Anthony's Blog

    When you're building an internal web app I think about some of the business solutions I  can create inside a company that might shrink the workload for my co-workers. Its awesome to see this happen but it only works where it makes sense, so below is some of these features I've easily used by general users. Hotkeys - are power ways to help your users get what they want faster, and overlooked in my opinion. Since users are in house users can make requests on what the would like to see. I don't like use the excuse that your users are "dumb" especially in house. This is an argument I hear a lot and it bugs me. For example if the app looks like a excel sheet one would think it behaves like one, so include those hotkey! Below is a hotkey I look to use a lot with my users on a search page looking to you the typeahead feature I created. Instead I popup with the search automatically and return the results since it a common action. Another good example to look at is

      So awhile back I started a project that would extend or solidify the bootstrap sidenav. This is because I didn't think the grid system was qualified for such a major role. Bootstrap works great for mobile design up until you start talking about a different navigations than what the guidelines recommend. I'm still working on this project but for I now have hopes of finishing it which you can find on github under the  name bootstrap-sidenav-component. Much of my effect in the last couple years has been to extended bootstrap not recreate or overlap it, which is what this project will do as well hence why I call it a component of bootstrap. Project: https://github.com/fassetar/bootstrap-sidenav-component

    When I was in college I wondered how much math I would need to become a game developer. Just for one of my associate degrees I had to take calc 2 which honestly wasn't that bad, I think the physics based calc was more of a challenge but that's in the past now. The real work begins is in my career and a lot of times my math isn't what it needs to be to create a proper solution. When I was building penguins-rising I didn't have any problems with coding just solving some algebra. So I went out of my way after that project to study what I could. Terms & Studies Geometrics Orientation (vector space) Making a Rotation Matrix From Scratch - YouTube Textures Phong reflection model http://cs.jsu.edu/~leathrum/Mathlets/parapath.html created by a student that shows how graphs can be modified . Fuzzy set Algebra (of course) Vertices Vectors? Just going off my knowledge with C++ This is just a few things I've come across over the years as a devel

    My goal for the support of "My Patco" is to create updates every once a month, and have the schedule automated from here on out. I think for the next few months I will need to validate most of my work but for the most part the updates coming in the end of this should really start to be stable. Initially I created the database around google's train system standard however looking things from a direct approach this approach doesn't need the same level of architecture. In fact it hurts me because I'm constantly looking for things and need to join tables just to query a single schedule. I could probably do it all with just two parameters.    For I'm aiming to finishing this version up which requires some work on the backend more than the app but users should see the app respond a lot faster. I know there was a bug when I released but had to meet my deadline or else I would just keep pushing it back. Things like that can happen a lot if your just doing it for

    I think I have a pretty good understanding of  structured data. Most of my experience comes from my blog but now I'm using it with my personal sites and it got me think what good it could do for others if people used bring in work maybe they do and I just don't know. No more recruiters, headhunters, etc. However my personal experience taught me that it's much more than just putting your name out there. Its proving by example which is becoming easier each day for me, still this is what I did for my site. For Workers    Use schema.org and google's structured data tool, as a added bonus I recommend using microsoft's seo tools as well. Both bing and google have a webmaster tools, bing's isn't as nice in my opinion. The Gist of it (Microdata) <div itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">       <link itemprop="sameAs" href="http://www.anthonyfassett.blogspot.com/" />       <img itemprop=&q

Overview     What I want to do is take a company logo and instead of an image to display is by css instead. Then using the favicon of the as the seo image and for backward support on older browser. With css3 animations this would allow me to add more flare to the logo as well as the company name that usually appears inside the logo image. This Separation would give much a lot flexibility as well as quality over an image. Example Below is an example of a logo (similar but exact to company logo), and as stated usually a company name is either beside the logo or the company itself is apart of the logo. With internal apps I would reuse this logo but not the company name. Code: https://github.com/fassetar/blog-examples/tree/gh-pages/logo-svg Notes     I haven’t fully tested this on a website buts it’s still just an idea and if it works it could save time retrieving the logo in a single favicon which can still be a png. There is were a fallen can take place, in m

    With a lot of my websites I don't get to thinking about the number of clicks and simplifying the number of clicks is sometimes difficult. So for a large part of my projects its sticking to the old tricks unless I rare opportunity. However playing around cordova and working on my nanodegree for udacity as gotten me to thinking. I like the concept of steppers but they case really fits for predefined, short and simply lists that would otherwise be a dropdown. Reference:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW4qKTJqHPo A better and more general use would be menu wheel kinda like on a iphone when it its a select list, I'm not a iphone user so I get the simple version on android. Making the experience the same is key so in the past when I was at coriell I got the chance to implement something similar for mobile and desktop users which was successful. I forget what I used but one thing I know is it didn't leverage the mouse wheel. I would have liked to have added that fo

    Dialogs, Light boxes, and Modals whatever you call them are a common interface used in websites. When I started out I constantly had to write code to handle multiple situations. After writing a few I started to list a few behaviors I think should happen in/after a modal close. Without going to deep in an explanation I really just wanted to come up with a good way to include offline mode in my applications. Rules Not all of them but just some examples, the image is a better example. Every action must give imitate feedback to the user (results can be async). I.E. "Buy" will convert to "Processing" Information should be logged and stored for users to retrieve it. Applications Types of applications these I thought of. Ecommerce quick way to buy Settings in a Dashboard Post back or User session stored variables. Social Media Log ins When attaching or connecting to main site account. P

Some Background      This article is from a time when I used primarily Asp.net 4 with razor syntax which was a love and hate relationship. I started out as a front-end developer but was limited by my peers on the technologies I could use as well as my skills. Even though I was peer reviewed much of my code was "acceptable" I however felt it lacked something. Currently      I avoid mixing MT (middle-tier) and FE (front-end) code; it goes in hand with my philosophy on how to design web applications. I strongly recommend going the extra mile. Ask yourself how will others use the code; not how will they reuse it, that's another concern. Also how will you debug it if something goes wrong? There are many reasons why I avoid doing this. Mainly cause I like to take the approach of SOC (separation of concerns).   After years of frustration trying to debug finally I made this rule for myself. Not only with my code but in my process of thought during developing. Which w

      So one of the things you got to love about developing Asp.net applications is the default folder structure. As a nou can easily pick up on the concepts and figure how to organize yourself. When starting out an unity3d project not so muc (in opinion). I look at the new Asp.net 6 as a perfect an example, ita not simple but labeled out and can teach you new concepts. Maybe is just me since I write more web apps than games. Whatever the case may be I've learned is its not easy to pickup on new concepts if the structure isn't there by example.    So a little bit of my experience and not to down play unity3d cause it is pretty simple to get. What I see as a constant problem is organization and structure. Which the two go in hand when developing. Whenever I use plugins and import other's code its doffocult to get back so some kind of structure. Everyone does it differently but it can get really annoying if you have a folder structure and you want to force it across your i

    For some of my  professional  projects I don't get to choose the environment and when that happens I'm forced to learn or re-learn in this case certain tools/technologies. I can't take complete credit for this article as it was mostly written by a previous co-worker however nothing here is secretive and it shouldn't be; since none of it is  proprietary .  Merging from Trunk to Branch   After making any change in trunk, immediately merge those changes to the branch, Make sure your working copy of your branch has no un-commited changes. Open command prompt and change into tortise bin folder. Usually: c:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\  Update your branch working copy with the following command: TortoiseProc.exe /command:update /path:C:\ Development \ YOURPROJECT Replace the path parameter with the actual path to your branch working copy Run the following command: TortoiseProc.exe /command:merge /fromurl:https:/ /subversion.com /YOURPROJECT The follo

     Recently finished watching all the videos on Selenium on automated testing and looking forward adding this framework to all my web applications tests. The rest of my knowledge can be found on the  Login-Automation  project ( I took the example and created it around google's login instead of the wordpress example show ). Types of Testing Unit Testing At the code level, code first! Such as "Mocking" or D.I. Integration Testing No need for mocking but still code. Black-box Automate Testing (BAT) Testing in a scope from a user  Regression - "worked yesterday" Absolute Requirements! Leverage Common failures Recorded brittle tests - weakly attached and simple changes break the tests, manual fixes. Not Building A Framework - Start out good, but end up the same problem. Writing Test like Code - Passed off to not programmers and slow degrade. Solution      Separate automation framework and simple tests. Test drive creation of

Background        I don't know if anyone else thinks about content the   way I do and I'm always challenging myself to see if my thoughts hold true with others. This way idea might seem simple but it goes way back in college when I was just starting out and learning to code. During one of my classes I asked myself the old question " What is static? When is it static? " From all my experience and development in the field, I've came up with this approach which I think is based off current technologies but mostly on my experencies with cms technologies. This article goes really inhand with my other article on The Four Components of a Web Application . Details       The way I've answered both questions is by treating everything as dynamic (to some degree) and to imagine that everything eventually becomes static.Whether its a database query or whatever; to some degree everything becomes "out dated". So at what cost is it worth it to make something mo

     There are a tons Material Design projects out there but I choose these three because of their popularity and for the fact I just found these projects interesting for a few of own projects. I work in a variety of environments so each gave me certain advantages over the other. This article is just how I broke them down and what projects I plan use them for.                  Angular-UI Team | Materialize | Material Design for Bootstrap https://material.angularjs.org/ Useful for when you are using angularjs. missing some stuff or just not shown in the documents. Great for my single page example. http://fezvrasta.github.io/bootstrap-material-design/ Useful for bootstrap project and updating them to material design themes. Wish they used Sauce labs Tests like bootstrap. Great for updating my bootstrap sites and my blog. https://github.com/Dogfalo/materialize Uses Jquery, and simple to get up and run just like bootstrap. Very close to other css libraries but still

        Since the release of Vnext this idea has become less of a concern for me but a majority of my "professional" projects have been in MVC and with Vnext offering larger amount of support this article doesn't really reflect any of my current solutions. Instead it is just a thought on allowing me to continue with the frameworks that I currently use in my career with frameworks that are available to me in my personal projects.       It is very important to me, to create fast, low cost, and high processing application. As I like build with large number of tools in order to increase my productivity since I have less time at home. Working in familiar frameworks between work and home isn't a must but just something I think that works in my favor. If all else fails, I can just pick things up. I go along. Plus there's always the bonus of my javascript skills.      My original thoughts for this approach show below was to move all my controllers into an angular pr

    I have written some articles on Solr and even more on AngularJs however when it comes to URL queries, I think a lot of production solutions do the opposite of what I'm about to suggest. I think the simpler approach is better and if major companies looked at their solution might find that their UI to be over cumbersome. I think if a URL is public it should be straightforward with what its values mean. This gives advanced users the ability to directly navigate and novice the ability to bookmark urls.        The problem with facets in search grid is that you have a limited number characters you can use. This is less of a problem in a post form but you won't get link for your novice users. I don't like the idea of a "bookmark button" - style UI where it provides the users with a guid that is unique to their search. So a get method approach is more appropriate for the behavior we want. At one point I thought it would be necessary for guid value kind of system.

    Sometime after I  graduated back in March, 2013 I was lucky enough to have an interview with Google for a six month contact on the west coast.     A lot of time has passed since my interview and this is just some of the notes I took before hand in order to  prepare . Regardless of the outcome of this  interview  I still I learned a great deal, and look back at it as an example of how to  effectively  prove my skills. I was d efinitely  was  nervous on this one haha.   Jobs description and position daily work type at Google     "In this critical position, you will be part of exciting as well as   new fast-paced projects. Your role will include working as a team with mechanical, hardware and software engineers to  tackle challenging design issues while improving existing manufacturing processes. In  direct contact with engineers, you will be  i nvolved in the entire lifecycle of several products , from early prototyping to full production and  worldwide  deployment.&q

    So I asked myself one day how does this cool library work and how can I start making my own vector scaled icons? They are many reasons why I might want to create my style of font-awesome and understanding what going on behind the scenes. Rather than just use some png files into a sprite they can be embed icons in the style sheet. Font-awesome kind of hides the icons in the stylesheet with before and after content.       Without going too deep into the rabbit hole, and to somewhat answer this question in my own words. I would say that font-awesome which is being built with Adobe using vector scaled icons that have transparent grey scale in order for customizable color schemes and references them in the css with the "content" style. Not familiar with the syntax being used but the css uses some kind of path points to the icon's location. Example of that is  "\f132"   which output a shield icon. The file  path.less  probably explains much of the syntax behind

    One thing I love about bootstrap is that it eliminates the need to create separate views or pages to handle both types of clients (mobile/desktop) . A few years back when Asp.net MVC 4.0 first came out and before the big boom of "mobile first" styled css libraries there was a huge additional feature for server side detection. Now this was back in the early parts of my career so I was not sure where this feature would fit in or if it would ever. Since then I have been looking at all types of frameworks and server side detection systems but ultimately have been moving toward the bootstrap style mentality until I looked at my blog. Blogger actually does all the work for me so I didn't have do anything to create this.     The thought behind this is to minimize the amount of information you sent to the user. Its great that you hidden it to the user on mobile devices and even design it with them in mind. However they are still getting all that information, which seems li

    Web essentials has this really cool feature that allows you to convert your images to base64 on the fly which at the time it was a very new concept to me. I had no idea that you could use a string of data in place of the url but right from the start I got the impression that it wasn't very efficient. Not only that but I was pretty sure that anything less than IE10 was going to cry about it. My experience and gut were right, now IE support aside this is still a really cool ability to have but I did some research still to see if it really wasn't efficient. Which also appeared to be true, but I didn't test that myself. Still the reason behind why I might use this feature would be when you have a small web application and for whatever reason you need all the resources  to be inline with the html. A better scenario is if the whole html page was being placed in a xml as cdata. I've actually had to do this before with an Google Hangout application. Resources php - Wh