There was a time when even simple HTML pages used to make us happy. A few hyperlinks here and a couple of form elements there and you would have an “interactive” presence on the Internet.

JavaScript and CSS improved things to a great extent but still the functionalities on a webpage could never even remotely match the interface of a desktop application. With the advent of Flash things spiced up a bit but they were still on the static side. There was nothing that we could call interactive and dynamic in the Flash animations that the developers created. Although there is a fair amount of “programming” that you can do in Flash, this feature never caught on with hardcore programmers because interface designing skills were always required; they needed something that could help them create Flash applications by simply having to write code. Flex was developed keeping this in mind. And with this was born the concept of Rich Internet Applications. (more…)

 Despite being web-based applications, Rich Internet Applications function like desktop applications. Typically, they have features and functionalities of desktop applications but they can easily access data and programs residing upon remote web servers.

So why so much fuss over Rich Internet Applications? First of all they demolish the boundaries of traditional web-based applications. Up till now the web-based applications, in the name of interactivity, could only offer text boxes, drop-down boxes and other form-based and link-based controls. Every action depended on page refreshes. Every processing happened on the server side and the client side only handled the static data. This meant whenever the application needed to access new or updated data it had to access the server. Accessing the server again and again might not be a problem if very few people are using the application but it tremendously slows things down if lots of people are using the application at the same time. This also created constraints for application developers who were itching to create applications that could use strengths of both the desktop and the Internet environment. Both users and application creators terribly missed the level of interactivity and flexibility offered by even mediocre desktop applications. (more…)

There was a time when your legacy application was cutting-edge and you derived amazing results from it. But somewhere it stopped growing with you.

Ecomsolutions Inc. can help you modernize you legacy application using ColdFusion. Without hindering your day-to-day business operations our team of programmers and software engineers will completely overhaul your obsolete legacy application; turning it into a state-of-the-art marvel. And in case modernization is not possible right now we can even provide you dedicated expertise so that you can keep using your existing legacy application without compromising on contemporary functionalities.

It doesn’t matter if you have lost touch with the original programmers or if no documentation exists; we are in the habit of deciphering the most obscure lines of programming code and turning them into highly functional applications. Our well-proven and tested development methodologies ensure you a properly documented and laid out application so that you don’t end up with another obsolete legacy application after a couple of years. (more…)

Are you or your organization planning to jump onto the bandwagon of “the open source software revolution”? In case you’re not aware of what is open source software it is supposed to be free software.  Open source software can be modified by anybody and then redistributed because its code is supposed to be freely available, unlike the commercial software applications that you cannot alter and redistribute.  The only caveat is that you cannot alter the open source software and then sell it commercially.  Some prevalent examples of open source software are OpenOffice.org, a Microsoft office alternative, Ubuntu (a variant of Linux), a Windows operating system alternative, and Gimp, a Photoshop alternative. (more…)

As your organization grows in size and scale sooner or later you are going to require custom-built software.  Although there are thousands of software companies selling prepackaged software, every company has unique requirements and to cater to those requirements the development of custom software is inescapable.  But it is easier said than done.  More often than not the software development company that you find for your organization can prove to be the biggest roadblock if you’re not careful enough about selecting it.  In this blog post we shall explore a few things that you can take into consideration while trying to find the right software development company.
Before you can embark upon this task you have to clearly define what your organization needs. Research the market carefully and find out if software already exists to solve your problem.  Purchasing a pre-existing software solution is always better than getting the whole thing developed from scratch.  Look for a software development company only as a last option, only when you cannot find what you are looking for in the market.
So here are a few things you should keep in mind while trying to find the right software development company for your organization: (more…)

Earn money with AdSense — advantages and disadvantages

There is a very remote chance that you have been browsing the Internet and haven’t come across AdSense advertisements. The ubiquitous add links can be seen on every website that regularly publishes content. You will find AdSense links on websites providing professional services too, although this is not recommended because it sends your valuable traffic away and it also conveys the message that since you are not doing enough business you are trying to generate some extra cash with the help of AdSense ads.
Ever since millions of people started publishing content on the Internet Google invented a novel way of displaying ads and provided an opportunity to the publishers to earn some good money. The AdSense links are not only used by amateur publishers they are also a significant source of income for mainstream media publishers such as newspapers and video websites. (more…)

Agile software development process is one of the fastest emerging software development methodologies in the IT industry.
What exactly does agile software development process mean?

It means developing software in an iterative manner and every single iteration of programming is a complete software solution in itself.  This way the customer receives working software very quickly, but in small portions.  Many software companies including Ecomsolutions Inc have adopted agile software development technique to deliver high-quality software products in short time.  Here are a few things you should take care of before switching to the agile software development process: (more…)

1 Make your site focused and relevant
2 Write lots of search engine friendly content
3 Acquire relevant inbound links
4 Ensure that inbound anchor text is relevant
5 Utilize deep linking
6 Use alt tags
7 Create a sitemap
8 Optimize your title tags
9 Write and submit articles and press releases
10 Submit  sitemap of your website to the search engines

I was just on a web site (no, not a ColdFusion powered site, and no I will not name names) browsing for specific content. The URLs used typical name=value query string conventions, and so I changed the value to jump to the page I wanted. And I made a typo and added a character to the numeric value. The result? An invalid SQL error message.That’s bad. Very very bad. It means that I was able to create a SQL statement that was submitted to the database for processing, a SQL statement that was passed to the database as is, unchecked.

You’d think that by now we’d have learned to lock down our code so as to prevent SQL injection attacks, but apparently this is not the case. You do not know what a SQL injection attack is? Well, read on.

Consider the following simple dynamic ColdFusion query: (more…)

There is a lot that can go wrong with any technology project, and in many cases overlong delays, overstretched budgets and complete failures do occur. In the software industry, it is certainly not news when a implementing a project plan doesn’t go as smoothly as originally intended.

Here are five of the biggest project mistakes to avoid:

1) Hire a team of inferior developers

Conceptualizing, creating and implementing new software is challenging work, to say the least, and many so-called programmers simply aren’t up to the task. It would behoove anyone planning to initiate a new project to develop a comprehensive series of tests that will be able to ascertain, with a high degree of certainty, the level of competence for each programmer hired for your team. Just accepting someone’s resume at ‘face-value’ is no good. Demonstrated competence in specific program areas should be the absolute minimum during the hiring process. (more…)