Application Showcase

[Richard Rabins]

we are considering adding a new section on our web site where developers can showcase their Alpha Five v8 applications.

Any thoughts on this?

[awj]

Re: Alpha V8 or Filemaker V8.5

I think that's an excellent idea! You can put me down for that. I would think it to be great to see what kind of diverse applications there are in the Alpha Community that have been created with A5V8, either web or desktop. Also a stimulation to creative ideas all the way around!

awj

we are considering adding a new section on our web site where developers can showcase their Alpha Five v8 applications.

Any thoughts on this?

[FARUK]

Re: Alpha V8 or Filemaker V8.5

we are considering adding a new section on our web site where developers can showcase their Alpha Five v8 applications.

Any thoughts on this?

Great Idea

[Richard Rabins]

Re: Alpha V8 or Filemaker V8.5

2 quick replies on this question - that is encouraging.

would this Alpha Five web example http://web-quad/SamplePages/flowers.a5w be the kind of format that would be interesting? (we could show descriptions, screen shots, flash demos (if available) etc)?

[awj]

Re: Alpha V8 or Filemaker V8.5

Hi Richard;

Can't seem to access the web link.

awj

[Richard Rabins]

Re: Alpha V8 or Filemaker V8.5

It turns out that the above link is on an internal server at Alpha so that is correct - it is not visible.

The sample I was describing has a grid displaying information about an application along with thumbnails of screen shots. When clicked, these thumbnails would show a full screen or would display a flash demo.

(the screen below relates to flowers - but the concept is clear - i hope:))

[jwolfe11]

Re: Application Showcase

Richard,

That's a great idea. Every few months someone will start a thread to display forms that they've designed. It will normally fo on for a few weeks so I believe this would be a hit.

[awj]

Re: Alpha V8 or Filemaker V8.5

Most definitely worth pursuing!

Looks like the website from the Web Application demo that comes with A5, albeit rather than flower power, we'd showcase V8 Power!!

awj :)

[ken doucet]

Re: Alpha V8 or Filemaker V8.5

2 quick replies on this question - that is encouraging.

would this Alpha Five web example http://web-quad/SamplePages/flowers.a5w be the kind of format that would be interesting? (we could show descriptions, screen shots, flash demos (if available) etc)?

Richard, I would encourage you to consider greater use of camtasia video files (maybe you could get some special deal flowing with techsmith) and then feature some of the applications that really showcase aspects of Alpha5 that the community should really be made aware of. For example, Ira Perlow's strong support for using functions could be highlighted in an app where he is giving us the verbal development flow. We could get a sense of the passion he has as he shares his thoughts while walking someone through his app. I think the forum is outstanding but having encoder files would do tremendous things for Alpha5. People like Tom Cone Jr have developed strong rational for the way they do things but having to type it in the forum has to be restrictive in comparison to an encoder session. There are so many areas that could be showcased more readily - and this would help leverage the great knowledge base that exists in this forum. Dr Wayne has opened the door for a number of great applications, one I recall is the easytwain interface he introduced and someone picked up and built into a photo-user id.
I recently searched the new web site looking for the existing camtasia links but couldn't find them. If you leveraged this area you would do several things:
1- enable newcomers to choose an area of interest and get exposed to the process by someone passionate about their development. And if the underlying database were also made available it would give people a great base to go from. These would be areas that bring out different elements that you couldn't hove to cover in the AlphaSports demo since there are so many neat applications that are lurking beneath the forums.
2- enabling people to showcase their apps allows them to share their passion and I am sure will also generate some good feedback that can further enhance their applications.
3- I liken the forum to a "cross-pollenization" environment where the community has such a diversity of backgrounds and much to contribute to one another's growth. I really believe the encoder approach would enhance the learning cycle for a lot of people who may not be avid manual readers but if provided with the audio visual "guides" could be sufficiently motivated to move into areas they otherwise might not get into.
4- Encoder sessions could help even the more established users move out of their comfort zones i.e. I think it was Daniel Weiss who said he almost always uses xdialog interface rather than forms for user input. Although screen shots of that interface are informative, having the thoughts motivating their use would be a fantastic catalyst.
5- If enough of these were available then newbies could be pointed to certain ones and their learning/ implementation curves would be shortened. Experienced users would be exposed to approaches they might not have considered and make their Alpha experience all the more valuable.

Having experienced the great sharing of expertise in the forums I would love to see the various and sundry apps that people have developed.


Ken

[Richard Rabins]

Re: Application Showcase

This is an excellent idea and we will be linking to these and additional videos as we create them

The question you raise is equally (if not more interesting) ie how do we get our customers to create flash demos of their applications or interesting techniques they have used in building their applications. Camtasia from Techsmith is the tool that we (and many other companies use) for this, but it costs about $300 per copy http://techsmith.com/purchase/default.asp which is probably more than most people want to spend. I know there are other tools out there that are lower cost or even free that we could recommend that people use. Any ideas from anyone?

Regards Richard

[ken doucet]

Re: Application Showcase

This is an excellent idea and we will be linking to these and additional videos as we create them

The question you raise is equally (if not more interesting) ie how do we get our customers to create flash demos of their applications or interesting techniques they have used in building their applications. Camtasia from Techsmith is the tool that we (and many other companies use) for this, but it costs about $300 per copy http://techsmith.com/purchase/default.asp which is probably more than most people want to spend. I know there are other tools out there that are lower cost or even free that we could recommend that people use. Any ideas from anyone?

Regards Richard

I originally mentionned camtasia as I noticed you were using it. Great product - still think its the best and maybe you can work out a deal to buy a number of copies to rotate amongst contributors / or discounted copies / or subsidized copies via preferred Alpha pricing or ???????
Another option is Windows Media Encoder software - FREE. I just downloaded and installed and did a quick test. Only took me a couple of minutes to set up so it is an option.

Here is a link re how to use it:

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/02/h...encoder-9.html

Richard, I think there is a huge upside for Alpha in putting some effort into this area and it, coupled with the superb forum would be outstanding. I am sure that there must be a couple of dozen areas that could be given focus in this medium. A number of threads have brought up topic areas that would good starting points. I am sure some of the major contributors on the forum would be a gold mine for initial focus ideas.
The spirit of cooperation that exists in this forum should be leveraged and the whole user community would benefit :D.
The use of this kind of facilitating technology combined with the depth of resources makes this a win win for all.
I imagine that a lot of organizations are resource constrained and Alpha's solutions need to be brought to the foreground. A recent thread was sharing how the Fedex/UPS interface was a significant factor in client dealings.

Ken

[tcausey]

Re: Application Showcase

I use a program called Quick Screen Recorder. It only costs $29.95 and includes many nice features like the option to have a yellow semi-transparent circle follow the pointer on the screen. Unfortunately, it outputs avi files that are relatively large and are therefore probably not what you want to make available online. I have not experimented with converting these files to some other format as we only use these internally so file format and size is not an issue.

At any rate, if anyone would like to check Quick Screen Recorder out they do have a trial version available for download. You can download it from their website here - http://www.etrusoft.com/screen-recorder/.

Tom

[Richard Rabins]

Re: Application Showcase

thanks - these are very good suggestions!

[russ Boehle]

Re: Application Showcase

You could try Camstudio:

http://www.camstudio.org/

or wink:

debugmode.com

Both free

I've used Wink some and it works well although has some limitations. I installed Camstudio but haven't had time to do much with it. It looks like it can do a lot though.

Russ

[russ Boehle]

Re: Application Showcase

Another one is Microsoft Media Encoder.

russ