'Net Features : developers

Streamline Web & Application Development for Visual Studio

Michael Garrity — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:30:00 GMT

Proficiency with a keyboard is an invaluable skill for Web developers, and KeyRocket wants to help them achieve this expertise with new support for Microsoft Visual Studio.

KeyRocket is a smart application that suggests context-aware keyboard shortcuts to users as they work. It supports a variety of different programs, including Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Windows and Gmail for Chrome. And now, it’s adding Visual Studio to its paid Premium suite and including “absolutely all” of the program’s various keyboard shortcuts.

This will streamline the Web and application development processes by suggesting keyboard shortcuts based on each individual user’s working habits, regardless of their level of expertise, saving them both time and effort by eliminating a vast swath of unnecessary mouse clicks.

Visual Studio versions 2008, 2010 and 2012 are all supported by KeyRocket Premium.

KeyRocket is also more personalized now, as each user can customize the frequency, duration and place on the screen that they will receive pop-up notifications. All they have to do is click on “Pop-up Settings” when they get a notification and make their unique adjustments.

Socialcam API Gives Developers Access to Public Videos

Michael Garrity — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 14:35:00 GMT

Developers now have access to the API of Socialcam, a video app that allows users to quickly and easily capture, view and share high-quality videos with their friends, family, acquaintances and any other interested parties.

By opening up the API, third-party developers will be able to build apps based around the videos that Socialcam users shoot and share. Upon its initial release, developers will get access to all public videos to embed and work with. However, since the primary purpose is to give them access to the library – rather than add to it – they’ll still have to use the regular Socialcam app to create and upload videos.

The API will include metadata that allows developers to sort videos by data and geolocation to allow them to create mashups based on events.

Earlier this year, Socialcam unveiled new features that allowed users to add themes and soundtracks to their videos, while also opening up the API as a private, request-only beta service. Eventually, it was contacted by the Washington Post to use videos of the London Olympics as part of the news organization’s coverage of the games. That’s about when it was decided that the API should be opened up to the public.

Socialcam was also recently acquired by Autodesk.

Linux Skills Are In High Demand

Administrator — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:00:00 GMT

The Linux Foundation and Dice.com conducted a joint research study to understand the hiring outlook for Linux professionals – and it’s quite rosy.

Of the 2,000 survey respondents, more than 8 in 10 (81 percent) said that hiring Linux talent is a priority in 2012, and more than half of the firms surveyed said that they are increasing Linux hires relative to jobs created in other skill areas.

The problem is that 85 percent of respondents indicated that finding Linux talent is "somewhat" to "very" difficult, which makes those skilled in Linux very sought-after talent in 2012.

The best part will likely be the pay. While pay increases for tech professionals averaged just 2 percent in 2011, Linux professionals have seen 5-percent increases year-over-year and a 15-percent jump in bonus payouts, according to the recent Dice Salary Survey.

To start 2012, according to the report, hiring managers are pursuing Linux developers (67 percent) and systems administrators (55 percent) most often to fill open positions, although IT managers (20 percent) and outside consultants (15 percent) are also in demand.

The survey also revealed that companies are most aggressively targeting the mid-level professional, with 75 percent of respondents looking for Linux professionals with three to five years of experience.

Google Affiliate Network API

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:30:00 GMT

Google might be ramping up its fight against thin affiliate sites, but at the same time it is rewarding “advanced publishers” and advertisers by launching the first version of its Affiliate Network API.

The API provides an opportunity to automate some important tasks related to the Google Affiliate Network. For example, publishers can use the API to access data that advertisers have chosen to share such as payout rank. And of course it will work in reverse as well. Advertisers can use the API to access data on publishers such as publisher classification.

And let’s not forget the developers. The API also provides access to event-level data for transactions and actions which can be integrated into internal systems and applications.

Computer Programmer? You're Hired

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 25 May 2011 00:30:00 GMT

Computer programmers remain in high demand, according to WANTED Analytics, a business intelligence solution for the talent industry. More than 220,000 job ads for programmers have been placed online over the past 30 days.

The company reported that within “Computer Programming” as a category, Computer Systems Analysts lead the hiring demand with 40,000 new job ads placed online over the past thirty days, a year-over-year increase of 24%. Other high-demand positions were Web Developers, with 32,000 new jobs posted in the past 30 days (a 21% increase from 2010) and Computer Software Engineers, with just over 28,000 new job ads placed (a 29% increase versus prior year).

WANTED Technologies measures conditions in local job markets by comparing hiring demand and labor supply. Its Hiring Scale offering, part of the company’s analytics platform, indicated that New York City, Atlanta and Chicago are the top metro areas that have been recruiting programmers over the past 30 days.

Free Video Encoding for Developers

Linc Wonham — Tue, 17 May 2011 22:00:00 GMT

As part of the launch of its new website, video encoding service Encoding.com is also significantly expanding its Developer Program.

Developers in the video encoding sector now have access to a free, unlimited monthly encoding plan that includes 1GB of video processing, greatly improved API documentation and a refreshed and revamped Knowledge Base, including solutions to the most common errors and tips to generate the highest quality output. Encoding.com’s new plan provides 1GB of encoding bandwidth each month. The free plan gives developers an ongoing, no-cost test environment to build video applications using the Encoding.com API.

Encoding.com’s refreshed website not only includes better organized API documentation, but also provides the XML code for the most common workflow tasks so developers can seamlessly integrate cloud-based transcoding services directly into their applications. In addition to the much-improved Knowledge Base, which now includes best practices from Encoding.com’s experts, Encoding.com now employs dedicated technical support resources specific to helping developers create the most efficient code.

Developers can visit the new site, learn more about the program or go right to the sign-up page.

Android Developers Get Key User Statistics

Mike Phillips — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:05:00 GMT

Google's Android Market has released a new feature for developers called Application Statistics. As the name implies, developers can now see detailed data about their applications. More importantly, they can see data about who is using their applications, and how.

On the Market Developer Console dashboard, you can see an overview of app performance -- each app’s active installation trend over time, as well as its distribution across key dimensions such as Android platform versions, devices, user countries and user languages. Also, you can compare your app's statistics with every other app's installation statistics across the market.

The key advantage here is optimization -- the more you know about your audience the better you can tailor your apps to them, as well as your marketing messaging.

Why the Smart Money is On PayPal

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Of all of the titans of the Web industry right now, few have put themselves in as enviable a position as PayPal.

Apple has skyrocketing stock values and two of the hottestselling products ever made. Google and Facebook have more website visitors than most countries have citizens — not to mention all of their personal data. And Amazon has set the bar so high in e-commerce that it controls much of the movement throughout the industry.

Read "Why the Smart Money is On PayPal" from the February edition of Website Magazine.

Need a Career? Go Mobile!

Mike Phillips — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Dice.com - a job board specializing in the tech industry - released findings from an online survey that shows a major lack of mobile developers in the workforce. The very good news is that companies are looking to hire.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, "Almost 57 percent of employers and outside recruiters that hired for mobile-related jobs this year plan to boost such hires in the next 12 months, the survey, conducted on behalf of Bloomberg Businessweek.com, showed. More than half the respondents described the supply of quality mobile-software designers and engineers as 'scarce.' "

Driving this great need and opportunity is companies' desire for mobile apps - from iPhone to Android and BlackBerry. Of course, where there is demand, there is money to be made.

The survey found that:

The most common salary range for mobile developers was $75,000 to $100,000, with 28% of respondents saying they pay $100,001 to $125,000.
Experience with Apple's mobile platform carried the most weight on résumés, with 72 percent of recruiters saying they are hiring for development of iPhone applications, and 38 percent saying iPhone expertise is the most attractive among platforms.
About 60 percent are hiring for Android development, and 23 percent said new recruits with knowledge of Google's platform are most highly prized.
This month, Dice's site had 758 job listings requiring skills or experience with the iPhone, up from 264 a year ago. The site had 685 listings requiring Android skills, up from 158.

Android (2.2) Froyo On Its Way

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:11:00 GMT

This one's for all of you that aren't Apple fanboys - myself included. Google announced Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) today at its I/O Developer Conference.

This latest update to the open platform for mobile devices include portable hotspot functionality, support for Adobe flash within the Android Browser and some much needed improvements to the Android Market. the most significant aspect of the update are the new tools and options available for developers including performance and speed enhancements, new enterprise capabilities, the addition of the V8 Javascript engine to the Android browser and a new set of APIs and services.

“The growth of the Android ecosystem continues to exceed our expectations,” said Andy Rubin, VP, Engineering. “Every day, 100,000 new people start using Android-based handsets. There are now more than 180,000 active Android developers who have contributed over 50,000 apps to the Android Market. Froyo is another step toward making Android an even better platform for developers, enterprises and consumers.”

Developers can download the Android 2.2 SDK and Android NDK, Revision 4 now from the Android developer site. Froyo will be made available to OEMs and the open source community in the coming weeks.

Yahoo! Firehose Released

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:04:00 GMT

The Yahoo! Developer Network announced the release of the Yahoo! Updates Firehose service, a Web service for accessing and searching the full, real-time index of Yahoo! updates and a stream of activity from various Web services like Flickr.

The Yahoo! Firehose is accessed via Yahoo! Query Language (YQL), an SQL-like query language that is used as the primary vehicle for accessing Yahoo! data and services. It allows developers to call, update, and combine data from across Yahoo! for use on sites and within applications.

Using YQL, you can now query the Updates Firehose for common keywords used across all updates, updates from a specific application, all updates of a specific language, updates associated with a location, updates associated with a specific URL, or updates of a specific type (including status updates, ratings, comments, and reviews). The latter caused a small stir in the comments of the official announcement.

Apps on the Palm (Developer Program)

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:27:00 GMT

Palm announced today that it will open its Palm® webOS™ developer program in December. Developers participating in the program will receive a 70/30 revenue split (of gross revenues) and have choice of how to get their applications to market.

“Our program will be unlike anything currently available, and has been established to promote a thriving community by giving developers direct involvement in their own success,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “Whether you’re looking for immediate distribution or just feedback on early stages of development, this program is built to scale to your needs and finally put you in control of investing in and promoting your business.”

In August, Palm announced that developers who wish to charge for their Palm webOS applications could begin submitting them for consideration in the Palm App Catalog e-commerce beta program, which went live today. Developers selected to participate in the beta program have the opportunity to make their applications, both free and paid, available to consumers.

Palm will do that in two ways. The first is via Web distribution. Palm will provide a sales transaction and fulfillment service for developers to promote their apps online. Each app will receive a unique URL, so developers can promote their apps online. This means customers will be able to download and install the app directly from the cloud to their phone. The Web distribution option also offers a self-certification process

The second means of distribution will be the Palm App Catalog which is built in to every Palm webOS device. Developers will pay a per-application fee of $50. Palm is in the process of creating a marketplace where developers can utilize an auction process to obtain top tier placement in the App Catalog.

“We’re listening to developers, and the message that they want choice and an option to self-certify their applications has come through loud and clear,” said Mitic. “The flexibility that comes with our program’s easy way to test mobile applications, as well as the ability for developers to use the web to market and promote their own applications and boost sales, is invaluable.”

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Jigsaw for Application Developers

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Data as a Service (DaaS) solution Jigsaw released a suite of APIs and a toolkit that will allow developers to delivery company profiles and contact data from inside web, desktop or mobile applications.

Jigsaw also launched a new developer program so companies integrating Jigsaw can give free Jigsaw data to customers, let their customers use their own Jigsaw accounts to acquire contact data, or resell Jigsaw data and add a new revenue stream to their business. The APIs from Jigsaw are RESTful and calls to the Jigsaw database can respond in XML or JSON. They do not require SOAP or WSDL. Developers must request an API token.

Seventeen companies have joined the new Jigsaw Developer Program and have gone or are going live with Jigsaw embedded including: ActiveConversion, Anagram, Basho, ChatStat, eGrabber, Enthusem, Globalpitch, IntellectSpace, Jobvite, Lead Liaison, Marketo, Netfactor, ProvenProspects, SharedVue, Sharkbait, SugarCRM and Visistat.

Visistat's is one of the most noteworthy. Using Jigsaw, Visistat created LEadCaster, a suite of real-time tools that include the ability to identify companies that visit a website and retrieves their business address, phone numbers, email addresses and more. Another interesting implimentation is from live chat software ChatStat. By integrating with Jigsaw, ChatStat serves up name, title, company, and contact details for site visitors at the beginning of every chat. Reps can know who they are interacting with, and can save a complete CRM record of the chat, including the Jigsaw data, when the chat concludes.

Stay up to date on the latest Internet trends:
Request a professional subscription to Website Magazine,
the most popular print publication on Web success.

Oracle & Open Calais: Discovering Meaning (Semantics) in Data

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:15:00 GMT

Oracle and Thomson Reuters announced that the new Oracle Database 11g Release 2, Semantic Technologies will officially support the OpenCalais service (a semantic metadata extraction service). The integration enables Oracle users to directly tap the power of OpenCalais to incorporate "rich" semantic metadata into their production workflow environments.

Semantic metadata generated by OpenCalais (a natural language processing (NLP) technology) can now be loaded, indexed and queried natively within Oracle Database. This enables application developers to extracting the 'who, what, when, where and how' from text and break content down into its most basic elements to improve search and navigation, and make integration and interoperability of content possible across diverse platforms.

"Connecting the OpenCalais service -- which has helped popularize semantic technologies in the developer community -- with Oracle Database is a compelling value proposition for our customers," said Xavier Lopez, Director, Spatial & Semantic Technologies, Oracle Server Technologies. "This interoperability lets users quickly process documents in different formats such as Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF to extract semantic metadata that can be used for more semantically complete searches in Oracle Database 11g."

If you're asking yourself what in the world this possible has to do with you, consider this. You, just like Oracle, can leverage this semantic metadata extraction service if you're running WordPress (Tagaroo) or Drupal, and even "ride the semantic wave" with Yahoo using Calais QuickMeta.

Bing Releases Toolbox

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:37:00 GMT

Microsoft has taken a page from the Google playbook by actively embracing the webmaster and developer community with its Toolbox portal.

The Toolbox is really just a collection of existing tools that links to important resources, but it's good to see Microsoft take such an open approach with the search engine optimization and developer industry from the outset.

Bing™ Webmaster Center Tools enables site owners to troubleshoot the crawling and indexing of sites, submit sitemaps and view statistics about their sites. Webmasters can also review data on how many pages of their site(s) have been indexed, backlinks, inbound links and keyword performance. There is also a new Bing API Web Page Error toolkit that features an improved architecture, and easier deployment. Webmasters are also able to remediate detected malware.

Developers will also find the Bing Toolbox an important resource for requesting and managing an AppID to receive programatic access to Bing when building or enhancing a site or applications.