mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

Join us in exploring the world of modern development, evolving technologies, and the art of future-proof software

Year: 2013

4 simple ways to improve developer productivity

ProductivityLet me tell you a quick story about two similar development projects at two very different companies. Both companies were building extranets/portals–applications that let their customers log in, view their data, and place orders online.

Both had similar requirements. Both were nearly equally complex. The big differences between the two projects: One required 3 years, while the other required 3 months.

What caused this huge disparity?

As it turns out, the first company made a number of mistakes that killed their developer’s productivity. What were they? I’ve pulled out the most important lessons to learn from this story, and listed them below. With that in mind, if you want to maximize your developer’s productivity…

How to install a navigation bar in your web apps

EducationHere’s a great new feature that will improve your web apps. With the latest m-Power enhancement, developers can now automatically include a custom, drop-down navigation menu in every application.

Here are a few reasons you’ll love this new feature:

1. Maintenance is simple: The m-Power navigation menu is built for simplicity. Once you create your navigation menu file and tell m-Power to include it in your applications, you’re home free. Because the navigation menu is a separate file, maintenance is a breeze. You only have to change one file to update your navigation menu across all applications.

2. User-based security: When you apply the same navigation menu across all apps, you run into user-access problems. What happens if certain applications should only be accessible by a select number of users? Don’t worry, we thought of that. You can set up user-based security on the menu, so users can only see the menu items that pertain to them.

3. We’ve already done the hard work for you: We’ve already created the CSS and HTML necessary for the drop-down menu (though you can alter it if you want). There’s nothing for you to do except tell m-Power that you want the menu added to your applications.

How to add the navigation menu

Want to add the navigation menu to your m-Power applications? It’s simple. We’ve written up a short tutorial in our techblog that explains the whole process. You can find it right here.

Weekly recap: Best IT resolutions for 2013, design tips for developers, and more…

EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on IT resolutions for 2013, design tips for developers, and more. I hope you find them useful:

2012: The year in application development
In 2012, application development experienced some notable shifts. HTML5 became even more popular, mobile app development finally went mainstream in the business world, and much more.

Top 8 tech stories of 2012 for IT pros and developers

EducationWhen you look back at 2012, what stands out in your mind? As an IT professional, what are you going to remember the most about the past year? As I think back on 2012, several stories and events really stand out as shaping the year (and possibly beyond) from a business technology perspective.

While there are too many stories to list, I looked back over the past year and pulled out the news, stories, and events that were of significant importance to IT pros and developers in 2012. Feel free to add anything I missed in the comments, but here’s my list of the top IT stories of 2012: