As the world turns more and more to XML as a form of data interchange, many products are beginning to export their native data into some form of XML to be consumed by other products.
One emerging XML standard is the XBRL - Extensible Business Reporting Language - see http://www.xbrl.org for more information. Basically, it is a method of being able to output financial information (balance sheet, profit and loss etc) to a format that can be read by other systems.
Some of the biggest names in the software industry are XBRL-enabling their applications - Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Peoplesoft etc. Here's the XBRL data for Microsoft for the 4th quarter of 2004.
We've decided to add XBRL support to Totally as well. Some big names in the financial industry in Australia also speak XBRL - the ANZ, Aussie Home Loans, Bank of QLD to name a few - the the full list here.
How will using XBRL help your business? According to xbrl.org, XBRL can speed up, reduce effort and increase reliability in accounting and auditing tasks. So instead of tediously having to fill out bank forms, just give them an XBRL data file.
This means less work for you (because Totally will generate the required information) and less work for the bank and who knows, the banks may even reduce their fees and charges! ;-) Everyone wins.
Monday, December 13, 2004
"Branding"
More on branding.
http://www.brandingblog.com/2004/11/marketing_in_20.html
This is quite thought provoking. How much it means to you is dependent on how you see your business growing over the next 3-5 years. Are you ready for more online communications with your customers?
You might even think of starting a corporate blog yourself - here, you can give your customers an insight into how you, as a business owner/manager, thinks about your company, its products and services, and how it presents itself to its customers.
There really is too much hype around products and marketing these days. I believe we are becoming quite jaded when we see the latest television commercials. I find myself saying "ho-hum" and quite literally tuning out. That's exactly the opposite of what the advertiser is trying to get me to do!
We all need more truth and honesty, instead of spin and deceit. I believe only those companies that open up and let their customers see them, warts and all, will be successful over the next 3-5 years.
If you've ever thought of new ways to reach your customers, then perhaps the online world is one place you might start looking into. Many options are available to get you started for free - http://www.blogger.com is one.
Anyway, read the article linked to above. I hope it fires your imagination.
http://www.brandingblog.com/2004/11/marketing_in_20.html
This is quite thought provoking. How much it means to you is dependent on how you see your business growing over the next 3-5 years. Are you ready for more online communications with your customers?
You might even think of starting a corporate blog yourself - here, you can give your customers an insight into how you, as a business owner/manager, thinks about your company, its products and services, and how it presents itself to its customers.
There really is too much hype around products and marketing these days. I believe we are becoming quite jaded when we see the latest television commercials. I find myself saying "ho-hum" and quite literally tuning out. That's exactly the opposite of what the advertiser is trying to get me to do!
We all need more truth and honesty, instead of spin and deceit. I believe only those companies that open up and let their customers see them, warts and all, will be successful over the next 3-5 years.
If you've ever thought of new ways to reach your customers, then perhaps the online world is one place you might start looking into. Many options are available to get you started for free - http://www.blogger.com is one.
Anyway, read the article linked to above. I hope it fires your imagination.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Totally Intelligent Software Systems
Read an article today:
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/IntelligentSystemsPartI.asp
Intelligent Software Systems are those that present the most used options in a software package, whilst hiding others (although still accessible)
We'll be adding "intelligence" to Totally as soon as is practicable. I can think of a number of uses for it - when you ask for a list of customers, put the most used (or frequently accessed) customers at the top of the list. Saves you having to scroll through them all, especially when they're in alpha order. If you constantly send invoices to "Thomas, Brad" scrolling to the T's in an alpha ordered customer list is going to get on your nerves. Putting "Thomas, Brad" at the top of the list is going to ease the selection process.
More on intelligent software systems later.
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/IntelligentSystemsPartI.asp
Intelligent Software Systems are those that present the most used options in a software package, whilst hiding others (although still accessible)
We'll be adding "intelligence" to Totally as soon as is practicable. I can think of a number of uses for it - when you ask for a list of customers, put the most used (or frequently accessed) customers at the top of the list. Saves you having to scroll through them all, especially when they're in alpha order. If you constantly send invoices to "Thomas, Brad" scrolling to the T's in an alpha ordered customer list is going to get on your nerves. Putting "Thomas, Brad" at the top of the list is going to ease the selection process.
More on intelligent software systems later.
Totally Customer
Here's the Customer window from a running copy of Totally.
Our customer screen shows general details, billing and shipping addresses, a list of invoices sent, payments received from, documents you've sent, and conversations had with this customer.
The good thing about Totally's design is that we can modify this screen very quickly, and just give you an updated Customer applet. No need to wait for the next version.
Would this suit you? We welcome your feedback.
Our customer screen shows general details, billing and shipping addresses, a list of invoices sent, payments received from, documents you've sent, and conversations had with this customer.
The good thing about Totally's design is that we can modify this screen very quickly, and just give you an updated Customer applet. No need to wait for the next version.
Would this suit you? We welcome your feedback.
Totally Aggregating Data
One of the nice things that we've built into Totally is an automatic aggregation of data items. Whenever you add a new customer who lives in QLD, Totally will add one to the total count of all customers who live in QLD.
Then, when you view the Information Dashboard, you can select your customer thing, and immediately review the numbers you're slowly building up.
For an example, have a look at this screenshot. (Click it to view a large version)
What is this telling us? That most of our customers live in NSW.
And this one.
What is this telling us? That most of our customers found us through word of mouth.
Options such as this are found in really expensive software, and now for the first time, you get it with Totally.
Then, when you view the Information Dashboard, you can select your customer thing, and immediately review the numbers you're slowly building up.
For an example, have a look at this screenshot. (Click it to view a large version)
What is this telling us? That most of our customers live in NSW.
And this one.
What is this telling us? That most of our customers found us through word of mouth.
Options such as this are found in really expensive software, and now for the first time, you get it with Totally.
Small Business Security
If you're a snmall business, and you're connected to the Internet, you need to ensure you're protected from the nasties. Worms, virii, spam, etc.
Here's 10 top areas you need to consider to secure yourself.
http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNCID=35&CIaNID=17248
What other issues do you see as being important?
I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Here's 10 top areas you need to consider to secure yourself.
http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNCID=35&CIaNID=17248
What other issues do you see as being important?
I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Product "Branding" for small businesses
Since this blog is all about reducing costs for small business, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at some other areas of small business that should be addressed.
Today's topic: "Product Branding"
When you see this:
what do you think of? Nike?
There you go. One simple symbol that speaks about the entire company.
Wouldn't it be nice to have something about your company that is instantly recognisable? If you thought branding costs too much, have a read of this.
http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?id=135
We're going to be using this
as our "brand" - whenever you see this, you'll know that its all about "helping small businesses realise and build on their potential" and that "running a business means more than just doing the books"
What sort of symbol or brand could you use to get into the minds of your customers?
Today's topic: "Product Branding"
When you see this:
what do you think of? Nike?
There you go. One simple symbol that speaks about the entire company.
Wouldn't it be nice to have something about your company that is instantly recognisable? If you thought branding costs too much, have a read of this.
http://www.brandchannel.com/start1.asp?id=135
We're going to be using this
as our "brand" - whenever you see this, you'll know that its all about "helping small businesses realise and build on their potential" and that "running a business means more than just doing the books"
What sort of symbol or brand could you use to get into the minds of your customers?
Totally - Thoughts behind it
Totally was born out of small business owners' frustration at having to deal with:
1. expensive software
2. having to buy a copy for every workstation
3. fees for every upgrade
4. a fee for phone support
5. software that only knows about itself
and a whole raft of others.
These points, predominantly, drove the development of Totally. Our mission was to find a way to provide a viable alternative to all the other standalone software programs out there, and sell it for a reasonable price. We think we've achieved that.
Ourt biggest contribution to the bottom line of small businesses is the initial purchase price (free of the "you must buy a copy for every workstation" syndrome) and the optional monthly fee.
We can't afford to just give it away. It is a business management type software, so to leave out some features for the free version would be silly. Small businesses have enough to contend with, without having to "work around" problems that arise simply because the feature is not present or disabled in free versions.
Have a look at Totally's home page for more details.
1. expensive software
2. having to buy a copy for every workstation
3. fees for every upgrade
4. a fee for phone support
5. software that only knows about itself
and a whole raft of others.
These points, predominantly, drove the development of Totally. Our mission was to find a way to provide a viable alternative to all the other standalone software programs out there, and sell it for a reasonable price. We think we've achieved that.
Ourt biggest contribution to the bottom line of small businesses is the initial purchase price (free of the "you must buy a copy for every workstation" syndrome) and the optional monthly fee.
We can't afford to just give it away. It is a business management type software, so to leave out some features for the free version would be silly. Small businesses have enough to contend with, without having to "work around" problems that arise simply because the feature is not present or disabled in free versions.
Have a look at Totally's home page for more details.
Thursday, November 25, 2004
.:Totally:. - Report Printing
Yesterday I finally finished a generic print function that outputs an HTML table. Here's an example
Here's another (yes, its got one slight little problem)
Both of these were generated by the same function. This is great, because no matter which "thing" you're viewing, there only needs to be one print function. So that's out of the way.
Don't like the look of that output? Easy enough to change - I should probably make the colours a setting somewhere.
Here's another (yes, its got one slight little problem)
Both of these were generated by the same function. This is great, because no matter which "thing" you're viewing, there only needs to be one print function. So that's out of the way.
Don't like the look of that output? Easy enough to change - I should probably make the colours a setting somewhere.
The "Knoppix" Linux distro - a real reason to change
Well, its taken a long time, but I've just found a *real* reason to switch to Linux for practically all my computing needs except developing software.
Knoppix - http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
is simply the best Linux distro I've yet to try. It boots off a cdrom (you'll need a computer capable of booting from the cdrom drive) and you can then install it to the hard disk by starting up a terminal window, su-ing to root, and typing "knx2hd" to start the install process. I just accepted the default answers, and I've got it up and running.
It comes with lots of applications - OpenOffice (MS Office compatible office suite), Mozilla (web browser), cd player, you name it - there's everything you could possibly need or want, and it all works fine.
I would really suggest you download the ISO image, burn it to a cdrom, and try it out. The fact that it runs off the cdrom means you can stick it in your Windows box and your Windows environment will still be safe - no need to install Knoppix in the traditional sense. Run it off the cdrom and see what its like - I just bet that you'll blow away your Windows partition and give the entire disk to Knoppix (eventually)
Knoppix - http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
is simply the best Linux distro I've yet to try. It boots off a cdrom (you'll need a computer capable of booting from the cdrom drive) and you can then install it to the hard disk by starting up a terminal window, su-ing to root, and typing "knx2hd" to start the install process. I just accepted the default answers, and I've got it up and running.
It comes with lots of applications - OpenOffice (MS Office compatible office suite), Mozilla (web browser), cd player, you name it - there's everything you could possibly need or want, and it all works fine.
I would really suggest you download the ISO image, burn it to a cdrom, and try it out. The fact that it runs off the cdrom means you can stick it in your Windows box and your Windows environment will still be safe - no need to install Knoppix in the traditional sense. Run it off the cdrom and see what its like - I just bet that you'll blow away your Windows partition and give the entire disk to Knoppix (eventually)
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Totally - Accounting #2 (and a change of style)
More on Totally. Its coming along in leaps and bounds. I decided to write my own accounting module. My Mum and I (she's a bookkeeper) sat down one day and spent six solid hours examining exactly what is an accounting system. Once you get a handle on it, its really quite simple, even double entry accounting.
So now, with the help of the design of Totally's database, I've now created a stored procedure that builds a relationship tree for every "thing" in there. For accounting, that's great, because the stored procedure can generate something like this:
[Chart of Accounts]
-----> Assets
-----> Current Assets
-----> General Cheque Account
-----> Petty Cash
-----> Trade Debtors
etc - all without creating a specific procedure just to build this tree - the generic stored procedure builds it all for me. FIGJAM.
Totally is so close to release, and there's been a lot of interest in it so far by current customers and others.
I think its going to do quite well. ;-)
You may have also noticed that I changed the style of my blog. This one looks great.
So now, with the help of the design of Totally's database, I've now created a stored procedure that builds a relationship tree for every "thing" in there. For accounting, that's great, because the stored procedure can generate something like this:
[Chart of Accounts]
-----> Assets
-----> Current Assets
-----> General Cheque Account
-----> Petty Cash
-----> Trade Debtors
etc - all without creating a specific procedure just to build this tree - the generic stored procedure builds it all for me. FIGJAM.
Totally is so close to release, and there's been a lot of interest in it so far by current customers and others.
I think its going to do quite well. ;-)
You may have also noticed that I changed the style of my blog. This one looks great.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Totally - Database Considerations
Well, this is interesting.
I went to create an installer for Totally that included the demo database I've been testing with.
The database was 143 megabytes - when compressed into the installer, the size of the installer was 51mb.
A bit large for a download. So, since I'm using the Interbase IBConsole to manage my databases, (but delivering the Firebird data engine via MSM's in the installer, which will read an Interbase database anyway) I decided to do a backup and restore.
I've imported around 22,000 MYOB customers into Totally's database, and then deleted them all during my testing, but the database size remained the same (143mb). What's interesting is that now that I've removed all the data from it, and only imported about 500 customers, the database size still remained at 143mb.
Now that I've done a backup and restore using IBConsole, the database is now at a nice tight little 1.7mb. Perfect for an alpha demo download!
Look for it online soon. ;-)
Until next time, its all Totally good.
I went to create an installer for Totally that included the demo database I've been testing with.
The database was 143 megabytes - when compressed into the installer, the size of the installer was 51mb.
A bit large for a download. So, since I'm using the Interbase IBConsole to manage my databases, (but delivering the Firebird data engine via MSM's in the installer, which will read an Interbase database anyway) I decided to do a backup and restore.
I've imported around 22,000 MYOB customers into Totally's database, and then deleted them all during my testing, but the database size remained the same (143mb). What's interesting is that now that I've removed all the data from it, and only imported about 500 customers, the database size still remained at 143mb.
Now that I've done a backup and restore using IBConsole, the database is now at a nice tight little 1.7mb. Perfect for an alpha demo download!
Look for it online soon. ;-)
Until next time, its all Totally good.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Totally - Customer Applet
Had a brain explosion.
I've been stuffing around with a generic process to display "things" for far too long and have really begun to confuse myself.
So I thought, right, lets create an applet that deals only with Customers. So I did and it took about an hour. It loads up all the customers, lets you select one, populates the form, allows you to edit the details, and then saves those details back.
Done. Don't know why I didn't do this before. Its so simple.
And because its an applet, and because its called by its ProgID, its a simple matter to unregister the old one, copy the new one in, register the new one, and begin using the new one. Simple.
FIGJAM.
;-)
I've been stuffing around with a generic process to display "things" for far too long and have really begun to confuse myself.
So I thought, right, lets create an applet that deals only with Customers. So I did and it took about an hour. It loads up all the customers, lets you select one, populates the form, allows you to edit the details, and then saves those details back.
Done. Don't know why I didn't do this before. Its so simple.
And because its an applet, and because its called by its ProgID, its a simple matter to unregister the old one, copy the new one in, register the new one, and begin using the new one. Simple.
FIGJAM.
;-)
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
.:Totally:. Relationships
Excellent.
I've gotten relationships to work.
For example, if a customer has numerous invoices to pay, I've now added some logic to show those invoices on the customer form.
BTW - the customer form definition is an XML file - so if a field needs to be added, one just needs to edit the XML file. Simple. Dead simple. There's even an editor that's built into Totally that lets you add new fields to the form and you can drag the field around the form, then save it.
It is taking a long while to get right, but I can see a day when this will be a very good application.
Just need to feed myself in the meantime.
I've gotten relationships to work.
For example, if a customer has numerous invoices to pay, I've now added some logic to show those invoices on the customer form.
BTW - the customer form definition is an XML file - so if a field needs to be added, one just needs to edit the XML file. Simple. Dead simple. There's even an editor that's built into Totally that lets you add new fields to the form and you can drag the field around the form, then save it.
It is taking a long while to get right, but I can see a day when this will be a very good application.
Just need to feed myself in the meantime.
Saturday, July 31, 2004
.:Totally:. and Quickbooks
Now this is groovy.
I just created a Quickbooks Clone as a Totally applet.
Will this be a good way to provide an accounting module for Totally instead of writing it all myself? Could be, could be.
Yes, you'll need a copy of Quickbooks.
Yes, that copy of Quickbooks needs to be running.
Yes, you need to have a company file open.
No, you don't need a fully registered copy of Quickbooks - a trial edition will do!
This is great.
The current Quickbooks Clone allows you to:
1. List all your customers and their jobs
2. Click on a customer and view all their invoices
3. Click on an invoice and enter a payment.
4. Add new invoices for a customer.
The other good thing about this is that we don't have to do a complete import of Quickbooks data directly into Totally and manage it ourselves. We just tell Quickbooks what to do, and it'll store everything we need. Then, at the end of the financial year, the Totally user can take their datafile to the accountant (who will have a properly registered copy) and be able to see all the data in that company file. The trial editions of Quickbooks don't show you anything if you have around 250 transactions.
Totally, using the Quickbooks SDK, can "see" everything. So we just need to mimic the data entry / display forms, and send that data to Quickbooks.
This also allows the Quickbooks Clone to call on extra applets that perform calculations etc on current Quickbooks data - all those things that Quickbooks doesn't natively support or offer. Great.
Caveat: This has only been tested on the Quickbooks Pro 2003 Australian Edition Trial Version.
I just created a Quickbooks Clone as a Totally applet.
Will this be a good way to provide an accounting module for Totally instead of writing it all myself? Could be, could be.
Yes, you'll need a copy of Quickbooks.
Yes, that copy of Quickbooks needs to be running.
Yes, you need to have a company file open.
No, you don't need a fully registered copy of Quickbooks - a trial edition will do!
This is great.
The current Quickbooks Clone allows you to:
1. List all your customers and their jobs
2. Click on a customer and view all their invoices
3. Click on an invoice and enter a payment.
4. Add new invoices for a customer.
The other good thing about this is that we don't have to do a complete import of Quickbooks data directly into Totally and manage it ourselves. We just tell Quickbooks what to do, and it'll store everything we need. Then, at the end of the financial year, the Totally user can take their datafile to the accountant (who will have a properly registered copy) and be able to see all the data in that company file. The trial editions of Quickbooks don't show you anything if you have around 250 transactions.
Totally, using the Quickbooks SDK, can "see" everything. So we just need to mimic the data entry / display forms, and send that data to Quickbooks.
This also allows the Quickbooks Clone to call on extra applets that perform calculations etc on current Quickbooks data - all those things that Quickbooks doesn't natively support or offer. Great.
Caveat: This has only been tested on the Quickbooks Pro 2003 Australian Edition Trial Version.
Friday, July 30, 2004
.:Totally:. - Feedback!
This is great!
I had some feedback from a prospective customer!
Quoting Chowdhury:
Dear Brad:
Thanks for making me understand what "Totally" is. It would be a great software! Are u making it only for Australia? Since you are still in developing stage I would request you to make it (easier) for end user. Cause all these codes is out of our range.
I will check your webpage now and then. And will wait for an alpha/beta release to test.
Best of luck! You are doing a good work for people like us who are stuck in the middle of company operation and QB's understanding of these operations.
Yours,
Chowdhury.
Excellent!
Thanks Chowdhury!
I had some feedback from a prospective customer!
Quoting Chowdhury:
Dear Brad:
Thanks for making me understand what "Totally" is. It would be a great software! Are u making it only for Australia? Since you are still in developing stage I would request you to make it (easier) for end user. Cause all these codes is out of our range.
I will check your webpage now and then. And will wait for an alpha/beta release to test.
Best of luck! You are doing a good work for people like us who are stuck in the middle of company operation and QB's understanding of these operations.
Yours,
Chowdhury.
Excellent!
Thanks Chowdhury!
.:Totally:. Installation
Here's a few thoughts on installing Totally.
Each copy will come with and install both the Firebird RDBMS and a pre-configured database so that it can be used straight away (unless I can figure out a way of getting the installer to only install the RDBMS if the user selects it)
If Totally is installed on all workstations within a LAN, then there are going to be multiple database servers running. This is probably not a good thing, but for standalone workstations, not needing to connect to a database across the LAN, this is required.
I think the best way to solve this is, when each user changes the connection to use the networked version of the database, then it should stop the rdbms service on that workstation. Or maybe, for failsafe, keep it running - for example, should the networked database not be available for some reason, then each workstation could have their own locally synced version.
Hmm - need some replication here! Oops - this is getting big. But there is replication software available? Yes I think so.
Oh well, forget about that for the time being.
To change the connection from the local database to the networked one then, there needs to be an option or a preferences dialog where the end user can change to the networked version.
It should enumerate all the LAN machines, and let the user select one. The connection string in the Totally.INI file should then point to the networked version of the database - but we still have a problem in determining the actual path to the db on the "server".
Perhaps Totally should also install a "listener" app that "knows" about the location of the database on that particular machine. When the user changes connections, it can query all the listeners - the listener will tell the workstation where the db resides on the server machine.
This is good, but how to install and run the listener service? Put it in the HKLM\....\Run key of the registry so it always starts up? Yes, that sounds fine.
Perhaps Totally can do it itself - instead of the listener. Yes, this is better. Totally needs to be running on the "server" machine anyway so that it can accept Jabber requests from the outside world - (for the publish / subscribe facility) which means any firewalls in place will have to forward Jabber port requests to the server on which Totally is running. Hmmm - that means the local LAN admin needs to do some setting up.
Oh well, for now, we'll just have to implement it using Internet Connection Sharing and ZoneAlarm - no external hardware firewall - need to write up some docs for that.
But wasn't one of the tenets of Totally going to be "Napster for business"? I can run PSI as a Jabber client, and I can still communicate via my LAN gateway machine, so Totally shouldn't have a problem either. NAT/ICS will take care of that for me. So it seems to be ok from a hardware firewall point of view also?
Need to do some more investigating.
Each copy will come with and install both the Firebird RDBMS and a pre-configured database so that it can be used straight away (unless I can figure out a way of getting the installer to only install the RDBMS if the user selects it)
If Totally is installed on all workstations within a LAN, then there are going to be multiple database servers running. This is probably not a good thing, but for standalone workstations, not needing to connect to a database across the LAN, this is required.
I think the best way to solve this is, when each user changes the connection to use the networked version of the database, then it should stop the rdbms service on that workstation. Or maybe, for failsafe, keep it running - for example, should the networked database not be available for some reason, then each workstation could have their own locally synced version.
Hmm - need some replication here! Oops - this is getting big. But there is replication software available? Yes I think so.
Oh well, forget about that for the time being.
To change the connection from the local database to the networked one then, there needs to be an option or a preferences dialog where the end user can change to the networked version.
It should enumerate all the LAN machines, and let the user select one. The connection string in the Totally.INI file should then point to the networked version of the database - but we still have a problem in determining the actual path to the db on the "server".
Perhaps Totally should also install a "listener" app that "knows" about the location of the database on that particular machine. When the user changes connections, it can query all the listeners - the listener will tell the workstation where the db resides on the server machine.
This is good, but how to install and run the listener service? Put it in the HKLM\....\Run key of the registry so it always starts up? Yes, that sounds fine.
Perhaps Totally can do it itself - instead of the listener. Yes, this is better. Totally needs to be running on the "server" machine anyway so that it can accept Jabber requests from the outside world - (for the publish / subscribe facility) which means any firewalls in place will have to forward Jabber port requests to the server on which Totally is running. Hmmm - that means the local LAN admin needs to do some setting up.
Oh well, for now, we'll just have to implement it using Internet Connection Sharing and ZoneAlarm - no external hardware firewall - need to write up some docs for that.
But wasn't one of the tenets of Totally going to be "Napster for business"? I can run PSI as a Jabber client, and I can still communicate via my LAN gateway machine, so Totally shouldn't have a problem either. NAT/ICS will take care of that for me. So it seems to be ok from a hardware firewall point of view also?
Need to do some more investigating.
Thursday, July 29, 2004
.:Totally:. and Things and Applets
Hmmm - I was just looking at the menu structure to the Totally MDI UI, and it occurred to me that there is only really a need to show Things (Customers, Suppliers, Invoices, Emails etc) and Applets.
An Applet can process Things, so there isn't a need to have the UI cluttered up with menu choices to start this applet or that applet. This is a better design too, because then the administrator of Totally can decide to only allow certain applets to be installed on each end-users PC (in the applet-cache folder). If it's not there, they can't even see it. Yes, much better.
The only menu items that a end-user should see are those that allow them a bit of personalisation as to how their copy of the Totally UI looks in terms of background colours/images etc.
The only applets needed on each workstation are those that let the user choose which Thing or Applet to work with.
The current Things applet is called InternalMenu (I had this wild idea of being able to use the database schema to support Ingenieum menus) so began with that. It probably needs to be called something else now that I've had a bit of a think about it.
An Applet can process Things, so there isn't a need to have the UI cluttered up with menu choices to start this applet or that applet. This is a better design too, because then the administrator of Totally can decide to only allow certain applets to be installed on each end-users PC (in the applet-cache folder). If it's not there, they can't even see it. Yes, much better.
The only menu items that a end-user should see are those that allow them a bit of personalisation as to how their copy of the Totally UI looks in terms of background colours/images etc.
The only applets needed on each workstation are those that let the user choose which Thing or Applet to work with.
The current Things applet is called InternalMenu (I had this wild idea of being able to use the database schema to support Ingenieum menus) so began with that. It probably needs to be called something else now that I've had a bit of a think about it.
.:Totally:. and Banner ads
I had this crazy idea of adding an animated gif banner thing to the top of the Totally UI. This was really to prompt the user to register Totally, (and I'll keep this) but the other good thing is that any business that subscribes to the Total service can have their own banner ad appear on every other copy of Totally that is running.
With current banner ads, you actually need to go to a website to see them. As a business owner, which website do you choose to have your banner ad displayed? And can you be guaranteed that your target audience is going to see it anyway?
Basically, this is an idea ripped straight out of Opera's book. If they can do it, so can I.
So I need a URL inside Totally that will pick up a random banner ad given to PSI by the subscribed business, and each copy of Totally will pick a banner at random. Since the subscribed business doesn't pay for placement (only their monthly fee) there is no guarantee that their banner ad will always be seen. However, a better idea may be to rotate them.
Hmm - I'll have to look at Microsoft's AdRotator component. Must go do that now before I forget.
More soon.
With current banner ads, you actually need to go to a website to see them. As a business owner, which website do you choose to have your banner ad displayed? And can you be guaranteed that your target audience is going to see it anyway?
Basically, this is an idea ripped straight out of Opera's book. If they can do it, so can I.
So I need a URL inside Totally that will pick up a random banner ad given to PSI by the subscribed business, and each copy of Totally will pick a banner at random. Since the subscribed business doesn't pay for placement (only their monthly fee) there is no guarantee that their banner ad will always be seen. However, a better idea may be to rotate them.
Hmm - I'll have to look at Microsoft's AdRotator component. Must go do that now before I forget.
More soon.
.:Totally:. and Jabber
In order to communicate between instances of Totally, we'll be using the Jabber protocol. It's XML based, which is great. It also offers an SSL mode of connecting to a Jabber server, so for me, that's a good thing.
And because session ID's and digital certificates will only be known to the communicating copies of Totally, it'll make it hard for a cracker to connect to a running instance of Totally using some Jabber client. They'd have to work very hard in order to fake a connection - and what will they get even if they do? A whole stream of 128bit cryptographically secure data.
I think we're safe - but I've been wrong before.
And because session ID's and digital certificates will only be known to the communicating copies of Totally, it'll make it hard for a cracker to connect to a running instance of Totally using some Jabber client. They'd have to work very hard in order to fake a connection - and what will they get even if they do? A whole stream of 128bit cryptographically secure data.
I think we're safe - but I've been wrong before.
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
More Ingenieum download requests are coming in
We've had more Ingenieum download requests over the past few days.
Thanks to Roman for wanting to be kept informed. Will email you soon Roman, with details of the new version.
I'd just like to know how one can get more hits on a website
a) without paying huge amounts of money
b) without spamming
c) without looking like a jerk
Hmmm - perhaps I need to post a few messages on that website about Windows desktop replacements. What was that URL? hmmm www.shellfront.org looks good.
Look for me there!
Thanks to Roman for wanting to be kept informed. Will email you soon Roman, with details of the new version.
I'd just like to know how one can get more hits on a website
a) without paying huge amounts of money
b) without spamming
c) without looking like a jerk
Hmmm - perhaps I need to post a few messages on that website about Windows desktop replacements. What was that URL? hmmm www.shellfront.org looks good.
Look for me there!
"Totally" is moving along well
Totally, the software portion of the Total small business service, is moving along quite nicely thank you.
Its great. I added a few silly little things that won't be much on the larger scale of things, but it makes the whole product look that much better.
1. Animated banner ads in the top right hand corner, just like Opera. Thanks to Stephen Lebans for his OCX to do animated gifs.
2. Easy ASP page invoking a COM DLL to accept data sent to it by a class provided by Eduard Morcillo (Edanmo) and allowing me to store registration details in my customer database without having to install Internet Explorer just to send a form, like other apps do.
But I'm having a lot of fun.
Now, just have to build it and you'll be able to download it soon.
Stay tuned.
Its great. I added a few silly little things that won't be much on the larger scale of things, but it makes the whole product look that much better.
1. Animated banner ads in the top right hand corner, just like Opera. Thanks to Stephen Lebans for his OCX to do animated gifs.
2. Easy ASP page invoking a COM DLL to accept data sent to it by a class provided by Eduard Morcillo (Edanmo) and allowing me to store registration details in my customer database without having to install Internet Explorer just to send a form, like other apps do.
But I'm having a lot of fun.
Now, just have to build it and you'll be able to download it soon.
Stay tuned.
Saturday, July 17, 2004
Ingenieum's Page Generation
This is great. I'm getting so far along with the new version of Ingenieum.
Today I added another stored procedure to call on existing stored procedures that lets me get the entire content of the menu page in one call to the database.
Then, the entire page gets sent back to the browser with no extra processing needed by the script that gets the content - it is formatted by the stored procedure.
Brilliant! I am so happy.
Today I added another stored procedure to call on existing stored procedures that lets me get the entire content of the menu page in one call to the database.
Then, the entire page gets sent back to the browser with no extra processing needed by the script that gets the content - it is formatted by the stored procedure.
Brilliant! I am so happy.
Friday, July 16, 2004
New Ingenieum release!
We're working on a new release of Ingenieum.
We've also got a new website being developed now - it looks fantastic - congrats to Don and Sam for getting it moved along. Beej - your design has worked for the last 3 years, but we felt it was time for a revamp (love you btw) and we thank you profusely for the work you did in getting the current site together.
So, what's in the new release? In a word, lots.
1. A proper RDBMS instead of MS Access. We'll be using the open-source Firebird RDBMS - see http://www.firebirdsql.org for details.
2. Lots of page generation stuff will be inside the database in the form of stored procedures, so we can easily put the database on another platform (Linux, Unix, MacOS) and connect to it via PHP served by Apache! So if you've been put off by needing IIS, have another look at Ingenieum soon!
3. Getting Ingenieum to run on other platforms gives us a lot of scope to provide more and more functionality and services.
Stay tuned at http://www.ingenieum.com for more details.
We've also got a new website being developed now - it looks fantastic - congrats to Don and Sam for getting it moved along. Beej - your design has worked for the last 3 years, but we felt it was time for a revamp (love you btw) and we thank you profusely for the work you did in getting the current site together.
So, what's in the new release? In a word, lots.
1. A proper RDBMS instead of MS Access. We'll be using the open-source Firebird RDBMS - see http://www.firebirdsql.org for details.
2. Lots of page generation stuff will be inside the database in the form of stored procedures, so we can easily put the database on another platform (Linux, Unix, MacOS) and connect to it via PHP served by Apache! So if you've been put off by needing IIS, have another look at Ingenieum soon!
3. Getting Ingenieum to run on other platforms gives us a lot of scope to provide more and more functionality and services.
Stay tuned at http://www.ingenieum.com for more details.
Ingenieum Version Numbers
Before I forget, here's the most recent version numbers of the applications in the Ingenieum suite.
MenuServer - 2.0.0.12
Database Administrator - 2.6.0.39
Application Launcher - 2.1.0.125
Impero - 1.1.0.66
Impero Configuration Editor - 1.0.0.0
Reperio - 1.1.0.12
Reperio Configuration Editor - 1.1.0.9
Database Selector - 1.1.0.14
Unreleased software:
Ingenieum Web Admin - 1.0.0.0
MenuServer - 2.0.0.12
Database Administrator - 2.6.0.39
Application Launcher - 2.1.0.125
Impero - 1.1.0.66
Impero Configuration Editor - 1.0.0.0
Reperio - 1.1.0.12
Reperio Configuration Editor - 1.1.0.9
Database Selector - 1.1.0.14
Unreleased software:
Ingenieum Web Admin - 1.0.0.0
Ingenieum's Licensing Functionality
Ok - I need to add license monitoring to Ingenieum.
Basically, the original premise of licensing was for CDROM apps. Now, it has to extend to websites as well.
The problem is that the original MenuServer only took licensing into consideration if the link that was about to be launched was an application (12345.ald) - now it appears that we have to use the Application Launcher to go to web sites too - therefore, the only way that licensing can work for the *current* version of Ingenieum's MenuServer is to force all websites to be opened in a new browser window.
So the item link must have an entry in the Program's tab - then, the link will be opened using Application Launcher, which will then use the AsynchDownload class to contact the MenuServer to say that a license needs to be checked out from the pool.
Then, when the next user requests that link, we can check the license pool and dishonour that request if there are no licenses available.
Hmmm - this should work out ok - as long as the end user administrator likes the idea of opening licensed web content in a new window. Must ask Anna about this.
So that's as much as I can think of at the moment. More later.
Basically, the original premise of licensing was for CDROM apps. Now, it has to extend to websites as well.
The problem is that the original MenuServer only took licensing into consideration if the link that was about to be launched was an application (12345.ald) - now it appears that we have to use the Application Launcher to go to web sites too - therefore, the only way that licensing can work for the *current* version of Ingenieum's MenuServer is to force all websites to be opened in a new browser window.
So the item link must have an entry in the Program's tab - then, the link will be opened using Application Launcher, which will then use the AsynchDownload class to contact the MenuServer to say that a license needs to be checked out from the pool.
Then, when the next user requests that link, we can check the license pool and dishonour that request if there are no licenses available.
Hmmm - this should work out ok - as long as the end user administrator likes the idea of opening licensed web content in a new window. Must ask Anna about this.
So that's as much as I can think of at the moment. More later.
Thursday, June 03, 2004
"Totally" - Totally new small business software
I opened a new business recently called Phoenix Software International.
Our first software product will be a thing called "Totally" - it is a totally new way of storing information about practically anything, be it customers, suppliers, inventory, whatever. It can even store full documents - you'll never wonder again where you saved that file.
I'm very excited about it. Its not due for release for a while yet. You will be able to use it on as many computers as you like (within the one physical location) with no registration/activation codes.
For small businesses just starting up, the total capital cost of purchasing several copies of some well known small business management software really starts to add up. For example, the most recent version of a well known application costs around $1000 - if you plan on having a computer for each staff member, then you'd be up for $5000 right off the bat, and then you have to register each copy. Bah humbug.
What will be in Totally?
All the usual business financial needs - invoices, payments etc.
A magnificent data management engine, multi-user from the word go.
A datafile that will never need to be restarted each year.
Unlimited access to upgrades.
In the future:
Business to business e-commerce out of the box.
Business to customer e-commerce out of the box.
Role / User based security, right down to the field level. If you don't want certain staff to see certain fields, you can restrict that too.
Document management - create new documents or import current ones and store them in Totally, not scattered all over your hard drive. Keyword searchable too!
Totally also allows you to download new "applets" as they become available. These applets can, because of the single data store, be built quickly and allow new ways of working with your data, turning it into real information.
Our first software product will be a thing called "Totally" - it is a totally new way of storing information about practically anything, be it customers, suppliers, inventory, whatever. It can even store full documents - you'll never wonder again where you saved that file.
I'm very excited about it. Its not due for release for a while yet. You will be able to use it on as many computers as you like (within the one physical location) with no registration/activation codes.
For small businesses just starting up, the total capital cost of purchasing several copies of some well known small business management software really starts to add up. For example, the most recent version of a well known application costs around $1000 - if you plan on having a computer for each staff member, then you'd be up for $5000 right off the bat, and then you have to register each copy. Bah humbug.
What will be in Totally?
All the usual business financial needs - invoices, payments etc.
A magnificent data management engine, multi-user from the word go.
A datafile that will never need to be restarted each year.
Unlimited access to upgrades.
In the future:
Business to business e-commerce out of the box.
Business to customer e-commerce out of the box.
Role / User based security, right down to the field level. If you don't want certain staff to see certain fields, you can restrict that too.
Document management - create new documents or import current ones and store them in Totally, not scattered all over your hard drive. Keyword searchable too!
Totally also allows you to download new "applets" as they become available. These applets can, because of the single data store, be built quickly and allow new ways of working with your data, turning it into real information.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
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