As you may know, Kentico have recently launched Kentico Marketplace – a place where developers can publish their web parts, templates, modules and other add-ons for Kentico CMS. The Marketplace now contains 36 products. During the launch, we also announced a $1,000 contest for the best Kentico add-on. And the winner is…

My Twitter! Web Part by user “The Guru”

The web part was the most popular item on the marketplace. It displays user information and user status directly from Twitter. You can download it here.

We would also like to recognize excellent submissions from other developers:

• IBL’s FileUploadPro module for multi-file upload by IBL-Software BV
• Tweet Me Web Part by r42 communication
• Google Analytics and Page Title Generator Web Parts by Elijah Taylor (Aceoft Studios)
• Yahoo! Weather Web Part by Halim Dahlan
• Show Node List In-line Control by Christopher Taleck
• Quickbooks Connector for Kentico by Yoodle
• WebChat solution by E-office

They are happy to see how these products add missing pieces to our solution. While the multi-file browser-based upload functionality is currently not supported out-of-the-box, our long-term partner IBL Software have created a special module for uploading multiple files using Silverlight and other users can purchase the module from them. It’s a win-win-win situation – Kentico can offer this functionality, the author can make some extra money and the clients get what they need.

If you developed anything related to Kentico CMS that can be useful for others, please be sure to submit it on the DevNet portal.

*BPC Solutions is a partner of Kentico and we develop, implement and maintain Kentico’s CMS for numerous sites.

]]> http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/1000-add-on-contest-winner/feed/ 2 bpcsolutions mytwitter http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/ruby-duby-dooo/ http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/ruby-duby-dooo/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:51:33 +0000 bpcsolutions http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/ruby-duby-dooo/ ]]>

Prospecting is getting hotter these days.

Some who are in the ‘know’ or know something about Ruby, suggest that their web should be build on Ruby. Suspicious on the reason of why Ruby, maybe they know something we don’t, we asked why, to be asked in return, “is it because you don’t know how to?”

- silence -

It’s usually not the matter of “know” or “don’t know”, it whether it’s relevant or suitable for the development.

Funny.

So, let’s lay up the foundations here on what is Ruby. Nope, it’s not some mineral dug from the ground to be placed on a lucky lady’s finger.

What Is Ruby On Rails?

You’ve probably heard of Ruby on Rails, which has been generating noise in the web development field over the past year. While buzz and hype are nothing new to our industry, it’s always beneficial to cut through that hype and the jargon to understand what a new technology really is about.

Ruby on Rails is an open-source web development framework that allows you to rapidly develop data-driven applications using the Ruby programming language. By applications I don’t mean software applications such as Photoshop that run on your desktop. Instead, I am referring to web applications such as Basecamp and Flickr. Like a desktop app, a web application solves a problem. For example, Basecamp lets you manage your client projects easily via the web, and Flickr lets you share photos with friends and family effortlessly.

Rails has three major goals:

Simplicity

Developing applications should be easier, since many data-driven sites share a common set of parameters. For example, instead of focusing on writing code that will connect your application to a database, Rails handles all of that for you, thus allowing you to spend that time working with your actual application logic.

Logical

Rails follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture for application development, which allows for a logical separation of your application logic, business rules, and user views. By keeping these things segregated, it not only makes initial development easy, it also makes updates and maintenance to your system quicker.

Happiness

Since developing using Ruby on Rails strives to be simple and logical, it will in turn lead to a happy (and more productive) developer.

Source: http://www.digital-web.com/articles/ruby_on_rails_for_the_rest_of_us/

Since Ruby on Rails is a new technology, if you wish to use it for client development, be prepared to learn on the job. While it’s been my goal in this article to try and ease your mind about the ease of developing with Ruby on Rails, I would be lying if I didn’t say that it can sometimes be confusing when you are first getting started, especially if you are coming from a non-framework background such as PHP. There are several outlets available to assist you with your initial Ruby on Rails development venture.

Online resources such as the Ruby on Rails Wiki and mailing list are great places to search for existing answers to common problems. There is also the #rubyonrails IRC channel on the Freenode network if you are hoping to get a quicker answer. Finally, there are several great books on Ruby on Rails available.

• Agile Web Development With Ruby on Rails – Dave Thomas and David Heinemeier Hansson
• Rails Solutions: Ruby on Rails Made Easy – Justin Williams (to be published January, 2007)
• Rails Recipes – Chad Fowler

Finally, you should only consider Rails if a solution you need doesn’t already exist. I am a proponent of not reinventing the wheel. If a solution for a problem you are trying to solve already exists, be it in Ruby on Rails or another language, investigate it before you go about trying to implement your own with Rails. For example, just because there isn’t an eBay-clone written in Ruby on Rails doesn’t mean you should write one if there is a perfectly good solution already available in PHP or another language. While it’s nice to have your own stamp in an entire code base, sometimes it’s not economical or logical to ignore a preexisting solution if it will accomplish exactly what you want.

If you find that those solutions don’t match what you need and it’s worth the time investment, I can wholeheartedly recommend you build your application using Rails. Not only is it quicker to develop via a framework, but Rails also is elegant and easy to use.

Some developers are also building static web sites as Rails applications rather than mixing static HTML and PHP includes. Personally I prefer to stick with PHP and HTML, since it’s easier to publish on a web host. Unless you need some sort of database access in your web site, there’s really no need to use Rails in this instance.

Use the solution that fits the project best!

We, in our little way hope to spread their message and journey of hope online as they travel round the world. Dare to dream, and dream big, we believe in the young and upcoming generation who will make a difference for tomorrow.

Featured on the photo line-up here, some promising & outstanding young achievers.

Rockport Press Conference : From Left: Me, Christhoper Wee, Wallace Wong, Samuel Wee, Josephine, Willie Chai, Jonathan and Kelvin, Ian and Mrs Ng.

• Christopher – part of the team of 3 who won to represented IACT to International level, at Paris for L’Oréal Brandstorm 2007.

• Wallace Wong – Partner of a successful law firm, Chong & Wallace.

• Samuel- won RM10,000 earlier as the “gold” winners, beat the competition from Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines to win the HSBC Young Entrepreneur Regional Awards 2005/06

• Willie Chai- International Asset Management Advisor

• Jonathan- Video award winner, an experienced videographer and photographer.

• Kelvin- Experienced Navy Marine Engineer

You can follow their travelogue and updates on www.we-deed-it.com

They are supported by sponsors, (we are on of them) and they open to more who would like to support their journey are welcome. You can find their information on the website.

Somehow deep inside me wished I was able to join them round the world…

As we support this 2 fellows on their trip. We can also say, WE DEED IT!

]]> http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/we-deed-it/feed/ 0 bpcsolutions Rockport Press Conference http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/in-the-60%e2%80%99s-or-70%e2%80%99s/ http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/in-the-60%e2%80%99s-or-70%e2%80%99s/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 08:44:42 +0000 bpcsolutions http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/?p=84 ]]> Ok, Trivia time .. when was the first internet created?

In 1973, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated a research program to investigate techniques and technologies for interlinking packet networks of various kinds. The objective was to develop communication protocols which would allow networked computers to communicate transparently across multiple, linked packet networks. This was called the Internetting project and the system of networks which emerged from the research was known as the “Internet.” The system of protocols which was developed over the course of this research effort became known as the TCP/IP Protocol Suite, after the two initial protocols developed: Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP).

source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_was_the_internet_first_created

It’s been a week since we blogged. Things are jumping around here.

Ok. We’ve been getting many calls to present on social media. Is it really happening? Most ask, how effective is social media marketing activites in Malaysia.

I did some google’ing and here’s some of the information we found ..

We have actually 15.1 million web users in Malaysia alone, which makes up to 60% of our population is online. Also of which 60%+ are from 15-64 which would be main target consumer groups.

Population age distribution trends for 2002-2006

source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Malaysia

So with this, we can conclude that 60-70% of our social media marketing efforts will hit it’s mark. As we have stressed in our earlier post, there must be a mix of traditional, online marketing efforts with social media activities. So what are you waiting for?

We’ll leave you here for now. Promise we’ll have another post soon.

Have a good week ahead!

It’s getting harder and harder to gain site loyalty these days with huge applications and sites popping up daily and seeking the attention of the ‘onsumer’ (online-consumer). It’s starting to get a bit noisy in cyberspace.

1. Some believe in the traffic counters ( site analytics) to be the benchmark of their webspace effectiveness
2. Some believe in the number of subscribers on their email newsletter/e-zine list
3. Some believe that, it’s in the number of fans on their Facebook or Myspace.
4. Some believe that their page rank on Alexa, Google is most important
5. Some believe in Adwords and Adsearch
6. Some believe that online social media/digital media is a whole load of crap

I believe it’s two or more of these things. With traffic, as much as we can have them, the question is what are they doing? Are they staying long enough to receive the targeted message or is the traffic being converted into sales, enquiries or subscriptions to the e-zine, e-newsletter? I believe that traffic is only the first step to quantifying your online efforts.

With social media, like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, these are only instruments to getting more traffic/loyalty to your content/ belief, product or services. Of course social media gives more credibility where you can’t buy fans/followers etc. However, after they follow you/ become your fans.. then what?

We must not forget that whatever happens in cyberspace, we’re still existent on earth. Which means whatever our business is fundamentally, there must also be support. There must also be ground activities to support all the online effort. Ultimately it’s for ‘onsumers’ to become consumers. There’s where you see you efforts paying off, on a global scale. So, you’ll see your brand, product or service becoming more credible, having more loyalty and also more exposure. So, spend some time and effort on the ‘onsumer’ because, the consumers that are out there spend an average of 3-4 hours a day online. So, which means, it is better to place yourself where you can be seen. Invest in a technology company or an online media company (like ours) to help you roll-out these strategies and discuss with you the objectives. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

Go get ‘em tiger!

1. Creating unique profiles in Social Networks

Social networking sites like myspace and facebook have great importance in business promotion. This part of social media marketing can get lots of traffic to your website along with building credibility among people worldwide. The social networks are now crowded with the online marketers and hence it is important to highlight your profile in the crowd. Though there are lots of customization options available in the social networking sites itself, it is always good to get some professional help for advanced customization. These social media marketing professionals will be able to provide you will very unique profiles which will get noticed by the social media crowd immediately.

2. Don’t try to sell anything in the Social Networks

Many social media marketers just advertise their products through their social media profiles. This is a wrong move. Social networks are for connecting to people and not for advertising the products, Hence your main motive in the social networks should be to connect to as many people as possible. The traffic to your website and the credibility to your services/ products will eventually increase as your networks grow.

3. Don’t leave any social media profiles unattended

Active participation is a basic necessity of any social media marketing campaign. Just creating some profiles in a handful of social media sites doesn’t do any good. You should post some content to the social media profiles frequently and make them look lively. Always remember the fact that Google crawls the profiles that are frequently updated. Moreover, the visitors of your profile will love to see many updates. You should also involve in activities like participating in polls, posting in forums, making comments and connecting with the people of similar interest.

Social Media marketing is a time consuming process and for the moment of truth it is really worth the time you spend. If you don’t have enough time for social media marketing in your tight schedule, there are professional social media marketers who are ready to help you. To the added advantage, these professional social media marketers can analyze your website and create the best marketing strategy. By paying them a nominal fee, you can just sit back and relax, watching your network grow along with the web traffic and business.

Extracted from : Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

This was a great moment of the ever hectic and busy week. It motivates us to be excellent in our work and provide great service. I believe, great success in business come from reliability, speed and quality. We hold this close to our core working culture and constantly try to improve those values.

It brings great satisfaction that hard work and attention to little details pays off. I once remembered my previous employer, who daily, grind me on the little details, a comma here, a spelling mistake there, grammar, or even spacing! I did think that he was a little anal to pick on me. Looking back, I think that was good training. Thanks Boss!

Now, we go through this process within the team. So we are able to criticize our own work, far better than client giving us those criticism.

So, in this non-stop, hectic week, it’s encouraging to know that our work is appreciated and it’s rewarding when we provide good service and quality work.

Keep up the good work guys!

To me, 3 things make a site fantastic…

1. Content

What do you have that would have people coming back? What is your ‘pull’ factor? What is your meat/juice of your site? What makes your site tick? Many people launches website with not much planning in terms of content, everyone likes a nice design, funky flashy navigation ( we’ll come to that later..) but when it comes to content execution, that would be the weak spot. So, plan your content.. dont be contented with great design only

2. Navigation

Have you ever tried reading maps which doesn’t make sense and as you follow a route you think is correct eventually get you so lost, you can’t find yourself? I think site navigation and user flow is very important. Like Tai-Chi, where you let the energy flow and direct the flow rather than try to create that energy itself. So, usability and not getting your visitor lost in your site is key, so they know where to find what, and they’ll be back for more of the “content”. Dont forget, great content needs to be found, not hidden. So, drive your traffic, not drive it away..

3. Aesthetic

The look and feel of the site. You don’t wanna visit ugly looking websites with only words and no pictures. Non formatted, some text larger than the other, and a gaudy bright red that hurt your eyes as you look at it. Naturally, we humans are visual creatures, so we have to visually attract them not impair them. So, arrange your design, colors and font well. Use CSS to stylise your site. Add some dash of flash, most importantly some relevant graphics would also do the trick. (relevant to your content of course)

There you have it, 3 great things to consider when you are planning or revamping your site. So, C.A.N – content, asthetic and navigation.

You C.A.N do it!

This week, we’ve been hectic with presentations.

Most of whom were interested in SEO and social media marketing. I guess there is a great demand for it at the moment. Good thing for us, we have the right tools and the strategies to support their goals. We’ll do social media another time. Let’s look at SEO first. We’ve always been great advocates when it comes to the “perfect website”. There is no such thing as a perfect website. And even if you have the most beautiful site in the world, is there anyone visiting it? It would be as good as having a billboard in the jungle. So, yes, perfect website, where art thou? If there was, we would be out of a job and the world of internet and sites will soon grind to a halt. Just like the old book in your bookshelf , it’ll be left there to rot.

Ok, let’s come back to SEO, most people ask us to view their site and to know whether is ready to be published, or whether their site can be ranked no.1, with little knowledge what they mean or how much it would take to get them there. Everyone wants to be number One. So, here’s some of the things we’d need to take into consideration, a quick checklist should bring us up to speed on where our website is positioned.

Ok, let’s go through the check list before we ramble on…

Here’s the check list :

1. Unique Title Tags and Meta Data. See all of the pages that are indexed and make sure that there are no duplicate content issues and that all pages seem to be individual and unique with their own title tags and meta data.

2. Search Engine Friendly. Check to make sure the CMS you are using is search engine friendly. Are your URLs search engine friendly? Are you able to include header tags? Alt Tags?

3. Has the site been submitted to Google Webmaster Central? By submitting your site to Google you are able to get your whole site indexed properly on Google, and they are able to show you any errors your site may have.

4. Check your content. Is your content duplicated? If your content has be taken from external sources, you’ll want to be different from 100 other sites which may have the similar content as you.

5. Have keyword or the right keyword for each page. You’d want each page to be tagged correctly so you’ll be relevant to the searches.

In Conclusion: This is just a quick “What I would do” SEO checklist of what to look for when “checking out” brand new sites. These are a few of the steps that I would recommend anyone ready to launch their sites should check out before ‘Going live’ with their site..

This info may seem basic to a lot of us that have been doing it “forever”, but you would be surprised how many people still can’t it right.

Hope this helps!

]]> http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/do-re-mi-fa-seo/feed/ 0 bpcsolutions http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/in-the-clouds/ http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/in-the-clouds/#comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:32:11 +0000 bpcsolutions http://bpcsolutions.wordpress.com/?p=65 ]]>

Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the Internet.^{[1][2][3][4][not in citation given]} Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them^[5]

The concept incorporates infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) as well as Web 2.0 and other recent (ca. 2007–2009)^[6][7] technology trends that have the common theme of reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users. Examples include Salesforce.com and Google Apps which provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers.

The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on how the Internet is depicted in computer network diagrams, and is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it conceals.^[8]

source : wikiepedia

WHA???

Ok ok. Let’s slow it down here a bit.

Cloud computing is all the rage. Everyone seems to have a different definition. I think the term ‘cloud’ is just a metaphor.

I’m not even sure what is it any really.. i guess it REALLY is still in CLOUDS!