Xgineer Solutions, Inc

Imagine if you will folks an application that searches your refrigerator automagically knows the items that you usually buy and what you are currently missing. While you are in the vicinity of your local market, the fridge alerts your phone that you are out of milk and within a mile of the grocery store. This might actually be a product, but lets say its not for argument sake. Pretty darn cool but unfortunately the person who has this idea has no idea how to start seeing this through to fruition.

As the economy continues to trend downward and people are losing their jobs, we see this increase in entrepreneurs finally being able to pursue their big idea’s. (continue reading…)

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On any given workday the average developer probably uses a couple of heavyweight tools complimented by a slew of plugins and applets without which writing code would be far more arduous. These lightweight lifesavers are rarely celebrated, even though many of them are not so widely known. I think other developers might benefit from awareness of these tiny utilities and so I would like to bring them to the forefront. Thus in every “Small Things” blog post I am going to highlight a tool which makes my daily grind a little smoother.

Back in the day when developers were hacking away at impatient terminals, lines of code flying from their fingers, I bet they never dreamed of the slick IDEs we have today. Now we have tools like NetBeans, Eclipse, Visual Studio, etc. These powerful all-inclusive applications have both sophisticated GUIs and tons of bells and whistles. Furthermore most mainstream IDEs, in addition to offering standard features like syntax highlighting and debugger integration, also allow developers to extend their functionality through plugins. Some of the plugins available for tools like Eclipse are very powerful and really help a developer cut across the application space. One such plugin, Esftp for Eclipse, has made my life a little better every time I’ve used it.

Esftp for Eclipse is a at heart a very simple tool. To use the plugin is easy, simply download and install it, then all that is left is configuring an Eclipse project with an FTP server. Afterwards you can one-click upload/download files from that FTP. No launching a second application solely to handle FTP transfer, no battling with a terminal, simply click a tiny icon in your GUI and voila your working copy gets synced with a remote copy.

Some developers may scoff at such a humble tool, however an uncluttered workspace does wonders for productivity. I cannot speak for every developer, but one of the worst enemies of my work flow harmony is clutter. The benefits of Esftp for Eclipse to organization are pretty clear, specifically you can manage local and remote working copies with ease and within your IDE. You can also juggle a variety of projects hosted on a variety of FTPs without having to to wear your finger out from switching applications.

Esftp for Eclipse is a fantastic little plugin which really helps me keep my taskbar clean. If you have to battle with a standalone FTP application and already use Eclipse, I strongly recommend you take a look at Esftp for Eclipse and see if it might help de-clutter your desktop.

Take a look at the Esftp plugin for Eclipse: http://www.chris-alex-thomas.com/projects/esftp/

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If you were to survey developers, asking them what their least favorite part of the development cycle is, I can pretty much guarantee that the predominant response would be “testing”. Testing is stressful, seemingly endless, and not as creatively challenging as building programs. As a result, many developers simply do not test, or do not test properly and more bug ridden code goes from production to live without anyone noticing. Certainly if testing were easier, many more developers would observe good testing practices.

Luckily there are techniques which can minimize the annoyance of testing. For example, writing unit tests for functions can dramatically reduce the amount of time which a developer has to spend testing. Unfortunately writing unit tests is an act of discipline and an elusive art form. Still the benefits of unit testing outweigh the costs and therefore every developer should be writing unit tests for their code.

“But Joshua”, you might ask, “we’re web developers. Sometimes we do things client/UI side which can be difficult to unit test.” I used to feel that client/UI side unit testing was impossible. A great idea, in theory, but I always felt like a practical client/UI side unit testing framework was a pipe dream. My feelings changed significantly when I came across Selenium. Selenium is everything a client/UI side unit testing framework should be. Not only does Selenium have a pretty decent IDE courtesy of a Firefox plugin, but it also provides a server side module for coordinating testing efforts and launching tests.

Through the Selenium IDE creating new unit tests is easy. From the IDE you can create tests directly by recording mouse and keyboard input. If you need a more complex function than can be deciphered from a mouse click, you can manually tweak the test case as desired. You can then throw these tests on your server and run them via the Selenium control panel. For its part the Selenium control panel will simulate a browser, run your test plan, and provide you feedback on the results.

The best part about Selenium is the flexibility Selenium offers developers. You can use Selenium to validate your web application, on a surface level, writing tests which touch the major blocks of your application or you can use Selenium to run complete Javascript validation functions for cross checking the UI exhaustively at every step of user interaction. All of this flexibility does not come at the cost of ease or integration.

Testing can be a serious pain, but the value of tested code cannot be overstated. Unit testing is a phenomenal methodology for making testing painless, but most unit testing frameworks end at the back-end. Where traditional unit-testing frameworks leave off is where Selenium begins. Selenium offers developers the flexibility and power to thoroughly exercise their web application. In addition, working with Selenium is easy and intuitive. If you are a developer struggling to test the front-end of a web application, you should really give Selenium a closer look.

Check out http://seleniumhq.org/ for more information.

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Well, it’s been about seven months since Xgineer Solutions was created, and we are off to a great start – moving faster than we ever anticipated! We’ve been able to be a part of some very diverse projects using all sorts of technologies. We’re working with a San Diego real estate company, modernizing their business with an Adobe AIR application that will streamline and simplify the way their customers operate. With their new AIR product and ongoing support, Xgineer Solutions continues to help them revolutionize their industry. This is why we love what we do.

We are also thrilled to have partnered up with a Bay Area startup company working on a very creative new web 2.0 venture. We’ll be utilizing PHP, MySql, AJAX, Google maps integration and other technologies that bring out the geek in us. The Xgineer Solutions team is excited to have earned the opportunity to build this new product. This has required us to staff up and add more outstanding Xgineers to our team. In addition, we moved into our first office right smack in the middle of San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter, located downtown. Our new place has a great view of the city and the energy here inspires us even more.

We are learning and growing so much and can’t wait to work with even more great companies. Xgineer Solutions aims to show all companies in any market how to utilize technology to realize their full potential. We welcome you to contact us to discuss how we may help take you and your business to the next level.

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