The global services market is highly dynamic environment and selecting the best outsourcing location for your operation can have a significant long-term impact. SourcingLine has compiled the most comprehensive online database of outsourcing country statistics to aid your decision making. Each country has been scored across dozens of key statistics which fall into three broad areas of Cost Competitiveness, Resources & Skills, and Business & Economic Environment.

India, ranked first in our survey, provides the best mix of factors, but it is not a leader across all dimensions. It is still a highly cost competitive location, but recent wage inflation has impacted its position relative to other countries. India also has a massive resource and skill base, but educational challenges are impacting the skills of graduates and the business & economic environment can prove taxing. Other leaders in the survey include numerous other countries from Asia, but also Latin America and Europe.

Overall rank	Country	Overall outsourcing index	Cost competitveness index	Resources & skills index	Business & economic environment index
1	India	7.1	8.3	6	4.2
2	Indonesia	6.7	8.6	4.3	4.4
3	Estonia	6.6	7.5	5.2	6.9
4	Singapore	6.5	6.4	5.7	9.4
5	China	6.4	7	5.6	5.6
6	Bulgaria	6.4	8.8	2.9	5.2
7	Philippines	6.3	9	2.8	3.9
8	Thailand	5.9	8.2	2.3	5.9
9	Lithuania	5.9	7	3.9	6.5
10	Malaysia	5.8	7.9	2.2	6.9
11	Jordan	5.7	7.6	2.7	5.7
12	Chile	5.7	7.2	3	6.9
13	Egypt	5.7	9	0.9	4.3
14	Hungary	5.6	6.9	3.4	6.3
15	Czech Republic	5.6	6.9	3.2	6.5
16	Poland	5.6	6.8	3.6	5.5
17	Vietnam	5.4	7.4	2.5	4.5
18	Sri Lanka	5.4	8.3	1.2	4.3
19	Latvia	5.4	7	2.7	5.6
20	Argentina	5.4	7.5	2.5	4.4
21	Costa Rica	5.3	7.3	2.3	4.8
22	Mexico	5.3	6.9	2.8	5.3
23	Romania	5.2	6.8	2.7	5.2
24	Russia	5.2	6.4	3.4	4.7
25	Jamaica	5.2	6.2	3.7	4.7
26	Ukraine	5	6.3	3.2	3.8
27	Ghana	4.9	7.5	0.9	4.3
28	Israel	4.7	3.8	5.5	7
29	South Africa	4.6	6.9	0.6	6.3
30	Kenya	4.5	6.7	1.3	3.6
31	Canada	4.4	2.5	6.3	8.3
32	Panama	4.4	5.8	1.9	5.6
33	Senegal	4.3	7.1	0.2	3.3
34	Pakistan	4.2	6.6	0.8	3.1
35	United States	4.2	1.7	6.9	8.3
36	United Arab Emirates	4	2.8	4.7	7.9
37	Tunisia	3.9	4.7	1.9	6.3
38	Brazil	3.6	4.3	2.4	4.1

====================================================================

protected void onMenuDismissed(Menu menu) {

super.onMenuDismissed(menu);

if (menu.getSelectedItem().getId() == 9) {

//TODO Something

//System.exit(0);

}

}

===================================================================

public class Geocoder {

private static String networkString = “”;

private double[] coord = new double[2];

private String name = “”;

public double[] getAddressCordinate(String name) {

name = Split(name);

String url = “http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=”

+ name + “&sensor=true”;

try {

if (getnetworkString()) {

HttpConnection connection = (HttpConnection) Connector.open(url

+ networkString);

connection.setRequestMethod(HttpConnection.GET);

InputStream istream = connection.openInputStream();

SAXParserFactory spf = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();

SAXParser sp = spf.newSAXParser();

sp.parse(istream, new LocationParser(this, false));

istream.close();

connection.close();

}

} catch (Exception e) {

}

return coord;

}

private String Split(String name) {

String newName = “”;

for (int i = 0; i < name.length(); i++) {

if (name.charAt(i) == ‘ ‘)

newName += “%20″;

else

newName += name.charAt(i);

}

return newName;

}

private boolean getnetworkString() {

if (DeviceInfo.isSimulator()) {

networkString = “;deviceside=true;ConnectionTimeout=20000″;

return true;

}

else if (WLANInfo.getWLANState() == WLANInfo.WLAN_STATE_CONNECTED) {

networkString = “;interface=wifi”;

return true;

}

else if ((CoverageInfo.getCoverageStatus() & CoverageInfo.COVERAGE_DIRECT) == CoverageInfo.COVERAGE_DIRECT) {

String carrierUid = getCarrierBIBSUid();

if (carrierUid == null) {

networkString = “;deviceside=true”;

return true;

} else {

networkString = “;deviceside=false;connectionUID=” + carrierUid

+ “;ConnectionType=mds-public”;

return true;

}

}

else if ((CoverageInfo.getCoverageStatus() & CoverageInfo.COVERAGE_MDS) == CoverageInfo.COVERAGE_MDS) {

networkString = “;deviceside=false”;

return true;

}

else if (CoverageInfo.getCoverageStatus() == CoverageInfo.COVERAGE_NONE) {

return false;

}

else {

networkString = “;deviceside=true”;

return true;

}

}

private String getCarrierBIBSUid() {

ServiceRecord[] records = ServiceBook.getSB().getRecords();

int currentRecord;

for (currentRecord = 0; currentRecord < records.length; currentRecord++) {

if (records[currentRecord].getCid().toLowerCase().equals(“ippp”)) {

if (records[currentRecord].getName().toLowerCase()

.indexOf(“bibs”) >= 0) {

return records[currentRecord].getUid();

}

}

}

return null;

}

public void upDateLocation(double latitude, double longitude) {

coord[0] = latitude;

coord[1] = longitude;

}

public String reverseGeocode(double lat, double lng) {

String url = “http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?sensor=false&latlng=”

+ lat + “,” + lng;

try {

if (getnetworkString()) {

HttpConnection connection = (HttpConnection) Connector.open(url

+ networkString);

connection.setRequestMethod(HttpConnection.GET);

InputStream istream = connection.openInputStream();

SAXParserFactory spf = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();

SAXParser sp = spf.newSAXParser();

sp.parse(istream, new LocationParser(this, true));

istream.close();

connection.close();

}

} catch (Exception e) {

}

return name;

}

public void setName(String name) {

this.name = name;

}

}

private boolean getName = false;

private boolean lat = false;

private boolean longi = false;

private double latitude = 0;

private double longitude = 0;

Geocoder geocoder;

private String address = “”;

private boolean addressfound = false;

public LocationParser(Geocoder geocoder, boolean getName) {

this.getName = getName;

this.geocoder = geocoder;

}

public void startDocument() throws SAXException {

super.startDocument();

}

public void startElement(String uri, String localName, String qName,

Attributes attributes) throws SAXException {

super.startElement(uri, localName, qName, attributes);

if (localName.equals(“lat”))

lat = true;

if (localName.equals(“lng”))

longi = true;

if (localName.equals(“formatted_address”))

addressfound = true;

}

public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length)

throws SAXException {

super.characters(ch, start, length);

if (lat) {

lat = false;

latitude = Double.parseDouble(new String(ch, start, length));

}

if (longi) {

longi = false;

longitude = Double.parseDouble(new String(ch, start, length));

}

if (addressfound) {

if (address.equals(“”))

address = new String(ch, start, length);

addressfound = false;

}

}

public void endElement(String uri, String localName, String qName)

throws SAXException {

super.endElement(uri, localName, qName);

}

public void endDocument() throws SAXException {

super.endDocument();

if (getName == false)

geocoder.upDateLocation(latitude, longitude);

else

geocoder.setName(address);

}

}

We are showing a small circle (a PNG image) in the centre of the map. One need to scroll top / bottom or right / left and place a pin in the centre of the map then on click you will be able to perform a particular task .

Now coming to touch device, if you are using your own map class, I have read in many forum and blog that it’s not possible and very difficult to scroll the map. Here is a simple solution to achieve this. You can scroll the entire map by using the code given below.

Blackberry Non Touch Device Mapping Pins

===================================================================

public class MapScreen extends MainScreen implements

FocusChangeListener, FieldChangeListener {

private DemoMapField _mapField;;

public MapScreen(){

// TODO something.

}

protected boolean keyChar(char c, int status, int time) {

if (c == ‘!’) {// Zoom In

_mapField.setZoom(Math.max(_mapField.getZoom() - 1,

_mapField.getMinZoom()));

}

return true;

} else if (c == ‘@’) {// Zoom out

_mapField.setZoom(Math.min(_mapField.getZoom() + 1,

_mapField.getMaxZoom()));

}

return true;

}

return super.keyChar(c, status, time);

}

protected boolean navigationMovement(int dx, int dy, int status, int time)    {

return _mapField.navigationMovement(dx, dy, status, time, this);

}

return true;

}

protected boolean navigationClick(int status, int time) {

// Call : _mapField.getHighlightedLocation();

//TODO Something

return true;

}

protected boolean touchEvent(TouchEvent message) {

boolean isConsumed = false;

try{

if (message.getEvent() == TouchEvent.CLICK) {

super.touchEvent(message);

_ mapField.setFocus();

HandleMapClick(message);

}

}

}catch (Exception e) {

}

try{

TouchGesture touchGesture = message.getGesture();

if (touchGesture!=null && touchGesture.getEvent() == TouchGesture.SWIPE)

{

if (touchGesture.getSwipeDirection() == TouchGesture.SWIPE_EAST) {

for (int index = 0; index < 6; index++)

navigationMovement(-index, 0, 1, 0);

return true;

}

if (touchGesture.getSwipeDirection() == TouchGesture.SWIPE_NORTH) {

for (int index = 0; index < 6; index++)

navigationMovement(0, index, 1, 0);

return true;

}

if (touchGesture.getSwipeDirection() == TouchGesture.SWIPE_SOUTH) {

for (int index = 0; index < 6; index++)

navigationMovement(0, -index, 1, 0);

return true;

}

if (touchGesture.getSwipeDirection() == TouchGesture.SWIPE_WEST) {

for (int index = 0; index < 6; index++)

navigationMovement(index, 0, 1, 0);

return true;

}

}

}catch (Throwable e) {

}

return isConsumed;

}

private void HandleMapClick(TouchEvent message) {

try {

_mapField.setClick(message);

// Call : _mapField.getHighlightedLocation();

//TODO Something

} catch (Exception e) {

}

}

***************************************************************************

public class DemoMapField extends MapField{

private Vector _allLocations = new Vector();

private MapLocation _highlightedLocation;

private Bitmap bmpCursor = Bitmap.getBitmapResource(“highlighted circle image”);

private Bitmap bmpPinRed = Bitmap.getBitmapResource(“an png image- pin”);

private Bitmap bmpPinBlue = Bitmap.getBitmapResource(“an png image-pin “);

protected void paint(Graphics g) {

g.setDrawingStyle(Graphics.DRAWSTYLE_AAPOLYGONS, true);

super.paint(g);

if (!Touchscreen.isSupported()) {

determineSelectedLocation(new XYPoint(getWidth() >> 1,

getHeight() >> 1));

g.drawBitmap((getWidth() - bmpCursor.getWidth()) >> 1,

(getHeight() - bmpCursor.getHeight()) >> 1, getWidth(),

getHeight(), bmpCursor, 0, 0);

}

if (this.currentLocation != null) {

MapLocation currentSite = new MapLocation(this.currentLocation[0],

this.currentLocation[1], “”, “”, “”, “”);

drawSite(g, currentSite, bmpPinRed);

}

for (int count = 0; count < _allLocations.size(); count++) {

MapLocation currentSite = (MapLocation) _allLocations

.elementAt(count);

drawSite(g, currentSite, bmpPinBlue);

}

g.setColor(Color.BLACK);

g.drawText(“Use ‘!’ to zoom in”, 1,

g.getFont().getHeight() + 2);

g.drawText(“Use ‘@’ to zoom out”, 1,

(g.getFont().getHeight() * 2) + 4);

}

public void determineSelectedLocation(XYPoint colisionWith) {

if (_allLocations == null || _allLocations.size() == 0)

return;

XYPoint[] locationsXY = new XYPoint[_allLocations.size()];

for (int count = 0; count < locationsXY.length; count++) {

MapLocation currentSite = (MapLocation) _allLocations

.elementAt(count);

Coordinates co = new Coordinates(currentSite.getLatitude(),

currentSite.getLongitude(), 0);

XYPoint p = new XYPoint();

convertWorldToField(co, p);

locationsXY[count] = p;

}

int closerIndex = 0;

int closerValue = getDiff(colisionWith, locationsXY[0]);

for (int i = 1; i < locationsXY.length; i++) {

int diff = getDiff(colisionWith, locationsXY[i]);

if (diff < closerValue) {

closerValue = diff;

closerIndex = i;

}

}

if (closerValue <= 60) {

_highlightedLocation = (MapLocation) _allLocations

.elementAt(closerIndex);

} else {

_highlightedLocation = null;

}

}

private int getDiff(XYPoint p1, XYPoint p2) {

return Math.abs(Math.abs(p1.x) - Math.abs(p2.x))

+ Math.abs(Math.abs(p1.y) - Math.abs(p2.y));

}

void drawSite(Graphics g, MapLocation currentSite, Bitmap bmp) {

Coordinates co = new Coordinates(currentSite.getLatitude(),

currentSite.getLongitude(), 0);

XYPoint point = new XYPoint();

convertWorldToField(co, point);

if (!(point.x < 0 || point.x > getWidth() || point.y < 0 || point.y > getHeight())) {

g.drawBitmap(point.x - 5, point.y - bmp.getHeight() + 10,

bmp.getWidth(), bmp.getHeight(), bmp, 0, 0);

}

}

public void setZoom(int zoom) {

super.setZoom(zoom);

}

public boolean navigationMovement(int dx, int dy, int s, int t,

MainScreen mainScreen) {

int zoom = getZoom();

int latitude = getLatitude() - ((dy << 3) << zoom); // << 3 is

int longitude = getLongitude() + ((dx << 3) << zoom);

{

moveTo(latitude, longitude);

}

return true;

}

private boolean FindMaximum(double latitude, int dx, int dy, int zoom) {

double minLat = Double.MAX_VALUE;

for (int i = 0; i < _allLocations.size(); i++) {

MapLocation location = (MapLocation) _allLocations.elementAt(i);

if (location.getLatitude() < minLat)

minLat = location.getLatitude();

}

if (minLat < latitude)

return false;

else

return true;

}

private boolean FindMinimum(double latitude, int dx, int dy, int zoom) {

double maxLat = Double.MIN_VALUE;

for (int i = 0; i < _allLocations.size(); i++) {

MapLocation location = (MapLocation) _allLocations.elementAt(i);

if (location.getLatitude() > maxLat)

maxLat = location.getLatitude();

}

if (maxLat > latitude)

return false;

else

return true;

}

protected boolean touchEvent(TouchEvent message) {

if (message.getEvent() == TouchEvent.CLICK) {

int x = message.getX(1) - getLeft();

int y = message.getY(1) - getTop();

determineSelectedLocation(new XYPoint(x, y));

return true;

}

return super.touchEvent(message);

}

void addSite(MapLocation site) {

_allLocations.addElement(site);

}

public void setLocations(Vector allLocations) {

this._allLocations = allLocations;

}

public MapLocation getHighlightedLocation() {

return _highlightedLocation;

}

private double[] currentLocation = null;

public void setCurrentLocation(double[] currentLocation) {

this.currentLocation = currentLocation;

}

public void setClick(TouchEvent message) {

touchEvent(message);

}

}

Top Smartphone Manufacturers:

Smartphone Operating Systems:

Shakuni is a fun dice board game. Shakuni was one of the greatest player of ancient Indian dice game called Chausar (aka Dayakattai, Pakatai), which is the inspiration behind this app.
The game Shakuni can be played by up to four players at a time. User rolls over the dice and moves his coins accordingly,
first user who moves all of his/her coins back to home is the winner. To users’ delight Shakuni comes with very rich user interface and easy to understand rules.
Features:
* Auto saves whenever game exits
* Dice roll animation
* Rich User Interface

Also called Dhayam, Dhayakattai(Tamil), Pagade (Kannada, Malayalam), Pagadai, Chausar (Hindi)

Please visit http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shakuni/id460060446?ls=1&mt=8 to download this app for FREE.

ZNet.com No. Of Pages 1 15 50 Web Space 1GB 5GB 25GB Email 1 10 50 MySQL database 0 5 10 Price Rs. 100/Mnth Rs.1299/Mnth Rs.2500/Mnth Total Disk Space 50GB 100GB 200GB Data transfer/Mo. Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Websites Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited POP Email ID Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Sub Domain (sub.domain.com) Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited MS SQL 2005/2008 Databases Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited MY SQL Databases Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Price Rs. 1399/mo. Rs. 2399/mo. Rs. 4199/mo. Indialinks.com Web Space 500 Mb 1000 Mb 2500 Mb Mailboxes 5 Mail Boxes(2.5Gb) Do Do Monthly Bandwidth 100 Gb Data Transfer Do Do MySQL Database(s) 1 Do Do Price Rs.8000/Year Rs.9500/Year Rs.16000/Year ewebguru.com Budget Reseller Advance Reseller Power Reseller Ultimate Reseller Web Space 10 GB 20 GB 30 GB 40 GB Monthly Bandwidth 100 GB 200 GB 300 GB 400 GB Domain Limit Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited cPanel/WHM Subdomains Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited FTP Accounts Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited MySQL Databases Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited POP3 Mail accounts Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Price Monthly Price Rs.995/- Rs.1995/- Rs.2995/- Rs.3995/- Half Yearly Price Rs.5595/- Rs.11195/- Rs.16995/- Rs.22395/- Yearly Price Rs.9950/- Rs.19950/- Rs.29950/- Rs.39950/- Brainpulse.com Disk Space 1 GB 5 GB 15 GB Unlimited Bandwidth/mo Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Domain Hosting 1 2 5 10 Sub Domains Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited MySQl Databases 2 Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited FTP Accounts Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Email Accounts 50 100 200 Unlimited Price / Year Price Rs. 899 Rs. 1999 Rs. 3999 Rs. 8500 hostrightnow.com Dedicated RAM 384 MB 1 GB 2GB Disk Space 10 GB 30 GB 60 GB Monthly Traffic 100 GB 300 GB 600 GB Usable IP addresses 1 1 2 24×7 live chat and phone support Yes Yes Yes 24×7 server monitoring Yes Yes Yes 24×7 port monitoring Yes Yes Yes Easy Upgrade Options Yes Yes Yes Setup Fees Rs. 500.00 Rs. 900.00 Rs. 900.00 Price Monthly cost Rs. 1450.00 Rs. 2800.00 Rs. 3900.00 ]]> http://hibiscustech.com/blog/2010/10/14/web-hosting-companies-in-india/feed/ http://hibiscustech.com/blog/2010/08/23/platforms-for-developing-saas-applications-%e2%80%93-a-comparison/ http://hibiscustech.com/blog/2010/08/23/platforms-for-developing-saas-applications-%e2%80%93-a-comparison/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:48:57 +0000 htsblogger http://hibiscustech.com/blog/?p=28 Force.com

Two huge benefits start to come into focus when you look across Force.com platform apps in general: they’re both data-centric and collaborative.

Data-Centric Apps

Because the platform is centered on a database, it allows you to write apps that are data-centric. A data-centric app is an application that is based on structured, consistent information such as you might find in a database or an XML file. We can find these data-centric apps everywhere, in small desktop databases like Microsoft Access or FileMaker, all the way to the huge systems running on database management systems like Oracle or MySQL. Unlike applications that are built around unstructured data, like plain text documents or HTML files, data-centric apps make it easy to control, access, and manage data.

For example, consider an exercise such as trying to determine the total sales for a month from a set of Microsoft Word-based contracts versus a set of contracts in a simple database. Whereas it takes a lot of effort to open each Word document, find the contract total, and then add them all together, if this data is stored in the database of a data-centric app, we can more efficiently get the same result by issuing a single query. While most people don’t need a data-centric application to keep track of anything other than contacts, photos, or possibly music, companies of all sizes constantly need to query and aggregate their large amounts of data to make fast business decisions. As a result, the data-centric nature of the Force.com platform makes it the perfect platform to build and host business applications.

Collaborative Apps

Because the platform can be accessed by multiple users at the same time, it also allows you to write apps that are collaborative. A collaborative app is an application with data and services that are shared by multiple users in different locations. Unlike more traditional forms of software that are installed on a single machine and are hard to access from a distance, collaborative apps on the platform can be accessed from anywhere in the world with only a Web browser. This makes it easy for teams to work together on activities like selling a product, managing a project, or hiring an employee.

In addition to easy access over a Web browser, a number of built-in platform features also facilitate productive group collaboration:

· The platform’s security and sharing model allows you to finely control a user’s access to different data

· Workflow rules allow you to automatically assign tasks, update data, or send email alerts when certain business events occur, such as the creation of a new record or a change in the value of a record field

· Approval processes allow you to set up a sequence of steps necessary for a record to be approved, including who must approve it at each step

Collectively, these features provide a framework for sharing apps across groups, divisions, and entire corporations without relinquishing administrative control over sensitive data.

The Technologies Behind a Force.com

Microsoft Windows Azure Platform

One of the main functions of Microsoft Azure is to provide platform for Software as a Service (SaaS) applications and with increasing customer demand, IT Solution Providers are turning to SaaS versions of their products. The creation of an efficient SaaS application requires the support of an efficient cloud- based service that can be used simultaneously by various customer organizations. Azure performs its role creditably in this aspect.

· Cloud computing is versatile, wherein it can be an add-on service to existing on-premises application. This method is comparatively cheaper and increases operational functionality of the existing system.

· Azure definitely provides ease of use and administration with a minimal up-front commitment and ability to increase or decrease computing resources used by the client applications. This ensures availability of better technology with lower costs.

Technology:

Windows Azure consists of 3 main parts

1. A compute service, which runs applications

2. A storage service, which stores data

3. A fabric, which supports the compute and storage services

In order to use the compute service, a developer creates an application using combinations like C#/VB and .NET framework and is later implemented as Web roles, worker roles or both. Web roles accept web requests and are created using a technology like ASP.net which works with Internet Information Services (IIS).

Irrespective of technology, Azure provides built-in hardware load balancing across all Web role instances in a particular application. Worker role instances are for functions that doesn’t respond directly to web requests and is just a Windows application with a main (), running indefinitely. This model allows creating scalable applications where Web role instances accept requests, then pass them to Worker role instances to be processed.

It is to be noted that each instance irrespective of Web or Worker roles runs on its own Virtual Machine (VM). This provides for isolation and clear knowledge of application performance as there is a definite mapping between VMs and processor cores. The developer simply uploads an application to Windows Azure with an XML configuration file specifying the number of instances that need to be run. Subsequently, it is Windows Azure and not the developer who creates the required number of VMs and monitors their execution. In the event of failure of an instance, Azure will start a new one ensuring that the specified numbers of role instances are always running. This work is done by the Fabric Controller software that’s in charge of all machines in a particular instance of the Fabric. When an application owner increases or decreases the value of instances in the configuration, Azure automatically creates or shuts down VMs to match the new setting.

Being Windows apps, developers could provide templates for creating cloud applications as Web roles, Worker roles or both using Visual Studio IDE. The developers can also use Development Fabric, which is a part of Azure and run on the local machine, to create the code and do testing, before uploading the application onto Windows Azure.

Azure provides its own mechanisms for storage and retrieval of data. The 3 available storage options can be accessed via standard HTTP GETs, PUTs, and DELETEs.

The three kinds of Windows Azure storage are:

1. Blobs: This allows storage of large binary objects, such as videos and images.

2. Tables: provides for storage of highly scalable entities (not relational tables).

3. Queues: allows sending and receiving of messages, such as between an application’s Web role instances and Worker role instances.

It has to be noted that all these storages can be accessed by applications that are not on Azure Compute Service. On-premises or hosted applications can also store and access data like large video files, as Azure storage blobs.

The Windows Azure platform also contains SQL Azure Database (earlier known as SQL Data Services), which provides standard relational storage based on SQL server technology.

EC2 for SaaS

iWay Software’s robust, enterprise-scale integration solutions are available on demand. With iWay SaaS on Amazon Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2), organizations can more conveniently and economically leverage powerful, cutting-edge integration technologies – without the need to install them on-site or devote IT resources to ongoing maintenance.

Fast Deployment with Minimal Administration

iWay’s SaaS-based solutions will be pre-installed and pre-configured as Amazon Images (AMIs) and fully hosted by Amazon, where they can then be made immediately available to subscribers. Clients simply select the desired operating system (Windows or Linux), choose the tools and components they wish to use, and indicate their virtual hardware preferences, such as CPU, memory configuration, and storage sizes.

Unparalleled Security

iWay SaaS on Amazon EC2 offers end-to-end integration in a highly secure environment. The iWay RVI Secure Proxy Service – using the secure AS2 protocol – allows for fully protected robust and secure connections between Amazon EC2 instances of iWay solutions and all internal corporate back-end applications and systems – such as SAP or DB2. All integration activities are processed and executed across well-regulated channels, which utilize proxy gateways, firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), and other proven techniques to preserve the integrity of client data at all times.

A Flexible and Scalable Deployment Model

On-demand solutions from iWay Software are not just powerful and economical; they’re also flexible and scalable. All instances of iWay Software have already been installed and tested, so clients can begin using new tools and components, cancel services they have already subscribed to, or add new users to their environment at any time.

iWay SaaS supports various integration models, to allow for:

· Secure connections to internal applications, systems, and databases within the corporate firewall

· Access to Internet-based Web servers and databases

· Integration with other SaaS-based solutions such as Salesforce.com

Additionally, iWay SaaS for Amazon EC2 solutions are fully customizable, and can be quickly and easily configured by iWay consultants to address unique or specific client requirements. As demand increases, additional instances may be brought online in a very short amount of time.

Convenient Any Time, Anywhere Access

Our SaaS-based tools can be easily deployed as Web-based applications. This provides users with access at any time, from any Internet-enabled location around the globe. Leverage the integrated services from any enabled device regardless of location.

Maximum Affordability

Unlike on-site integration solutions, which impose licensing fees for each user no matter how infrequently they use them, iWay’s SaaS-based tools offer a budget-friendly fee structure based solely on hourly system usage.

WebFOCUS Business Intelligence Integration

Advanced reporting features using Information Builders’ WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) platform are readily available via the iWay SaaS solution. Leverage the capabilities of BI and integration with the simplicity of a cloud solution.

Wipro w-SaaS platform

Wipro has built w-SaaS, a platform for rapid SaaS enablement and deployment on cloud, using some of the commonly accepted trends in software engineering and open standards. The w-SaaS platform comprises of the following components:

· SOA-based services framework for SaaS enablement

· A Cloud Provisioning Fabric (CPF) to enable seamless portability between different clouds

· Unified Admin Console for platform services management, cloud management and tenant provisioning

Oracle offers a comprehensive, open and integrated set of technologies to build, deploy and manage applications to ISVs. It is also the platform of choice for SaaS deployments with eight out of ten leading SaaS vendors delivering business critical applications on Oracle.

The w-SaaS platform offers the following features:

Non-intrusive SaaS enablement

The SOA based framework services are available outof-the-box for SaaS features like multi-tenancy, usage metering, billing, user management etc. These services can be consumed by the application in a non-intrusive way to operate in the SaaS model.

Seamless Cloud Deployment

The CPF provides features to create deployable images of the application and deploy them on a cloud infrastructure. The images created can be converted from one format to another thus allowing portability between different underlying clouds. The CPF also provides ability to provision hardware nodes into the cloud and to dynamically provision virtual machines on these hardware nodes.

Easy Platform Administration

The unified admin console provides the ability to administer and manage both the cloud platform and the SaaS applications. This also gives a unified look-and-feel for cloud management regardless of the underlying cloud.

Wolf

WOLF is a browser based On Demand Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for rapidly designing and delivering database driven multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. WOLF is a Cloud Computing platform architected to help you design, deliver and use Software as a Service (SaaS) applications using only a web browser.

SaaS applications developed on the platform are endowed with a single instance multi-tenant architecture. They are instantly integrated into an automated provisioning system which handles the allocation of network resources, database creation and account information. The robust User-Role management system makes it easy to create users & roles and assign rights to various modules of your application.

WOLF Environments

Browser-based 128-bit encrypted secure Designer and RunTime environments.

Technology

WOLF Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) uses the power of the following technologies: AJAX, XML, C# Engine, IIS and Microsoft .NET environment and supports Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL database.

OnDemand Infrastructure

Hosted & managed by i-web, a recognized leader in high-end secured hosting with more than 12,500 customers spread across 130 countries. WOLF also offers application licenses for private server deployment of your own choice.

All mobile web development strategy must begin with an understanding of the target audience and what they want from a site or app, and what the contextual relevance of such a site or app is, what is relevant to the users and the tasks, the problems, and the needs, the users may encounter while being mobile?

WAP 2.0: An XHTML Environment

WAP 2.0, XHTML Mobile Profile (XHTML-MP) is generally the preferred mark-up language, with mandated backward compatibility for WML.

Nearly, all devices today are WAP 2.0 devices with XHTML Mobile Profile, which will be familiar to anyone who has worked with XHTML Transitional or Strict is the official mark-up language for such devices.

Finally, because XHTML-MP is a subset of XHTML, initial testing and validation are done within most desktop browsers. Thorough, final testing will certainly need to be conducted using actual devices, but one may test on the desktop initially to see if the mark-up renders correctly and semantically.

Design Strategy

Opt for web standards and a flexible layout and then with the reference design and adaptation rules in place, the final strategy builds flexibility into the mark-up through the use of generic, standards based XHTML and CSS. In practice, this means creating mark-up that uses the tags and structures inherent in HTML (i.e. headers, paragraphs, lists and divs) to define the structure of the page. The immediate benefit—any browser that can read HTML will be able to display your content and will assign it with (albeit rudimentary) visual style. Given the vast number of mobile devices, this benefit cannot be underestimated as it ensures your content will be accessible to a large number of users without too much higgery-jiggery on the part of developers. One will then be in a great position to progressively enhance the design for different device groupings through the use of browser and/or device-specific CSS, graphics and scripting.

The BBC web site is an ideal example as it shows how simple it can be to combine clean mark-up with well conceived styles and strategic editorial decisions to achieve a great experience on a wide range of devices. Ultimately, the design, adaptation and editorial choices will be based on many factors including the budget, target audience and the functionality of the mobile web site. In the end, it’s all about striking a balance between the creation of a well optimized, fast-loading site and the delivery of great, targeted content to the users.

Development Strategy

A mobile-optimized site addresses first how content is accessed and second what it looks like. In other words, it means context before aesthetics, function before form. Pages are leaner, which means users are spared excessive bandwidth costs and generally enjoy a faster browsing experience.

The development follows the W3C’s Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 document.

ASP.NET version of HAWHAW can be used in creating such mobile website.

Testing Strategy

There are almost 30+ different mobile browsers and many more. With these kinds of numbers, it is highly impossible to test the Web site across all devices? What can be done is test the site on at least one device from all popular manufacturers, and on as many of the mobile browsers as possible. This will give a good idea of how the site works on different devices and will also help in resolving issues. The catch is in making sure that there is access to all of the necessary devices and mobile browsers. Testing is usually possible in one or two physical devices – not enough to adequately test on but emulators can be used instead to simulate testing on the real device or browser. The benefits of this approach are many-fold:

· No data browsing charges are incurred, as all browsing is performed via your standard Web connection

· Quicker access to devices – starting an emulator is faster than switching sim cards and rebooting devices

· Provides access to a potentially large number of devices/browsers – the number of devices is only limited by hard disk space and the number of emulators that can be found

· Inexpensive – many emulators are available for free

Fortunately, Mozilla Firefox supports some great extensions that can make testing of mobile sites a piece of cake. Firefox is probably the best browser out there for mobile Web site testing. To make Firefox imitate a mobile device, the following are required:

· The Firefox Web browser (obviously)

· The Modify Headers add-on

· The User Agent Switcher add-on

· At least one mobile device user agent

· A UA Profile HTTP Header

After the add-ons have been installed, Firefox is ready for mobile site testing.

Mobile websites can be developed for the following devices:

Mobile websites will have to be compatible across the following mobile browsers:

·Blazer ·Bolt browser ·Deepfish ·Firefox for mobile ·IbisBrowser ·Internet Explorer Mobile ·Iris Browser ·JOCA ·Konqueror Embedded ·MicroB ·Minimo ·NetFront ·Obigo Browser ·Opera Mobile ·Pixo ·S60 web browser ·Safari ·Skyfire ·Steel ·Teashark ·ThunderHawk ·UCWEB ·uZard Web ·WinWAP

You would normally define a script tag something like this:

What if you replaced it with this piece of code?

But that can’t possibly work right? The browser will know right away that something’s off, right? Actually your browser won’t find out if your backend script (yourscript.php here) returns what it expects - Javascript code. There are two things you need to do with your backend script to achieve this. First you put in a header that tells the browser that the data returned is of type javascript.

This effectively fools the browser into thinking it’s reading a .js file. From then on print all the javascript statements you want wrapped within php strings. You will do something like -

That’s it! Try it out. Put the script tag in an HTML page, and the php file on the server, and on opening the page in the browser you should be able to see the dialog box. Of course this simple example does not convey the true power of this technique - that you can make database calls in the script and modify the javascript accordingly.

Suppose you have three clickable images on the screen. Each time one of them is clicked, you have to go back to the database, pick up a message associated with that image and display it. How would you do it? One solution would be to prepopulate hidden divs or javascript variables in the page using a server side scripting language. This idea immediately fails if you do not have control over the web page’s preprocessing. Perhaps you are only supplying a piece of javascript that ‘decorates’ the existing page with the required message, without assuming anything about the content. Then you have to make database calls on your server through the only entry point available to you: the javascript code.

A sample code would look something like this:

This function creates a script tag on clicking the image and that script tag calls a php file that returns the content. First it checks that a dynamically created script tag designed to do precisely this does not already exist. A large number of clicks would create a large number of script tags and that would not do site performance any good. What will the backend php code look like?

There you go, simple and powerful. A combination of dynamic script creation and .js file imitation using a server side script can, to a certain extent, simulate the AJAX effect of updating parts of a page without a complete refresh.