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1 developer, 1 framework, 12 months. Seaside Experience Report. Boris Popov Smalltalk Solutions 2007 Toronto, ON. This is not a Seaside tutorial This is an experience report Yours might differ, but hopefully be as pleasant Tons of credit goes to Michel Bany
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1 developer, 1 framework, 12 months Seaside Experience Report Boris Popov Smalltalk Solutions 2007 Toronto, ON
This is not a Seaside tutorial • This is an experience report • Yours might differ, but hopefully be as pleasant • Tons of credit goes to Michel Bany • He maintains all Seaside VisualWorks ports • Works for Cincom • Questions are most welcome as we go along Heads up
Located in Vancouver, BC • 4 developers, all Smalltalkers • XP attitude, not worship • Tests, tests and some more tests • Lack of code ownership • Frequent, small releases • On-site customer • 40 hour weeks DeepCove Labs
Payment Processing Platform • Multiple currencies (>150) • Multiple countries (>65) • Multiple types • Debits • EFT, BACS, ACH, ESP, Cards, Checks, RCK • Credits • EFT, BACS, ACH, ESP, Cards, Checks, CHAPS • Reported • Millions of transactions a month Raven
Smalltalk throughout • Except a handful of C libraries, external utilities • VisualWorks 7.4.1 (7.5 already tested) • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP2 • Homegrown, minimalistic OR mapping • Client APIs • Batch (WebDAV) • Real time (REST) Technology
Web portal for clients • Payment Initiation • Terminals (Card, Check Issue, EFT) • Batch upload (All available payment types) • Reporting • Payment tracking (including possible returns) • Daily account statements • Statistics • Charts • Raw data exports Raven online
Smalltalk Solutions 2006 • Ajax with Seaside / Intro to Seaside • Avi Bryant & Andrew Catton • Smallthought Systems Inc • Critically acclaimed DabbleDB • Hands-on coding session using Squeak • First real exposure to Seaside • Simple prototype built while flying back Humble beginning
WebDAV only option to send/receive files • Somewhat awkward, especially in 2006 + • Windows built-in support very flaky • Vista even worse, must have Office installed (d’oh!) • Push model is maintenance magnet • Needed web front end sooner than later • Fear factor • Servlets & SSP seem harder than they should be • Limited in-house resources A little context
Showed prototype to the group on arrival • Obviously cheesy, but it’s vision that counts • Management expressed support • Planning • No extended meetings • No design sessions • No CRC cards • “Just make it go” First steps
Go for slick as early as possible • Professional look stimulates and motivates • Layout affects functionality • Functionality affects layout • It’s a never-ending pursuit of balance • Don’t let developers do designers’ job! • Find the right person • Must read ALA and know what CSS Zen Garden is Visual Design matters
Initial understanding of the domain • Express what you want to get done, not how • Existing brand materials and ideas (if any) • Elements and variations of the template • Future directions to include extra flexibility • Agree on a working model • Ask for initial set of HTML templates to work off • Future updates are mostly limited to CSS files Interacting with designer
Two-factor authentication was strongly desired • Why RSA? • Strong presence in financial services, familiarity factor • Customized pricing per token and licensing cost • Easy to integrate (handful of DLLCC calls) • Why not VeriSign? • Wouldn’t even talk to us… Security
What does it look like? • How does it work? • Generates one time use token every 60 seconds • Seeded in-sync with the server • Passed along with username and PIN for auth RSA SecureID
Components, components, components • All applications start with a root component • Root component has children • Child components have children • It really is as simple as it sounds • Session is always there • Callbacks glue it all together Application skeleton
It’s not magic, you must get down and dirty • But it’s messages, not templates! • Reuse/Refactor, not Copy/Replace • New render canvas API is all about brushes Html generation Header>>renderContentOn: html html div id: ‘header’; with: [(html span) class: 'descriptive-label‘; with: 'Logged in as:'. (html span) class: 'user'; with: self session user label]
Simplicity at it’s best, you can thank the blocks callbacks (html form) defaultAction: [self process]; with: [(html label) tooltip: ‘Minor units, with decimals, e.g. 150.00 or 19.95’; with: ‘Amount’. (html textInput) • class: ‘required’; value: self amount; callback: [:value | self amount: value]. (html submitButton) yui; callback: [self process]; text: ‘Process’]
Ajax & Effects courtesy of script.aculo.us • Used by Ruby on Rails, Apple, Digg and Gucci • Heavily objectified by Lukas Renggli ajax, web 2.0 and friends (html div) id: ‘time’; with: [self renderTimeOn: html]. (html anchor) onClick: ((html updater) id: ‘time’; callback: [:render | self renderTimeOn: render]); with: ‘Update Time’ renderTimeOn: html html text: (Timestamp now printUsing: ‘hh:mm:ss.fff’)
Don’t worry, you won’t get it right the first time • Seaside encourages constant improvement • Smaller components = Less coupling • Example • Search (defines criteria, fetches results) • Report (defines presentation, pagination, etc) • Column (defines value, formatting, rendering, etc) • Reuse searches, reports, columns all you want Late binding
Automated build process once all tests pass • Upload all resources to S3 • Trim all sample and config applications • Configure application for deployment • Set session timeout value • Set deployment mode • Set protocol to HTTPS • Install secure, user-friendly error handler • Save headless image Building the server
How about a quick demo then we’ll go to questions Raven online demo