HybridHacking

TypeRoom Opens Public Beta

shongrunden — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:29:59 -0400

TypeRoom has just opened a public beta for their TypeRoom Lite service.

I covered TypeRoom Lite a few months back and was really impressed with the concept. If you are looking for content management systems for a web project I highly recommend trying this out.

It's really easy to get started:

1. Go to www.TypeRoom.com
2. Type in a web site
3. Start editing

This service is free while it is in public beta.

iPhone SDK Released with Impressive API and Tools

shongrunden — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:34:28 -0500

I watched the announcement on Apple's iPhone SDK today and was amazed at the power that developers now have. I couldn't wait to get started trying things out until I found out that the iPhone simulator and IDE are only available on the Mac platform.

I highly recommend watching the full announcement on Apple's Developer Connection page.

Here is a quick summary of the main API features and tools being released:

API Features

Some Facebook Users Experiencing Flash Version Problems

shongrunden — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:17:50 -0500

I have been getting a few messages lately from people who are having trouble with Facebook not properly detecting that they have Flash Player 9 installed.

It sounds like Facebook has a slight bug in their version detection scheme that only affects a few users. A post on the developer feed a few weeks ago seems to confirm this.

Facebook tried patching this bug but the fix caused problems with the <fb:swf> tag so they unapplied the patch.

Make Your Facebook Applications Multilingual

shongrunden — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:21:04 -0500

As the Facebook platform expands the number of users who are not native English speakers is growing. Facebook just released a Spanish version of the site and used a neat idea to translate everything into Spanish. Instead of sending all the text off to professional translators, they set up a system where Facebook users who speak Spanish could translate text directly on the site.

This creative use of the user base seems to have worked well as it resulted in the entire site being translated in less than a month.

Simple Content Management System for Static HTML Pages

shongrunden — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:17:04 -0500

Web developers often have a few small projects over their career where the final output is a set of static HTML pages with no server side code.

This is usually because the client's budget constraints left no room for a database driven web site with content management system, or the web site just isn't updated frequently enough to need anything complex. In these cases the client usually sends email requests for small changes that the webmaster manually updates.

Rock Band Web Site Runs on Drupal

shongrunden — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:53:10 -0500

Dries Buytaert, the lead of the Drupal Project, noticed that the Rock Band web site is running on Drupal.

In the comments of the post someone who appears to be from Harmonix (the company that built the game) confirms it and notes that they are actively looking to hire Drupal developers.

Connect to Drupal from A Deskop Application

shongrunden — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 14:55:09 -0500

I just finished watching a great screencast created by Rob Loach that walks through the process of building a desktop application which connects and interacts with data from a remote Drupal web site.

He uses Visual Studio.NET with C# in this tutorial and demonstrates how to load and save a node to Drupal using XMLRPC and the Drupal Services Module.

Check out his screencast here (about 25 minutes long)

Add your Facebook application to new users' accounts

shongrunden — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 04:28:44 -0500

I was browsing the Facebook Developer Wiki over the holidays and came across a neat little feature. It is possible to give users who aren't on Facebook a specially crafted URL that will allow them to sign up with your application already added to their account.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

shongrunden — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 04:49:17 -0500

There were many exciting developments in the RIA space this year. Since I started this blog I have been tracking some APIs and platforms that I think are the most interesting and innovative. This year these included the Facebook Platform, Drupal project, and Ribbit Phone API.

In the new year you can expect me to continue covering the latest developments on the Facebook platform as well as post a little more about working with the latest release of Adobe AIR.

My best wishes go out to you and your family over the holidays and I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas.

Facebook Payment System Coming Soon

shongrunden — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:39:53 -0500

A thread appeared yesterday on the Facebook Developers Forum looking for beta testers for their upcoming payment system.

Facebook has a great opportunity here to compete with PayPal and other online merchant providers. I hope that the transaction fees are minimal because I think Facebook is a great place to try implementing micropayment options which isn't easy to do with the high costs of a normal credit card merchant account.