The constant challenge is to learn (and remember) all the individual tools you need to develop solutions for each platform. At ICAL we use a product called XOJO to do a lot of our cross platform development. It is one of the few truly cross-platform tool sets.

Toward the end of January we were invited to discuss XOJO with the people who produce it. ICAL, Tom and Arthur (not to be confused with Tom and Ray) spoke with XOJO Inc’s Paul Lefebvre about enterprise solutions using XOJO.

We’re not radio jocks, but it is an interesting topic for technology consumers/developers. The rest of you non-techies with sleep disorders may also find it helpful.

Check it out: XojoTalk 21 (Enterprise Consulting)

With the Dot Com bubble burst in 2000, we started approaching brick and mortar companies that could use web technology to enhance their business.

ICAL developed its first customer web application in 2001. That year we developed a document image retrieval system for First American Title Insurance. This system began a series of projects that let agents get their own information and order policies directly, online. Previously, company staff had to send document copies via courier or fax to their attorney agents.

This led to 12 years of service and improvements to the company’s agency business systems. It was transferred to another portion of the company in 2012 and re-written, but the basic system design and functionality continues to this day.

2004 marked the first time that ICAL hosted applications for customers in our data center. We began hosting an accounting solution for a Central American customer. We built a series of servers in our data center to host a Platinum Accounting system for renewable energy developers operating in Guatemala and Costa Rica.

That same year, we developed a web application for CHI Energy, another energy client. This was a web based production reporting system. It tracked energy production and outages for renewable plants in the United States and Canada.

CHI Energy was later purchased by Enel Energy. We continued to support and maintain this application for the next 11 years until it was retired in 2015.

ICAL has gone on to develop and host many ‘cloudy web applications’ since then. Today, we regularly develop web applications and hybrid desktop programs that rely on web services both in our data center and elsewhere.

If you have a need for a distributed, web, desktop or hybrid application contact us today.

Happy Computing!

The fix for most of us is to simply upgrade or change browsers. Many people or organizations that operate Microsoft Windows based computers have them configured to automatically update. For them this won’t be a problem. These computers are likely already updated to a later browser version.

Unfortunately, many companies maintain older web applications that only work correctly on older versions of Internet Explorer. If you find yourself or your company in this situation, you need to be aware.

In order to protect the integrity of your company’s network you need to consider doing one of the following:

• Limit Workstation Access to other areas on the web
• Re-configure your workstations to sandbox the browser
• Update your application to use a later browser version
• Enforce a policy of only using the outdated browser for your dependent application

Ultimately, only updating or re-writing your application will fix the problem. The other solutions will extend the usability of your current solution, but as you purchase new equipment it won’t have access to the older browser versions.

Check here for a list of Microsoft Internet Explorer life cycles on distinct operating platforms.

This can be very disruptive to business, but it can be managed so that the impact is minimized.

If you need help that is what ICAL does. We can help. Contact Us

As always, Happy Computing!

We developed a set of tools that listen for those signals just like a doctor might listen to your heart.

The ‘Heartbeat Monitor’ can be configured to take several different actions when a monitored program fails to signal or signal correctly. Specifically, the monitor can:

• log an event
• allow several failures before acting
• notify ICAL staff by text or email
• restart a program that has failed
• do nothing

There are both commercial and open source tools that do similar things, but they are more focused on data center management, not application monitoring. Most provide a lot of abilities we don’t need, and each lacked a few features that make it easier to watch our monitored applications.

The monitor program and the tools that were needed for each program to talk to it were developed over a year. We began of defining a simple protocol in 2014. In June of 2015, we started testing the process on some of our existing hosted applications.

For ICAL, this means we can can maintain more applications with less resources. For customers, we can keep our costs lower while providing better service. We don’t have to pay people to check things 24 hours a day. We do have programs that can.

If you have business application needs Contact Us.

Happy Computing!

It was both interesting and fun. We were also duly impressed by the caliber of the people attending. The group shared projects that we never imagined being built with this tool set. Based on their experiences, Xojo has demonstrated itself as a versatile platform for building most software solutions that a company may need.

Part of the discussion focused on how Xojo could be used as key component within an enterprise. It had been used by the group as sort of a Swiss Army Knife for data conversion and presentation.

As techies, we sometimes get caught in our own little world. We forget that getting together once in a while helps us to be better and more successful at what we do.

Thank you ALL for making this successful. In particular, thank you Paul Lefebvre for taking the time to get down here and share some very helpful insights into Xojo and its future direction.

We look forward to hearing from all of you and getting together again. Please contact us with your ideas for what you might like to do in the future. We look to seeing you all again

Tom & Arthur