The old site

We set out to find a solution which fitted the UDI’s needs – namely, individual member logins, the ability to collect feedback from members on a wide variety of issues, offer content-based subscriptions, easily upload and maintain new content as well as maintain an extremely large amount of legacy content, sell tickets to events, introduce member-based forums and even include a blog or two.  It needed to be scalable, and able to handle access by hundreds, if not thousands of members.  All of this was to be permission-based material with varying levels of access based on user roles.  And an entirely new look and feel based on their existing branding and logos.  Hmmm…  Not a job for the faint of heart.  So, we took it on.

The new site. Ah, that's better...

It was immediately apparent that what was needed was a Content Management System (CMS) rather than a traditional ‘static’ website.  They needed a system which could manage, manipulate and track content with a large amount of automation.  There are quite a few CMSes available, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.  Some of the more well-known ones include Joomla, WordPress, Mambo and of course Drupal.

We found that while other CMSes excelled in certain areas – for example WordPress and blogging – none were quite as capable and flexible as Drupal when it came to an all-round solution.  We also felt that Drupal offered an extremely robust and competent permissions based security solution.  This is extremely attractive to anyone with sensitive material where access needs to be controlled with fine-grained permissions.  After careful consideration we chose to use Drupal for the job – it was, frankly, head-and-shoulders above the rest given our remit.

So, off we went to produce a new all-singing-all-dancing Drupal-based website.  What an exciting task, and an immensely rewarding one too.  There is a hugely steep learning curve, however – it is not as simple as just installing Drupal and making some customizations and off you go, like you are able to do with WordPress.  It isn’t very realistic to expect to just install Drupal and run any sort of usable website immediately.  Out of the box, Drupal tries to be everything to everyone but in reality it is nothing to anyone.  It’s hugely functional yet not really very useful, or useable in a way that your users have come to expect from the web.  Anyone who has installed Drupal for the first time will probably have had the ‘What Do I Do Now?’ moment, when you are staring at the newly installed Drupal-blue Garland theme.  Installing Drupal is just the beginning.  It’s what happens next that matters.

Drupal has a modular framework which means that there is a wide variety of plug-in style options for adding functionality to your website, and along with this is a rich community-based ecosystem supporting, creating, maintaining, and improving on all aspects of the project.  The issue isn’t lack of, but rather too much choice!  Not that this is a bad thing, but it takes time and a lot of trial-and-error to decide upon the right modules for your project.  And often, modules will solve most of a problem – but not all – requiring custom amendments and in some circumstances, custom modules.  But the wonderful thing is that this flexibility means that there is very little that can’t be done with a Drupal site.  It is an immensely, impressively powerful tool.  The future for Drupal is very bright indeed.

Producing a large website like this one was a tremendous and rewarding challenge.  We are very proud of what we have produced for the UDI and we are so impressed with Drupal that we are already using it in another project.

For anyone who has been waiting for some activity on the iPhone/iPad front, we have some exciting things in the pipeline which should be available in the app store later this month, including updates on our existing apps.  More on this shortly- stay tuned!

As could be expected, things do not always go smoothly.  Personally, I have found that my iPhone has developed some quirks – the main ones are a battery strength indicator that doesn’t update itself after a recharge unless you turn the phone on and off, as well as the fact that everything runs noticeably slower than before.  I can’t help but wonder if this slowness will be resolved as Apple improves iOS optimization through updates, or is it more a case of shoehorning an operating system into a phone that is running at the limits of it’s capabilities (I’m using an iPhone 3G).  Could this be a possible excuse for an upgrade to the new iPhone 4?  Having just bought an iPad, is it justifed?  Probably.

More importantly though are reports that some iPhone apps developed for earlier versions of the OS are not running properly, if at all, on the new iOS 4.  Early indications are that most apps run just fine, but that’s kind of irrelevant if it is your app that isn’t running properly!  I have tested all of our apps against iOS 4 and they do appear to run with no difficulty, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that some users won’t encounter problems.  If anyone is having trouble running any of our apps, either due to an upgrade to iOS 4 or any other reason, please do not hesitate to contact us and I will work with you to resolve any problems you might be having.

From what I have read so far, there are some generalized steps you can take if you encounter an app that doesn’t work after upgrading to iOS 4:

1. Restart your phone and try running the app again.

2. If this doesn’t work, delete the app from your phone and re-install it.  As long as you have sync’d your iPhone with your computer, you won’t lose the app.  The worst case scenario here is that you would have to re-download the app from iTunes, but you won’t have to pay twice as iTunes knows you’ve bought it before.

The above two steps should resolve most problems that people have.  If the app still doesn’t work, please feed this back to the app developer as they will want to know so they can fix the problem.

Lastly, we have two apps sitting in the App Store queue waiting be reviewed by Apple.  One of them is an essential update to the B737 Classic Exam Questions app, which implements improvements to the user interface as well as important updates to the questions database, and the other is a whole new app – B737 NG Exam Questions.  I received a lot of feedback asking for an NG version of the app, so I am pleased to say that I have produced one and – fingers crossed for a successful review by Apple – should be available on the App Store next week.  Health warning though – both apps were developed for iPhone OS 3.1.3, as iOS 4 was introduced after I submitted them to Apple.  Again, if anyone encounters any issues after downloading these please let me know.  I plan to maintain these apps through frequent updates and upgrades so native iOS 4 versions will be coming down the pipeline in the very near future.

Now, I don’t mind things being complicated.  I love flying the Boeing 737, for example – and that’s pretty complicated.  But I enjoy the challenge.  What I don’t enjoy though, is complexity for no obvious purpose.  And that is exactly what I am currently experiencing with Apple’s multiple “versions” of anything to do with the whole iPod/Pad/Phone – ecosystem.  It was confusing enough when the iPad was released running on an operating system called “iPhone OS 3.2″.  The iPhone itself currently runs on “iPhone OS 3.1.3″, it cannot run on the “iPhone OS 3.2″ because that is iPad only.  Confused yet?  That’s nothing – read on.

The whole iPhone OS naming convention for an operating system that is running on a device that doesn’t even contain a phone was obviously an issue, and Apple has resolved it by  renaming the new version “iOS 4″.  This new iOS is released in a couple of days, but – wait for it – it will only be available on the iPhone!  The iPad version isn’t coming out until the fall, at the earliest.  So – the iPhone will be running on a version of the iPhone OS without the word “Phone” in it, but the iPad will still be running on iPhone OS 3.2 for the forseeable future. Hmmm….

And then there is Xcode.  Xcode is the software that developers use to create software for the iPhone/Pad/Pod.  Every time Apple releases a new version of the iPhone OS, they release a new version of XCode as well.  But, to give developers time to adjust to the new OS before it comes out, these versions of XCode get released ahead of time in Beta version.  This is great, for sure, but the problem is that usually these Beta versions are only for use in creating apps for the upcoming iPhone(i)OS, not for already existing versions.  This means that you need to have a couple of versions of Xcode running on your computer.  This gets confusing.  Especially since Apple insist on giving Xcode version numbers that are astonishingly similar to their iPhone counterparts.  So, for example, if you want to develop for iPhone 3.1.3 or 3.2 (iPad), you need to use XCode 3.2.2.  BUT – if you want to develop for the new iOS 4.0 you have to run Xcode 3.2.3.  Talk about confusing.  And it’s not just me – my computer gets confused.  No matter how many times I change the computer settings to always open files in Xcode 3.2.2 (I’m working on iPad stuff right now), it opens in 3.2.3.  Why?  Because it can’t tell the difference.  To my computer, Xcode is Xcode is Xcode.  If my computer can’t tell the difference, what chance have I got?

In the end I decided to get a 3G version, because you just never know when you might need connectivity and not be near a wi-fi hotspot (or at least a free one).  Just one example – think of all the hotels you’ve ever been in where you have to pay for internet access, either via wi-fi or ethernet cable.  Some hotels have very steep charges (I’m thinking of a few in the UK where it is the norm to charge £15 for a day’s access).  Well, now you can avoid all that with a 3G iPad.  Just don’t leave the country – I can’t imagine what the roaming charges would be like!

So, having decided on 3G it was then a matter of 16, 32 or 64GB.  Well, to my mind 16GB is fine for a phone, but not enough for the iPad which is likely to hold a lot more stuff – including HD video.  I think 32GB really is the minimum to prevent constant storage issues.  But, the 64GB one is only $100 more!  So, guess which one I chose?  Apple were very clever when designing their pricing strategy.

So, where to find a 64GB 3G iPad?  After the inital flurry of headlines about people queuing overnight, I really had no idea how hard it was to get one of these things.  So, I went on the internet.  Oh dear.  Turns out the 3G models are hugely in demand.  I could either order one online from Apple which would take 7-10 days to arrive (the nearest store to me didn’t have any 3G models in stock), or I could go to BestBuy in Surrey (a 30 minute drive from here) where they only had one 64GB 3G iPad listed in stock.  So, the next morning I quickly took the kids to school, walked the dog and drove off to Surrey to get there just in time for 10am, when they open.  Turns out I wasn’t the only one either.  There were a couple of people milling around the iPad section, But I just went straight to the first salesman I could find – and bought the only remaining iPad in the store.  As I was purchasing it, two other people came in asking for one and were given the bad news.  “But your website said you have one in stock!”, said one angry man.  “Yes, and this gentleman here has just bought it”, was the reply from the salesman.  I could feel the angry, burning stare.  Sorry, angry man – I really needed it, it’s for development you know!

So, I would love to tell you how fun it is and what great things you can do with it, but what actually happened is I got it home, and within the hour I had my first iPad app running (an iPad version of B737 Classic Exam Questions).  I was impressed with the fact it ran perfectly the first time, having only had the simulator to test until now.  Other than that, I’ve read the newspaper on it, which is very pleasant, and surfed the internet a little.  But mostly, I’ve been working on finishing off the app.

The nice thing about working on the iPad version is that I have been simultaneously making improvements to the iPhone version of the app along the way.  So, when I submit the iPad app I will also be submitting an update to the iPhone version, implementing some improvements that I have made to the user interface.  As always, I am open to feedback and will try my best to incorporate it into future app updates.

We now have two apps in the App Store, and several more on the way – things are looking decidedly exciting here.

Along with this we are developing a social media streamlining service for business and are working on integrating this with iPhone/iPad solutions.

With the arrival of the new iPad and the forthcoming iPhone 4, the possibilities are growing seemingly by the day, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts & ideas with you on these pages.

Back to work!