I am not gone, just doing full time work elsewhere so not much time to update this blog.  My site IS up to date though and still reflects what Datamac offers so - don't be fooled!

Heavens, time flys!   Not in Edmonton anymore, consulting full time back in Vancouver, lucky me.   Email me for more info on what I'm up to as I really can't get to updating this site that often.  Cheers.

...in case anyone's watching ;)  I'm socked into a long term contract in Edmonton, AB so not much time to blog, but that's a poor excuse, so here's a little entry so I feel better. 

 

I'm doing Project Management for a large client and making use of all my skills inlcuding Architecture direction.  There is no shortage of process here, but large projects for large clients need process, don't they?  The trick is to not let it bog you down.  My experience in driving projects from requirements and features, plus developing Web Service type apps definately helps keep the scope and direction focused and realistic.  There are so many processes and technologies and opinions in projects these days, you have to stay focused.  It helps to have a clear vision of what works and what doesn't, plus a set of processes and templates you can reuse on any project - and I have plenty of those!  Once this project is done, I'll post an update on what worked and what didn't, so stay tuned!

There was a time when architecure was about hardware...

 

 

Since implementing a Web Services, Dataset-based factory, Datamac has been involved in implementing and reviewing other factory options.  The most interesting is the object based ones rather than datasets.  Each has its merits and of course and usage depends on specific customer requirements.  A good example of an object based factory is the one described by Rockford Lhotka in his book Expert C# Business Objects (http://www.lhotka.net/).  The open source solution found on http://sf.net/projects/gopf is also becoming very popular.

Last year I created a Web Services Architecture for a client based on .NET and the biggest challenge was how to keep it easy to use and maintainable.  It's very easy to get overly complex with .NET.  An example would be trying to muscle the marshalling of Business Objects through Web Services.  They work great with Remoting but just try to make them work with WS.  The book by Rockford Lhotka - Expert C# Business Objects is an excellent resource for how this works.  For this cleint, however, that was far too complicated an option, and also unnecessary.  My solution was a more straightforward use of Web Services to pass typed datasets where needed between the business classes and the clients, where the typed datasets in essence become the business objects.  Make sense.  If not, contact me. 

 

In summary then, I designed and implemented Web Services Architecture for migration of 150 internal applications in various technologies including Oracle Forms, VB6, Access, and Powerbuilder.  Designed overall applications architecture, including initial security infrastructures, logging services, and UI interfaces as a framework of classes and templates for future development.  Architecture developed with VB.NET, XML Web Services, UDDI, and Windows Sharepoint Services, supporting Windows, Web and Java clients, and MS SQL and Oracle backend databases.