Conarc Staff Blog

Support Policy Change

March 5, 2010 – 1:06 am

A letter from our Support Manager
__________

Dear Sir or Madam,

In a effort to better serve your support needs, we are making the following change to our support policy:

As of March 8, 2010, we will assign higher priority to tickets submitted through the our support website at http://support.conarc.com/ .

The ticket submission form on the site has been changed in order to gather more up-front information. This will allow us to respond to your tickets quicker, more accurately, and with less back-and-forth.

You will still be able to send in tickets via e-mail and track them through our the site; however, we hope that by submitting your incident at http://support.conarc.com, you will find faster resolutions.

Thank you,

Conarc Support Team

By mchu | Posted in the Blog | Tagged Support | Comments (0)

IQToolkit in Production: Why IQToolkit?

March 2, 2010 – 10:56 am

IQToolkit started out as a blog series with the purpose of showing how to create an IQueryable provider. As the series grew, the sample code became a toolkit that could be used to simplify the creation of an IQueryable provider. Additionally, the toolkit included a few implementations of the framework such as ORMs for Access, MySql, SQL Server, SQL Server Compact, and SQLite. Out of this list, I could use the SQL Server provider but finding a replacement for LINQ to SQL wasn’t the goal that lead me to the IQToolkit blog series. The goal was to find an ORM for Visual FoxPro data or find out how to write a provider. I was unable to find a VFP ORM so I wrote my own (LINQ to VFP) and put it up on codeplex as an open source project.

So to answer the question… Why IQToolkit? Using this toolkit with the SQL Server provider and the VFP provider allows us to be consistent with our data access code. In the not so distant past, we were using LINQ to SQL for SQL Server data access which included its nice strongly typed entity classes. But with VFP data we used DataTables. Using two different approaches just didn’t feel right.

By tbrothers | Posted in Development | Tagged IQToolkit, LINQ to VFP | Comments (0)

Subversion is Rocket Science Without Requiring A Rocket Science Degree

February 28, 2010 – 11:13 am

After using Microsoft’s Visual SourceSafe for the greater part of 10 years Conarc has had code to track, we converted to Subversion. We made the switch almost a year ago and have been happy ever since. I too had used VSS for the majority of professional career and just accepted the flaws, code destruction, and administration hard-ships.

Problems We Had with VSS

More times than not we had to rebuild or repair the database.
It’s slow…No. It’s grow-old-with-pressure-sores slow…when working off the LAN. We tried using it over a VPN connection and through the WebService plug-in to Visual Studio with IIS on the server. Forget it
The user administration is half-baked and not well (if at all) integrated with Active Directory
Merging was a pain if not completely confusing. We decided to stay with Exclusive checkouts and just yell over the cubes to each other when someone had to use a file
It’s rumored that Microsoft isn’t/wasn’t using it in-house for their development

While the above points aren’t numerous, they’re all galatically important to the viability of a source & version control system. We used these dissatisfactions to find a replacement.

The Replacements

It only took a small amount of research. Microsoft Team System or Subversion. Both had a good price: TFS is part of our Microsoft Partner MSDN Subscription and Subversion is open source. Both were better peforming than Visual SourceSafe (easy enough to jump that hurdle). We chose Subversion though for the following reasons:

Stability of datastore: The database back-end is file-based and well formed. Also, backup is a cinch. Zip up the directories and push them to a Drobo or other such NAS. Test recovery is just as easy reversing this process.
Speed: Updates and commits are almost as fast as standard file transfers since it is file-based.
Setting user access: We administer the repositories by simply setting directory security where the repo resides.
Good UI: We wanted an easy UI for use inside and outside Visual Studio. There are numerous plug-ins (AnkhSVN), Explorer shell additions (TortoiseSVN) and full Windows apps available that provide great interfaces to interact with the SVN repos.
Merging code: The merge tools that are included with the above UI apps are usually awesome out of the box, but often you can even plug in your own. I have my devenv set to use WinMerge.
Just good source control: TFS has project management and other cool solutions in it, but we have all those processes in place in other systems/business workflows because VSS didn’t have them. We sought to keep the migration a simple one-for-one replacment
Rumors Aside: I’m not sure what MS uses but dogfooding is so important to any software shop

Our conversion at Conarc worked out so well that I put Subversion to work for my personal projects/sites using RabbitVCS on my Linux systems.

Give Subversion a try on a project or two if you’re hoping to leave Visual SourceSafe behind.

By mchu | Posted in the Blog | Tagged Lessons Learned, Software | Comments (0)

FlexiCapture and the Art of MotorCycle Maintenance

February 26, 2010 – 10:39 am

In my experience with using FlexiCapture 9.0 along with FlexiLayout 9.0, there have been several problems or “gotchas” when it comes to defining an accurate, unstructured document:

- FlexiLayout is very robust in terms of its abilities to find almost any printed or written text on a page. However, you definitely need to sit down and PLAN how the document flows. Specifically, find out the static text elements that are always on the page, and then determine how their position relates to the data elements that you want to capture.

- When defining a data field in FlexiCapture Document Designer, be sure to take advantage of the customized dictionaries available. This narrows down what FlexiCapture looks for when scanning a document, and it increases the accuracy of the data extraction. This is especially true for address fields (street number, street name, city, state and zip)

- Make VERY sure that you know what resolution your production documents are going to be scanned in, and that the FlexiCapture document design matches that resolution. Failure to do this will cause you ENDLESS headaches when it comes to document recognition and accurate data extraction.

While the learning curve for designing unstructured documents in FlexiCapture and FlexiLayout can be daunting (especially when you have no classroom training), I have found that simple trial and error is the best way of learning both products. When you ram your head into a wall enough times, eventually the drywall will give way and produce a nice, big hole! <g>

Also, FlexiCapture’s ability to extract data from and route scanned documents makes it a perfect complement to iChannel. Both products can be used to form a seamless document management solution. After all, when you’re done extracting the data from a document, it begs the question: What are you going to do with those documents after that? Send them to entity specific and searchable file areas, of course.

By bholton | Posted in the Blog | Tagged Programming, Software | Comments (0)

Get Your Head In the Cloud

February 9, 2010 – 9:33 pm

I’m a geek. I admit it without a single shred of embarrassment. I have 14 computing devices at home ranging from a hand-me-down PCs to the latest iPhone and virtualized servers. They run on operating systems from Windows XP to flavors of Linux and Apple’s OS. The best part of this is that I don’t care where I sit down to work or play. All my computing is in the cloud and completely device and OS-independent. I don’t even care where I am in the world.

If you’re not headed towards Cloud Computing already, you’re behind. That’s it.

I use Google Docs for office file editing, Netflix and Hulu for entertainment, Mint and QuickbooksOnline for finance, Google Appengine for development projects and websites; even Passpack to keep my passwords secure.

My professional side is no different. Critical company files, emails, calendar activities, and CRM data are in iChannel, our Content Management System.

Keeping everything in the cloud has the advantages of being secured against unauthorized access and disaster, provides immediate availability and total mobility. Even though hardware has become less expensive, mobility has become the technology front-runner and has already altered the traditional office landscape.

Plan to soar through the Cloud and you’ll be moving faster and more flexibly than ever before.

Heads up: After Cloud Computing will be location-based and just-in-time/predictive services.

- Mike Chu

By mchu | Posted in the Blog | Tagged Definitions, Software | Comments (2)

Reaching for the Brass Ring: GSA Schedule 70

January 27, 2010 – 9:44 am

Well…..it seems like it’s about time we get on a GSA Contract. I have had enough conversations with services that aid in the process, that lead me to believe that because we are who we are at Conarc (minority owned, small business), and develop a custom application that no one else has (in iChannel), we stand a very good chance at producing sizable revenues, without putting myself through RFP hell. Because we will go down as a “service provider”, we will avoid the painstaking entry into governmental purchasing bliss.

We will run under Schedule 70…. GSA IT contracts (computer hardware contracts, computer software contracts, IT professional service contracts, computer peripheral contracts, and all other IT related contracts).�

The contract will take roughly 500 man hours to complete. Then, it needs to be accepted by the GSA, before we can begin the process of responding to the needs of the any Federal Agency on contract. Hmmm…you think there is a need for document structure, organization by topic/entity, and security around file sharing of information in the government? Yeah…I didn’t think so….lets scrap it! Only kidding, and I am actually very excited to get going on this.

Working GSA contracts can only add to the positive outlook I’ve got for 2010. There are a lot of companies that will assist in this process. Because we are small, and I’m running with full time sales as well, this type of service comes as a great help to me. The contract is good for five years, and comes with a guarantee by the federal government that if you aren’t chosen (by a date that I am yet to get an answer on…..so far….my answer was…”it’s up to the Govt”), they will kick in $2,500 as reimbursement, as does the company that’s assisting us in getting on contract.

We will still need to market to the agencies just as we would in any other business oriented market, build our relationships, manage sales cycles, etc.

I do not anticipate the orders to fall into my lap. However, I do look forward to working into new and exciting areas where iChannel has yet to make a name for itself.

I am certain that it will!

Jim Keenan
Vice President Sales
Conarc, Inc.
678-687-2607

By jkeenan | Posted in the Blog | Tagged Sales | Comments (0)

3 Solid Reasons to Not Bother with Unit Testing

January 26, 2010 – 7:00 pm

Feel free to argue with me, but for the return on invested time, money, & resources, Automated User Interface Testing (AUIT; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUI_software_testing) is a far more accurate measure of how software will perform in the field especially when developing a web application.

Unit Testing (UT) does great at ensuring all methods (individual software actions) have proper results now and as code evolves, but if your concern is for the end-user experience (and it should be), AUIT provides the best results for the programming man-hour outlay.

Here are 3 solid reasons to go with AUIT over UT:

1) Automated User: A clinical review of all the end-user interaction with the various functions, buttons, fields, URLs, etc should be tested after each production build. Users enter all kinds of random garbage into web forms. Plug in some of the crazy stuff from your support/ticket system.

2) Volume: Automated volume testing will show how the software and server combination will handle 100, 1000, 10000 hits/minute. This will ensure the experience is fluid and request-to-response rates are acceptable.

Side Note: Users won’t wait more than 10 seconds before freaking out and clicking again or leaving a page. Keep it under 6 seconds or at least give them a UI clue that processing is underway. This is a topic for a later post.

3) Legacy Code: Where code exists that wasn’t designed with testing in mind (be honest, there’s a lot out there), AUIT is the only real solution.

We use a combination of WatiN (http://watin.sourceforge.net/) after compilation for our automated testing. Then, manual testing occurs once a month before the release. Based on the specifications detailed our iChannel Projects entry, we validate that new features fit the intended business process/workflow which is something that can’t be automated.

Use automated testing judiciously. If copious resources are available, add Unit Testing, but put primary testing efforts as close to the end-user experience as possible through Automated User Interface Testing.

Mike Chu
Developer
www.conarc.com

By mchu | Posted in the Blog | Tagged Definitions, Programming, Software | Comments (2)

Enterprise Content Management vs. Web Content Management

January 22, 2010 – 3:11 pm

Yes….believe it or not, there is a significant difference in both Enterprise, and Web Content Management. Sparking this enlightening editorial was a demonstration of iChannel I performed this am for a Hospital, who was looking for WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT, all along. I think they were hoping that I was saving the best for last, the juicy web related content goodies.

Web Content management is software that will manage HTML content. It’s used to primarily control and manage Web-related material. I see a pattern here folks…..THE WEB! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_content_management

iChannel is a tool for the Enterprise, to be used as a Content Management tool.
Content = Documents, Emails, Contacts, Projects, Activities, Reminders, Calendering etc…

Yes, iChannel is delivered as a Web/Browser Based application and tool, this still doesn’t give it the title of a Web Content Manager. Yes, somewhat confusing, but not really if you do a little homework. Our strengths lie in creating a single, browser based “go to” portal, for all that is your clients. We eliminate the need to run multiple applications to get your daily activities accomplished when it comes to your client, no matter what industry you are in. Give us a call, we’ll show you how to better your business process when it comes to the most important part of the business, your customer.

Jim Keenan
Vice President Sales
Conarc, Inc.
770-849-0508 ex.116

By jkeenan | Posted in the Blog | Tagged Definitions | Comments (0)

Blogging Our Ideas, Goings-On, and Killer Findings

January 21, 2010 – 11:21 am

Conarc has been so focused on vetting and converging architectures of best of breed technologies for more than 10 years that we haven’t spent time on giving back to the wealth of information on the Internet. Thus, the birth of this blog.

Here, we’ll write up and/or video some of our favorite technologies, processing/work-flow ideas, developed platforms, best practices (yeah that seems to be a old fad word does it?), and new features/directions for the future.

Our entire staff will contribute when they come into some really cool information that we know you’d love to know about. This blog will not censored by Management, run through Legal, etc, but will be an honest location for professionally-presented and intriguing content that we really think is worthwhile.

It’s social so feel free to join in and become part of the process. We always love to hear from and respectfully collaborate with our existing and future clients.

When we can solve some really tough problem with a slick solution, it makes us happy. We’re all geeks at heart and love this stuff from front to back.

- Mike Chu

By mchu | Posted in the Blog | Comments (0)