Best Practices & Guidelines for Developers & Designers

spaghettiByhipperspectiveOnFlickr

Recipes for Avoiding Spaghetti Code: Best Practices & Guidelines for developers & designers.  The visual term “Spaghetti Code” comes from unstructured code, usually created by junior developers, which is difficult to extend and time consuming to maintain.  Developers & Designers can adopt Best Practices early to create Guidelines that will increase development time and decrease cost.

Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site

The Exceptional Yahoo Performance team has identified a number of best practices for making web pages fast. The list includes 34 best practices divided into 7 categories.  [Learn More]

Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site by Yahoo

http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

Yahoo! Design Pattern Library

This Yahoo library shares user interface patterns with the web design and development community. Yahoo has 50 patterns today and more on the way. [Learn More]

http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/

PEAR Coding Standards (including Docblock Comments)

The source code of PEAR packages are read by thousands of people. Also, it is likely other people will become developers on your package at some point in the future. Therefore, it is important to make life easier for everyone by formatting the code and docblocks in standardized ways. People can then quickly find the information they are looking for because it is in the expected location. [Learn More]

PEAR Coding Standards (including Docblock Comments)

http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.sample.php

Zend Programmer’s Reference Guide

Coding standards are important in any development project, but they are particularly important when many developers are working on the same project. Coding standards help ensure that the code is high quality, has fewer bugs, and can be easily maintained. [Learn More]

Zend Programmer's Guide

http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/coding-standard.html

W3C Markup Validation Service

This W3C validator checks the markup validity of Web documents in HTML, XHTML, SMIL, MathML, etc. [Learn More]

W3C Markup Validation Service

http://validator.w3.org/

Avoiding Spaghetti Code & the Mess That Can Follow

These are my five favorite resources to help avoid “Spaghetti Code”.  There are plenty more resources available on the web, I hope you find these helpful.  I am thinking more about Ravioli (encapsulated code) and Lasagna (modular code with logic layers).  I hope to find the time to write about this, but I would also like to hear your thoughts on code development “Best Practices” & Guidelines.

spaghettiMessByoddharmonicOnFlckr

Tags: Architecture, Best-Practices, Code, Guidelines

AJAX Libraries/Frameworks for Awesome Web 2.0

Happy Fav Five Friday!

What is AJAX?

AJAX is shorthand for (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML).  This is a blend of technologies used to improve the user experience and can reduce web server load while increasing your network speed.  This is accomplished by reducing client trips to the server and only requesting the required information instead of complete page loads.

Why use AJAX Libraries/Frameworks?

Developing Web 2.0 applications can be difficult because content can be received on multiple devices in many environments.  These devices include web browsers, their versions, and the platform in which they are installed.  We are a mobile culture, so we also need to understand display and behavior on mobile devices.  The use of AJAX libraries and frameworks serves as an abstraction layer supporting rapid application development by reducing the need to know of the detailed behaviors in an exhastive list of devices across a multitude of platforms.

5 Great Web 2.0 AJAX Libraries/Frameworks

The Yahoo User Interface Library

When I think about “Enterprise Level” AJAX, the YUI library is the first thing on my mind.  Yahoo, the grandfather of social media and enterprise level code has a proven track record that spans several years.  The Yahoo User Interface Library also has an impressive set of documentation.

The YUI Library is a set of utilities and controls, written with JavaScript and CSS, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, DHTML and AJAX. YUI is available under a BSD license and is free for all uses.

YUI is proven, scalable, fast, and robust. Built by frontend engineers at Yahoo! and contributors from around the world, it’s an industrial-strength JavaScript library for professionals who love JavaScript.

YUI Library

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/

The jQuery JavaScript Library

jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript.

The jQuery JavaScript Library

http://jquery.com/

Dojo the Open Source JavaScript DHTML Toolkit

Dojo is an Open Source DHTML toolkit written in JavaScript. It builds on several contributed code bases (nWidgets, Burstlib, f(m)), which is why we refer to it sometimes as a “unified” toolkit. Dojo aims to solve some long-standing historical problems with DHTML which prevented mass adoption of dynamic web application development.

Dojo the Open Source JavaScript DHTML Toolkit

http://dojotoolkit.org

Prototype JavaScript Framework

Prototype features a unique, easy-to-use toolkit for class-driven development and the nicest Ajax library around, Prototype is quickly becoming the codebase of choice for web application developers everywhere.

Prototype JavaScript Framework

http://www.prototypejs.org/

Script.aculo.us Web 2.0 JavaScript

script.aculo.us is a set of JavaScript libraries to enhance the user interface of web sites. It provides an visual effects engine, a drag and drop library (including sortable lists), a couple of controls (Ajax-based autocompletion, in-place editing, sliders) and more. Be sure to have a look at the demos!

Script.aculo.us Web 2.0 JavaScript

http://script.aculo.us/

Tags: AJAX, Frameworks, Mashups, Web 2.0

Enterprise 2.0: The Strategic Planning of Enterprise Architecture (EA)

Happy Fav Five Friday!

The Expression of Enterprise 2.0 Architecture

Enterprise 2.0 Architecture is a complete expression of the enterprise.  The equation values of collaboration and communication provide solutions for supporting goals, visions, & missions of the enterprise.  The equation of business remains fluid, therefore the structure should not be rigid.

listening: shareskiAtFlickr

Planning Enterprise Architecture: What? When? Where? Why?

You can get an idea about my perspective on Enterprise 2.0 here “The Art of Enterprise Architecture in E 2.0“, but we can save each other the time and sum it up in one word, “Listen“.  The strategy of enterprise 2.0 architecture starts with four simple questions.  Identify your stakeholders, ask them the following four questions, and listen to their answers.

• Why would you hide knowledge?
• What would make life easy for you?
• When do you share with others?
• Where can you connect with others?

This sounds pretty simple right?  I like to think of enterprise solutions as a party and this is the invitation.

4 Simple Questions on Enterprise Architecture

• Why would you hide knowledge?
  • The why question comes first, because if you don’t know why, then you can drop the whole thing.   I hope this does not sound like a sarcastic question.  Would you share your bank account information, social security number, or other private data in a public space?  Organizations don’t usually freely share information with their competitors.  We usually don’t share work-product, but it would be nice to have a controlled collaborative space to complete the work with invited co-workers.  This question usually helps us discover additional treasure about knowledge management.
• What would make life easy for you?
  • In the enterprise, this is usually framed around goals and vision statements.  Expect to hear about time and things that consume time, which can create barriers for accomplishing goals.  Listen carefully here and take notes, this is the foundation to adoption.
• When do you share with others?
  • All people share differently.  People choose to share when they are motivated.  What motivates them to share?  Listen carefully and take notes here because collaboration is the foundation of successful Enterprise 2.0.
• Where can you connect with others?
  • People easily connect with others when they feel comfortable.  Using the word “can” here instead of “do” will help open the door to new ideas.  Different types of conversations take place in different types of environments.  Would you have a detailed conversation about salaries in the middle of a design meeting?  Some people need “face time”, while others are perfectly fine in the virtual environment.  Deeper levels of connection surface detailed conversations.  Higher comfort levels relate directly to true engagement.  Listen carefully here because level of comfort and how people connect to each other are the keys to drive collaboration.

Image from Pragmatic EA

What is purpose of Enterprise Architecture?

• To provide the business with:
  • Structural Models to aid Strategic Planning
  • Governance to manage alignment to the Strategic Plan
  • Metrics to measure execution of the Strategic Plan

Learn more at Pragmatic EA http://pragmaticea.com/

Fav 5 Friday: Enterprise Architecture

1. Enterprise Architecture Matters – IT Tool Box
2. Fixing Enterprise Architecture: Balancing the Forces of Change in the Modern Organization
3. TOGAF Version 9 “Enterprise Edition”
4. The DoDAF Architecture Framework Version 2.0
5. There is no Enterprise 2.0, there is your Enterprise 2.0.

I also like the conversation here: Do Today’s Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Get at all Close to the Original Vision of EA?

Happy Fav 5 Friday!

Tags: Architecture, Enterprise 2.0