Al Nyveldt

RazorAnt Software acquires ProfitTrain

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:28:00 -0400

Really excited about this. Read all about the ProfitTrain acquisition on RazorAnt blog.

RazorPDF Samples

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 09:20:00 -0400

I worked up some more advanced RazorPDF samples to help you get started with using RazorPDF in your MVC projects.

First, I went ahead and made an very simple HTML report and ran it through the PdfResult to output it as a PDF. It is nice way to make a PDF without iText XML. You can use this to easily take any view and allow the user to display it as a PDF. I think you can format your PDFs better with iText XML, but this works well in a lot of situations.

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Next, I made a sample report showing more detailed iText XML that you might use in actual production report. Paragraphs, images, tables and lists in different fonts, sizes, styles and colors. I added some of the most common tags in this Gist to use as a reference.

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The reports mentioned are all checked in to the RazorPDF Sample project on GitHub. I encourage you to check it out if you are planning to give RazorPDF a try.

Talking MonoTouch at Philly Code Camp

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:25:43 -0400

I’ll be back at Philly Code Camp on November 17th to do a session on MonoTouch. The session is called, “Building iOS apps with C# and MonoTouch”. We’ll be building out a simple Code Camp app with the schedule. This is a fast paced hour going from File/New to working app, but it will show you how you can leverage your .NET skills to make amazing apps for the iPhone, iPad, and other iOS devices.

The app we will be building is available in the App Store. It currently defaults to the sessions from the last code camp, but just hit update to get what we know about the current set of sessions. I have a new version waiting for review with Apple so expect a nice update with the new iOS 6 features, some interface cleanup and new sessions. You can get it in the App Store now or take a look at what to expect on my company site.

I’m looking forward to the event in a few weeks. It is “sold out” but there is a waiting list and a few booster (paid) tickets left for the event. Sign up here if you haven’t already.

RazorPDF updates and source code

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:32:53 -0400

There has been a lot of interest in RazorPDF since I published it earlier this month. The most common question has been about the source code, which I’m happy to announce is finally available on GitHub.

I’ll try to get more details on syntax and more advanced usage posted soon as well. In the meantime, I’ve set up a RazorPDF project page were I’ll keep everything you might need to know.

Source Code
Samples
Links to iText Markup samples
Posts on usage

Thanks for all the interest in RazorPDF.

Introducing RazorPDF

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:30:00 -0400

Like many developers, I’ve been working with the Razor View Engine for a while. Prior to MVC 3 and Razor, I was using Spark as my default view engine and I was pretty happy with it. Being a long time Spark user, I sometimes find myself wishing I was using Spark for certain things. The Spark feature I’ve easily missed the most however was the slick way you could uses Spark to mark up iText XML and in turn generate PDFs.

I finally got around to spending a few hours to create this functionality using a Razor view (borrowing heavily from the Spark project). It is very easy to use and makes creating PDFs in your ASP.NET MVC projects a breeze.

Simply add the RazorPDF nuget package to your project.
Have your Controller action return a RazorPDF.PdfResult with your model and view name assigned.
Create the view with itext xml to create the PDF output you want.

Check out this short video showing you RazorPDF in action (2:18) and take a look at the RazorPDFSample project on GitHub to get you going. The sample project has some basic iText XML samples, but there are plenty more on the web.

The fate of the original iPad

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:30:00 -0400

Marco wrote some thoughts on iPad 1 and reasons why Apple decided not to include it in the iOS 6 upgrades. I remember being a tad upset about this at the iOS 6 announcement many months back. I remember thinking “isn’t the iPhone 3GS even older” and looking up the release dates.

Shortly after the announcement, I listed my iPad 1 on craigslist and picked up an iPad 3 with a Verizon connection. The upgrade was a huge improvement and we use the iPad more now than we did before.

A long overdue overhaul

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:01:00 -0400

I haven’t blogged much over the past few years. Part of that was a focus on other interests to be sure, but more recently, it was the blog itself that was keeping me from blogging.

BlogEngine.NET has been good to me but things were feeling a bit long in the tooth in a few areas. I had not updated to 2.0 or beyond and was really a bit unsure what I’ve wanted to do with my blog. I’ve had lots of ideas for updates, tweaks, and the like. Every time I would think about writing, I’d think about things I wish my blog handled better or were just different.

Avdi Grimm wrote about something similar a while back and it sounded a lot like where I’ve been at.

Before I started doing technical blogging in ~2006-2007, I spent literally years hamstrung by my need to come up with “the perfect” blogging platform. I’d come up with some topic I wanted to blog about, then that would lead to thinking about that blog system I wanted to write, and I’d wind up writing nothing.

While Avdi was writing about his reasons for using WordPress and how this keeps him from fiddling with it, to me it was the voice of someone feeling the same things I was but making some choices to get the focus back on the writing.

As one of the original BlogEngine devs, I wasn’t willing to give up dabbling with blogging tool at all, but I needed to make some choices to remove the reasons I wasn’t writing. Over the weekend, I made a list of my “must have” features, pulled the source and spent a few hours making the changes I felt were at the top of my list of need to have. I cleaned it up with a simple responsive theme and here it is.

BlogEngine.NET 2.6 has a lot of new things I was missing, including a few of the items on my list. Pulling up the code was like pulling on an old sweatshirt that you have buried in your closet. Familiar, comfortable, and welcoming. Not sure my changes will or even should go in the BE source, but it isn’t something I’m even thinking about in the short term. I’m now thinking about writing again.

The story of my latest app

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:42:35 -0400

In the past week, my latest app , RunNow Pro was approved and released in the Apple App Store. The app project began about 6 weeks ago. My wife and I were talking about running and my wife decided she was going to try to run a half marathon next fall. While it is pretty far away, we decided it was best to get started with a run / walk program so she'd be ready to hit the road come spring.

I looked up some plans online and thought there would be an app out there to help with this. There are lots of them actually, but of all the ones I looked at, none seems like the right one. Later that week, I got an evening home alone with the kids and the idea struck me to make the app for her myself. That night, I had the kids record encouraging messages of when it was time to run and then when it was time to walk or recover. After I got the kids to bed, I coded up the app and it was ready for her run the next day.

Over the next few nights, I cleaned things up, added a settings page for controlling the workouts, and added a log so she could see the workouts she did. It wasn't too fancy, but it worked well. The personal messages were fun and it was very customized to exactly how she worked out. She ran a timed workout of 20 minutes so she'd just run/walk for 10 minutes, the app would remind her to turn around and she be back in the driveway when her workout was done. I decided I would make a version for release soon after.

Over the next few weeks I spend a few more evenings polishing it up and sent the "Pro" version to the app store. I removed the kids voices but added other notification options. It has a built in couch to 5k workout plan, but still has the manual settings which will make the app work well for running intervals or just doing a custom run / walk plan. It runs great on our old original iPhone with iOS 3.1.3 which is the device my wife uses it on.

I'm working on the free version of RunNow as time permits with less features, ads, and the ability to upgrade to the full version with in app purchase. It is not my top priority, but I’ll hopefully be able to finish it up some time in the coming weeks. It was fun to see this simple project come together so quickly and was a nice break from my larger iOS project that I’ve gotten back to in the last week.

Perfect mockups

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:00:00 -0400

There is nothing like drawing up your app ideas so you can visualize things better. Like most of you, I’ve used the trusty paper and pen method the most. I came across Balsamiq in mid 2009 and have used it a nice amount. It does some things really well and the end product is great for sharing. However when there isn’t a widget for everything you need, it breaks down. I usually found myself starting with paper and moving to Balsamiq if I need to communicate a design to others.

Recently, I came across Noteshelf and it is my new mockup tool of choice. Noteshelf is a slick notetaking app for the iPad that is currently at the top of the US iPad sales chart as I write this.

Noteshelf is a handwriting app that just takes what you draw/write and saves it as an image (No keyboard input.) As you would expect, there are lots of pen and color options along with the ability to import images. You can create multiple notebooks to organize all your notes on the common bookshelf view. Notebooks can be saved as images or PDFs.

Where this gets interesting is there is an in app purchase for designer paper which gives you an iPhone template and an iPad template for drawing mockups.

Once you add these to your app, you can make notebook of mockup pages for your app. There are some incredibly helpful features like the zoom feature which lets you make work a smaller section of the page to give you a finer control and wrist protection which when turned on keeps your hand from making marks when you are writing with a stylus.

Pro Tip: Splurge for a stylus if you plan to give this a real test. It makes a huge difference.

Once you’ve got your app mocked up over as many pages as you need, it is easily sharable. The export options are excellent.

I linked up my DropBox account and that to me is the perfect why to export these at least until iCloud is fully rolled out.

At the moment, the app is $0.99 and the designer paper pack is another $0.99. $2 is a bargain for the perfect mockup tool assuming you have an iPad handy.

Note regarding the marvelous sample images: I wasn’t quite ready to share any of the real mockup images I’ve done in Noteshelf yet, so I made up this fine sample of Rabbot. I have no idea what it is or how it plays, but if you find an interesting game in there, I look forward to trying it out.

Delayed release in progress

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:00:00 -0400

I recently finished up my 3rd App Store game, SudokuKids for iPad. While I can't wait to see it available in the App Store, I decided this was a good candidate for delayed release.

I know many people advocate the delayed release. Usually, the main point is to try to build up a buzz around the app. Noel Llopis wrote a nice short description of delayed release at the end of his review of the Business of iPhone and iPad Development. You can contact media/review sites and even give out promo codes for your app ahead of time with the goal of having most of your PR hit right around the launch day. To be honest, I’m not expecting to be able to generate a lot of buzz, but any buzz does help.

The main reason I delayed the release of this app was to give myself sometime to work on some of the tasks I’ve been neglecting. I’m not sure how important these tasks are but I was beginning to feel they were pulling me down. I decided I would give myself a few days to try to get them in order before this app hit the store.

First up was a new RazorAnt Software web site. It still isn’t quite done yet, but is getting closer every day. I needed to make more information available about my apps and this is the place for that. I’m not sure how valuable the web site is for iOS game developers, but as I have some different apps coming up yet this year, I figured I really can’t neglect it any longer.

Next, I needed to start getting some social media connections going. I’ve just focused on making games in the past and hoped the marketing would come. Word of mouth has been ok, but hopefully this will propel it a bit better.

Lastly, I wanted to work on getting better pre-release details together. Better images, write ups, a press release. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a video done this week as well.

I was kind of hoping this would be the calm before the storm type of thing. So far, I’ve been busy, busy, busy and feel like I’m not producing a whole lot, but I feel better about the image RazorAnt Software is projecting and that counts for something. Since this is my first iPad app, I’ll have no idea if any of this helped compared to my previous releases, but I feel better about what I’ve done.

SudokuKids for iPad was approved last week and will be available in the App Store this Thursday, August 11th. If you have kids, be sure to check it out.