Category: Software Development
12 Nov, 2019
Basic Rules Engine Design Pattern
In today’s posts, I want to share with you one of my favorite design patterns. I’ve used this design pattern in countless situations in multiple different languages, but it is the most useful when creating and managing rules. In the following simplified scenario, I want to validate a Recording...
26 Feb, 2019
Extract Transform and Load Part 2 – Submission Information Packages and High-level Validation
The first two major pieces of an Extract Transform and Load pipeline are the Submission Information Package (SIP) and High-level validation. The major components as well as the benefits and usages of Extract Transform and Load where discussed in the first article in the series. It is recommended that...
19 Feb, 2019
Rewriting A Static Website Using Gatsby and GraphQL – Part 2
This is part 2 of a 3 part series about the decision to rewrite my personal site using GatsbyJS and GraphQL. In my last post, I discussed how to query against static Yaml files in order to display my data; things like speaking engagements, blog posts, etc. In the...
12 Feb, 2019
Rewriting A Static Website Using Gatsby and GraphQL
My personal website is implemented using Jekyll, which I liked, but it has an unfortunate initial load behavior that just does not look good or provide the user experience I want. So, I recently decided to reimplement the site, and learn GraphQL along the way. At around the same...
27 Feb, 2018
Migrating to Elastic Search: A Case Study
I am a member of a development team that has nearly completed the task of replacing Apache Solr with Elasticsearch for our web application. This case study is a recounting of the methods used and challenges faced during the experience. Read on to learn why and how we pulled...
13 Feb, 2018
Atom as an Alternative Development Environment
In years past the best development environment was almost always expensive, both to acquire and maintain. When these tools moved to a subscription model based on specific tech stacks and languages, cost and complexity for developers only increased. Even widely-adopted alternatives such as Eclipse, while open source, suffers from...
03 Feb, 2017
Angular 1 or 2: Which is the Best for Your Project?
With Angular 2 coming out of beta, it is now available as a front end framework for your new project. Yet, some developers are still choosing to code new applications with Angular 1. My colleague wrote back when Angular 1 was relatively new about why you should care, but...
10 Jan, 2017
Software vs The Evil Forces of Entropy
Requirements evolve, technology evolves, processes evolve, and users evolve. So why is it that the systems, applications, and their underlying architectures seemingly get built in a way that after a couple iterations of extension, they become brittle and saddled with “technical debt”? More importantly, is there anything that can...
08 Nov, 2016
6 Out of Scope Ways to Add Value to your Company and Clients
It seems to go without saying that adding value is important. As consultants, we add value through our work; otherwise, our clients wouldn’t hire us. Every day, we try to maximize our delivery according to the Statement of Work (SOW) we have in place and the business needs of our client. Value...
18 Oct, 2016
Web Accessibility Should Be a Goal for All Sites
For many businesses, web accessibility is viewed as more of a hassle or statutory requirement than a good business practice. Accessibility only becomes important when compliance with Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (or a similar state regulation) is required to win a contract. The reality is that an accessible website enables your business...