What app technologies do we use?

What app technologies do we use?

This is a good question – much better than “what language do you use“. The answer is the same – whatever fits the budget. A budget factors are

  • who is using it and what is their level with tech
  • fool proof low skilled users?
  • users who just want the answer and don’t care about how polished it is?
  • ability for one tool to connect (or not) to another? Some tools only have a download in format 1 and tool 2 needs format 2
  • amount of time available (the project will be over before some dreams can be realized!)
  • is it needed web-wide or local computing?
  • security lockdown (eg internet vs. intranet vs. one computer)

With factors like the above many tools COULD be used, now its time to determine which ones.

Dashboards

  • PowerBI is VERY flexible
    • has many sources of input as simple as Excel to easier web interfaces like OData, SharePoint REST etc.
    • has a great security model
    • MANY different widgets to show data
  • Excel is a great dashboard tool for small budgets with low user count
    • MANY different widgets to show data
  • Filemaker is an all in one tool and is visually pleasing. Custom dashboards are trickier but often graphs and charts are good enough
  • Custom web dashboards
    • the sky is the limit
    • many people make widgets to show any kind of data – very flexible
    • more expensive but it should pay off
    • can tailor to the type of user logging in if one wishes (security level A different content than B)

Databases

  • SQL – Regular databases such as SQL Server (Microsoft), Postges (good for GIS), MySQL open source (low cost) all have their place
    • For speed – I am often blown away by SQL Server. They have tools to optimize queries
    • They all are easy to integrate
    • Using a feature called Stored Procedures -if the server is fast you can do a lot of computing on that powerful server before it spits back a final answer. Many people DO NOT use these but prefer to have lots of delays between asking for a lot of information. Know the power given to you – we do!
  • Filemaker
    • This is a super tool for small projects where Excel doesn’t cut it. Excel has its limits of expertise – this is the next level
    • It is no longer a replacement for MS Access – as the price tag is minimum of 5 users putting it out reach and keeping people looking at MS Access or Excel
  • MS Access
    • I avoid it like the plague. It is a VERY large suck on the hours put into it for what can be produced with other tools (and much better). MS has been threatening to discontinue it for many years.  Many customers still use it and it was the center of AutoCAD
  • SharePoint – KNOW THIS IS A 2D table only – if its that simple – use SharePoint but don’t expect performance

Form Input

  • This answer is tricky. If there  is a lot of interaction between fields – a custom web app might be the way to go.
  • Excel Locked-down sheets – Are all the workers remote and low-tech? Is the form needs simple? Use a locked-down Excel sheet and have a macro extract the data out
    • offline workers? This is perfect for in-the-field
  • Adobe PDF – remote workers? Standardized info? Adobe PDF has more complex form field interations
    • have people email it
    • have a SharePoint trigger read the email, extract and put the fields into a database
    • If you have O365 this is a “free choice” as it costs you no extra to do this
    • offline workers? This is perfect for in-the-field
  • MS Forms – online only
    • online only and simple forms
  • Google Forms
    • it can do soooo much AND inform the recipients when a new form comes in
    • with some custom AppScript or c# script the data can be moved forward to other applications
    • we avoid AppScript as it … works most of the time not all the time.
  • JotForm – online only
    • we have input forms done with JotForm. Their support team when something goes wrong will just tell you to start from scratch – that is frustrating when the issue is on their side. But once it works, it works
    • If you distribute their forms remotely using their “share” tool and have users log in before submitting a form – it saves a copy! The users can optionally fix their input sheets (in our case timesheets) if they make a mistake since it saves it in their list of submitted forms
  • Custom web forms
    • The sky is the limit. The ease of use can be whatever the imagination can come up with
    • You can use popular CMS systems like WordPress to put a bit of power to the people. Gravity Forms, WP Forms, Contact 7 etc. are good plug ins for wordpress keeping the validation etc. local. THis saves cost and complexity away from the customer.
    •  

Standard Document Management

  • Office 365 SharePoint is the most popular
    • A security model that can get out of hand, but it has all the options! If an employee or partner leaves, the owner of the subscription is in charge
  • GSuite is a formidable competitor
  • Google Docs – is the free version of GSuite – its great for groups sharing but has less control for when someone leaves and has contempt. Control is in the “creators hands”
  • QNAP / Synology – these are great file sharing tools that rival Box and DropBox. You buy the unit and the drives, configure your firewall and you are more powerful and flexible than the paid monthly subscriptions. So many people are using them it almost seems like an open source platform (then you remember the invoice). Units range from $500 without drives. The ROI is quite quick
  •  

Backup

  • HOME – taking drives home on a Friday on a rotation schedule has been done (this only works with certain personality types – the scientist type often forget until Sunday night)
  • Deep cold storage – it costs a little more but no ransomware can affect a backup. Two of the most popular that we also have experience with are Azure and Glacier
  • “at someone else’s house” – synced – this is more redundancy than backup
  • SharePoint – is NOT backup but redundancy – but if you lose your laptop … its quick to restore it
  • Online systems like Sync.com, DropBox, Box etc. CAN be configured to provide a proper backup – not just redundancy
  • QNAP and Synology together over multiple locations is a SUPER option for a low budget and robust backup
  • Custom solutions
    • situations like “the books” where its critical not to lose even a days worth of work and the server setup is weird (both QuickBooks and Sage for example)
    •  

Web Design

Over the years we done many different solutions – again that fit the budget.

        • If you have lots of money, Wix is a great option
        • We have customers that use SquareSpace – its basic but does the trick
        • WordPress CMS – most of our customers like the flexibility and often no extra costs for features. When they go to the next level the costs are often reasonable
        • Custom sites – very few people opt for this
        • Because its the web, often the platforms work together. For example, if you pay with PayPal – it might be using PayPal in the back ground but you don’t know until you finally pay and paypal.com url is at the top of the web page, then it comes back to your site. Lots of integrations work well with any web platform.
ELB Solutions.com Inc.
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