Acropolis { Website Management Software }

I read an interesting post yesterday on ReadWriteWeb which discusses a report compiled by Dan Zarrella on “Link Attraction Factors: Getting Dugg and Going Viral.” As we are working on our own viral campaign for Strollers Direct, and plan to work on making it to the first page of digg next week, I found it very interesting. Complete with charts and solid statistical data, this report talks about the various factors that contribute to the number of inbound links generated for stories that make it to Digg’s home page. Because, afterall, what good is fame if it only lasts 15 minutes?

The entire report can be found here but I thought it would be worthwhile to compile what I believe to be his ultimate conclusions, narrowed to the “Top 3″ (respectively) for each area of analysis.

Best Containers: Technology, World & Business, Science
Best Categories: Travel & Places, Programming, Arts & Culture
Best Days to Submit: Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday
Best Days to Get On Home Page: Monday, Thursday, Wednesday
Best Key Words: “Top 10″,”Pics”,”iPhone”
Best Times to Submit: 5am, 6am, 3am
Best Times to Make it on Home Page: 7am, 9am, 11am

It seems then that the early bird diggs up the most worms. The one point I am scratching my head on the most though is what day of the week to submit on. Apparently Wednesday is the best, but if the goal is to be on the home page on Monday, how exactly does that work? And Sunday is apparently one of the worst days to submit.

Well probably I will go ahead and submit our story on Monday at 5am and hope for the best.

Travis and I worked until about 10pm last night completing our goals for AqueduX.  That was the end of an approximately 14 hour day for each of us.  This morning I woke up at 5:00am to put some finishing touches on our demo, only to find several bugs that had passed noticed.  I didn’t even have time to grab a cup of coffee until past 7:00, which is when Spencer came to pick me up for our drive to New Orleans.

I am certainly glad of one thing–the demo passed and we demonstrated all four of our objectives without a single bug raising its antennae.  Our four goals were as follows:

1. To be able to edit/update a row (row of an HTML table, corresponding to the row of a database table.)
2. To be able to edit/update an element of a SELECT list.
3. To be able to move items between two associated elements.
4. To be able to move between pages and execute a simple key term search.

I believe that our presentation was good, although I think it may have come across as overly complex or technical.  Part of this is due to the fact that we were up against the wire until the last moment, and I was still fixing bugs when I should have been filling out index cards.  But the other part of this is simply that the nature of our project is technical.

However we did manage to talk with a couple of folks afterwords who seem to have some interest in continuing to work with us on AqueduX as an open source project.

So, if you were present at the presentation, or if you read about it online, and are interested in working with us to further (or just want to know more!) please let us know.  Also, we are hoping to be able to post a screencast in the next couple of days.

This is just a quick update to let everyone know that you can now follow this blog, and our progress on Acropolis on Twitter.  Our Twitter user name is acropoliswms, so if your a Twitter bug, head on over to the site, and begin following us.

Last week’s breakthrough has quickly escalated, in our minds if not yet in reality, to a open-source project that may very well contribute to closing the gap between desktop and Web-based applications.  Drawing upon our love of historical allusion, we are naming the project Aquedux, which tentatively stands for Automagic QUEries Dynamically Using AJAX.  Aquedux is essentially a collection of CakePHP extensions and helpers, and a javascript library written in JQuery.  These components interact with one another through the use of symmetrical naming conventions, allowing us to easily build fully AJAX driven applications that “flow” naturally from one element to the next, and back again.  The first application we built using this design pattern is literally a delight to experience.  Sometimes I just sit there for fifteen minutes, updating, editing and deleting records and watching everything fade in and out like magic.  The best part is that the code required to tie it all together couldn’t be simpler, and adding new functionalities to the application often takes no more work than adding a link.

Travis, Spencer and I will be traveling to New Orleans next weekend for BarCamp, a “geek-out” for open source developers.  We hope to find others who will be interested in the work we have done so far, or at least get some feedback on how we might improve.  Regardless, it will be a great experience to brainstorm with other developers and possibly learn more about what other programmers in southern Louisiana are up to.

So stay posted as we plan to provide continuous updates about our experience at BarCampNOLA, February 16-17th.

The Roman Aqueducts were the arteries of the empire. The legions may have defended, conquered, and expanded, but any history buff will tell you that the aqueducts were the arteries of the empire that nourished and sustained its life.

The architecture of the aqueducts was simple, beautiful and powerful. Designed to be primarily subterranean, with some channels as long as 60 miles, the aqueducts were extremely efficient at what they did. Many of the ducts had a very precise gradient of 34 cm per km. At a length of 31 miles, an aqueduct’s height would only vary by 17m. These designs allowed the natural laws of physics to transport millions of gallons of water every day throughout the empire.

When being forced above ground, the ducts combined efficency with architectural beauty to provide some of the greatest wonders the world has ever seen, but with the fall of the empire, it would take civilizations over a millennium to achieve luxuries that were common to citizens of the empire.

So why am I talking about ancient architecture on a blog devoted to designing e-commerce software? Mainly because the cycle of software development is very similar to the cycle used in architecture and construction. Even software design patterns are based upon architectural pattern concepts. So …

Aaron and I are currently working on a library of jQuery functions that will be able to integrate seamlessly with cakePHP applications. Following strict naming conventions, and simple design patterns that we are establishing, we feel that our small library will continue to grow and allow anyone the ability to enhance and extend interface design that will be as functional and beautiful as the great Roman Aqueducts.

In essence, old world architecture patterns meet new world software development and the result will be rich internet applications that are beautiful, intuitive, and maintainable. So stay tuned, as we continue to update our progress on Acropolis and Aquadux, and if you have intrest in using Acropolis as your e-commerce platform, or helping us develop Aquadux as an open-source project, then get in touch with us!