I have been assigned a task to find a decent spell checker (UK English) preferably the free one for a project that we are doing.
I have looked at Google AJAX API for this. The project contains some young person's (kids less than 18 years old) data which shouldn't allow exposing or storing outside the application boundaries. Google logs the data for research purpose that means Google owns the data whatever we send over the wire through Google API. Is this right? I fired an email to Google regarding the privacy of data and storage but they haven't come back. If you have some knowledge regarding this please share with me.
At this point our servers might not have access to external entities that means we might not be able to use Web API for this over the wire. But it may change in the future. That means I have to find out some spell checker alternatives that can sit in our environment and do the job or an external APIs.
Would you mind share your findings and knowledge in this regard. I would prefer free services but never know if you have some cracking spell checker for a few quid’s then I don't mind recommending to the project board.
Technology using ASP.NET 3.5/4.0, MVC, jQuery, SQL Sever 2008 etc
Cheers,
Naren
GNU aspell might be suitable for your needs.
Yandex provides one. It is mainly targeted to Russian-speaking auditory, but it contains a dictionary for the English as well.
Related
Hope all are doing well,
I wanted to know if the below scenario can be achieved.
We have a SCORM package that we wanted to have it on our Own web server and specify the link
to it in LMS(blackboard,moodle).
When User logs into LMS, it should perform a Single sign on (with LTI) and show the scorm content
from our web server.
Can SCORM in our web server access details of logged in User(UserID,Score details etc..).
I have searched and found some details below
http://scorm.com/scorm-solved/scorm-cloud-developers/how-to-get-started-with-the-scorm-cloud-api/
but this api is not free.
Your own web server utilizing another, then dealing with user credentials, assignments, and launching of courseware would be a tough one. These systems essentially have a Runtime API that manages the student attempt SCORM Interacts with.
There are a few parts of SCORM support that you'd obtain from Rustici's SCORM Engine that are actually worth paying for.
100% SCORM Compatibility (1.2, 2004)
I believe they have a .NET and Java implementation (uncertain about PHP) that you can plug into your platform. If you don't use those languages I'm sure they'd be grateful to answer any questions you have on further support.
You're covered on importing PIF/ZIP Content Aggregation Model packages. Even the robust ones.
SCORM Cloud hosting could negate the need for the SCORM Engine (#2)
The main reason you can't find much free in this space (with the exception of moodle) is mainly that is a epic amount of work, and another main reason you find many platforms with mixed support of SCORM. There is also the legacy space, and aged antiquated stuff that also comes to that end.
In the end you have the Runtime, Content Package Parsing, and if your using SCORM 2004 all the sequence and navigation rules. Those 3 things don't sound like much, but they are an exhausting amount of work from scratch.
Hope that all made sense,
Mark
We're looking into implementing an issue tracker for our web agency. The problem is that most issue trackers seem to revolve around the assumption that an issue is a bug, whereas in a web agency environment, a lot of the issues (request, or whatever you want to call them) are about changes and additions to a current web site.
It also seems to me that a lot of issue trackers assume that you're working on one main software project, and uses that project as the focus of the tracker. A good issue tracker for a web agency would be one which puts each separate client and their issues at the heart of the system, making it easy for them to track and report issues.
Does anyone know of a good issue tracker for the web agency workflow? What are other people using?
In my experience, issue trackers are so closely coupled to the workflow of the organisation that what works in one place may be a complete misfit in another. That said, could basecamp work for you?
We are using Gemini very flexible with the ability to have workflow at the project level.
But where Gemini really helps us is the cross project views. You can view your work across all projects with really good fitering.
Have you had a look at fixx at all? Obviously, being the developer of fixx, I will want to plug it but I know from first-hand experience that a lot of our customers are web agencies who work in a service-oriented environment and need to track more than just "software development" projects.
With fixx, you can define custom issue types (for example "change request" or "Copy changes") and track work against that type.
Unfortunately, fixx still does suffer from the "project-centric" view but a lot of our customers work around this by defining a project per client/website. So, if you were doing web/maintenance on stackoverflow.com, you would have a project called "stackoverflow.com maintenance" and would assign all your users from that company to that specific project. From there, using notifications and filters, it would be very easy for clients to keep track of progress on their specific issues.
FogBugz – it's simple by default, but extensible; it's got an integrated wiki, charts, tags, and you can even tie it to your source-control system (and they also offer their own integrated source control system, Kiln, which is pretty amazing with FogBugz).
Are you using other applications to manage the rest of your business' operations?
I ask because WORKetc has great issue tracking software, and this software is combined with other aspects of business management which can simplify the management process. So not only could you manage all support inquiries and responses in one place, but also your projects, finances, and contacts. Most importantly, it would allow you to use one central contact base for your entire company, while allowing you to reference that contact information (as well as lead information) while working on support inquiries, projects, invoices, etc.
WORKetc's support system works around email integration and simple ticket system (as well as prioritizing) and directly integrates with projects, contacts, and other aspects of the system so that you can save time while responding and managing tickets.
I think especially for the use case of a web-agency, where it's not really about bugs, but mostly (visual) feedback and all of it happens on the web, a visual feedback tool might be the thing you're looking for. Most of these tools will create a screenshot of the webpage and include the given feedback on it.
Some of them also have some kind of dashboard where you can discuss further, or have integrations to other tools like Basecamp (and some them do both).
Here's an article from smashing magazine, which describes a lot of them, e.g.: TrackDuck, BugMuncher. Another great tool the article doesn't mention, maybe because the article is a bit dated, is Usersnap – this one even includes browser extensions.
I'll prefix this with: I don't much about SCORM.
I'm the maintainer for a training video delivery platform. It shows videos but doesn't test users. Clients of the company can download SCORM modules (that is a zip) which contains a link to the video on our server.
Some clients are now asking for reporting so that they know their LMS users finish watching a video. At the moment, they just know if the user loads the module but nothing else.
As for working out if the current user has watched the film, I can do that. It's just a bit of javascript to interact with the video player. Fine.
But how do I communicate that event back to the LMS? Do I post it to their server? How do I know where it is? What if it's behind a firewall? Do they poll my server? In both cases how do I identify a user from the LMS in a way that when the results go back, they line up in the LMS?
What is the standard way of a learning management system finding out the completion status of an external module like ours?
The SCORM API is what you're looking for. It enables active communication of completion status (among many other things) between the SCO (your module) and the LMS.
At runtime, a discovery algorithm (written in JS) is used to locate the API handle, which is just a JS Object. You, as the content developer, work with that API handle, and it does all the client-server communication, so you don't have to. :-)
You can find a technical overview of how to locate and use the SCORM API here.
I'm more of the "learn by example" type, so I'd also recommend downloading one of Rustici's golf (pause) courses. Check out their Basic Run-Time Calls Course to see how they are accessing and interacting with the SCORM API. They'll be doing exactly what you're looking to do.
The official SCORM docs can be found on adlnet.gov, and they have an entire book dedicated to the RTE, but I doubt you'll need to dive that deep.
Good Luck!
How would I programmatically connect to an existing back-end system of a restaurant using say Micros POS, with a web app built with .Net and C#. Thanks.
Update: Sorry for the ambiguity but I'd like to set up an online ordering system that takes users' orders and forward to a restaurant's back-end system to be processed and printed in the kitchen for cooks to see.
There is no particular reason for choosing .Net other than the fact I'm most familiar with it. I'm open to other options.
In general I'm looking for information regarding the feasibility of this and how to go about it programmatically. How would my app send orders to the kitchen's printers? Do restaurant back-end systems allow for a .Net (or any other) app communicate with it? Do they provide an API?
I currently work at an ISV that does basically this with another one of the big 3 point of sale systems.
First and foremost, get the Micros environment up in a VM.
Next, most of these back office systems are running either Windows 2000 or Windows XP (depending on the age of the system), so be really careful about the version of .Net you choose.
Now, as far as architecture goes, run a service on the back office that communicates regularly with a centralized web service (the website that customers order on), once an order is made available, from there you can then insert it into <insert pos type here>.
You will also find in most instances, especially with Micros being the largest Point of Sale on the market for restaurants, they will not be very helpful with documentation and helping you out with integrating into their software.
Also, I think that My Micros (their enterprise application) already supports this type of functionality.
Another opinion, get into FSTech this year and browse all the competition, there are tons for online ordering just so you can get familiar with the competitions feature sets.
What you need to know is define what you want to do with the POS before a choice of technology, if all you want to do is show some data/reports from the POS system's work, you would need to connect to whatever back-end database the POS devices feed into.
If you need to do something else, you need to look for whatever relevant documentation.
It would help you more to ask a more specific question.
I would probably start by determining if Micros POS has an API. If they do, are the systems at individual restaurants even connected to the net? Try chatting up the manager at a place that uses one of these systems, or just check the documentation on their website.
Do you know if it's possible to build an application for the LinkedIn platform?
Yes, they have API at http://developer.linkedin.com/index.jspa, allowing access to the profile, connections, messaging and more.
While LinkedIn has promised a public API for a very long time now, they have yet to deliver.
No, there is no public LinkedIn API yet.
IMO, their widgets (which there are only two of at the moment, which are very limited) don't count.
They say that they are open to being contacted with specific uses for their API and they may give access to parts as needed - but that is if they accept your ideas for integration. They have been very picky with this - and have not accepted my attempts to integrate with LinkedIn yet, they tell me I have to wait with everyone else, apparently my applications are not "high-profile" enough.
Sure, you'll find many Google results talking about their "promised" API, but they are empty promises and won't be of much help.
Yes, Linkedin has an API:
http://www.programmableweb.com/api/linkedin
http://blog.linkedin.com/blog/2007/12/the-intelligent.html
So you could build an application that uses it.
Update: (from second link)
We’ll be phasing all of this in over the coming months and to get involved with the Intelligent Application Platform either for APIs, widgets, or hosted applications, send us an e-mail to developers#linkedin.com telling us what you want to build and what you need to build it.
Since there are published Mashups using LinkedIn I would assume that means you can use the API even if the documentation isn't readily available.
As a tip, in the future include links to what you found that didn't work, so we know not to give it to you again.
I poked around a bit more and I found some more on their widgets which appears to be the main focus of their API.