Skip to content

2014

Xanpan: When Kanban Meets XP

I'm using Kanban since 2011 to organize my work. From everyday tasks to small software projects and big holiday trips I could leverage the power of a simple and hassle free approach to reduce my work in progress. With less work in progress one can concentrate on getting the work done and is not constantly rescheduling it as part of an unsuccessful attempt to do multi-tasking.

Even if Kanban is a success for me, I had the feeling that something is missing to adapt Kanban in a bigger software project. When people with different responsibilities work together there need to be some common rules on how the work should be done. Plain Kanban doesn't answer this.

  • in Testing
  • 2 min read

Testing a Web API with Postman

When you develop a web API and a client for it at the same time you often run into errors. But where did they happen? In the API? Or in the client? It would be a simple thing to pinpoint the source without that many moving parts. A stable client that works would be a great help. But where can you get one flexible enough to handle your API?

As it turns out there is a great extension for the Chrome browser that could save you hours. With Postman you have all the flexibility you need to test your API, and it is stable enough to find the errors in your API.

Evolving Documents in RavenDB

Changes in the application often result in modifications of underlying data structure. Properties need to be added, removed or renamed when your application adapt to the new business needs. Today you will see how RavenDB handles this use case and how this differs to a relational database.

Paging in RavenDB

Paging of a query result is something you normally think about when your application gets really slow. This seldom occurs while developing (you don’t have enough data to feel the pain) therefore the unpleasant surprise wait until your application is in production. And trust me, to add paging as a hotfix while your users can’t work is nothing you want to do.

Relations in RavenDB

Just by using a non-relational database your data doesn’t stop to be related. Therefore you must find a way to express a relation even if your database can’t enforce such constraints. What is true for most NoSQL solutions is (for once) also true for RavenDB.

Travis CI and Allowed Failures

One of the main purposes of continuous integration is to know when your build fails. As soon as a problem is detected you want to be alarmed. But in certain situations you can accept a failed build. Today I will show you how to use a build matrix in Travis CI to allow failures for certain builds – without causing the entire build to be shown as failed.

Fewer Errors with Continuous Integration and Code Analysis

As experience shows the quality of code degrades slowly and before you know it will be an unmaintainable mess. To prevent this many practices where developed and have proven their usefulness over and over again: test automation, continuous integration and code analysis are just a few of them. Unfortunately those practices still require work and just using them will not automatically keep your project on the happy path. Never less if you don't apply them your chances are even worse.