Do you run a Charity Golf Tournament? Are you tired of waiting for the
last group to come in to start tallying scores? Are you tired of chasing
down the scorecards in the parking lot from people that want to leave?
Would you like to know how things are going while you are playing on
the course? Would you like to make a few more dollars in sponsorship
money? Do you want to provide a better experience for your golfers?
I
would like to invite you to check our product named "AutoCard" and our
company "Tournament Director, LLC." I have written an internally
developed application to allow for real time scoring of charity golf
tournaments, as well as other type of golf events. We ran this in a
private beta with a couple of regular golf groups in 2015, opened it up
to a few charity events in 2016, and are now trying to get out to
provide this service to more events in 2017.
Some of the events that we have done already:
2016 UT Hospital TeeUp For Trauma.
2016 Children's Hospital Golf Classic with Peyton Manning.
2016 Smoky Mountain Boys & Girls Club.
2017 UT Hospital TeeUp For Trauma.
2017 Phil Fulmer Celebrity Golf Classic
If
you are planning a charity golf tournament, please contact me. I can
answer your questions, discuss costs, and help you improve your event.
Video about our product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhMFaC-is04
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Cache Images and Handle a Byte Array in the Xamarin Forms ListView
Article Url: https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2017/03/01/xamarinforms-ios-android-mobile-visual-studio.aspx
I’ve always been concerned when working with images. I'm always careful with how my applications use them, as images can be relatively large and apps will typically download them via a cellular or slow Wi-Fi connection. So you might not be so concerned with image size when it takes only a few hundred milliseconds to download, but those milliseconds can add up when your app is trying to download a large number of them.
In a number of previous columns, I’ve focused on how to make a Xamarin Forms (XF) application look and act more like a native application. I'll continue along and this time I’ll look at how you can use the Xamarin.Forms ListView to cache images so that you can use the images in other locations in your application with application performance in mind.
Xamarin.Forms ListView is the equivalent of the UITableView in iOS and the ListView in Android. It allows you to present a simple grid of data to the user. The user is able to easily scroll through the data, and binding textual data to it is also a snap.
One of the problems that I see with XF ListView is that there has only been one way to easily bind the image in an ImageCell in a ListView, and that's by passing the URL of the image to the cell. ListView is then responsible for downloading the contents of the URL, handling the contents of the download, formatting the image contents and displaying the image.
The problem is that I would like to download the bytes of an image once, to a cache, and then have the cached bytes available whenever the application needs them. For example, the golf application I've been developing along with this article series displays a list of team pictures. I would like it to be able to touch the cell, have another screen open and display the image without going to the server to get it. To do this, I need to be able to cache the images. Because the application will cache the image content as a byte array, the application will need to convert from a byte array to an image, so there will need to be a Xamarin.Forms image converter to handle the binding.
I hope you enjoy the article.
I’ve always been concerned when working with images. I'm always careful with how my applications use them, as images can be relatively large and apps will typically download them via a cellular or slow Wi-Fi connection. So you might not be so concerned with image size when it takes only a few hundred milliseconds to download, but those milliseconds can add up when your app is trying to download a large number of them.
In a number of previous columns, I’ve focused on how to make a Xamarin Forms (XF) application look and act more like a native application. I'll continue along and this time I’ll look at how you can use the Xamarin.Forms ListView to cache images so that you can use the images in other locations in your application with application performance in mind.
Xamarin.Forms ListView is the equivalent of the UITableView in iOS and the ListView in Android. It allows you to present a simple grid of data to the user. The user is able to easily scroll through the data, and binding textual data to it is also a snap.
One of the problems that I see with XF ListView is that there has only been one way to easily bind the image in an ImageCell in a ListView, and that's by passing the URL of the image to the cell. ListView is then responsible for downloading the contents of the URL, handling the contents of the download, formatting the image contents and displaying the image.
The problem is that I would like to download the bytes of an image once, to a cache, and then have the cached bytes available whenever the application needs them. For example, the golf application I've been developing along with this article series displays a list of team pictures. I would like it to be able to touch the cell, have another screen open and display the image without going to the server to get it. To do this, I need to be able to cache the images. Because the application will cache the image content as a byte array, the application will need to convert from a byte array to an image, so there will need to be a Xamarin.Forms image converter to handle the binding.
I hope you enjoy the article.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Intellectual Property and Your Startup
Now that you've gotten deep into thinking about your startup, it's time to think about the meaning of intellectual property. So, what is it and why is it important to define it in the context of your startup?
You're familiar with personal property as well as business property. Personal and business property – those are fairly tangible items. It encompasses things like the desks, chairs, the computer equipment, the office lease. But your startup is riding on the code you – and maybe a team of other developers or people you might contract out for hire -- create and it's not as tangible.
So, have you given any thought to what encompasses your startup's Intellectual property, or IP? I bet it wasn't the first thing that came to mind when you started thinking about a startup or even when you were in the middle of doing the work necessary to get your startup off the ground. But guess what? It's incredibly important because, as you'll soon realize, your IP is the foundation of your startup. Let's look at the basics of IP, what make up the various types of items in an IP, what's their value, and what you should be doing to protect them.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Device Specific UIs with Xamarin Forms - Part III
Url: https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2017/02/01/customizing-a-xamarin-forms-app.aspx
Last time, I looked at customizing Xamarin Forms applications so that the functionality is the same across platforms. I looked at the components and setting to make this possible, and added some custom, platform-specific programming to accomplish this. The result has been that my picture-taking application for my startup has rounded into form and is usable in low- and high-bandwidth areas. I've had a couple of users test it out with much success.
But that app is still missing something: On the iPhone, XF is well integrated with it. The programming model feels very much like programming against the native iPhone API. On Android, it provides a good representation of the Android UI. However, there are some basic settings in that UI that I feel it's missing.
Last time, I looked at customizing Xamarin Forms applications so that the functionality is the same across platforms. I looked at the components and setting to make this possible, and added some custom, platform-specific programming to accomplish this. The result has been that my picture-taking application for my startup has rounded into form and is usable in low- and high-bandwidth areas. I've had a couple of users test it out with much success.
But that app is still missing something: On the iPhone, XF is well integrated with it. The programming model feels very much like programming against the native iPhone API. On Android, it provides a good representation of the Android UI. However, there are some basic settings in that UI that I feel it's missing.
Monday, December 19, 2016
Customizing a Xamarin Forms Application, Part 2
Url: https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2016/11/01/xamarin-forms-application-part-2.aspx
In an earlier column on Xamarin Forms app customizing, I looked at how realistic it is to create a Xamarin Forms (XF) application and how close it can tie to the platform. How close does an XF application look in comparison to an iOS and Android application? Now that my startup has been using the application, we found a few items that were "wanting":
In an earlier column on Xamarin Forms app customizing, I looked at how realistic it is to create a Xamarin Forms (XF) application and how close it can tie to the platform. How close does an XF application look in comparison to an iOS and Android application? Now that my startup has been using the application, we found a few items that were "wanting":
- Saving log-in information. When an app is loaded, no one wants to continually type in a name and password. Users want to just load the application and go with it.
- Network requests. When a network request is ongoing, such as an upload, what kind of information is communicated back to the user? Is it just the activity indicator or is more possible?
- Network availability. Is there some mechanism to check for a 3G/4G/Wi-Fi network? If there is no network, the application should communicate this to the user or at least not crash.
Android 7 with Xamarin
Url: https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2016/12/01/multiwindow-mode-via-xamarin.aspx
Xamarin has updated Xamarin.Android to support the latest version of Android -- version 7, aka. Nougat -- that was made available in mid-August. My Nexus 6p and Nexus 7 have both been updated to Android 7 since then, and developers have all of the sweet, gooey goodness necessary to build applications for it.
While Android 7 doesn't appear to be a major update, there are some new items in it that are rather interesting:
Xamarin has updated Xamarin.Android to support the latest version of Android -- version 7, aka. Nougat -- that was made available in mid-August. My Nexus 6p and Nexus 7 have both been updated to Android 7 since then, and developers have all of the sweet, gooey goodness necessary to build applications for it.
While Android 7 doesn't appear to be a major update, there are some new items in it that are rather interesting:
- Multi-Window API: Users can open two apps on the screen at once, assuming that the screen on the device is large enough to support more than one app.
- Notification Enhancements: The notifications system was redesigned to include a direct reply feature. Users can reply directly to messages from the notification UI.
- Data Save: The Data Saver is a new system service that helps to reduce cellular data use by applications. It does this by giving users control over how applications use cellular data.
Monday, December 5, 2016
App-to-Market: Locking In Technology Options for Your Startup
Url: https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2016/12/02/startups-does-technology-matter.aspx
How crucial is the technology you choose to run it and build apps? It almost doesn't matter, as long as your chosen path provides enough options to deliver to customers the solutions they need. We look at the Microsoft stack as an example.
You've been working in a company that has its own data center with servers sitting in racks. You got training on how to use and deploy solutions on them using a combination of Visual Studio, .NET, servers, Cisco, and a bunch of other enterprise-grade technologies.
You have ideas for some apps and you've been getting ready to venture out on your own. To get a feel for what it might be like, you attend several startup competitions. No one at those competitions are using any technology related to .NET. Some of the attendees you talked with say that knowledge of the Microsoft technology stack isn't useful in a startup. They've even got you second-guessing your choices.
Now you're wondering, "I've got all of this .NET knowledge, but they say that .NET isn't startup friendly; what am I going to do now?"
Note: Since this is Visual Studio Magazine, this article will have a .NET slant to it. Don't worry; I recognize the bias; even then, you can really take a language- and platform-agnostic approach to tool choice for your startup. Just about every stack has something for every facet of building apps.
How crucial is the technology you choose to run it and build apps? It almost doesn't matter, as long as your chosen path provides enough options to deliver to customers the solutions they need. We look at the Microsoft stack as an example.
You've been working in a company that has its own data center with servers sitting in racks. You got training on how to use and deploy solutions on them using a combination of Visual Studio, .NET, servers, Cisco, and a bunch of other enterprise-grade technologies.
You have ideas for some apps and you've been getting ready to venture out on your own. To get a feel for what it might be like, you attend several startup competitions. No one at those competitions are using any technology related to .NET. Some of the attendees you talked with say that knowledge of the Microsoft technology stack isn't useful in a startup. They've even got you second-guessing your choices.
Now you're wondering, "I've got all of this .NET knowledge, but they say that .NET isn't startup friendly; what am I going to do now?"
Note: Since this is Visual Studio Magazine, this article will have a .NET slant to it. Don't worry; I recognize the bias; even then, you can really take a language- and platform-agnostic approach to tool choice for your startup. Just about every stack has something for every facet of building apps.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)