Chillisoft Blog
 

I had a system deployed to a client site, and everything was working perfectly. The system administrator at the client site did a few things on the server, and next thing the Reports in the web site that use Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services were giving an error.

Nothing had changed that should have affected the site! So, what could be causing the error?

The error in the report viewer was: “Object reference not set to an instance of an object.”

That’s an all too familiar error to anyone that has programmed in .NET and it is always slightly amusing to find it in someone else’s released program. The other day I got one from SQL Server Administrator when I clicked on something in the tree view on the left (just after I had freshly installed Reporting Services). Aha, so they are not infallible! A slight grin etched itself across my face. Well, anyway, the solution was a tried and tested standard Windows solution… Restart the PC. Amazing how often that works with Microsoft stuff hey! But in my case I was getting the error in my application, in a section that I had no control over, so how could I save myself this embarrassment?
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This seems to be the most inevitable question after the release of a project. With Habanero V2 being in beta, the most obvious answer should be that we stabilize Habanero and release it “RTM”. However we still asked the question, among the team.

The result was a list of over 30 mini-projects as we refer to them, even though there are some major ones like the re-write of FireStarter which could take up to 3 months. Once the list was put together, we all sat down and started to debate which of the mini-projects was the highest priority and would hence be done over the next 3 months.

And the winners are…

1. Generate Simple Forms i.e. Basic Grids and CRUD forms can be generated using FireStarter.
2. Refactor Panel Factory.
3. Serialisable Business Objects and Collections.
4. Email Error Messages.

We figured that would keep us going for the next 3 months or so including the FireStarter re-write and production projects, as well as sorting out bugs that may crop up in Habanero and getting it ready for it “RTM” release. However we would like feedback on the projects we chose from the community, as well as suggestions of things that should be on the list, things that you would like to see put into Habanero, improvements that should be made, things that annoy you and you would like fixed. Anything really, we really want Habanero to have as much influence from users as possible, whether it be in the form of suggestions made to us or code snippets that you have added to your copy of Habanero that you would like to share with others or have added the Framework itself.

We look forward to any and all responses…

After 5 months of development, www.canoesa.co.za is now live and ready for the canoeing world. In fact, the site is an upgrade of the previous KNCU site, with much of the same functionality. The existing KNCU site can still be accessed at www.kncu.co.za.

The big new feature is the Online Shop, which allows paddlers to pay for multiple race bookings at a time and track their purchases. In addition, race organisers can easily arrange for the sale of additional items for a race (branded t-shirts, overnight camp stays, meals) and flexibly assign free products to be handed out at the race (with the ability for a paddler to choose options like shorts size as they book online).
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Once you reach the final year of university, the question is mumbled in hushed tones: what will you do when you finish university?  Where will you work and on what type of technology?  But another interesting question is: would you prefer a small IT firm or a larger firm with more reach?
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Once upon a time there was a language called Visual Basic 6. This language, being only the sixth version put out by Microsoft and being released in the 20th century (1998 to be specific), did not have this newfangled idea called inheritance. In a feat of semantic gymnastics, Microsoft managed to called Visual Basic 6 “Object-based”, but the astute among you will realise that this is a far cry from “Object Oriented”.

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A month after launching the official Chillisoft website, it’s time for a blog where we can save the world with our technical prowess. As they say, make the young people presidents while they still know everything.

This blog serves two purposes:

• Provide technical insight - offer solutions or commentary for current IT issues
• Discuss Habanero - give notice on current developments with Chillisoft’s new Habanero architecture

Feel free to add comments to our articles - as it turns out, we’ve been a bit slow in establishing a monopoly on knowledge - Gantt charts should solve all that