„RIA goes mobile“ : My article on Sencha Touch published in Mobile Technology
In the last years I had the chance to develop some applications with the ExtJS RIA framework and I was deeply impressed by the flexibility and power of the framework. I think, that the programming...
View Article"Civilization: The west and the rest" - a review
I just finished listening to the audio book "Civilization: The West and the Rest" by Niall Ferguson. While listening I was on one hand fascinated by the intellectual depth and granular details of the...
View ArticleWhat is software architecture?
Every software system has to adhere to certain requirements. Most of the time this means making the life of users easier by providing functions relevant and helpful for their work. Additionally, the...
View ArticleSOA Service Design - Part 1
In recent years SOA has come out of the „trough of disillusionment”. Many companies and IT service providers now use it in earnest to strengthen reuse, agility and quality and to decrease cost. But one...
View ArticleSOA Service Design - Part 2
In part 1, we tried to come up with a way to discover the services needed for a new application. The method we explore mainly uses the processes (or use cases) of the respective application, tries to...
View ArticleSOA Service Design - Part 3
In this third part of my discussion of SOA service design I’d like to concentrate on how to group and structure the services found. Let’s remember: the general goal we’re trying to achieve here is to...
View ArticleShould Domain Objects contain business logic?
Recently I started a discussion with another software architect about where to implement the business logic in a SOA-like business layer. There would be service classes with methods which implement...
View Article10 Golden Rules when working with Sencha Touch and JavaScript
Lately I had the chance to work extensively with Sencha Touch again, which is really a great framework. Here is some of the advice I have to offer:1. Be mindful of bracketsIf you open a bracket always...
View ArticleTextfield with an image: how to write a Sencha Touch 2 component
Let's assume we'd want to write a component, which displays a string together with an image. This would come in handy, if we need to display the name of a customer (e.g. 'Pfefferminzia') and it's logo....
View Article"100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People" - a Review
I discovered this very worthwhile book by Susan M. Weinschenk some weeks ago in a tweet about design nd presentation literature.I simply love this book. It's about the psychology of design and covers...
View ArticleHow to create a software architecture
Lately, I participated in an ISAQB certification for software architects. Part of the training was about the process, how to create a software architecture. The trainer focused on factors and...
View ArticleThe importance of Software Architecture in Agile projects
Last week I gave a presentation on agile project management. One of the talk's main points is, that software architecture and documentation are very important even in agile projects. That’s contrary to...
View ArticleBots, brains and beer: looking back on Devoxx 2012
It’s barely one week since Devoxx and I already miss it. For the four of us, software architects and developers from Frankfurt, Germany, Devoxx started with Belgian beer (s. picture). And Belgian beer...
View ArticleExtJS Game of life – testing the Ext.draw library
I always wanted to check out the ExtJS graphics library (Ext.draw) and thus I decided to implement the Game of Life in ExtJS as a kind of prototype. The following screenshot shows the results, a...
View ArticleThe third age of portals
After their advent in the late nineties web portals came a long way. Nowadays, they are complex and powerful tools – which demand knowledge and experience to be utilized. To understand this, it is...
View ArticleAn HTML5 canvas component for ExtJS 4
As I described in another post, ExtJS 4 features components for graphics ("Ext.draw.Component") which are based on the standard HTML SVG tag. But what if we liked to use a <canvas> tag? ExtJS...
View ArticleSoftware Architecture - more than documents
As I read the following sentence in an IT magazine some days ago it immediately caught my attention: „Also, in smaller projects architecture (the documentation of the software solution) is obligatory....
View ArticleAchieving reuse with web portals
When I ask, what to expect most from a web portal, ten years ago I would have received the answer “Single-Sign-on”. Nowadays, the answer is “Increase time to market by reuse”. So, reuse is the word....
View ArticlePortal Anti-Patterns - Installment 1: Misuse of portlets
In my IT consulting projects I regularly get the chance to inspect enterprise web portals and to take a deep look at their software architecture. What my team and I find there is troublesome at best....
View ArticleDevoxx 2013 - The coming of lambda
It’s November 2013 and it’s conference time again. The European Java and Web Community gathered in Antwerp for the annual DEVOXX conference, which always means days tightly packed with information. My...
View ArticleDevoxx vs. JavaZone
Every now and then I get queried which of the Java and Web conferences in Europe I would recommend. Often, the most sensible answer seems to be: “the one closest to you”. Nevertheless, since I visited...
View ArticleTop Ten Tips for Hackathon Organizers
Want to organize a Hackathon? Great idea! A Hackathon is an amazing opportunity to collect new ideas, learn new stuff and get to know interesting people. Here, I'd like to share with you my personal...
View ArticleImplementing a REST API with node.js
Every so often there is the necessity to implement some mock-up web services or maybe even a prototype which shall offer its functionality via web services. This happened to me once again in March 2015...
View Articlenode.js and MIDI
jazz-midi (www.thejazzpage.de) is a node.js module which allows access to MIDI interfaces. Midi (musical instrument digital interface) is an international standard for communication between...
View ArticleThe "Sleeping beauty"-effect in agile software architecture
Agile projects, above all those with multiple Scrum teams, need a moderated architecture process, in order to facilitate architectural decisions. It is advantageous to decide as late as possible,...
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