blue-infinity blog

Go for JavaFX. HTML5 is not a panacea… yet

Jan Stenvall — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:38:06 +0000

blue-infinity is not just keeping up with the latest trends and technologies: It’s at the forefront of technological knowledge. We focus on what will bring added value to our customers.

Jan Stenvall, a blue-infinity Java consultant, has written a White Paper covering the subject of JavaFX. The reason for the White Paper is to keep colleagues and customers abreast of these trends and technologies to bring clarity and guidance for future investments and decisions.

blue-infinity White Paper on JavaFX by Jan Stenvall

This post picks up the thread from previous b-i blog posts about Rich Internet Application frameworks. And as they stated, it is far too early to declare the death of Flash and Silverlight. These two products are still ruling the market of rich UI frameworks. They are mature and have a broad market penetration. But Flash for mobile has reached its end-of-life and the future for Silverlight is uncertain, according to a “Building Windows 8″ blog that says that Internet Explorer 10 will be plugin-free.

However, the companies backing Flex and Silverlight are reviewing their business plans and are turning, slowly but surely, their attention towards HTML5. In parallel, interest for Flex and Silverlight is declining; the trend is clearly visible on Google Insight for Search (Google 2012).

Relative interest levels of Flex (red), Silverlight (yellow) and JavaFX (blue). This diagram was computed with Google Insights for Search.

HTML 5 is still in its infancy, and still will be in the near future. This technology is certainly not a complete replacement for Flash or Silverlight. For example, accessing the native platform and device capabilities is still limited in HTML5.

These frameworks, including HTML5, may be valid options under many circumstances, but will not answer the call for more sophisticated, complex and richer web experiences.

This gap in the market paves the way for JavaFX which has been updated to face the modern enterprise challenges. With the strong backing from Oracle, JavaFX is a serious contender in the UI framework arena. Since it is built using Java, in concert with and for the Java community, it means that huge investments and the amassed Java knowledge can be reused. This minimizes investments and brings a faster return on investment.

According to the TIOBE Programming Community Index (TIOBE 2012), Java is still the number one rated programming language. Java has a long track record and has been proven in the enterprise environment. This, along with a strong Java developer community, will empower
the adoption of JavaFX.

A feature comparison with more mature frameworks like Flex (Flash) and Silverlight, shows that JavaFX is still a bit behind. But Oracle pushes JavaFX onto the market with the motto that Java is everywhere and JavaFX will be piggy-backing.

The unique selling point is the ubiquity of Java: It leans on the enterprise-proven Java language. And in that sense, the future for JavaFX is looking rather good.

Oracle has issued a private release of JavaFX Scene Builder and it will be followed by a public release anticipated for early 2012. It is currently available to preselected partners for beta evaluation. The JavaFX Scene Builder is written with JavaFX 2.0 APIs. Oracle is eating its own dog food.

The JavaFX Scene Builder will have these features:

Simple drag and drop positioning of GUI elements
Graphical FXML editor
Strong mapping to JavaFX APIs
Set and preview JavaFX properties and effects
CSS setting and previewing
Fully written with JavaFX version 2.0 APIs!

The JavaFX community is gaining momentum and there are several third party frameworks and libraries. The following section shows a selection of community-provided frameworks:

JFX Flow (http://www.zenjava.com/jfx-flow) is a free, open source framework for developing rich, interactive and user friendly web-style GUIs for desktops using JavaFX (2.0+). JFX Flow combines the powerful feature set of Java FX (styling, animations, FXML, etc.) with a simple ‘web flow’ style framework.

MigLayoutFX2 (http://www.miglayout.com, formerly called MigPane) is a wrapper for MigLayout, one of the most powerful layout managers for Swing.

DataFX (http://www.javafxdata.org) is a project that aims to make the process of using JavaFX ListView, TableView, and TreeView controls easier, more functional, and more powerful. It provides various data source adapters to ensure convenience around populating JavaFX
controls.

RedFX (http://www.redfx.org) provides functionality that allows JavaFX applications to share data with each other and with server applications without the need of writing lots of specific boiler plate code.

Read more about JavaFX on http://fxexperience.com. “Tour de Flex” JavaFX equivalent: JavaFX Ensemble: http://download.oracle.com/otndocs/products/javafx/2.0.2/samples/Ensemble/index.html

Dial it up – conference calling etiquette

Tara S. Kerpelman — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:44:56 +0000

It’s not uncommon to be on conference calls these days. What with the economy making business trips for short meetings a thing of the past, and new technologies with video conferencing making talking to one another not in person more like you’re face to face, we have come to a time when conference calls have become an important, if not crucial, part of any organization or company, especially whilst conducting business globally.

Have you ever been on a conference call where someone was snoring? I have. Have you ever been on a call where someone’s kids were screaming in the background? I have. Have you ever been on a call where the other person’s accent was very difficult to understand, you couldn’t hear them properly, and there was so much background noise both on their line and in your office that you couldn’t concentrate? I have. And I don’t think I’m the only one.

It seems that even though, or perhaps because, conference calls are getting more and more common, people don’t take them as seriously as they should. In a “normal” meeting, do these things happen as often? When you’re face to face with someone, do you really speak like that?

Here are some simple tips to make sure you don’t push people’s buttons when you’re on the line (or how to be professional about conference calling):

Try any links that are sent to you for screen sharing well before your call to make sure you have all the necessary software on your computer. There’s nothing worse than listening to someone do a demo when you can’t see what they’re talking about.
Prepare or read presentation slides beforehand to prepare questions and comments.
Make sure you know the time based on everyone’s timezone. Take into account that other participants may live in another area.
Have access codes and call-in numbers with you if you are joining when you’re out on the road or away from your computer.
Know how to mute and unmute your phone so that you don’t bother people with background sounds.
Make sure you know whether your camera, mic or screen sharing program is on or off to avoid embarrassing and unprofessional situations.
Talk from an environment that is as calm and quiet as possible so you can concentrate on what is being said. It’s always easier to be distracted when the person speaking is not visually there with you.
Turn off the sound on your cell phone and move it away from your conference call phone to avoid signal sounds on the call.
Enunciate and keep your hands, pens and pencils away from your mouth when you are speaking – even if they can’t see you chewing on your pencil or leaning your chin on your hand, it makes you sound different, if not odd, when you’re speaking.
Imagine that you are speaking to someone who is physically in front of you to help you speak properly and loudly.
Don’t eat while you’re on the call – even if you’re not the one talking, you never know when you’ll be addressed or when you’ll have to answer a question.
Let everyone know who you are when you speak – even if you have met the people on the call, they might not remember your voice.
If you’re running the call, introduce participants, make the call interactive by including other people in the conversation if possible, and keep the call on the right track.

These are simply a few key points to help you improve your conference calling skills, making you a better professional and more enjoyable colleague to work/meet with on the phone.

Don’t hesitate to tell me what you would add, or to share some funny conference call experiences. And while you’re at it, why not send this list out to your coworkers?

This is Tara Kerpelman from blue-infinity. Thanks for having joined the call today.

Secure your USB drives with ease

Marius Constantinescu — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:15:09 +0000

After recently misplacing a USB drive (luckily already encrypted), I decided to put together a quick guide for anyone interested in securing their data on USB/Local drives through encryption, using free tools available for download.

These days everyone stores huge amounts of data on USB drives (be it small pen drives or larger hard drives reaching 1TB or more). We carry this information around in our pockets everywhere, sharing with co-workers and friends, at our clients and perhaps even in public locations.

The main question you should ask yourself from a security standpoint is “What stops somebody from connecting to your drive and viewing/stealing/destroying your data?

Remember the old DOS command format L:\ /q (this one quickly deletes Gigabytes of data in seconds – of course we could use tools to recover at the expense of your administrator’s time and nerves..).

Introducing BitLocker

Ever since the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has provided us with a powerful security feature known as BitLocker, which can securely encrypt any drive. BitLocker ensures authorised access by asking for a password upon connection of the drive to a Windows OS based PC. It even works for those using Windows 7 on Mac-PCs.

BitLocker to Go – new on Windows 7

Before Windows 7, BitLocker encryption could have been used only on hard-drives installed physically on the computer. Now, anyone running Ultimate or Enterprise editions of Windows 7 can use the BitLocker ToGo extension to protect and secure even smaller USB pen drives, directly from the contextual menu in Windows Explorer (as depicted in the next screenshot). The wizard will drive you through all the steps and ask you to choose a password to access/modify data on your disk, ending with the launch of the encryption process. The duration of the encryption process will depend on the size and type of your drive. The next screenshot shows an example of how an encrypted drive is visible in Windows Explorer. Note: if you no longer require BitLocker, you can simply turn off the encryption to revert your drive and its data to its original state, via Control Panel.

Introducing TrueCrypt – on the fly multi-platform encryption

What if I’m not running Windows? Are there any cross-OS alternatives? BitLocker, at least for now, only works with Windows 7/Vista based PCs. The good news is that TrueCrypt (version available at the time of publishing is 7.1) is a non-commercial free tool providing on-the-fly encryption for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux (see the links below to download).

This tool has tremendous capabilities, as it can encrypt USB drives, drives running your Windows OS and Virtual Drives all while benefiting from the hardware-acceleration on your PC to speed up the process. Installation is straightforward, and the process of disk encryption is accompanied by wizards which makes it easy to create encrypted drives or encrypt existing data. It is strongly suggested for first-timers to look at the quick tutorial available here.

blue-infinity ranked largest local IT employer in Suisse-Romande

Sonia Nair — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:02:32 +0000

The ICT Journal and ALP ICT have released their 2011 study on employment within the IT industry sector in Western Switzerland. IBM, HP and SITA stand at the top of the list as multinationals. blue-infinity is ranked 4th, but is the largest independent local employer. Read the full article, written by Rodolphe Koller, that provides very interesting statistics on the evolution of the industry, including lack of IT resource, outsourcing strategies, mobile technologies, cloud computing and the economic climate.

A few facts that you will not find in the article which have fuelled blue-infinity’s growth:

Ability to provide fully managed services in the areas of support, infrastructure and large-scale migrations
One of the largest Microsoft and J2EE development teams in the regions, delivering both custom and packaged solutions for enterprise
A team of ERP experts to complete teams on the ground
Cost-effective Open Source solutions for collaboration and e-commerce
Focus on Information Architecture, Usability and User Interface Design for enterprise applications
Focus on mobile technologies for consumer and enterprise applications
A digital marketing agency to optimize brand visibility, convert customers and manage reputation
An internal PMO, with solid methodologies and tools
Continuous training and certification of our teams
Partnerships with leading software providers
A flexible, creative and fun work environment, focused on the employee
Realising that we need to improve every day

And most importantly, we could not do it without our talented and hard working teams, and our clients who give us the opportunity to work on great projects!

Tip for Project Managers: Creating a Resource Pool without MS Project Server in Microsoft Project 2010

Jeremy Cottino — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:36:06 +0000

For those without Microsoft Project Server, here is a way to manage shared resources through various projects. Through the use of this method, the program manager or unit manager is able to check team member allocation and also plan projects.

Firstly, you will need to create the resource pool by following the steps detailed below:

Create a resource pool:

Create a new blank project
On the Resource tab, select resource sheet
Enter your resources and their information (different type, working time, calendar etc.)

Once you’ve created the resource pool, you will then need to create a first project plan.

Please note, that you will need to open the resource pool file to enable you to be able to use the shared resources.

You can create a new project with simple tasks, as detailed below:

The next step is to open the shared resource pool from this project by following the steps below:

1. On your project file, click on the resource tab then go to your resource pool and click on shared resources:

2. Choose your resource pool file and set up conflict option. By default the Resource Pool takes precedence over the project file (sharer).

3. On the project file it displays shared resources:

4. You can now assign your resources to your tasks and see the updated project plan:

As you can see there are 2 conflicts highlighted:

Task 1.2 cannot start on Friday because the resource assigned does not work on Fridays
Task 2.2 cannot start on Friday as the resource assigned only works on Mondays.

I would like now to plan another simple project with the same team. I therefore, create my project plan #2 and assign resources:

As you can see from the example, there is an issue with regards to resource over allocation (“My developer full time” is assigned to 2 tasks, one in each project):

One of the solutions to deal with resource over allocation is to use the team planner. Please note, that the team planner is only available in Microsoft Project Professional 2010.

Open the team planner to see the over allocation across both projects:

By dragging and dropping the task to either another available project team member or by moving it to when the current team member is available, you remove the over allocation:

To complete this post, here are some additional questions…

Question 1: What happens if I first open my resource pool?

You are prompted to select file opening mode:

Open “read only” the file,
Open “read-write” the file to make changes to the resource pool
Open “read-write” the file and all other sharer (files that are link to this resource pool)

Question 2: What happens if I first open my project file (sharer) without opening the resource pool?

You will receive a prompt asking whether you wish to open the resource pool:

Question 3: What if I change resource information from a sharer (project file)?

Microsoft Project will pop you up to either save the resource pool with modifications and then update all sharers, or cancel this change:

Question 4: Is it possible to add a resource to project1.mpp, which should not be on the resource pool?

No, this is not possible. If you add a resource to project1, the resource pool will be updated.

Ted Baker/Visilab: Your favourite animal could win you a trip to London!

Sonia Nair — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:52:54 +0000

In conjunction with Visilab, Ted Baker’s new campaign is now online: http://ted-visilab.ch/index_jeu.php.

Visilab asked blue-infinity to conceptualise and develop an online campaign.

If you want a chance to win a weekend in London for two, visit the website and join the game!

Christmas comes early for La Praille, with the launch of a new website

Sonia Nair — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:11:13 +0000

La Praille recently launched its new website: www.la-praille.ch, with the aim of providing better service and information to their customers.

The site, which was completely designed and developed by blue-infinity, provides practical information on shopping, leisure, promotions, events, opening times, how to get there, etc.. You will also find information on the Stadium, the Ramada Encore Hotel and the Event Centre, all part of the complex.

“La Praille is a modern complex with a wide range of activities and services. The website needed to reflect both the modernity and warmth of La Praille, while providing each store the ability to promote its brand”, says Pierre Leroux, Art Director. “We used big images so that the user is instantly transported into the environment. The mega-navigation is a modern way to give quick access to information.”

“The project required close collaboration between our UX, design and development teams. In addition, we provided a solution so that the site can easily be updated with new promotional content”, adds Julien Lechenne, Project Manager.

Isabelle Desbeaumes, Communication Assistant, La-Praille. “We were congratulated by management and the stores. The website definitely fulfils our objectives: a modern image, as well as good functionality, clarity and interactivity for our customers!”

Strategies and Services for Luxury Brands

Adrian Clarke — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:57:01 +0000

November’s ICT journal saw two articles by blue-infinity’s Fabrice Perrin and Jérôme Lorido.

In ‘5 Digital Strategies for Luxury brands’, Fabrice explains how luxury brands have become champions of rich media, B2C, one-to-one and innovative iPad applications, and looks at some of the digital strategies used by these companies.

In ‘Sales and After-Sales Services: when Technology helps Luxury Business’, Jérôme outlines two examples of how luxury brands are benefiting from technological advancements in the world of IT; whether it be to increase operational performance, or perhaps reinforce the position of a brand.

Click here to read the original articles (in French)

Flash is dead (on mobile). Long live Flash! – part 2

Jérôme Lorido — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:08:49 +0000

Adobe has announced that they stopped Flash Player development on mobiles. I’ve been hearing so much noise around this that I think it needs some explanation.

Adobe has stopped Flash Player on mobiles. That’s all. Nothing more. It means that Flash Player won’t be updated for mobile plateforms but let’s face it: Nobody developed Flash Websites for mobiles…

On the contrary, Adobe bought phoneGap last month and clearly turned its strategy to focus on mobile apps (phoneGap AND Air) rather than Flash-based websites for mobiles.

However, this doesn’t mean that they have killed Flash for desktops! Flash is going to turn into a “shockwave like” technology, more dedicated to 3D than to simple animations.

Mobile development is split in two different parts: Apps and Web.

Applications are built either with native or hybrid technologies. Applications are very popular because they are fast, can be used offline. Pure HTML5 for example isn’t robust enough to handle the work for the time being.
Web on mobile is built with HTML/javascript. Again, HTML5 is the future but just can’t handle as many features as Flash or apps for the moment.

So what kind of technology choices do we have for mobile?

Firstly, we have agnostic technologies. By “agnostic”, I mean one source code for several mobile OS. Adobe Air is one of these technologies (just like SUP, Unity, etc), and a good one if you know how to work with it. And… Adobe Air is just a container for Flash/Flex!

Secondly there are hybrid apps, which are typically developed using HTML5/JQuery, with native extensions provided, for example, by Adobe’s phoneGap. Hybrid apps have been recommended by Forrester over native developments (see next point).

Thirdly we have native apps, which in my opinion kill the ability to make applications that work across devices and therefore are not great for the consumer. It could be justified on rare occasions, for example when you need to use a feature that exists on the hardware, like NFC.

So Flash is dead on mobiles (and TVs), but long live Flash for mobile apps.

PS: You want to use your Flex/Flash talents to develop mobile? Hey, you know what? Adobe has an app for that!

Are you ready to manage mobile within your Enterprise?

Jérôme Lorido — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:32:42 +0000

Gartner has listed tablets and mobile-centric applications as the top two technology trends for 2012, stating that “The implications for IT is that the era of PC dominance with Windows as the single platform will be replaced with a post-PC era where Windows is one of a variety of environments IT will need to support.”

CIO magazine says: “Mobile applications must be as effective as their desktop and notebook counterparts. “Getting mobile right requires a broad range of device support, a central point of control, a wide security net that ensures corporate data is never compromised, and the ability to shield end users from integration complexities.”

The term “mobile” now encompasses such a broad range of facets that it has become a subject related to the underlying IT architecture of a company, thus representing challenges for both IT and business, who need to work together to maximise efficiency, adoption and return.

The following are three common and basic challenges explained in simple terms:

The choice of mobile devices for employees
The management of the mobile fleet
The choice of application development tools

1. Choice of mobile devices – data security

Implementing a coherent policy for mobile phones and tablets is a major concern, as the choice has a direct impact on data security.

Should employees be allowed access to systems using their personal smartphones? Should the company provide separate smartphones to its employees for business purposes? If so, can we and should we allow employees to use these smartphones for personal use as well, without compromising data security?

Several factors need to be analysed in order to make such decisions, such as:

What type of smartphones/platforms can the IT department manage? iOS? Android? Windows Phone? Blackberry? Even though other mobile platforms exist, the trend leans clearly to these market leaders. Even if Microsoft is a little behind at the moment, the teams in Richmond are working hard to catch up.

What kind of devices are your employees using already? Adoption is a key factor. The mobile trend is completely driven by consumer behaviour.

The choice of a mobile fleet management tool also has a huge impact on the choice of devices. I’ve gone into more details in the next point..

2. Mobile Device Management

Commonly known as MDM, this is the corner stone of a corporate mobile policy. It’s through this solution that we can manage users, access to application, configuration, loss, theft, etc.

How to make the choice?

Go through a proper analysis phase. There are a few major players in this domain, as well as some very interesting niche solutions (refer to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant). In seeing the numbers of big players who are racing to offer these solutions, there is no doubt that the future of MDM is looking bright, and choices will open up even more.

3. Developing Applications

The move to mobile in the enterprise will be boosted by the use of tablets, and users will want an increasing number of business applications to run on these devices. Will you develop web applications or native applications?

How will you develop a corporate strategy that dictates the choice of development tools?

From my perspective, companies should be pragmatic:

What kind of resources do you have internally to manage the development life-cycle? How will you train them?
How do you choose suppliers who have mastered this domain?
How to deal with the pro/perso concern?

In conclusion, defining a mobile policy should be taken seriously, as it will have a real daily impact on life within your company. Enterprise mobility is the biggest single trend across tech industry investment and innovation, even outpacing the cloud computing trend, states the Forrester report entitled, “Another Year of Outperformance for the Tech Industry — Forrester’s 2011 Tech Industry Predictions.” Analysts predict that by 2014, the primary method of accessing the internet will be through mobile devices, which will increasingly replace the traditional desktop.

The risk of not having a solid corporate strategy could be costly:

Disruption of business processes: The functional failure of IT systems—of which mobile apps are now solidly included.
High cost: An ad hoc approach to building out the mobile application architecture will eventually result in time-consuming, manual intervention to maintain.
Lack of business agility: A poorly planned mobile architecture that cannot support dynamic business strategy shifts can hold the entire business back.