Monday 24 February 2014

Wireframing with WireframeSketcher



design-520x245The importance of wireframing an application to allow free and frank discussions with a potential client, cannot I think, be overstated. To this end we use WireframeSketcher. Potential clients generally dont care about the technology behind an application, indeed they dont really care about the controls you use. They just want to know how they will interact with it.
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Written by Conrad Rowlands, Senior Systems Architect and Developer, DSCallards

Warm Fuzzy Feeling

Software matters, this much we have ascertained from an earlier blog on ‘that car!’. I think it may be fair to draw a comparison in some ways between something else that really does matter, relationships.  Like any relationship we should be in it for the long haul,  ultimately everybody gets much more out of the software if its not a quick ‘get it done and boot it out of the door’ thing. There’s no feelings of guilt about having done a half job nor the shame of being in it for the one thing, money. In addition there is no awkward history to catch up with you when you least expect it and no sense of the whole relationship being just another logo on your ‘customers’ page .

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Written by Conrad Rowlands, Senior Systems Architect and Developer, DSCallards

Ascertaining Geographic Data within an SSIS Import

Capture
So, You probably had it before… A client asks you to plot their addressing data on a map of some sort. Its not an issue you tell them, make sure that within the the data you have the appropriate latitude/longitude data for the address and we will do the rest.. And thats where the awkward silence starts, they haven’t got this data, they NEVER have and data costs!

There are of course ways around this with Google maps of course being top of the list of possible non paying solutions. I thought I’d share my experiences of this with you…. We needed to implement an address look up on an initial import of data using our ETL tool (SSIS). Whilst not being major surgery this is slightly more than ten minutes work …..

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Written by Conrad Rowlands, Senior Systems Architect and Developer, DSCallards