November Meeting: From Difficult to Delighted

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and Signature Consultants on Tuesday, November 24, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Do you ever feel like your customers or team members are tough to work with? In this session we will talk about how to get them to hear your point of view; how to find out what they really want (hint: It’s NOT what they are demanding); and how to get them to be your advocate instead of your enemy. You’ll leave the session with some new ideas and an action plan to connect with even the most challenging team members or clients.

The meeting presenter is Tom Cooper.

Tom Cooper has spent more than 20 years as a hands-on technologist. During those years, he says he made just about every mistake possible when working with difficult customers. Over the last several years, Tom has been working with his clients to help them communicate, delegate, manage conflict and plan.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

{"meta":{"date":"2015-11-24","speaker":"Tom Cooper","sponsor":"Signature Consultants"}}

September Meeting: Azure App Service – Building Enterprise Apps in the Cloud

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and Signature Consultants on Tuesday, September 22, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Azure App Service is a one-of-a kind solution that brings together the tools you need for building enterprise-ready apps around a common development, management and billing model. You can choose from a rich ecosystem of pre-built apps and API services as well as a unified set of enterprise capabilities including mobile backend services, turnkey connectivity to SaaS and enterprise systems, and workflow-based creation of business processes.

Azure App Service frees developers to focus on delivering great business value instead of needing to worry about repetitive tasks such as stitching disparate data sources together or dealing with operational and compliance overhead. This unified approach lets you take full advantage of the service while helping you meet your company’s concerns about security, reliability, and scalability.

In this session, we will create an enterprise class web application and deploy it using Azure App Service. Once deployed, we will explore extending our application by integrating third party services and automating business processes.

The meeting presenter is Richard Taylor.

Richard is an experienced, dedicated, detailed-oriented technology and management professional with a career reflecting strong leadership qualifications coupled with “hands on” technology experience. Knowledgeable in the design, development, implementation, support, and management of computer systems. Focused on achieving results while utilizing advanced technologies and business solutions to meet a variety of needs. You can read his blog at www.rightincode.com and follow him on Twitter at @rightincode.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

{"meta":{"date":"2015-09-22","speaker":"Richard Taylor","sponsor":"Signature Consultants"}}

June Meeting: Metadata Code Generation

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and Signature Consultants on Tuesday, June 23, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Code generation is a big part of almost all software development these days as Visual Studio and most tools generate a lot code for us. When working with database applications, the metadata from the database and the repetitive nature of the code lends itself to great productivity gains by generating much of the code. Collecting, storing and manipulating this metadata leads to many more opportunities to generate code at every level of the architecture, including the UI. This presentation will demonstrate how easy it is to build your own code generation system using basic .NET tools. We will discuss several off-the-shelf code generations systems and compare them to building your own.

The meeting presenter is David Catherman.

David Catherman has been participating on the leadership team of the Enterprise Developers Guild for over 12 years and has presented at Guild meetings and code camps many times. He is a consultant for Bank of America and has 20+ years designing and developing database applications with specific concentration on Microsoft .NET and SQL Server. He is currently working as an Application Architect and Senior Developer using Visual Studio 2013 and SQL Server 2012. He has several MCPs in .NET and is pursuing MCSD.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides

{"meta":{"date":"2015-06-23","speaker":"David Catherman","sponsor":"Signature Consultants"}}

March Meeting: Kendo <3 Angular: Two Great Libraries, Together At Last!

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us and Signature Consultants on Tuesday, March 24, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Microsoft Charlotte Office. Telerik’s Kendo UI framework provides everything you need to create great JavaScript applications. It includes a world-class widget library. But in recent years, AngularJS has exploded onto the scene. It has become a popular and elegant framework for creating web applications. Yet, Angular lacks its own built-in widget library. This could have created a nearly perfect match, but when Angular first came along, using it with Kendo UI wasn’t easy. That all changed recently when Telerik added support for AngularJS into Kendo UI, and now the two can finally be together! Jonathan “J” Tower will walk us through an introduction to both frameworks. He will show us how you too can make amazing web applications with AngularJS + Kendo UI.

The meeting presenter is Jonathan “J.” Tower

Jonathan “J.” Tower is a Microsoft MVP, Telerik Developer Expert, and Senior Software Architect with over fifteen years of software development experience in many different industries. He loves the creative and problem-solving aspects of his work, sharing what he’s learned, and building community.

J’s current technology interests include web technologies–ASP.NET MVC, various JavaScript frameworks like Kendo and Angular– as well as cross-platform mobile development technologies like Xamarin or hybrid mobile apps.

Normally you would find J. near his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he organizes a user group, four annual developer conferences, and a GiveCamp. This year, however, he and his family are on a one-year-long road trip around the country visiting the 48 contiguous states.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides and Code

{"meta":{"date":"2015-03-24","speaker":"J. Tower,"sponsor":"Signature Consultants"}}

November Meeting: Data Entry Forms in AngularJS

Posted on by Enterprise Developers Guild

Join us and Signature Consultants on Tuesday, November 25, at 6:00 PM in the Mt. Kilimanjaro/Mt. Everest rooms of the Charlotte Microsoft Campus. AngularJS, it’s all the rage these days and it’s the biggest thing in the JavaScript world since JQuery. Have you heard of it? If you’re a web developer, odds are you’ve heard of it. If you haven’t, you will the next time you go looking for a job. In this presentation you will learn about something at the heart of most line-of-business applications: creating data entry forms. Come join us and learn about working with data entry form controls, data validation attributes, determining if the user has interacted with a control, determining if an entry is valid or invalid, determining which specific data validation error has occurred, creating client-side business rules, and applying CSS styles to provide a visual indicator of a control’s data entry status. You will also learn where to find more information and additional guidance on taking your next steps on the road to building AngularJS applications.

The meeting presenter is Jim Duffy.

Jim Duffy is founder and CEO of a TakeNote Technologies. He has a BS degree in Computer and Information Systems and 30 years of programming and training experience. He is an exceptional trainer, skilled developer, and has been published in a number of leading publications including CoDe Magazine. Jim’s passion for teaching and presenting, combined with his humorous and quick-witted approach, have made him a popular speaker at international developer conferences, regional conferences, and local user groups. Drop us a line on our contact page if you would like Jim to speak at your event. Microsoft has recognized his contributions and expertise by naming him as a Microsoft Regional Director in 2008 and as a Microsoft Valued Professional (MVP) from 2002 – 2013. You can read his blog at www.geekswithblogs.net/TakeNote and follow him on Twitter at @JMDuffy.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Downloads: Slides and Code

{"meta":{"date":"2014-11-25","speaker":"Jim Duffy","sponsor":"Signature Consultants"}}

August Meeting: Business Apps using AngularJS

Posted on by Enterprise Developers Guild

Join us and Signature Consultants on Tuesday, August 26, at 6:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) of the Charlotte Microsoft Campus. Who says writing Line of Business applications are a pain? Who says you can’t have compile-time exceptions? Gone are the days of slinging spaghetti JavaScript code in order to satisfy business requirements. We will look at what it takes to build a simple Line of Business application using TypeScript, HTML5, CSS3, and AngularJS. If you don’t know what TypeScript is but you do know JavaScript, look no further: JavaScript is TypeScript. TypeScript is a transpiler that provides a lot of syntactical sugar for developers but ultimately outputs JavaScript. We will also address designing our applications “mobile first” by using the popular framework Bootstrap. During this talk we will try to cover the following:

  • Project structure
  • Intro to AngularJS
  • AngularJS in a TypeScript world
  • Bootstrap 3, mobile first, and responsive web
  • Hosting your app with NodeJS and ExpressJS
  • Intro GulpJS for build automation
  • Intro to WebAPI for CRUD

This is just the tip of the iceberg but it should give you a good idea as to what it feels like building LOB apps.

The meeting presenter is Matt Duffield.

Matt Duffield has over 15 years working in IT. He enjoys building rich user centric applications. Matt is very active in the community speaking at user groups and code camps. He is the leader of the Charlotte ALT.NET user group. He is an INETA speaker member and has been a Microsoft MVP in Client Application Development. He started working in .NET as soon as it was available to the development community and was also an early adopter of both WPF and Silverlight. He believes good business intelligence (BI) architecture is the formula for a successful software package that looks beyond just data and provides insightful information. He is the co-author of the book: Silverlight 5: Building Rich Enterprise Dashboards. You can read his blog at mattduffield.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter at @mattduffield.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

Downloads: Slides

{"meta":{"date":"2014-8-26","speaker":"Matt Duffield","sponsor":"Signature Consultants"}}

September Meeting: Build Cross-platform Mobile Apps with Xamarin

Posted on by Enterprise Developers Guild

Join us Tuesday, September 24, at 6:00 PM in the Mt. Kilimanjaro/Mt. Everest rooms of the Charlotte Microsoft Campus. For this month’s talk we’ll look at how to build cross-platform native mobile iOS, Android, Mac and Windows apps in C# that access data from the web using mono, Xamarin tools, and Web Services. We will examine the libraries, techniques, and lessons learned from building and shipping mobile apps.

The meeting presenter is Peter Mourfield.

Peter Mourfield has been developing software for nearly 20 years and currently works for TaxSlayer.com, an online income tax preparation web site. Peter leads the Augusta Developers Guild, is an ASP Insider, and holds a number of certifications including; Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) in Web Development and a Certified SCRUM Master. You can follow him on Twitter at @pmourfield and read his blog at www.mourfield.com.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

{"meta":{"date":"2013-09-24","speaker":"Peter Mourfield","sponsor":"Signature Consultants"}}

June Meeting: Windows 8/Phone Mashup Apps

Posted on by Enterprise Developers Guild

Join us Tuesday, June 25, at 6:00 PM in the Mt. Kilimanjaro/Mt. Everest rooms of the Charlotte Microsoft Campus. The //build conference starts on the 26th. With Windows 8.1 (Blue) preview and corporations beginning to build their own app portals, it’s time to stay ahead of the curve and go hands on. If you haven’t taken the time to dive into Windows 8 development, now’s the time to watch one getting built. We’ll develop a prototype in 10 minutes and a finished app within the hour. Develop your own idea, get it published, and enhance your skillset.

The meeting presenter is Brian Hitney.

Brian Hitney is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft Corporation focused on cloud computing. He frequently delivers presentations and works with local community groups and customers on emerging technologies, .NET, and developer tools. Prior to his Developer Evangelist role, Brian worked as a software engineer on a Windows team in Redmond, and before he joined Microsoft he helped build large scale e-commerce applications for various companies across the United States. Brian is based out of Greensboro, NC. You can read his blog at www.structuretoobig.com.

The meeting is sponsored by Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. Learn more at www.sigconsult.com.

{"meta":{"date":"2013-06-25","speaker":"Brian Hitney","sponsor":"Signature Consultants"}}