I know I know, the marketers say it’s all about the single articles now. Nobody reads blogs. Nobody subscribes to blogs. Ya know, except of course for that small percentage of people that do.
…marketing, it’ll make you insane if you’re not careful.
But seriously, here’s a few blogs that are actually worth reading. They’re worth subscribing to and surprisingly, they’re blogs that businesses organize and write. Yes, I have and might be writing for some of them in the future. But I’m honestly basing this list on a few specific criteria:
The blog has to include some technical content that is important to getting kick started with their product and getting kick started with other tooling around their space.
The blog has to include articles that have industry information that is relevant to conferences, meetups, and other community related activities.
I just got back from Scandinavia (and Amsterdam). I went for a million reasons, mostly for the adventure of it. Visiting Stockholm, Copenhagen and Reykjavik I saw about a zillion bikes, great architecture, Tivoli, amazing and beautiful waterways, Viking boat building museums, design to die for and so much more. It’s truly one of the amazing areas of the world. But now I’m back in ‘Merica and ready to get back to working on projects, design efforts and all the things I love to do. This blog post is a summary of my immediate return to projects, here’s the list broken into coding, writing and organizing:
Coding
Deconstructed – [site] This is the startup I’ve cofounded with Aaron Gray @agray. Check out our main site at Deconstructed. Check out some of the open source projects we’ve started here and listed below.
Symphonize.js – [site] [JavaScript] [Node.js] [issues] This is a project I started to use configuration as a basis for creating data for any database, but specifically Orchestrate (see blog entries under the writing section I did for Orchestrate). The idea behind this started since I needed something to generate test data for Deconstructed. This one is incomplete, but I’ll be pushing it forward to a deployable NPM Module soon that will be easy to download and just use. There’s also a possibility that this becomes a service that I make available in the near future.
Orchestrate.NET – [site] [c#] [issues] I’ve been helping out Robert Smith and a crew to manage the effort around the .NET client driver for Orchestrate. This is currently functional and we’d love anybody and everybody using it to really test it out. Currently I’m using this for the OrchestrateExecute Project listed below too.
orchestrate-rapping – [repo] [go] [issues] [group] Yo yo yo, hit the beat. This is an effort that I and others have kicked off to put together a wrapper for Orchestrate’s API. The reason is simple, we want to be able to develop sitting far away from wifi and connectivity, in a park or a cabin in the woods, with a beer in hand and a fire crackling. All while knowing we’re building something that will work when we reconnect to the land of the internet!
OrchestrateExecutive – [repo] [c#] [issues] For a very serious enterprise application, I’ve started hacking together a C# Application using Xamarin that will provide a library tier (that could be used as a sample) to use in building to Android, iOS or Windows Phone and all of the native Windows, Linux or OS-X apps that might be needed. In the application I’ll be using Orchestrate and Deconstructed to build out the application. Stay tuned at blog.deconstructed.io for more on this.
Deconstructed – [blog] This is the blog we’ve setup and will be posting to for Deconstructed. This will cover a breadth of material from technical blogs to business efforts on behalf of Deconstructed.
The New Stack – [blog] This is a great effort put together by Alex Williams and his team to provide a higher quality technology and software developer reporting source. I’ve provided an article so far and will be providing some in the near future. Check it out, I think he’s hit on a great effort here!
Pluralsight – [courses] Not exactly writing in the sense of a blog post or article, but in the sense of video, editing, writing and training rolled into one. Pluralsight and I refer to this as being an author, which I can dig. Currently I’ve got a Work & Flow of JavaScript course in the works in my *spare time*. My existing courses include; Riak Fundamentals and Docker Fundamentals.
Organizing
Bike n’ Hack – Follow @bikenhack for information and more coming soon.
Node PDX – More to come on this soon.
…subscribe to the RSS link, hit the e-mail subscription or just ping me or follow me @adron on Twitter and I’ll keep you posted on the goings on of all my efforts and others. Cheers!
Orchestrate is a service that provides a simple API to access a multitude of database types all in one location. Key value, graph or events, some of the database types I’ve been using, are but a few they’ve already made available. There are many more on the way. Having these databases available via an API instead of needing to go through the arduous process of setting up and maintaining each database for each type of data structure is a massive time saver! On top of having a clean API and solid database platform and infrastructure Orchestrate has a number of client drivers that provide easy to use wrappers. These client drivers are available for a number of languages. Below I’ve written about two of these that I’ve been involved with in some way over the last couple of months.
This library I’m currently using for a demonstration application built against the Deconstructed.io services (follow us on twitter ya! @BeDeconstructed), a startup I’m co-founding. I’m not sure exactly what the app will be, but being .NET it’ll be something enterprisey. Because: .NET is Enterprise! For more on this project check out the Deconstructed.io Blog.
The app.config is setup to just add your API key and run the tests for verification of the build. Integration tests and others.
Project is now setup as a PCL or Portable Class Library for use with Xamarin and Android, iOS, Linux and related builds or w/ Visual Studio for Windows Phone and other related builds.
But there’s still a bit of work to do for the library, so consider this a call out for anybody that has a cycle they’d like to throw in on the project, let us know. We’d happily take a few more pull requests! The main two things we’d like to have done real soon are…
With the latest fixes, additions and updates the orchestrate.js client driver is getting more feature rich by the day. In addition @housejester has created an orchestrate-brain project for Hubot that uses Orchestrate.js. If you’re not familiar with Hubot, but sure to check out the company robot that can dramatically improve and reduce employee efficiency! Keep an eye on that project for more great things, or create a Hubot to keep a robotic eye on the project.
Here are a few key things to note that have been added to help in day-to-day coding on the project.
The travis.yml file has been added for the Travis Continuous Integration build. This build runs against node.js v0.10 and v0.8.
Testing is done with mocha, expect.js and nock. To get the tests up and running, clone the repo and then build with the make file. The tests will run in tdd format.
Promises are provided via the kew library.
If you’re opening up the project in WebStorm, it’s great to setup the mocha tests with the integrated mocha testing as shown below. After you’ve cloned the project and run ‘npm install’ then follow these steps to add the Mocha testing to the project. We’ve already setup exclusions in the .gitignore for the .idea directory and files that WebStorm uses.
First add a configuration by clicking on Edit Configurations.
Edit Configurations
Next click on the + to add a new configuration to run. Select the Mocha option from the list of configurations.
Mocha & Other Configurations in WebStorm
On the next screen set a name for the configuration. Set the test directory to the path for the test directory in the project. Then finally set the User interface option for Mocha to TDD instead of the default BDD.
Edit Configuration Dialog
Last but not least run the tests and you’ll see the list of green lights light up the display with positive results.
I was talking with Tory Adams @BEZEI2K about working with Orchestrate‘s Services. We’re totally sold on what they offer and are looking forward to a lot of the technology that is in the works. The day to day building against Orchestrate is super easy, and setting up collections for dev or test or whatever are so easy nothing has stood in our way. Except one thing…
Every once in a while we have to work disconnected. For whatever the reason might be; Comcast cable goes out, we decide to jump on a train or one of us ends up on one of those Q400 puddle jumpers that doesn’t have wifi! But regardless of being disconnected from wifi, cable or internet connectivity we still want to be able to code and test!
In Memory Orchestrate Wrapper
Enter the idea of creating an in memory Orchestrate database wrapper. Using something like convict.js one could easily redirect all the connections as necessary when developing locally. That way development continues right along and when the application is pushed live, it’s redirected to the appropriate Orchestrate connections and keys!
This in memory “fake” or “mock” would need to have the key value, events, and graph store setup just like Orchestrate. With the possibility of having this in memory one could also easily write tests against a real fake and be able to test connected or disconnected without mocking. Not to say that’s a good or bad idea, but just one more tool in the tool chest doesn’t hurt!
If something like this doesn’t pop up in the next week or three, I might just have to kick off this project myself! If anybody is interested please reach out to me and let’s discuss! I’m open to writing it in JavaScript, C#, Java or whatever poison pill you’d prefer. (I’m not polyglot to limit my options!!)
Other Ideas, Development Shop Swap
Another idea that I’ve been pondering is setting up a development shop swap. I’ll leave the reader to determine what that means! 😉 Feel free to throw down ideas that this might bring up and I’ll incorporate that into the soon to be implementation. I’ll have more information about that idea right here once the project gets rolling. In the meantime, happy coding!
Over the last few months while working on the prototype around Deconstructed I’ve been using the Orchestrate service offering exclusively. With their service around key value and graph store easily accessible via API it was a no brainer to get started building ASAP. Today, that service goes full beta! You can get the full lowdown at the Orchestrate site.
The basic premise is Orchestrate provides full-text search, time ordered events, graph, key value storage and a lot more. All of these capabilities are offered via an API that create a product that’s extremely easy to get started. Think about what you’d need to do to get full-text search against a key value setup. Really think about it. Yeah? That’s a lot of steps. With Orchestrate you just sign up and start using it. Think about setting up a graph store and managing it on production systems. Yeah? Lot’s of work once it gets used. Again, just sign up, it’s all there, the graph to the key value to the event series and more. All the NoSQL juice you need located in a single service so you’re not fighting and maintaining multiple databases, nodes or whatever you’re working with.
Sing up. Use.
I will copy one thing from the press release….
Ad hoc search queries with Lucene
Event and time-ordered storage for activity feeds, sensor data
Create and query graph relationships
Easy to understand pricing
Data export at will – no lock-in
Standards compliant data security protocols
Daily data backups
Bulk data loading
Daily and hourly usage monitoring
A single, simple interface – JSON data in/out
Designed to complement existing databases and MBaaS services
Client libraries for Java, Node.js, and Go. More on the way!
Using Orchestrate
There are quotes in the press release, but I’ve got a few myself. I’m working to build out a prototype service that I and Aaron Gray will be releasing soon. Our startup is called Deconstructed, but more on that later. Without Orchestrate my dev cycle would be longer each day, as I battle with maintaining the data sources that I need. Without it I would have spent another 2-3 weeks setting up and staging nosql database technology. All things I didn’t really need to do. I needed to focus on the service, the value that we’ll soon bring to our customers.
It really boils down to this, and don’t get me wrong, I’m a total data nerd. But when it comes to building a product or service, the last thing I want to do is fight with managing the data anymore than I have to. That notion inspired me to write “Sorry Database Nerds, Nobody Actually Gives a Shit” which still holds true. I can’t think of a single business that wants to sit around and grok how an index works in a key value or what the spline of text-search queries is going to be.
Pricing
Pricing is sweet, for many that want to try it out things are free. Prices go up a bit more from there, but if you fall into the pricing you’re doing some business and ought to be rolling in a few bucks eh!
The interesting thing to me about pricing is that they’ve structured it around MOp, which stands for MegaOps. More specifically that’s one million API calls or one million operations.
Summary
If you write code, even a little or if you manage data you should do yourself the service and check out what Orchestrate has built. It’s a solid investment of time. I’ll have a lot more on Orchestrate and how we’re using the service for Deconstructed and more on using the service with JavaScript in the coming months. Keep your eyes peeled and I might even have some Dart and C# magic thrown in there to boot! Check em’ out, until later, happy hacking.
I just got back from Scandinavia (and Amsterdam). I went for a million reasons, mostly for the adventure of it. Visiting Stockholm, Copenhagen and Reykjavik I saw about a zillion bikes, great architecture, Tivoli, amazing and beautiful waterways, Viking boat building museums, design to die for and so much more. It’s truly one of the amazing areas of the world. But now I’m back in ‘Merica and ready to get back to working on projects, design efforts and all the things I love to do. This blog post is a summary of my immediate return to projects, here’s the list broken into coding, writing and organizing:
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