Phil Leggetter – Software Consultant

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• Google realtime search isn't real-time

  Phil Leggetter 2:19 pm on August 27, 2010 | 4 Permalink | Reply
  

  

  Google have released a real-time search site aimed at showing search results as it happens. The disappointing thing is that although I'm sure that the results are instantly updated on the server they are not instantly updated in the web browser – they are still polling for new results. This means that the instant you get your search results back that the information is out of date. If a new result comes in between the poll requests then you won't get that update until the next poll.

  The experience that this delivers isn't real-time!

  The news of the real-time search site was published on Reuters and I was really surprised to see no comment about this at all. They've clearly just reported the news and not commented on it.

  I'm going to keep on posting about these annoying stories, products and services until people start treating real-time as real-time. Polling is not real-time. Push is real-time!

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• Real-time News Reader Shows Off Push-to-Browser

  Phil Leggetter 8:00 am on August 26, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: realtime, RSS (2)

  
  With the real-time web being claimed by some to be one of the core components of Web 3.0 it’s unsurprising that we are seeing more real-time APIs and real-time mashups being developed. One mashup has just been created using Kwwika and Superfeedr to demonstrate how two real-time platforms can be integrated to create a real-time news reader application.

  Superfeedr allows a developer to subscribe to any RSS feed and receive real-time notifications when a change is made to that feed. This is done either using PubSubHubbub or by polling the source if a push notification system is not available. More recently Superfeedr introduced the ability to track keywords within all the feeds that they are subscribing to. Once Superfeedr has an update it delivers it to your system via its API.

  Kwwika (disclosure: author is a founder) is a relatively new platform used for distributing data between any number of systems or applications in real-time. They also provide APIs in a number of technologies including JavaScript, which means they make it easy to instantly push real-time updates into a web browser.

  The Kwwika Superfeedr demo application gives the user the ability to subscribe to any RSS feed or track any keyword in real-time from within a web application by combining Superfeedr’s RSS subscription and keyword tracking functionality and Kwwika’s real-time web browser push to build what can be described as a real-time news reader.

  The application has been developed using ASP.NET MVC and JavaScript and the source code is available on GitHub.

  Sponsored by

  

  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
   

• Geo Grandfather ESRI Makes Strides on the Web

  Phil Leggetter 1:30 pm on August 23, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: iPhone, JavaScript (11), Mapping, silverlight (10)

  Most of the time we write about mapping, it admittedly includes Google Maps (we list over 2000 Google Maps mashups). However, ESRI, the biggest supplier of geographic tools for the enterprise, has made huge strides this year with its tools, including its own web mapping platform, ESRI ArcGIS JavaScript API.

  Earlier this year ESRI released ArcGIS Server 10 and in the the past few months a stream of associated updates and new releases have been announced including version 2.0 of their JavaScript, Flex and Silverlight/WPF APIs. ESRI has also announced the release of a compact ArcGIS for JavaScript version designed for building applications where slower Internet speeds and network latency is an issue, such as mobile phones. They also plan to release a native iPhone API (ArcGIS API for iOS), which is slated for the third quarter of 2010, and an ArcGIS for Windows Phone API down for mid-August as part of version 2.1 API releases.

  

  “It’s exciting to hear news of ArcGIS Server instances in the cloud, coupled with the new mappings APIs,” Rob Dunfey, who has previously worked at ESRI and now works at Shell, said of the new tools. “We can start to deliver easy to use apps which answer business problems with a geo component. For example, the iPhone app for the CEO which downloads local sales stats as they move from site to site.”

  The version 2.0 API release adds new functionality and exposes a number of new features available in ArcGIS Server 10:

  • A features service which expose access to vector feature geometries and attributes.
  • Geometry service updates to facilitate Web editing.
  • Time aware layers to allow you to query or display time-aware layers using a particular slice of time.
  • Network analysis.
  • Bing Maps support updates.
  • Geocoding updates.
  • Mapping enhancements.
  • Built-in support for touch gestures in the JavaScript API.

  For a full list of features see the What’s New sections of the guides for ArcGIS Server 10, ArcGIS for JavaScript, ArcGIS API for Flex and ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight / WPF.

  The ESRI mapping APIs, which are freely available, differentiate themselves from the plethora of consumer focused mapping APIs out there in their depth of GIS analysis they support, their ability to ask complex questions of spatial proximity and topology. However, to access this extra functionality on your own data you need to buy a license.

  The implications of all these APIs means that the accessibility to commercial-grade GIS technology is much greater and as developers become more familiar with GIS they could potentially start bidding for development projects that were previously only accessible to GIS development houses. It also means that platforms and devices that were previously only used by consumers can potentially be used in the field.

  With platforms such as the Web (JavaScript, Silverlight and Flex), desktop (WPF and Flex using Air) and mobile (JavaScript, Silverlight for Windows Phone and iOS) covered, and with an extra level of GIS functional, ESRI appears to have everything in place to continue being the go-to company for GIS map-based application development.

  Sponsored by

  

  

  Related ProgrammableWeb Resources

  ESRI ArcGIS JavaScript API Profile, 6 mashups

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
   

• AmIDueAnUpgrade.com (and variations)

  Phil Leggetter 12:41 pm on August 21, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ideas, mobile contract, Mobile Phones (3), mobile providers, mobile upgrade, web applications, website

  
  Just had a little idea for a website/web application that allows you to check when you are due to upgrade your mobile phone and a few other things. Something probably exists but here are a few ideas:

  • Enter the details of your mobile phone contract and the site then informs you, probably via email, when you are due an upgrade from your mobile phone provider.
  • If an offer comes up to upgrade early then it could let you know.
  • It could also monitor offers from your provider to make sure you are getting the most of your contract.
  • When you are due an upgrade it could help you find similar tarrifs on other mobile networks (I’m sure this is already available from a number of websites).

  An important point about this service would need to be that your details would not be shared with any mobile providers unless you specifically asked for it to. I hate getting phone calls from people saying “your contract is about to run out…”. I like to do the investigating myself and I also find that the information that these people have is out of date. An email is much less obtrusive and since it was set up by you in the first place it’s much more likely to have the correct information.

  I’ve had a check and AmIDueAnUpgrade.com, DueAnUpgrade and AmIDueAnUpgradeYet.com are available. They’re probably not that catchy but they’d match what people search for.

  Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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• Le Grest & Co. 58 Fairfield Street SW18

  Phil Leggetter 11:03 am on August 21, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: furniture, investigating

  We live in a flat that was previously occupied by Jo’s Grandparents. One of the things we do occasionally is sort out a room or cupboard. Today I’m tidying up a room for a friend to move in whilst he’s finishing his University course.

  I’ve already tweeted a number of times about a metal bed that I’ve had to dismantle. This most recent find isn’t all that interesting to look at but when you see a label that details where it was manufactured, and then find that place on Google maps to see the place has clearly completely changed, it becomes interesting.

  
  
  See and download the full gallery on posterous

  This piece of furniture is just a table on wheels (I’m sure it has a better name) and it was built by Le Grest & Co. at 58 Fairfield Street SW18. The place in in Wandsworth and was most probably a place where a lot of manufacturing companies set up. But as we move to a tertiary economy these places are torn down and replaced with offices, shops and/or flats.

  
  View Larger Map
  A google for Le Grest & Co. only turns up a few links. It would appear that they are probably no longer building furniture or trading, and that Le Grest was most probably a play on “leg rest” based on one page and a listing on on ebay.

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• Plotting tweets in real-time using Smoothie Charts and Kwwika

  Phil Leggetter 1:35 am on August 13, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: JavaScript (11), real-time web (29), Smoothie

  I noticed a tweet today about real-time JavaScript charts and couldn’t resist having a play. The charts are call Smoothie Charts and have been developed by Joe Walnes. You can read the blog post where he announced the release of them here.

  The demos that I’ve seen don’t use real-time data so I thought I would create a small demo using real-time tweets being pushed through Kwwika. I updated the Kwwika TweetStreamer component (which I must get around to putting in GitHub) to push through updates from some popular hashtags including #nowplaying, #news, #tech and a few others and then wrote a bit of code to count the number of tweet updates over an interval and push that value into a Smoothie chart. The result looks like this (Smoothie charts use Canvas so only work in some browsers. I’ve tested this demo in Firefox and Chrome):

  

  You can see the Smoothie Twitter Real-Time Charting demo using Kwwika here: http://kwwika.com/Standalone/Demos/javascript-examples/smoothie-twitter-charting/

  I’ve got the Smoothie chart showing the number of updates for each twitter hashtag, a table showing the count and a list of the tweets at the bottom.

  The code is in GitHub so feel free to fork/download and have a play yourself. You can run the code on http://localhost but in order to get the code to work on your own website you’ll need to register with Kwwika and get in touch to let us know you want access to the real-time Twitter hashtag topics.

  Update: We found a bug in the Smoothie library which Joe Walnes promptly fixed.

  One thing we’ve noticed is that the Smoothie chart stops working and throws an exception and as yet we’ve not been able to work out what the problem is due to lack of time. It’s probably something to do with not getting any updated values in a TimeSeries. This is what the exception look like in Firebug:

  
  

  If anybody can work out what the problem is please let us know. Failing that we’ll look into it when we can.

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• The benefits of Real-Time Push-Once

  Phil Leggetter 12:02 pm on August 12, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Kwwika (13), real-time data (9), real-time push (4), real-time push-once, real-time web (29)

  There’s so much excitement about real-time push technologies that quite often, in fact almost always, the benefits of using push are overlooked, forgotten, or simply not known. The technology excites programmers who want to use it, want to know how it works or want to write their own push framework, user experience (UX) professionals who understand how this paradigm shift will massively benefit users, general technologists who can see how the addition of such technology can improve an application or product and entrepreneurs who have the vision to see ground breaking ways of using push.
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• WeBuyAnyCar.com shock and scare tactics leads to negative brand equity

  Phil Leggetter 8:56 am on August 12, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Brand Management, Used Car Sales, WeBuyAnyCar.com

  Selling your used car
  We own a 53 Reg Peugeot 206 and are thinking of an upgrade. I’m not really into cars – I just use them to get from A to B. I’m not really all that fond of the idea of selling privately although I know that it’s probably the best way of getting the most for your used car. Having a look at car price guides such as Parkers or WhatCar confirms this although a garage will tell you that these guides mean nothing (unfortunately they do mean something as they set a sellers expectation). The values for “Private in good condition” varied by a few hundred pounds but I set my expectations at around £2,000. So, I decided to try out WeBuyAnyCar.com to see what they would offer me.
  

  I filled in the online form and instantly got a valuation of £1,195. Due to the difference between my expectation and the offer price being £800 I decided to not proceed with the sale through WeBuyAnyCar.com.

  (More …)

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
   

• Kwwika-Superfeedr real-time demo available

  Phil Leggetter 3:30 pm on August 10, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Kwwika (13), real-time push (4), real-time web (29), RSS (2), Superfeedr (2)

  Over the past few weeks we’ve been dabbling with first creating a PUbSubHubbub Subscriber and then building a cool real-time demo which integrates the real-time feed goodness from Superfeedr with the real-time client push wickedness of Kwwika.

  The demo itself took a couple of days to build and allows a user to subscriber to any RSS feed or track any keyword using Superfeedr. When Superfeedr receives a real-time update it’ll push that update to a web server which will then instantly push that update through Kwwika and into the demo web application.

  RSS source → pubsubhubbub → Superfeedr → pubsubhubbub → webserver → Kwwika → Web client

  The application shows RSS and track updates in real-time in a web client which you could think of it like a real-time push RSS reader. We’re hosting the application and are restricting the demo to 10 subscriptions unless you have logged in to use your own dedicated demo. If you want your own dedicated demo then you’ll first need a Superfeedr account and then get in touch with us at Kwwika and we’ll set up the demo account for you on our servers. Once that’s done you’ll be able to log into the demo using your Superfeedr credentials. More information on setting up a dedicated demo can be found on the Kwwika Wiki.
  

  If you are a developer you’ll be pleased to know that the the source code for this application is available on GitHub. The code is an ASP.NET MVC solution although you could easily take the principles and create the demo in almost any other language. Just get in touch if you are interested.
  It’s also important to remember that this is a pretty simple demo and that this technology has a lot of potential. Even this demo can be improved in terms of usability, feed parsing to ensure all the information a user could need is pushed through, pulling in older feed items from some of the subscriptions, pausing updates, some general UI updates (which are in the pipeline) and so much more. Why not take the code and see what you can do with this? We’d be happy to help!

  Here’s a little walk through of the demo:
  

  So, why not try out the Kwwika-Superfeedr demo and let us know what you think.

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• Master does not have a definition for ViewData (ASP.NET MVC2)

  Phil Leggetter 12:05 pm on August 4, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC (3), Microsoft (5)

  I’m building an ASP.NET MVC2 web application and I was trying to access ViewData in my Site.Master page and I kept getting “master does not have a definition for ViewData”.

  <%= ViewData["topic"] %>

  The simple answer was that my Master Page was not an ASP.NET MVC2 master page. Somehow I had a standard master page.

  So, all I did was swap the existing page declaration

  <%@ Master Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Site.Master.cs" Inherits="HubSubscriber.Views.Shared.Site" %>

  With an ASP.NET MVC2 declaration:

  <%@ Master Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewMasterPage" %>

  And bingo! ViewData was now accessible from my master page.

  This post on Passing Data to View Master Pages may also be useful.