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Ruby on Rails: Using Exchange Web Services from a Rails App

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:20:59 GMT

EWS is a SOAP service for interacting with data stored in an Exchange server. You can use it to get a list of events from the calendar, or a list of emails. You can also create or delete items in exchange. In my app, I wanted to create events on an Exchange calendar when a user was assigned to a scheduled task. I also wanted to delete events, and possibly create new ones, if the user was removed or re-assigned.

I’ll be demonstrating how to use cURL to consume the EWS services. I’ve created a very simple rails project as a sample which is available at GitHub. EWS-Connect

iPhone SDK: Testing Network Reachability

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:36:33 GMT

Check Network Resources Before Use

Using Facebook-connect for iPhone to post stories to Facebook is a great feature to add to your iPhone application. But what happens if the user has no access to the network? If you don’t check the network, the answer is nothing. This leads to user confusion, and it will prevent your app from being approved for the App Store.

So, how do you check? Apple provided a sample application called Reachability which provides the answer. I’ll demonstrate here. In several blog posts people felt that the Reachability sample was overkill for their needs. If you agree, here’s a link to a recipe from The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook that provides an alternate solution. Even if you don’t plan on using it, I recommend reading through the code in the Reachability example.

iPhone SDK: UINavigationController, Hiding the Navigation Bar

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:56:09 GMT

Hide and Show the Navigation Bar to Maximize the View Area

The method that makes this easy is:

- (void)setNavigationBarHidden:(BOOL)hidden animated:(BOOL)animated

I’ll create a sample project to demonstrate how the method works. To keep it simple, the sample project will consist of only one view controller. It will have a single button that toggles the navigation bar between hidden and visible states. I know this defeats the purpose of a navigation controller, but multiple controllers aren’t required for this demonstration.

iPhone SDK: Using Facebook Connect for iPhone, Working with Extended Permissions Part 2 of 2

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 01:59:16 GMT

Clearing Up UI Confusion

In part one, I describe using the Facebook Connect for iPhone SDK. In the sample application provided by Facebook, a Get Permission button checks to see if the user has granted the appropriate extended permission to the application. It is a permission to post status updates. The permission needs to be granted only once. If the user clicks the button after permission is granted, they see this message: You have already granted this permission to the application. This begs the question, why display the button after permission is granted?

iPhone SDK: Using Facebook Connect for iPhone Part 1 of 2

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:39:44 GMT

Sharing with Friends, Now Even Easier

Earlier this week Facebook released Facebook Connect for iPhone, which allows us to connect iPhone apps to the Facebook web site. Facebook Connect for iPhone is a set of classes that can be added to your xCode project and used to ease the process of logging into the site, granting extended permissions and posting status updates to the feed.

The documentation and the video provided by Facebook assume a certain level of experience creating Facebook apps. The process of creating an App, and creating Template Data for Feed stories was only briefly covered and not explained in their documentation. I’ll provide a little more background on those tasks here in part one.

iPhone SDK: Resizing a UITableViewCell to Hold Variable Amounts of Text, Part 2 of 2

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:56:08 GMT

Completing the UITextView Example

In part one, I demonstrated how to use a UITextView and a UITableViewCell to create a field for users to enter large amounts of text. After the text is saved, I’d like to display that text in a different table. The problem is I don’t know the height of the text. I’ll tackle that problem now so that a table view cell can display text of variable lengths.

iPhone SDK: Using a UITableViewCell with a UITextView for Entering Text, Part 1 of 2

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:57:05 GMT

When a Simple Text Field Won’t Do

When entering lots of text, sometimes a simple text field won’t do the trick. Especially if you want to imitate the look of Apple Applications such as iCal. You need to use a table view and a custom table view cell, as I will demonstrate. Apple provides a good example of this using code. I’ll demonstrate how to do the same trick using Interface Builder. Apple’s sample: UICatalog

This is a two part blog. Part one describes how to create a text entry field. Part two, will describe displaying variable amounts of text in a table view cell, and adjusting the height of the cell to hold all of the text. Creating a controller for entering text, and a controller to display all of the text in a table view cell is the goal.

iPhone SDK: UITabBarController, How to Save User Customized Tab Order

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:48:09 GMT

Even with Apple’s iPhone SDK, There’s No Free Lunch.

With the UITabBarController Apple has provided tons of functionality for free. One thing that the UITabBarController does not do is save the order of the tabs when a user changes them, so we have to do that task by ourselves.

In this post, I’ll explain how and share sample project files.

iPhone SDK: Creating a Modal Tab Bar Controller

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:47:11 GMT

In the Apple Developer Forum for iPhone SDK, I noticed a question about how to create a UITabBarController in a Modal View. Since I was curious, I decided to test it out. Here’s my project, and the steps I took to create it. Start by creating a new project in Xcode using the view based application project template….

Improving SEO With XML Site Mapping

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:29:14 GMT

If you're working on improving SEO for your website, or for one of your client's, you've probably had a need to create an XML site map. An XML site map is a file that lists the URLs in a website. It also allows you to include additional information about each URL such as the date it was last updated, or how often it changes.

I'll lead you through the steps to create an XML Sitemap using Radiant CMS

RaddOnline® awarded SF County Transportation Authority Project

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:03:41 GMT

Day 3 of Amazon's Troubles

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 15:44:02 GMT

We're now on the third day of trouble for Amazon Web Services and they are still reporting trouble. Well over 50 hours now puts them at at least 10 times their yearly downtime limits. Oh well, as a good friend of mine told me yesterday, "whatayagunnado".

Amazon EC2 and RDS Offline

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:51:03 GMT

Amazon says performance issues affected instances of its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service and its Relational Database Service, and it’s “continuing to work towards full resolution”. These are hosted in its North Virginia data centre.

GymRat version 1.1.2 is on iTunes app store!

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:24:00 GMT

New Update for GymRat for iPhone is out today that will take care of some bug fixes. We’ve also enhanced the email feature so you can email your workouts or gym class information from within the application.

Now Available! New version of GymRat for the iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:51:35 GMT

GymRat version 1.1.1 is now on the Apple Store. Get it now!

GymRat is all about your workout success – how often you’ve worked out this week and how you improve over time. Dare to challenge yourself, your friends and workout buddies to top your best times. Share your favorite cardio, strength training, and interval and cross training workouts so everyone can feel the burn. You know you are stronger than most athletes. Personal trainers use GymRat to manage your clients’ workout profiles, details & results. Class Instructors can email your class or post your class information and updates to Facebook and keep your fans updated with latest 411!

For more information or a preview, check us out at http://raddonline.com.

BizConf 2010 August 3-6

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:38:14 GMT

On the road again…Bizconf

The premier business learning and networking conference for owners and managers of software development firms will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island, Florida

Attending Agile Development Practices | West

Mon, 24 May 2010 19:35:15 GMT

We're heading to Vegas for ADP West June 9 & 10. Are you going? Drop us a line and let's meet!

GymRat for the iPhone is now on the Apple Store!

Fri, 01 May 2009 21:20:26 GMT

Now Available! GymRat for your iPhone! Get it now! GymRat is all about your workout success – how often you’ve worked out this week and how you improve over time. Dare to challenge yourself, your friends and workout buddies to top your best times. Share your favorite cardio, strength training, and interval and cross training workouts so everyone can feel the burn. You know you are stronger than most athletes.

Now Available! New! GottaGet Version 1.3

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:57:14 GMT

Apple Computer approved the latest version of GottaGet! Version 1.3 now available for download. You can now manage multiple lists, each consisting of a GottaGet list and an Everything list. You can create a special list for travel and swap the items onto the GottaGet list while you pack. Create as many lists as you need. Go to either the GottaGet or Everything list and click the Menu button. Then click Manage GottaGet Lists to add and edit lists.

Lifehacking finds GottaGet "damn handy"

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:02:27 GMT

A shopping list on your cell phone is not overly "geeky" and "nerdy"? Perhaps, but I must say that GottaGet for iPhone is damn handy.