Review - Tools

Bug Tracker (we didn't use!)
Fog Buz - would like to try this
Bug Net
Gemini

3rd Party Controls
Telerik

Code Generators + OR/M's
CodeSmith / Nettiers
Iron Speed
nHibernate


LLBLGen
Castle Project (NHibernate),http://wiki.castleproject.org/index.php/Main_Page

MonoRail (MVC)
http://www.fogcreek.com/fogbugz/ - bug tracker
http://www.highrisehq.com/home - CRM from 37signals
Basecamp - Project Management from 37 signals

Full Apps
Community Server


nAnt - scripts out the build process
nCover - code coverae for unit testing
Cruise Control - auto code building / testing


What Makes Apps Good?
Fast
Easy to Use


Microsoft Empower program for Micro ISV's

maptalk.co.nz
attackpoint.com - fast

Review - Front End Stuff

This is where we are keen to learn more

Datarepeater
Rounded Corners javascript - http://www.html.it/articoli/niftycube/index.html

Using EntityDataSouce (from nettiers) instead of ObjectDataSource (VS)

Didn't implement on keypush, javascript to connect to webservice.

Would like to implement caching (server side in memory), to avoid calls back to db

To Do
Explore AJAX Extension toolkit http://ajax.asp.net/

Review - Enterprise Lib / CodeSmith

Enterprise Library3, and 2.

Had issues where Micheal had signed his own assemblies that wrapped EL2, and when I had EL3 installed it all didn't work.

We Used EL3 initally in the HelloWorld 3-Tier app for the :

Database Connection Block

However we could have just used ADO.

Code
[Serializable]
Interfaces
Contracts
[Browsable Attributes]
Reflections

Codesmith / Nettiers
How easy is it to setup and get going?
How simple can you make it?
Looked at config setup and really quite good.

We used custom methods - by putting our own Stored Proc in the Database - GetCurrentQuiz, Codesmith generated the classes we need to wire up.

Subversion
Loved the plug in for Windows explorer

Compared to Visual Source Safe, seems easier to use, and has mergeing.

ASP.NET
So many tutorials (57 in the db section) and videos to watch
and Starter Kits to work through.

To Do
DaveM - build a really simple CodeSmith project
DaveM - setup Subversion live on the net somewhere to host projects
DaveM - asp.net

Review - Agile

eXtreme Programming (XP) is a subset of Agile Methodologies..

Keeping client in the team
Working in small teams
Pair Programming


SCRUM

Used to 'wrap' XP. This is where the word Sprint comes from.
"..maximizing the team's ability to respond in an agile manner to emerging challenges"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(management)

Review - Overall Thoughts

2pm on the following Sunday, over some pretty nice food!

General thoughts from Phil were that Codesmith is a steep learning curve and still complex for small projects

Coding

- What are they? eg Whereby an ArrayList is a collection of objects... Generics allows us to say have a store of strings.. and then wouldn't have to convert the strings to objects and back again. Allows us to keep strongly typed more easily.

Like templates in C++.. Windows Template Library... Windows Foundation Classes...

Why Use C++ these days for projects? Unless drivers / hardware dependant... probably not.

To Do
Dave - Spike Generics

Day 4 - Go Live!

5:30pm

Changed web.config to live database.

Coppied files to remote server. Ran database scripts (this is a great thing - to keep a text file of your scripts). Included views. We forgot the SP's.

Phil realised we'd forgotton the SP's.

Site works. http://mateer.dnserver.net.nz/treasurefull

End of Sprint.

Well done to everyone - Michael, Phil, Gary and Me (Dave).

Day 4 - Results Page

4pm

I mocked up a results page... Then we all helped to wire it up correctly.

Turned out that the best way to get data like this is to create a view in the database, then let CodeSmith generate classes to reference it. Hard thing was to create the view (well done Phil) after days of hard coding. Michael has another Stored Proc solution.

We wired it up to a DataGrid through an ObjectDataSource.