Recently, i have started my own project to create a new web app. Due to the secrecy of the matter : ) i cannot get into details. But this post is not about my web app, it is about the design process.
I am an avid fan of Theme Forest (
www.themeforest.net ) which offers some great website templates at very reasonable prices considering the work and hours put into them. They also offer a category of "Admin Templates", which as many of you know are the back-end products alot of our customers see when they login to our online solutions.
Now i put the two together. My own web app project is quite complex, enough that i would like to spend 80% of my time on the code side, testing, writing, and making sure the product functions 100% before unleashing on the public. That said, i am funding the entire project myself, so hiring a designer to do the UI is out of the question. After many latenights looking for an online template solution, i found Theme Forest to be the only site close enough to offer some Web App UI templates.
Until i saw the License issues, which wont work for me. So i went ahead and invested the time to make my own UI.
So here is my opinion, hope, and dream. Will someone make a website, much to the likes of Theme Forest, that offers Web Application UI templates?!
My thought of the day.
Very helpful articles on the most common browsers used and percentage of screen resolution used. I personally am very happy to see that only 4% of internet users are still at 800x600px screen resolution and around 46.5% of internet users are using FireFox.
As a web developer that can do nothing but make you smile.
Browser Statistics
Browser Display Statistics
So i finally had some time lastnight to look into LINQ for ASP.NET 3.5. It is simply amazing. I currently build all my applications using ADO.NET, which i think works really well, but at times this approach can be time consuming, building your datatables and your select, insert, update, and delete statements along with your business logic.
With LINQ, you simply create your LINQ to SQL class and instantiate a datacontext on the page accessing data, write a few lines to return data from your datacontext, and bind the data to your control.
I returned a list of users within a couple of minutes after creating my LINQ to SQL class.
I am now a LINQ lover.
My only concerns about LINQ are with an application i am currently building. I can see the ease of access to selects, inserts, updates, and deletes as a MAJOR plus to using LINQ, however i am also going to need a complex reporting engine and at this time i don't know if LINQ can help. I have seen examples of table joins for LINQ on the web and selecting data from multiple tables, so is it more of a learning curve i will need to conquer or is it in fact a limitation that LINQ cannot provide?
If you have used LINQ, i would love to hear feedback.
As for now, i guess i will head down LINQ road and see where i end up...
A must read for all ASP.NET developers.
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When they start making glow in the dark humans, i'm making a career change!
Developer --> Mad Scientist
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What a great weekend! This year's event was awesome. All teams did a GREAT job on their charity's new websites and solutions. I was very impressed with the end results of all the teams.
I am stoked to see the progression this event has made in just it's 2nd year of existence. Last year's event was fun, but only 1 site went live out of the 7 or 8 charities that signed up. This year, i believe all 8 out of 8 charities will have their solutions go live within the weeks to come.
My team did an exceptional job. We had the task of helping
We Care Ministries "re-vamp" their existing website with a new look and feel along with adding news and events. Thanks to the leaders of the event, we were able to incorporate
Sitefinity as the CMS tool for the site, which will allow for our charity to constantly update the website as needed without any outside help.
All in all, i think this years event was a great success and i look forward to attending next year.