lt;EventWorkOrder&gt;().Where(t =&gt; t.WONumber == 3).ToList()   // The query is performed here.OrderBy(t =&gt; t.Subject).ThenBy(t =&gt; t.RequestorName);   // The OrderBy and ThenBy are being performed bythe internal Enumerable LINQ operator, and thusly, happen on the webserver, not the database.</pre><pre>

Functions which filter data should return an IQueryable<T> to prevent enumeration from occurring prematurely. The following examples never perform queries when called.

</pre><pre>public IQueryable&lt;EventWorkOrder&gt; GetThirdWorkOrders(){return DataContext.Current.Get&lt;EventWorkOrder&gt;().Where(t =&gt; t.WONumber == 3);}public IQueryable&lt;EventWorkOrder&gt; GetThirdWorkOrders(IQueryable&lt;EventWorkOrder&gt; query){return query.Where(t =&gt; t.WONumber == 3);}</pre><pre>

It is always wisest to reduce the number of round trips when ever possible.

</pre><pre>var thirdWorkOrders = DataContext.Current.Get&lt;EventWorkOrder&gt;().Where(t =&gt; t.WONumber == 3).ToList();var fourthWorkOrders = DataContext.Current.Get&lt;EventWorkOrder&gt;().Where(t =&gt; t.WONumber == 4).ToList();</pre><pre>

This will cause two round trips to happen. Optimally, one trip would be performed then they would be split on the web server as such:

</pre><pre>var workOrders = DataContext.Current.Get&lt;EventWorkOrder&gt;().Where(t =&gt; t.WONumber == 3 || t.WONumber == 4).ToList();var thirdWorkOrders = workOrders.Where(t =&gt; t.WONumber == 3);var fourthWorkOrders = workOrders.Where(t =&gt; t.WONumber == 4);</pre><pre>

It’s really that simple. For further reading googling the topics of expression trees, delayed exection, and reading up on creating LINQ data providers are all good sources.

The post Optimal Nen Queries, Part 1: Delayed Execution appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.

• A Rich Internet Application (RIA) that runs as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the Cloud
• An HTML 5 based Mobile App that works in connected or disconnected modes
• A customized Reporting Tool that integrates with SQL Server Reporting Services
• A Data Conversion Utility designed to easily upgrade existing clients
• This comprehensive suite of software applications was developed over a period of several months utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as ASP.NET MVC 3, jQuery, JSON, and HTML 5.

“We spent a significant amount of time deciding on the right vendor to build this new suite of software applications for us because we wanted this software to be modern, elegant, and robust in both design and functionality,” said Kyle Adamo, VP of Product for Windmill Software. “Surge demonstrated that they have the team and technologies to turn our vision into reality. We are extremely pleased with the finished product and our clients are delighted.”

Surge demonstrated its value proposition of 40% Faster, 100% Precision, 10x More Productive through the use of its Surge Development Platform, Specs Illustrated Method, and Expert Team of Software Designers, Developers, Project Managers, and Testers.

“We have enjoyed this project immensely, ” said Matt MacKay, CEO of Surge Consulting Group. “The software we built for Windmill rivals any line of business application on the market today. With this new software product, Windmill has been able to rapidly grow its sales and expand into new markets. We continue to work with Windmill on subsequent versions of this software suite and look forward to a long and prosperous relationship.”

About Surge Consulting Group
Surge Consulting Group provides custom software design, development, testing, and integration services to clients worldwide. As an outsourced provider of software development services, Surge specializes in Web Applications, Rich Internet Applications (RIA), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Apps, Web Portals, Business Intelligence, Database Solutions, and Mobile Apps. Surge’s “Agile” team can work remotely on any project anywhere in the world regardless of location. The Surge Platform, Specs Illustrated method, and veteran US-based team make it possible for Surge to build enterprise-grade software solutions in up to 40% less time with 100% precision. For more information go to www.SurgeForward.com.

About Windmill Software
Windmill Software Inc., the company behind TheWorxHub, has applied three decades of software development, training and implementation experience to its creation. This all-new, next-generation product takes advantage of advances in technology and extends support beyond maintenance management (offered for the past decade through PM Worx) to all senior living operations -  housekeeping, room bookings, transportation, IT, catering, security, and activities. In creating an integrated suite of applications designed specifically to support high-quality, cost-effective front-line service delivery, the Worx team is once again demonstrating their longstanding commitment to making things easier for senior living residents, the staff that serve them, and the executives who are accountable for results.  For more information go to www.theworxhub.com.

The post Custom Software Development Firm Builds New Software Suite appeared first on Surge | Custom Software Development & Consulting | Ideas Brought to Life.