DevelopmentNow

A New Business App Store for Google?

2010-03-08T17:00:07.804-08:00

Several publications and blog sites including The Wall Street Journal have reported that Google intends to launch a new App store specializing in the sale of business software sometime this month. Although Google already has a marketplace for Google Apps as well as Apps for Android devices, this addition could help them to compete with Microsoft and Apples’ App stores.

While the App ecosystem is heavily populated, such a marketplace could give developers a new outlet for promoting and selling their Apps, and one that is more specific to business needs. Although a spokesperson for Google commented that there is “nothing to announce at this time,” the abundance of rumors would suggest otherwise. In the meantime, developers continue awaiting the announcement of the innovative business App store from “disaster-proof” Google.

Convert Arrays to Objects in PHP

2009-09-19T11:09:56.171875-07:00

We recently needed to convert a complex array structure to an object-based one in PHP. We started off with Marcel's array2object function but realized that we only wanted to "objectify" associative arrays, and leave non-associative arrays to as arrays. So here's the final function, using vhermecz's function to detect associative arrays:


function array2object($data) {
   if (!is_array($data)) return $data;
   $is_assoc = is_assoc($data);

   $object = new stdClass();

   if (count($data) == 0) return $data;

   if (is_array($data) && count($data) > 0) {
      foreach ($data as $name=>$value) {
         if ($name !== '') {
            $object->$name = array2object($value);
            $data[$name] = array2object($value);
         }
      }

   }
   if ($is_assoc)
        return $object;
   else
        return $data;
}


function is_assoc($var) {
    return is_array($var) && array_keys($var)!==range(0,sizeof($var)-1);
}

Social Contact Widget Launch for WikiWorldBook

2009-09-17T10:27:59.406-07:00

WikiWorldBook, the global address book, launched a social contact widget today allowing users to bring all their social networking profiles and email into a single button. Privacy controls and anti-spam features let you be found on the web on your terms, without spammers.

We've put a good amount of work into the button, and are proud to have WikiWorldBook as one of our clients. If you're looking for a better way to let friends or strangers find and contact you, take WikiWorldBook's button for a spin.

Infocore Mobile Site Launch

2009-09-07T10:46:29.64-07:00

We recntly built Infocore a mobile version of their site, complete with mobile device detection and a multi-use mobile template that is not only attractive on the latest devices, but degrades gracefully for older or smaller handhelds.

It was a fun project and we're glad that Infocore chose us for their new mobile presence on the web.

LibMob Updated

2009-08-19T11:00:52.328-07:00

LibMob, the mobile book research solution, is back in business after a revamped mobile template and updated back end.

Amazon changed their product APIs recently, forcing us to swap in latest PEAR's Services_Amazon class and write a custom wrapper to integrate it into the existing LibMob engine.

WikiWorldBook Gets a Huge Facelift

2009-08-17T11:13:36.875-07:00

WikiWorldBook, the global address book, got a huge facelift recently. Seriously huge. It's sporting a cleaner, better, slicker, more user-friendly interface, and is faster to boot. Big thanks to Obox Design for their design chops, and kudos to the DevNow team for all their hard code-slinging work!

Style Circle Launch -- Social Network for Brides

2009-08-01T10:43:10.281-07:00

We're proud to announce the launch of a new social network for brides -- Style Circle. It's a social network built for our client Style Me Pretty, allowing brides, wedding planners, vendors, and wedding enthusiasts around the globe to learn, plan, share, and socialize.

It's built using BuddyPress and WordPress-MU, and a lot of work was done to make sure the user experience was not only friendly, but pretty. Plus, it features a very cool Inspiration Board Builder tool, allowing users to assemble thousands of professional-quality wedding-related images into boards and collages for their own exploration and inspiration.

Citizenship Map Silverlight Application Launches

2009-04-23T18:34:26.187-07:00

The Microsoft Local Impact map launched this week. It's an interactive rich UI application allowing users to click and drill down in a world map to see demographics, technical statistics, and stories of Microsoft and technology impact around the globe.

Big kudos (and judos?) to Stimulant for handling the RUI aspects, allowing the DevNow team to focus on web services, business logic, data mapping, and deployment.

Use Twitter to find friends and learn more about people

2009-03-01T10:37:00.5-08:00

You can now find old friends and learn more about people using Twitter using the new Twitter FreeSearch Bot we built for WikiWorldBook. To use it, just follow @freesearch and send either a reply or a direct message to freesearch followed by the name of the person you want to know more about.

e.g. @freesearch Barak Obama

You'll then get back a tweet with information about that person's social network profiles around the web, powered by the people search engine at WikiWorldBook.