http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/site/index/ Fellowship One RESTful API is a REST based web application that uses several open protocols and patterns to provide consumers access to secure resources. STANDARDS, PROTOCOLS, and PATTERNS - nothing else. As developers we see where there is major value in sticking with something that is "tried and true." If we could use web based patterns and protocols for a web based API we could not only get instant adoption but gain the efficiencies and effectiveness of technologies that "just work." en cmeyer@fellowshiptech.com Copyright 2009 2009-10-19T20:51:14+00:00 http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/fellowship_one_on_the_go_f1touch/ http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/fellowship_one_on_the_go_f1touch/#When:20:51:14Z Fellowship Technologies is getting ready to introduce their new iPhone application: F1Touch. The inaugural version of F1Touch uses the power of the Fellowship One API to deliver people information on the go. As a first-party application, F1Touch will be fully supported by Fellowship Technologies and will be made available to Fellowship One customers through Apple’s App Store. Let’s walk through some of the features available in this freshman release of F1Touch… {Click here to see the rest} Fellowship Technologies is getting ready to introduce their new iPhone application: F1Touch. The inaugural version of F1Touch uses the power of the Fellowship One API to deliver people information on the go. As a first-party application, F1Touch will be fully supported by Fellowship Technologies and will be made available to Fellowship One customers through Apple’s App Store. Let’s walk through some of the features available in this freshman release of F1Touch: 1. People Search Fellowship One is all about people, so it’s no surprise that F1Touch is built around a powerful people search. F1Touch leverages the API search methods to provide the same name-based search capabilities available in Fellowship One. F1Touch users can search for any combination of first, “goes by”, and last name. Also available are partial-name searches and “contains” searches using search terms {within braces}. F1Touch quickly delivers the initial 20 individuals and can ping the server for additional results. Along with the individual’s name, F1Touch shows individual pictures, grabbing them asynchronously to create a smooth and rapid searching experience. 2. Recent Searches F1Touch will remember the last ten searches performed. Users can quickly get to the details for the people they looked up recently without having to search all over again. They can clear the list to start with a clean slate.     3.  Individual Details   F1Touch offers a complete view of any person in the user’s Fellowship One database. Using the touch screen of the iPhone, users can easily get to individual details such as phone numbers, email addresses, home address, pictures and other information captured in Fellowship One.   At the bottom of the individual view, users can jump to a list of household members, including friends or extended family visitors that may have accompanied them to a service or event at church.   F1Touch is fully interactive. Touch a person’s phone number to call them. Touch their email address to start an email to them. Touch an address to see the exact location on a Google map. All without leaving F1Touch.   4. My Profile F1Touch lets the user choose to be remembered the next time they run the application. When enabled, F1Touch will automatically log the user in and conveniently take them to what they were doing when they last exited. API, News 2009-10-19T20:51:14+00:00 http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/under_the_hood/ http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/under_the_hood/#When:23:02:49Z Whenever I hear about a new model of a classic sports car rolling off the assembly line, my first reaction is to wonder: "Ooh, what will it look like?" If the car ends up looking terrible, then that is usually the end of my curiosity. However, every now and again a roadster comes along that literally turns heads as it roars down the highway. Inevitably, this leads to observations such as "Wow, that looks awesome!" closely followed by questions like, "What type of engine is under the hood?" In similar fashion, the latest rendition of our flagship web application has been significantly streamlined. The entire development team put in a lot of long hours to make it possible. I would like to take this opportunity to describe the changes to underlying technologies that power our newly refreshed Fellowship One portal. Whenever I hear about a new model of a classic sports car rolling off the assembly line, my first reaction is to wonder: "Ooh, what will it look like?" If the car ends up looking terrible, then that is usually the end of my curiosity. However, every now and again a roadster comes along that literally turns heads as it roars down the highway. Inevitably, this leads to observations such as "Wow, that looks awesome!" closely followed by questions like, "What type of engine is under the hood?" In similar fashion, the latest rendition of our flagship web application has been significantly streamlined. The entire development team put in a lot of long hours to make it possible. I would like to take this opportunity to describe the changes to underlying technologies that power our newly refreshed Fellowship One portal. Basically, this endeavor was a complete redesign, meaning that all the front-end code was totally rewritten from the ground up. HTML5 One of the key changes we have made was moving from XHTML 1.0 to HTML5. In case you haven't been following along with all the drama between the ill-fated XHTML 2.0 and HTML5, here's a brief history. Essentially, HTML5 is the future. It began with the backing of companies such as Apple, Google, and Opera, and now has the support of Microsoft as well. Google considers HTML5 to be such a game-changer that they recently announced plugin for Internet Explorer, dubbed Chrome Frame. After installing it, users can benefit from the newer features of HTML5 even if they are unable to upgrade their version of Internet Explorer. For us, one of the immediate benefits of the HTML5 switch has been typing less code overall. I will not get into all the nitty gritty details in this blog post, but feel free to peruse our code standards document. Suffice it to say that greater terseness (is that an oxymoron?) cuts down on the potential for typing errors, and less code overall means faster page loading times as well. In this aspect, HTML5 requires only the essentials, and eliminates the need to type superfluous attributes. It even adds the handy data-* attribute, which allows developers to store snippets of information in the DOM for use via JavaScript. This is something I am excited to make use of as we continue to add enhancements. In addition to the aforementioned benefits of moving to HTML5, long-term implications also factored into our decision. We on the UX team are eager to do data visualization via the canvas tag. Once it gains wider browser adoption (read: Internet Explorer is holding us back) we will be able to have rich user interfaces that display varying permutations and cross-sections of information. Canvas alone is reason enough to consider HTML5. You could think of the canvas element as a painter's palette that can be dynamically update with JavaScript. It is perfect for things like charts and graphs. Before, if the data changed, you would typically have to generate any new imagery associated with the data via the server-side. This placed you at the mercy of available platforms and plugins. By using canvas, an interface can be updated nearly in real-time, via live Ajax data calls. CSS Improvements While not as sweeping of a change as with HTML, we have made strides in our use of CSS. Whereas before much of the page layouts were handled via tables, now nearly everything is done via cascading style sheets. For browsers that support it (read: not Internet Explorer) we are using text-shadow, box-shadow, and border-radius to add a bit more elegance to an otherwise rectangular world. For users on Internet Explorer, the application is still functional, just a bit more bland. This is an approach referred to as progressive enhancement. If you are using a modern browser like Firefox or Safari, then you get to experience Fellowship One in its most high fidelity form. If not, then you still have a solid user experience, minus a few elegant nuances. I think of it like watching regular television vs. HD - the content is still the same, albeit not quite as immersive. We are also making use of the 960 Grid System, a CSS framework that allows for rapid prototyping and building of production ready web layouts. Our developers have grown accustomed to building page layouts by using 960 to create new .NET master pages. This allows us to map newly created pages to their appropriate templates. Overall, it's been a good workflow for us. Along those same lines, the CSS that we have written specifically for Fellowship One has been modular and object oriented by design. This allows us to mix together several class names per element, each which has a particular effect, rather than having a series of IDs, which replicate similar chunks of code. By using a more object oriented approach, we can selectively sprinkle in specific styles, creating recipes out of a pre-defined set of ingredients. For more on this code philosophy, read... Smart CSS Ain't Always Sexy CSS What is Object Oriented CSS .NET Master Pages From a .NET standpoint, we took the time to take a step back and look at our templates from a high-level standpoint. This involved re-architecting our usage of master pages. For those who are familiar with PHP, this is similar to using include 'file.php' to piece together dynamic and static content. For those familiar with Ruby on Rails, this is akin to using layout 'template_name'. Essentially, we have one site-wide template named Application.Master, which serves as a parent to three other templates: OneColumn.Master, TwoColumn.Master, and FreeStyle.Master. From there, *.aspx pages inherit from one of those three templates. Our master page hierarchy looks like this: Application.Master applies site-wide to all pages. OneColumn.Master and TwoColumn.Master are pretty self-explanatory, creating a single or double column layout. In terms of the 960 Grid System, OneColumn.Master spans all 16 grid units, whereas TwoColumn.Master uses 11 grid units for the primary content, and 5 grid units for the sidebar. FreeStyle.Master is essentially just a page template with the header and footer pre-defined, but allows for a developer to hand-code the columnar layout, sub-dividing as needed. From a directory tree standpoint, here's an example: — Application.Master —— OneColumn.Master ——— PageName.aspx ——— PageName.aspx —— TwoColumn.Master ——— PageName.aspx ——— PageName.aspx —— FreeStyle.Master ——— PageName.aspx ——— PageName.aspx Conclusion Well, I guess that wraps things up for now. Without belaboring the point, let me just say that we really had a lot of fun rebuilding the Fellowship One portal. If you have a minute to spare, check out this satirical video we put together about what went into the redesign. If you have any feedback or questions about our design patterns or code standards, please let us know in the comments. News 2009-10-05T23:02:49+00:00 http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/sandbox_refresh_complete/ http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/sandbox_refresh_complete/#When:21:16:38Z As promised, this is an update to let you know that the Sandbox Refresh is now complete! You will now find all of your fresh, updated data in your sandbox environment! Please let us know if you have any questions and have a great weekend! News 2009-10-02T21:16:38+00:00 http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/sandbox_refresh_tomorrow_oct._2nd/ http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/sandbox_refresh_tomorrow_oct._2nd/#When:19:52:07Z We wanted to let you know that we will be doing a Sandbox refresh for all churches tomorrow. Below are some notes about what that means. This affects data at the following URIs: https://x.staging.fellowshiponeapi.com https://staging-www.fellowshipone.com/portal/login.aspx What does this mean? The data that you currently have in the sandbox environment will be replaced with fresh, updated data from your real, production environment. It would be a good idea to not work in the sandbox for tomorrow only, while we work on the refresh. Additional churches are being set up with their very own sandbox environment, allowing them to get API keys and all sorts of great things. This means the awesome community we have at the Development Community site and the newly released forums are being strengthened with new members! As always, let us know if you have any questions or if we can help you in any way! We will post again as soon as the refresh is complete so that you can go check out your new data! News 2009-10-01T19:52:07+00:00 http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/fellowship_one_developer_forums/ http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/fellowship_one_developer_forums/#When:15:27:21Z We’ve just launched a forum dedicated to all things development/API. This is going to be a great place for developers to ask questions, discuss ideas, etc. By giving one central location for these discussions, it will allow for a lot more interaction within the development community. This is also a great place for churches, vendors, and devs who are interested to learn more about the Fellowship One API offerings or development in general. The topics range from basic getting started topics to how to write the code! To find the new forums, you can click on “Forum” at the top of the page or get it directly here. News 2009-09-25T15:27:21+00:00 http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/ten_commandments_of_api_consumption/ http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/ten_commandments_of_api_consumption/#When:18:43:44Z We have created ten basic guidelines for consuming the REST API. The first 5 commandments are to help consumers interact with the API. The last 5 are how consumers can interact with others in the community to grow, learn, and build. Ten Commandments of API Consumption API, News, Tips 2009-09-10T18:43:44+00:00 http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/rest_api_enhancements_fixes_deployed_to_production/ http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/rest_api_enhancements_fixes_deployed_to_production/#When:21:03:11Z The following enhancements and fixes have been deployed to the Sandbox and Production environments: #918 (Sifter) Add Address / Communication Collection results to people search results Notes: Now when using the include parameter in People/Search all addresses and communications returned will match data with what is returned when calling People/{id}/Addresses and People/{id}/Communications respectively. Supporting docs Ex: people/search?searchfor=fl,ni&include=addresses, communications #853 (Sifter) Add new search parameter to People search: BarCode Notes: Consumers can now do a people search by barcode Supporting docs Ex: people/search?barcode=12341234 #1037 (Sifter) Returning a 403 instead of oa 400 when churches do not have the association Supporting docs These changes will not cause consumer interface contract breakage unless the consumer was checking for status code 400 when consuming the API using a church that had no association to that key (see supporting docs for more information).  The change more closely enforces the guidelines presented in the RFC2616 specification. API, News 2009-09-09T21:03:11+00:00 http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/data_exchange_url_cut-over_complete/ http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/data_exchange_url_cut-over_complete/#When:23:07:02Z The cut-over to the new code and URL schemes is complete. See this post for more information. If you run into any issues, have questions, or concerns please email us at: api@fellowshiptech.com with the following information (if applicable):   * Church code   * API method that you are using   * Question / Error description   * Contact information API, News 2009-08-24T23:07:02+00:00 http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/important_data_exchange_url_changes/ http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/important_data_exchange_url_changes/#When:19:22:31Z In a effort to make a more common implementation across our API offerings and to deliver some much needed enhancements and fixes we have deployed a new version of the Data Exchange API and will be deprecating (on August 17th 2009) the older versions (the existing URLs will still be valid but will not be supported). What does this mean to you?  The following URLs: https://services.fellowshipone.com/DataExchange/DataRequest.asmx https://services2.fellowshipone.com/DataExchange/DataRequest.asmx will need to change to: https://services.fellowshipone.com/dataexchange/v1/datarequest.asmx Note: This new URL is available now. You should use it as soon as possible. You do not need to wait until August 17th 2009 to make your changes. The new service will include: Major performance enhancements(queries and business logic have been tuned) Major / minor bug fixes Major enhancements to XML serialization If you use the WSDL file in your implementation (most likely but not limited to .net or java) you will need to update your web reference with the new URL. If you run into any issues, have questions, or concerns please email us at: api@fellowshiptech.com with the following information (if applicable): Church code API method that you are using Question / Error description Contact information API, News 2009-08-03T19:22:31+00:00 http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/ron_nom_nom/ http://developer.fellowshipone.com/index.php/blog/ron_nom_nom/#When:17:25:07Z Fellowship Technologies strives to give back to the community at every turn. As such, most of our employees are involved in some form or fashion in the community in which their job pertains. Lance Dacy is the founder/organizer of the DFW Scrum User Group (recognized by the Scrum Alliance). DFW Scrum is focused on building a community of Scrum users to ensure all roles in the Scrum framework are represented and understood within the context of the barriers or struggles that some organizations face when implementing Scrum. They serve as a sounding board for new ideas or issues we all face when trying to be better today than we were yesterday. You can find out more at dfwscrum.com or follow them on Twitter. Ron Jeffries has been developing software longer than you have been alive. He is a founding member of eXtreme Programming (worked on the Chrysler C3 project with Kent Beck) and is one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto. Fellowship Technologies sponsored the DFW Scrum User Group on TUE 7/21. Ron was live via video conference to give a brief presentation on “Excellence: The Next Step for Scrum / Agile.” He then opened the floor for an enlightening question and answer session for about 1.5 hours. It was pretty much an “Ask the Expert” session of the highest regard. Ron is a great resource to help his Scrum Teams focus on engineering practices and quality assurance. He answered questions regarding the many common barriers people find when trying to implement Scrum and how to handle re-factoring in an Agile environment. You can get in touch with Ron via ronjeffries[a-t]acm.org (placing a [ron] in your subject line) or via xprogramming.com. In the 4th quarter (TUE 10/27), FT will be sponsoring the DFW Scrum’s Meeting with Mike Cohn. Maybe we can get a NomNomNom shirt on him. News 2009-07-27T17:25:07+00:00