Harmonypark | API

Specle: New site and ad spec search tool go live

2010-03-17T12:03:49+00:00

Harmonypark have been working with Specle to release a bunch of new features for the pioneering web service that provides the missing link of reliable realtime ad specification data between publishers and their advertisers & production partners.

Ad specifications are notoriously difficult to find on Google or other search engines, and are often difficult to find even on a publishers own website.

The new Specle Search ad specification search tool allows customers to find your ad spec straight away from our front page. When you link to Specle from your site, you can also easily be found on Google or other search engines.

The Specle service also allows publishers to do away with historical media kits & out-of-date sales pdfs by migrating their ad data online to our Global Ad Specs Database and displaying it to the world in a highly searchable enterprise web environment.

Specle is also designed with the creative agency in mind to give them the information they need to prepare ads for publishers by tying into Adobe production tools like our Specle Create Adobe InDesign ad production plugin are live and ready to use, creating a more efficient production workflow that is linked in realtime to reliable ad specs.

We already have major global publishers such as Guardian News & Media and BBC Worldwide on board are on our way to creating definitive source for global ad specifications.

Congrats again to Tom and the Specle Team for pushing the publishing industry forward.

BIG NEWS

2010-03-16T11:20:20+00:00

Today is a momentous day in the life of Harmonypark. Andrew Donaldson, has just become a father.

Violet Marie Donaldson is fresh on the scene in Scotland and is the first born of Andrew and his wife Vicky.

Violet Marie is also the first kinder to come from one of our core team members, so we would like to take a moment to congratulate Andrew on leading the ascent into parenthood, and of course his general virility.

Come to think of it, General Virility would make a great name for a new super hero.

Easy continuous integration with RunCodeRun

2010-01-14T19:30:53+00:00

At Harmonypark we love writing automated tests for our code - our main weapons of choice being RSpec and Cucumber. Something that goes hand-in-hand with good unit testing practices is continuous integration.

Continuous integration is a fancy way of saying that at any given time, your source code (also known as 'the build') should work. In order to verify that the build works, you need to have an automated system to run all of your tests.

This is good for a couple of reasons:

1) You can have faith that the code is always in excellent condition, and good enough to deploy.

2) It ensures that developers are running the automated tests as often as possible.

Because at Harmonypark all the servers we use are in the cloud, setting up a continuous integration server would prove to be a bit problematic.

Enter RunCodeRun.

Whenever we check in our code, RunCodeRun runs all of our specifications and features to make sure the commit didn't break anything.

If RunCodeRun runs the tests and finds a failure, an email is sent out to everyone at Harmonypark. This leads to much derision and good-natured name-calling - sometimes tears.

Once the build is fixed, RunCodeRun sends out another email notifying everyone of the fix, and the offending developer breathes a sigh of relief.

Setting up RunCodeRun was pretty straight forward too, as it supports github straight out of the box. You just need to tell RunCodeRun where your github repo is and...BOOM! Instant Continuous Integration!

RunCodeRun is free for open source projects that are on github.

Travelstormer is now in beta

2009-12-16T17:29:53+00:00

So what is Travelstormer?

The latest app to come out of Harmonypark incubation, Travelstormer is a new web-base brainstorming/decision-making service that helps you Unravel Group Travel.

By unravel we mean that it takes all the hassle out of deciding where to go, where to stay, how to get there and what to do once you've arrived.

You can also sync your flights, track shared expenses and generally stay on top of what is happening when via a shared calendar.

Why it is useful?

The more people you normally involve in any decision process the worse it traditionally gets.

With Travelstormer group brainstorms and decision processes become a breeze and managing travel with large groups has never been so simple.

We've just used it to plan our company xmas event (with 12 people) and Travelstormer let everyone add their own ideas for where they wanted to go, what they wanted do and what day they could make it. Everyone was then able to vote on the different options and decide upon an ideal crowd sourced decision.

When will it be available?

Starting now you can use Travelstormer to brainstorm travel with friends, family, workmates and whoever else takes your fancy.

You can sign up to the beta here, and find out more about the service here

Congratulations to co-founders George Coltart and Colin Armstrong on seeing this idea through to beta!

Use Expensure to manage your Xmas Gift Lists

2009-12-14T12:35:34+00:00

It's always a mission to keep track of all the stuff you need to pick up at this time of year. Save yourself some pain and let Expensure remember it all your Xmas shopping needs for you.

Store all your gift ideas and Xmas dinner/holiday shopping requirements safe and securely in one single place.

If you are sharing the shopping with multiple people you can let then view the list online too and everyone can tick things off as they pick things up (and let Expensure sort out who owes whom what!).

You can also use Expensure on your mobile to keep the list with you when you're out and about and tick things off as you go.

Happy Xmas and Happy Shopping!

Expensure gets a writeup in Yahoo News

2009-11-04T21:03:57+00:00

We're currently over in San Francisco and Yahoo News gave Expensure a writeup as part of a piece they have done on PayPal opening up their API to the developer ecosystem.

The Innovate 09 conference has been a really cool experience with a lot of interesting people getting together and talking about the next wave of business models and how they might/will be powered.

The conference has definitely given us a lot of ideas of how we can make Expensure even more relevant and useful to our users.

Expensure releases new multi-person PayPal payment feature

2009-11-02T21:04:16+00:00

We've just released a new multi-person payment feature that lets Expensure users payback many people at once using a single PayPal transaction.

Expensure is one of the first ever online services to offer feature this innovative new PayPal payment system, and we're launching this at the PayPal Innovate 09 conference in San Francisco.

We'll be updating the FAQ shortly for people who want to know more, but all you need to use this feature is a current Expensure login.

We've also added a bunch of highly requested features that we'll be rolling out shortly across the service.

Expensure reviewed by The Next Web

2009-10-30T13:17:08+00:00

Expensure has just been reviewed by The Next Web, a cool (and highly influential) tech/startup news source. Getting press for bootstrapped startups is always hard, so when it happens it feels great!

If you'd like to write something about the service, its founders or what it is like to bootstrap a startup in London, get in touch. We'll also be over in San Francisco in a few days to help spread the Expensure word. Stay tuned for updates on that too.

Note to Editors: Expensure is a free to use web-based Shared Expense Management service that people can use to track, manage and resolve the expenses they share with groups of people.

Mike Evans, Ebony Charlton and Andrew McPhee created the service to solve a problem they had keeping tabs on shared bills and expenses that had when they flatted together. You can find out more about Expensure here.

Expensure invited by PayPal to demo at Innovate 09 Conference in San Francisco

2009-10-15T13:58:26+01:00

We have been invited by PayPal to demo Expensure.com at the PayPal Innovate 09 Conference in San Francisco. The conference is the first of its kind for PayPal and will take place on Nov 3rd and 4th 2009.

Billed as the Intersection of Ideas & Money, the conference will have an abundance of labs and workshops on offer, and we're proud to have been chosen to demo Expensure, which as you by now might have guessed will soon be offering the the ability for users to resolve payments via PayPal in an innovative and interesting manner.

As we'll be over in San Francisco during the week of the conference and are up for meeting with other startups, entrepreneurs and investors in the San Francisco area during that week (get in touch).

Harmonypark invited by PayPal to demo Expensure.com at Innovate 09 Conference in San Francisco

2009-10-15T11:43:26+01:00

Billed as the Intersection of Ideas & Money, the conference will have an abundance of labs and workshops on offer, and we're proud to have been chosen to demo Expensure, especially seeing it is a 100% bootstrapped Harmonypark App.

This is probably also a good time to announce that very soon Expensure will be offering the the ability for users to resolve payments via PayPal in an innovative and interesting manner.

As we'll be over in San Francisco during the week of the conference and are up for meeting with other startups, entrepreneurs and investors in the San Francisco area during that week (get in touch).