Codeless web development using clearString

Finding your nearest hosting provider

Tue, 2 Dec 2008 16:55:00 +0000

I'm often asked by prospective neatComponents users where they should host their servers. I could easily reel off the names of some decent co-location specialists, but that's not the best way to approach the problem first, you need to know what you need from your hosting. And armed with those answers, you have a chance to sensibly assess the options.

Learning the system tricks of the trade

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 17:10:00 +0000

Getting to know any system, even one as easy as neatComponents, has its tricks, and whilst you'll find them documented in the 'official' places, I'll try to draw some to your attention here.

Canonical

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:12:00 +0000

It's not often that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft agree on something, so when they jointly launch a new standard it's worth taking a look at. In this case it's a really simple standard just a tag but it's going to make a big difference to search engine optimisation. What's more, this isn't some pre-announcement of some future development, it's here now, and neatComponents already supports it.

Measuring site traffic

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:14:00 +0000

Everyone wants to know how busy their site is, and there are plenty of ways of finding out. The trouble is, they all seem to give different answers so who is right?

"Look at my site!"

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:16:00 +0000

I'm often asked to cast a critical eye over websites, and suggest how they can be improved, or 'taken to the next level', as marketing people like to say. Aside from the usual mantra of making sure the content is up to date and the typos have all been found, there's one technical trick that can give a website that extra quality feel.

Feeling Agile

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:33:00 +0000

If you've ever studied computing at university you'll have come across some tedious methodologies like the 'Waterfall Model' or the PRINCE2 project management standard. One of the more recent entrants into the field is 'AGILE' development, and as the name suggests, it is all about getting results quickly, keeping the customer in the loop, and providing a working system as early in the development process as possible.

Helping you sleep at night

Fri, 3 Apr 2009 17:34:00 +0000

Here's a thought that might save your life. Well, your career. It's all to do with that mundane task that's never quite important enough to do right now. Yes, it's the dreaded backup routine. Though today I'm concentrating not just on backups, but the equally important restore process.

Being logged in, and out, at the same time

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 17:37:00 +0000

When you're building anything but the simplest site you're likely to be faced with the problem of seeing what the public view of the site is, whilst needing to be logged in to make changes. You could keep logging out and back in again, but that's time-consuming and tedious. So here's three ways to be both logged in and out, at the same time.

"I want to be a web designer"

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:38:00 +0000

I was recently involved in a panel discussion where a questioner asked what they should do to become a web designer, and what certification courses they should take.

Avoiding repetition

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:40:00 +0000

I really hate having to do the same thing over and over again, and I know I'm not alone. All too often on sites you need to make a change to lots of different pages maybe changing the font or the background color, and you really don't want to have to do each one individually.

What were they thinking!

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:41:00 +0000

One of the hardest aspects of designing a site is making sure it meets the needs of your audience. And regardless of how much research you do beforehand, there will always be surprises when the site goes live. People are strange. They act in unpredictable (and sometimes, dare one say, 'stupid' ways!). So you really need to know what they are thinking when they visit your site.

Bounce rates

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:43:00 +0000

One of the simplest, yet often misunderstood metrics in website analytics is the 'Bounce Rate'

The Bounce Rate is the percentage of visits to your site that consisted of just one pagehit. The visitor arrived at a page, and that was it. No further clicks.

The point of ecommerce

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:45:00 +0000

What's the point of ecommerce?

Before you think I’ve lost the plot completely, perhaps I’d better clarify the question. If you have an ecommerce site, what should you measure to judge its success? And if you have a web designer or SEO specialist to hand, what do they think is most important?

Creating a moderated comments system

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:46:00 +0000

Here’s a quick trick that will make life easy when you want to keep control over what is be added to your site. I’m going to skip over the basic Content Management approval controls, which are documented elsewhere, and look at the form-based techniques that give you even more flexibility over your approval processes.

Create your own Press Release approval system

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:49:00 +0000

Last time I looked at a simple approval system for a blog comment – basically adding a checkbox that only the admin can see.

Today I’ll look at a more complex scenario, more suitable for a Press Release. In this scenario we want the Press Release to be approved by three people: one checking grammar, another the technical content, and, once approved on those aspects, a final approval by the CEO.

Cloud computing Oops

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:50:00 +0000

Sometimes the next big thing is too good to be true. Finally it’s beginning to dawn on the big players in the cloud computing market that their business models are holed below the waterline.

A valedictory for Amazon

Tue, 2 Feb 2010 17:53:00 +0000

There’s an interesting little argument going on between Amazon and the publisher Macmillan, which led to Amazon pulling all Macmillan title from their site for a while. Whilst I won’t repeat the detail of this particular case I think there are some important lessons for us all about the power of the global players on the Internet.

Your web, post-Amazon

Wed, 3 Feb 2010 17:55:00 +0000

Last time I looked ahead to a world where global players like Amazon overstep their role in the market, and a forced to take a back-seat.

Today I'm looking at what will fill this vacuum, and how you can get position yourself now to be able to take your fair share when it happens. In essence this boils down to two key concepts: ‘own your data’ and ‘structure your data’.

Creating a social marketing strategy

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 18:01:00 +0000

No matter how good your website is, if no-one know it’s there, it’s a complete waste of time. So it’s important you have a strategy in place to spread the word. Naturally you’ll be doing all the standard cross-referencing: including it on your business cards, packaging etc, but if you really want to reach out to new people you’ll eventually have to think about online marketing.

How to win a website development contract

Tue, 2 Mar 2010 18:04:00 +0000

So you’ve got a lead to see a potential new client. They want a website, and they’ve heard you’re new and have some great ideas. So what’s your plan?

Here’s your cheat-sheet to winning their business.

ClearString feature releases

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:06:00 +0000

One of the great things about clearString is that we don’t save up lots of features for months and then have a major version release, where everyone has to learn tons of new skills all at once. Instead, we release them as soon as they are ready.

New support system for clearString

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:42:00 +0000

It's great to see the new support system for clearString ready to come on stream. One of our recent targets has been to improve the user experience of our support services. The new system integrates license management, upgrade protection and support access into one handy on-line account so that all the information both the user and our support staff need to know is in one place.

Hello clearString

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:44:00 +0000

It's always great when a plan comes together, and all the more so when the plan has been several years in the hatching. Today's launch of clearString marks the end of the development and beta testing phase, and the start of a rollout to designers and business managers.

Keep on rolling out

Fri, 3 Sep 2010 23:46:00 +0000

As we wind down for the long Labor Day weekend here in Connecticut, its a time to look back over this last week with a great deal of satisfaction.

The technical roll out of clearString's latest edition with the new 20351 version of the neatComponents engine went very well. Last month's developments in external data lookups massively increase the power that clearString brings to Internet developers. We're really excited!

Getting data into your site

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:48:00 +0000

There's little doubt that data makes the difference between a 'me-too' brochureware site, and an active and useful internet presence. However that data isn't always where you need it to be – on the site. What we need is an easy way to import, lookup, or synchronise data from other sources, and make it available to the table/query/view system that powers the data handling in clearString neatComponents.

Integrating with Twitter

Thu, 7 Oct 2010 11:01:00 +0000

Twitter has matured into a core part of any social media strategy, but the trick is to integrate your Twitter account with your website.

New to clearString?

Fri, 1 Jan 2010 11:37:00 +0000

If you've just discovered clearString you may be wondering why everyone is so excited. To get you up to speed here are some links to pages that explain how clearString is not simply a 'me-too' content management system, but a whole new approach to building websites and online apps.

Working with Google Website Optimizer

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:06:00 +0000

Google Website Optimizer (GWO) is free system provided by Google to allow you to test alternate content on some of your visitors, running experiments to see which content variations are most effective.

clearString provides comprehensive support for Google Website Optimizer integration.

Calling all Citizen Developers

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:30:00 +0000

clearString is a visual codeless development platform for web applications, which means that users who are not IT Experts - the Citizen Developers as Gartner calls them - can build and deploy their own data based web applications with or without the cloud, and for public, private or a mixed user-base.

I am NOT a developer

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:08:00 +0000

clearString is the perfect solution for non-expert developers looking for the easiest way to build web apps. It is a visual codeless development tool that lets everyone quickly build and deploy great-looking web and cloud applications without scripting or coding, and without any design constraints. With clearString, you can build multi-tier web applications in minutes.

Websites and Applications. Power and Flexibility

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:39:00 +0000

The clearString approach to web application development is different. It is what is sometimes called 'goal oriented development'. That is to say, if at the end of the day you want to have a web service or website that is data enabled, then that is where you should start from, and build down to the data structure beneath. clearString has its own internal data structure which has been designed to be used by non-technical designers.

Real web development with no code to debug

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:09:00 +0000

clearString means that anyone can quickly and easily create and launch web applications without being forced out to the risks and challenges of unknown coding regimes or unregulated cloud service providers.

Next-generation codeless application development

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:08:00 +0000

A couple of years ago Gartner Inc, the respected industry analysts, predicted that by 2014 ‘Citizen Developers’ would build at least 25 percent of new business applications. They said that this advance should both enable end users and free up IT resources.

Direct web development

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:01:00 +0000

clearString has been developed as a solution for small to medium sized businesses and organizations to bring applications online at a very low cost; to maintain them into the future and to be able to adapt the solutions as circumstances change without requiring specialist skills.

No deployment: just live and accessible applications

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:48:00 +0000

There are no deployment issues with clearString – ever. All data applications and web apps are built using live web services, but in a controlled environment. Tight permission controls mean that you say who can see your new development, but you are working on a live application or site from the get-go. clearString manages your database, user permissions and SaaS delivery and it also provides your hosting environment. This means that there is no FTPing and no file transfer when your application goes live. Whether it is an Internet service or an Intranet application clearString is already there.

clearString does not require scripting, Java or coding skills

Sun, 15 May 2011 10:02:00 +0000

clearString is a codeless application and web development platform, that enables an ordinary business user to create rich and flexible multi-user web and data applications that can be both created and delivered across the Internet.

clearString is uniquely totally codeless at the point of use

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 10:24:00 +0000

clearString’s ‘pre-coded’ components mean that it is uniquely 100% codeless at the point of use.

Our goal is to make world-class Internet technology affordable, so taking a 100% contrarian view of the world brings great business benefits. Here are three examples...

clearString makes private clouds easy

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:29:00 +0000

The public cloud works great for consumer services, but businesses need to keep tight control over data

Developing websites for YOUR customers using clearString

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:06:00 +0000

clearstring provides a full hosting and billing system so that website development companies can host their customers' websites on their own server and then bill them monthly. The system manages everything from hosting to metering to reminders and credit control.

Why not being sexy costs jobs growth and profits

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:10:00 +0000

clearString codeless web development software has been launched by Connecticut based independent software developer Enstar, to solve this problem of how to create business grade websites and applications. clearString combines twenty years company knowledge of creating SMB solutions with state-of-the-art development and deployment technology. clearString codeless web development software is a comprehensive software solution that enables any SMB to make effective use of web technology to streamline their business processes without having to fall back onto programming or coding

New version of clearString - build 1631

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:40:00 +0000

The release of the latest version of clearString web development software Version 2.1631 has brought a host of new features and enhancements.

So it is worth stopping for a few minutes to remember just what our aims and objectives are...

Core values in clearString

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:31:00 +0000

Sometimes we get so excited about all the new features in clearString that we lose sight of what we consider the 'basics', but which continue to amaze new users more used to buildings sites the hard way.

Is Google hiding referer data?

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0000

When someone visits your website using a link from another site, you can usually tell where they came from, and if they came from a search engine, this will usually tell you what search words they typed in to find your site. This is, clearly, really useful information for your marketing.
However recently Google have been stripping out the search terms from the information they send over in the Referer header.

How fast is your site?

Tue, 6 Dec 2011 15:10:00 +0000

We've recently been working with several clients to see how their sites could best be improved. After assessing all the various stylistic or structural changes that might help clients make best use of the sites, we decided the best route was an invisible one: to make the sites run faster.

Here's a quick run down of the ways we did that, and which you can consider for your own site.

Web development Less expensive than Free

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:13:00 +0000

As you do not need to write scripts and code, you don't need to use specialists for web development , so creation costs fall dramatically. It becomes practical for businesses of any size to bring their own web development for custom sites and business-processes safely online - just like big-business does.

Take the Geek Out of Web Development with clearString

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:06:00 +0000

clearString have made a breakthrough in taking the geek out of website building. They have come up with a novel way of creating and managing - developing in the jargon - websites and applications.

clearString Enables the Citizen Developer in Medium and Small Businesses

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:14:00 +0000

clearString enables the creation of websites and website integrated data applications by people who may not be programmers but know enough about information systems and applications to know what they need.

clearString Codeless Business App Development Software Platform Announces New Free Developer License

Tue, 15 May 2012 19:17:00 +0000

clearString codeless web and business app development software has introduced a new Free Developer license to remove barriers to entry for new business app developers.

Two Factor Authentication

Wed, 9 Mar 2016 09:11:00 +0000

Two Factor Authentication adds greater security than just using passwords.

Site Updating

Mon, 11 Jul 2016 17:17:00 +0000

There are times when it is sensible to take a copy of a site, makes changes to that, and then apply the changes in a single ‘upgrade’ operation to the live site.