Step Ahead Software

Modal X 1.3 for Wicket released

2011-08-04T01:57:00.000-07:00

We have recently released a new version of the open source Modal window extension framework for Wicket called ModalX. We have also added an getting started guide, a live demo and an example application that demonstrates its main features.

Feel free to leave any comments about the library here.

Take a look at the ModalX home page here:
ModalX Home Page

See the live demo here:
ModalX Live Demo

Wicket DateTimeField - trick for young players

2010-11-24T19:59:00.000-08:00

If, like me, you tried to use the DateTimeField component in the Wicket extensions library and saw an extra spurious TextField appear in your form and you didn't know why... then read on:

It turns out that the DateTimeField is actually rendered as a Panel by Wicket. Being a field in a Form I naturally (according to what I saw in some online example code) just entered markup within my form like this:

<input type="text" id="startDate">

but of course that can't work. Wicket can't render a panel into an input element (well not with any success at least!).

It turns out that as a Panel the DateTimeField is best entered as a <div> in your markup:

<div id="startDate" />

That allows the DateTimeField to be rendered correctly. Yeehah!

Once again I want to congratulate the Wicket team on the world's best object oriented, component based, Java User Interface framework.... a big claim I know, but try it and I think you'll agree!

Feel like a Pizza?

2010-08-31T23:53:00.001-07:00

Try Hornsby Gourmet Pizza, a new restaurant website with online ordering:

Click here to: Take a look

2010-08-26T19:00:00.001-07:00

Want to save the planet by saving on your power consumption?

Then you need to install LED lighting in your home or business:

EO LED

New Trustee IT Web Application for Superannuation Funds

2010-07-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

Step Ahead Software has done it again with yet another revolutionary product. When each Superannuation Fund duplicates similar IT systems, for both web interface and backend functions, over and over again, regardless of their size then that represents a huge waste of resources.

For larger trustees, with the advantage of scale, the 'per member' cost can be kept relatively low. For small and medium sized trustees the 'per member' cost can be unreasonable and hence the Jeremy Cooper Review of Superannuation in Australia raises concerns for the fees necessarily charged to members of funds that don't have the advantage of 'scale'.

Trustee IT changes this playing field forever and helps address many of the issues raised by the Cooper Report for small and medium fund managers.

Now small and medium trustee's can achieve a 'per member' admin cost that is similar to that of the larger trustees. This means that they can remain viable and autonomous while returning a better bottom line to the fund and greater returns for their members. They are also in a much better position to be prepared for the new MySuper changes if they are mandated by law.

Even if not mandated by law many of the recommendations in the report make for a better return for members and a better bottom line for the fund manager so some of these recommendations are simply good goals that most trustees would already have has part of their mission statement.

Check out Trustee IT at http://trusteeit.com.au

New website for Step Ahead Software Development

2010-06-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

The software development section of Step Ahead Software now has a new website. It's at:

http://develop.stepaheadsoftware.com

If you need any software or web development let us know. We have been providing outsourced software development since 1994 and have a large range of satisfied companes from small businesses to large corporations like Canon and Lucent.

We specialize in development in the following fields:

Windows Desktop
Web application development
Enterprise website application development

We are experts in the following languages, frameworks and databases:

Java, JDO, JPA, Wicket, Echo, JSP, J2EE, DataNucleus, Hibernate
C++, MFC, OWL, .Net, GDI, GDI+
MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server

We also have 'off the shelf' modules for fast 'time to market' of a variety of projects:

Entity management framework: For extremely fast implementation of websites or desktop applications that require users, people, groups, organizations, authentication, products, etc.,
Visual editing framework for creating applications that allow users to manage a visually oriented view of the topology of a particular problem space.

Step Ahead: Authentication in the Matrix!

2008-11-20T09:10:00.000-08:00

A little while back one of our customers, Matrix Education, expressed a desire to improve the security and protection of their rather sophisticated intranet based enterprise management software. To this aim we discussed integrating our entity management system into their web based intranet application.

Our entity management system is a powerful role based system that allows the management and authentication of entities including users, actors, organizations etc., It comes with a powerful, intuitive web based user interface to allow easy creation and management of entities and such as users and their roles and 'access rights'. Our separate workflow management system plugs right into the entity management system for customers who want to manage processes within their organization efficiently and automatically.

The customer understood that integrating our well established 'off the shelf' user management and authentication framework would provide a more reliable, high quality and less expensive alternative than building such a system from scratch.

Yesterday, after only a few days effort we completed the integration of our entity management framework into their system so now their web based enterprise system has modern, powerful user authentication built seemlessly into their existing JSP based application. The use of our access managing servlet filter allows us to hook into the 'smarts' of our entity management framework from just about any Java based web application including those built with servlets, JSP, Tapestry, Wicket and even Echo.

pagebloom's Media Asset Manager shines!

2008-10-29T05:58:00.000-07:00

Motivation
About this time last year ago we conceived an idea to enhance our pagebloom enterprise content management system (ECMS) to help manage the media assets (images, Flash intros etc.,) for the websites that it hosts. The idea was to create an advanced and powerful auto replicating media asset management system that could serve images from the most appropriate media host chosen from a range of available media hosts located around the world. That system was implemented and integrated with the pagebloom hosting service earlier this year.

How it works
If a particular host goes down or is under high traffic then the media assets can be served from alternative media hosts - all without site visitors experiencing any negative affects from the loss of performance on the degraded or lost media server.

Concept payback!
Since the integration of the new media asset manager none of the media hosts have experienced any problems, luckily. Well that was until today! And pagebloom carried forth without a problem. The US based media server that went down was removed from the list of available servers and media assets for pagebloom hosted sites were transparently retrieved from alternative media hosts - all without site visitors noticing any problems. From the perspective of a software engineer it truly was a thing of beauty! We're all very satisfied and proud at how well our design was able to keep the pagebloom ECMS working perfectly even though a key component of the system was not available for a period of time.

Welcome to the Step Ahead Software blog

2008-10-29T05:53:00.001-07:00

This blog is where we'll keep you up to date with all the news and happenings, product releases and product updates of Step Ahead Software.

I'm your host, Chris, so sit back, relax an enjoy the journey!