International Spectrum MultiValue Conference 2013 Recap — The Most Sought-After Information
In the last issue (March-April 2013), it was pointed out that 78% of the various sessions and presentations were providing non-vendor related information (Cliff Notes, p. 30). There were a variety of topics, and we thought it might be interesting to take a look at the "Top 10" attended sessions to see if there was any pattern that might indicate what "hot topics" attendees were interested in.
What we did was take all non-vendor related sessions and also excluded presentations, such as at lunch, in which attendees might have been present by default rather than a specific, conscious choice of topic. We then ranked these in descending order by attendee count, including ties where two or more sessions may have had the same number of attendees. (This is why our "Top 10" contains more than 10 sessions.)
We then categorized the top sessions into generalized areas: web/mobile, integration with non-MultiValue products and systems, and other development topics. Here's the breakdown for those categories.
Web/Mobile 45%
Integration 35%
Development 20%
As you can see, topics about about making your MultiValue data and applications accessible via the web and mobile devices was the most sought after item of information. Next was information about how MultiValue systems can live in an environment that also contains a number of non-MultiValue platforms. And finally, ongoing development topics rounded out the mix.
To give you a better idea of what type of information was covered in these three categories, here is a brief description of the top sessions. We have listed them in alphabetical order with no indication of where in the ranking they placed because we wanted to concentrate on the trend and not imply any type of competition.
Android-Developing and Beyond
Tablets, Phones, Smart Home Panels… Android Development will take you into the future. This session will provide you information on what software you need and what steps you will need to develop for these systems and hardware.
ASP.NET MVC for MultiValue
ASP.NET MVC (Model-View-Controller) is a natural extension of developing in .NET and MultiValue. MVC allows you to simiplify and enhance your existing MultiValue applications, while keeping the power of Microsoft .NET UI and Webdesign.
Build MultiValue WebAPPs with HTML5
WebApps are a natural extension of your website, but they do require a few redesign features to make them work on Smartphones and Tablets. See how jQuery, HTML5, and CSS3 combined can made a dry and featureless website into a mobile WebApp that works with any device.
Building MultiValue Excel Add-ins
This session will talk about how-to create Microsoft Excel Add-ins. We will look at creating Excel Add-ins that interact with your MultiValue Database.
Building RESTful Interfaces
REST (Representational State Transfer) is a lightweight way of presenting Web services. It is often used instead of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) in mobile applications because it does not require as much processing overhead. This session provide an overview of REST and show you how to implement RESTful web services within the InterSystems platform.
Disaster Recovery Planning
Disaster Recovering planning is usually much like closing the barn door after the animals have escaped. Most planning is done after a disaster has taken place. Many times the disaster is minor, but planning for outages that span any length of time can be an eye opener.
Generate Word Documents on the Fly
This session will show you how to create word document on the fly by mixing templates and data from your MultiValue database. This is a web application you can use to create any type of word document.
GUI and Event-Driven Programming Design
You have been creating green screen/command line programs for years, but now you starting to create applications in Windows or the Web. Where do you start? How do you process data and validation? When should you read/write/lock your data?
How to talk to an SQL programmer... without swearing
Part of our jobs these days is to work with non MultiValue developers — usually relational database folks speaking SQL-ish — and find ways to share data in both directions. This session explores some of the communication pitfalls, misunderstanding, and commonalities that we and "they" run into and how to overcome them.
Mobile (Smartphone/ Tablet) Application with PhoneGap
This session will explore the development of MultiValue Smartphone and Tablet applications using PhoneGap.PhoneGap is an easy way to create and deploy native and hybrid applications for your business. See how simple HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can be merged with your MultiValue enterprise to create a application quickly and with native functionality.
MultiValue Mobile Applications - WebAPP vs NativeAPP, vs HybridAPP
You now need to create a mobile application for your company, but you don't know which one: WebAPP, Native, or Hybrid. This session will talk about how each one works, and what you need to know to develop each one. This is an overview session that will help point you the right direction.
MultiValue Reporting with Microsoft Excel
Excel is a popular media to review and work with MultiValue Data. It provide an easy way to provide formatted output, and data mining using pivot tables. In this session we will show you how to extract MultiValue data and import it into Excel using subroutine calls. We'll talk about how to add data to individual cells, as well as do bulk updates of cells and rows.
Simply Implementing Universe Web Services
Attend this hands on demonstration of implementing Universe Web Services. Discussions on best practice for communication to the web service, step by step creation of a web service, and real live examples will be provided.
The Future Client
The future of computer and the user interface will be change in the next few years. This session is to look at the upcoming changes, and how they relate to your existing MultiValue database applications. Augmented Reality, Web Clients, Desktop Clients, Mobile Clients, Tablets, Natural User Interface, and much more.
Three Ways to generate Web Pages and Why you Need All of them
There are a lot of different tools, processes, and development environments that generate web pages. This session will talk about the different ways web pages can be generated using dynamic and semi-dynamic processes.
User Interfaces with jQuery and the jQuery UI
The jQuery UI framework provides a rich (and growing) set of user interface features that can make the browser just as powerful, if not more so, than any dedicated GUI. Come learn more about how a couple simple lines of Javascript can transform the most mundane user interface into something truly extraordinary.
Web Services with existing BASIC subroutines
The future of computer and the user interface will be change in the next few years. This session is to look at the upcoming changes, and how they relate to your existing MultiValue database applications. Augmented Reality, Web Clients, Desktop Clients, Mobile Clients, Tablets, Natural User Interface, and much more.
Web Workshop: PHP for the MultiValue Developer
As a powerful, flexible, easy to learn, and easy to deploy language, PHP provides a platform for an easy transition into web technologies for Multivalue BASIC developers. In this session we'll look at the basics of PHP and discuss how we can leverage our U2 data and programming from a web context.