Show Me the Data: Protect Yourself from 3rd-Party Data Feed Failures

With the Web 2.0 era in the rear view mirror, I wanted to touch on an aspect that was heavily played and still continues to this day. Integration of 3rd-party data into websites. However, the popularity and ease of use for many APIs and the portability of Web 2.0 applications has an underlying side effect, if not integrated properly. I have come across many websites accessing 3rd-party data from places such as Flickr, Twitter, etc. that are not following the basic principles and the lack thereof should raise the question, "what happens if these 3rd-party services fail?". Many sites are not applying the appropriate contingency design plans to allow continued functionality during a failure. Caching data calls to APIs is just an example of good contingency design. In fact, many APIs will require caching - like that of Amazon - but, I suspect this is intended to help limit resource use of the API host, not the site using the API. The reasons a person using API-accessed data on their website should cache are:

1. To speed up the website's load time
2. To have a back up plan if the API call fails

A simple implementation to handle these two cases would be one that caches an API call for a given amount of time and one that freshens stale, cached data and triggers an error should an API call fail.

This post is a bit late to the party but is worth writing as I have recently come across at least three sites where Firebug and other widgets have revealed issues such as retrieving API fetched data and sluggish site loading times. A decent implementation idea would be to roll your own caching wrapper and plug it in to a stable caching tool, perhaps something like Cache Lite for PHP. In this manner, you have a reusable, caching library independent piece of code that can handle caching/flushing and refreshing of data, which could function to handle the two cases discussed above.

For more pointers on this topic, please contact us. We are happy to assist.

Ingenux Brings Thanksgiving to Hungry Oklahomans

December 2nd, 2009

Ingenux partnered with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma to host the annual Ingenux Turkey Day Food Drive to help feed those who are less fortunate this season. Within two weeks, Ingenux was able to collect 294 food items along with cash donations totaling $725. The cash donations alone will provide hungry Oklahomans with 5,075 meals. Ingenux is proud to say that last year's goal was surpassed with an astounding outcome. Food and monetary donations were collected by Ingenux staff from three multi-office complexes in Edmond, Oklahoma."We are so grateful to those who contributed to help fellow Oklahomans this holiday season during a time when money is tighter than usual," Ingenux Production Director, Brandy Semore, said. "This is a great example of how people can pull together to make a huge difference."

About the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma:The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is a private, 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that acts as a link through which the food industry and community may donate food and other goods. The products are then distributed to nearly 700 schools and charitable feeding programs in 53 central and western Oklahoma counties. In the last fiscal year, the Food Bank distributed nearly 25 million pounds of food and products to help the charitable community effectively feed people in need. Since its inception in 1980, the Food Bank has distributed 293 million pounds of food to feed Oklahoma's hungry.

Everything but the Turkey

EDMOND, OK- Ingenux, Inc. is working with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma to host the "Everything but the Turkey" food drive aimed toward filling the food bank for the holiday season. Ingenux is challenging all who are interested to participate by bringing nonperishable food to the Ingenux offices or to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma November 9-20. "The Ingenux team is very active with regards to helping out our local community and this is a great way to get others involved to help those in need. Our turkey drive last year was a huge success with the end result feeding more than 2,200 people." said Brandy Semore, Production Director at Ingenux. Ingenux is a website and software development company located in Edmond in the Le Cour office building at 1300 E. 9th St. Suite 5. Over 35 million people are considered to live in a household that is 'food insecure' and Oklahoma ranks in the top ten food insecure state. Since its inception in 1980, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma has distributed more than 293 million pounds of food worth more than $468 million.

Meet our newest team member!

Brandon McKinney joins the Ingenux team as the latest Web Developer. Brandon graduated from the design program at the University of Central Oklahoma in 2007. Having an education in design as a programmer allows Brandon to solve problems with a unique approach. He has developed numerous solutions for a wide variety of clients ranging from local individuals to regional companies, such as At the Beach, and even international clients, such as Dell. Ingenux is excited to serve our clientele with elegant solutions tailored for their specific needs.

When does Minimalist Web 2.0 Design go too Far?

Every month a breath of new web design projects filter into our company. As our core expertise and business focus is custom web and software application development, my attention is more distant with regards to corporate design now-a-days. However, my eyes caught a project in the works and I thought to myself "When does minimalist web 2.0 design go too far?" What I mean by that is how clean and clutter free can a website get until the allure of the service or product falls by the wayside? There is definitely a happy means or "Zen" that needs to be reached during the design process.In web design, minimalism refers to the use of the smallest amount of images, colors, shapes, values and lines. The site is stripped down to the fundamentals required to convey the message. Minimalist web designs generally rely on type and simple shapes to do the communicating. This minimalist approach has evolved in some circles as the basis of web 2.0 design. The backbone of the web 2.0 era that ushered in blogs, videos, podcasts, wikis and online communities where people with common interests get together to share ideas, media, code and all types of information was meant to be more - not less, but designed in a way where information is easily accessed on a clean and simple layout. This is a far cry from the "massive content, image heavy with more features to shake a stick at" era which for the most of us, is a recent memory.

Read more at: http://www.ingenux.com/viewnewsletter.php?date=Nov.01&status=pull#LETTER.BLOCK14

Ingenux Pumpkin

We are finally ready for Halloween here at Ingenux, thanks to a team member with some talent!

Small Business of the Year Nominee

Ingenux has been nominated for the Small Business of the Year Award, presented by the Edmond Chamber. This prestigious award recognizes our company as one that sets itself apart from the competition through contributions to the community and high professional standards. A panel of judges will announce the top three finalists at the Nomination Reception on December 10, 2009. Stay Tuned!