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February 8, 2013

Server-side pagination with AngularJS

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AngularJS is one of the most used Javascript frameworks nowadays.

A characteristic of this framework is the possibility of binding input or output parts of an HTML page to a model represented by standard JavaScript variables.

Looping through arrays and collections is made easy by the ngRepeat directive.
This directive becomes handy when dealing with lists and tables, especially if associated to the AngularJS filters, which allow you to handle pagination, filtering and sorting by adding just one line of code to your html.

Unfortunately, one of the limitations of this approach is that the filtering is done client-side, therefore it wouldn’t be an optimal solution when dealing with a substantial number of rows/records.

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January 26, 2013

Introduction To Core Data

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Core Data is a framework provided by Apple that allows developers to design, build and interact with a database, without ever having any direct interaction with SQL.

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January 16, 2013

The fundamental paradox of Stack Overflow’s requirement of objectivity

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Stack Overflow requires that questions be largely objective, but is based around a voting system that would be largely unnecessary if all questions actually were. The requirement for objectivity can be readily tested by asking a subjective question and watching how quickly it’s removed, but it’s also made explicit in their blog posts:

Stack Exchange is about questions with objective, factual answers.

their FAQ:

…open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site…

and the reasons a question might be closed:

We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.

The message is quite clear: objective good, subjective bad.

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December 12, 2012

Creating Custom stencils for Omnigraffle ( the right way )

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Recently I have been using Omnigraffle for creating wireframes. I like using Omnigraffle because it offers a lot of flexibility in terms of styling the wireframes, while being quite simple to use.

Another great thing about Omnigraffle is the Graffletopia stencil library. This extensive resource includes many commonly used design elements and icons – you can download it from http://www.graffletopia.com.

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December 10, 2012

Writing a Secure Android App

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When it comes to developing an Android app that deals with sensitive information, you must take extra precautions to make sure that the information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Although Android devices come with state-of-the-art security features, app developers often don’t leverage them. Even if they do, they may not necessarily be using them properly. One simple security hole is all it takes to compromise your app’s security as well as the security of the servers/systems it’s connecting to.

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November 20, 2012

A Software Consulting Conundrum: Providing Estimates While Staying Agile

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Software Estimates

As a software consulting firm, Grio strives to provide high quality, high value software to its clients. We embrace an agile software development methodology based on Scrum. This iterative approach provides our clients with flexibility to adapt and change their product over the course of development as discoveries are made while using the software.

This flexibility can prove challenging when providing up front estimates regarding project costs. The problem arises that providing an estimate that is too high may lose you the contract; Estimating too low can result in several outcomes:

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