Linq + Expression Blend 25 April 2008
Posted by Baz in Uncategorized.Tags: expression blend, LINQ
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This week I have been working on moving the address details away from organisation, volunteer and opportunities tables to a table which will only hold details about addresses. By using this method, organisation, volunteer and opportunities objects would have an ID of address which they refer to. The moving of address details will help us when we come to implementing some future user stories.
We finally got Expression Blend which we ordered a few weeks ago. Microsoft Expression Blend is Microsoft’s user interface design tool for creating rich graphical interfaces for web and desktop applications that blend the features of these two types of applications.
With Expression Blend we will be able to produce an interface which will make you say WOW! and in half the time it would take if you were using Visual Studio to design the interface.
Today I will be learning LINQ. LINQ is a Microsoft .NET Framework component that adds native data querying capabilities to .NET languages using a syntax reminiscent of SQL.
From next week, will be off until 21st May. Until then adios!
Hello V-Base3! 23 April 2008
Posted by cherryeve in Uncategorized.Tags: Add new tag, team
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The journey of exploring the world of V-Base3 was started on the 18th April 2008. It was not my first day in YouthNet. There was a team lunch to welcome newcomers at 2PM. I came at noon and while waiting *hungry-mode* I was given a high level introduction to V-Base3 by Martin. Hopefully 80% of the explanation was processed and saved properly, thanks to the delicious curry from CurryLife Leaf.
My first impression was like “Hmmm… Spring, NHibernate, Accessibility feature, WPF, generated DB, SQL CE… wonder what is inside V-Base3.” I have always worked with SQL Enterprise edition 2000/2005 and have the luxury of using SQL profiler to debug, so it will be interesting to find out more what is offered on SQL CE and how light it is. The most exciting bit is WPF and Silverlight.
Also, on the Agile Scrum side, the practice is followed well by the team. I have always been a fan of agile development, this is the first time the implementation is consistent across all of the in-house projects *thumbs up*.
Finally, this is my third official day. The environment is setup, code build script works, created some user stories and sub-tasks, had a code walk-through of the current V-Base3 code, had an overview of WPF and plenty of technical resources (and things to keep developers not bored). It is not possible to achieve this without the help of the team, thanks guys! 
(re)factor8 21 April 2008
Posted by Tracey in Uncategorized.Tags: iteration, recruitment, team
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iteration 8 is a refactoring/hardening iteration. no new business value gets added in this time; instead the team are laying the ground for the next lot of functionality to be added and tweaking the client to make it more stable.
we’re also inducting our new developer, sofia.
yes, you read that correctly - .net developer 3 is now in the house we’re not only extremely pleased to have her join us, but olivier has thoroughly enjoyed telling all the recruitment agencies that we’re no longer in need of their services.
when sofia’s had a chance to settle in a bit, hopefully she’ll do an introductory post.
assimilate! assimilate! 2 April 2008
Posted by Tracey in Uncategorized.Tags: team
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our numbers are growing… ben, the longest-standing member of youthnet’s web development team, is joining our project for the remainder of the year. ben will be working mainly on the back-end, including any changes to the existing do-it infrastructure that need to be made. to familiarise him with our development processes, he and olivier are currently tinkering with an online tool for administering v-base user accounts.
front-end and back-end are go!
p.s. this is the first time that the v-base and web development sides of youthnet have worked together on one project. joined-up work = good.
itera… 1 April 2008
Posted by Tracey in agile.Tags: iteration agile planning
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sprint/iteration 7 kicked off yesterday. after experiencing problems in our previous iteration that ate a substantial chunk of our development time, we’ve decided to change our iteration schedule slightly. instead of addressing both the adding of new functionality and refactoring in one 4 week iteration, we’re shortening the length of this iteration to 2 weeks, where the team will focus on adding value through implementing user stories and will follow it immediately with an iteration devoted purely to refactoring. hopefully this will reduce some of the pressure, because the developers can focus on one type of activity at a time. that’s the idea anyway – we’ll see how we get on.
