Unbounded Solutions Reviews

One of the coolest thing about working with technology is that technology is constantly changing and evolving.  A good case in point is to reach into your pocket and pull out the SmartPhone that you likely have there.  Think back to ten years ago or more and recall the cellphone you had back then – it probably made phone call, might have had the ability to take very basic photos and possibly had a text messaging feature.  If you were really lucky, it might have had a few decidedly basic apps, but nothing to call home about.

Fast forward to today.  That SmartPhone is a full featured computer.  Yeah, it can make phone calls, but what makes that Android Phone, iPhone or Windows Phone cool is that you can run a multitude of applications on it.  The demand for new and unique apps is strong no matter the device, yet there are some distinct differences in how these apps are created for each device, so we will take a look at the development environments for iOS and Android devices.

Before we go much further – we are not beholden to one platform or the other.  Indeed, Unbounded Solutions develops apps for Android and iOS, as well as for Windows Phone.  We’re also kicking the tires of Google Glass.  Our point being is that we’re not about to slam one platform just to sing the praises of the others.  We focus on developing mobile apps for businesses and organizations.  Period.

That actually gives us a good perspective to compare the development environment of iOS to Android. 

IOs and Xcode

Xcode is a polished IDE for developing iOS projects.  Ever since the launch of the first Mac way back in the 1980’s, Apple has been all about ease of use and decidedly intuitive interfaces.  That’s what set them apart from the IBM/Microsoft DOS competition back then, and so it is no surprise that mantra is found today, even when looking at developer tools. 

Apple has the benefit of a closed environment – they make the hardware, produce the operating systems and have a pretty heavy hand when it comes to allowing an app to be added to the iTunes store.  As an example, any iOS developer not adhering to the iOS 7 ‘flat design’ standards will be in a world of hurt come February 1st.  Apple has made it clear that if you don’t design towards iOS 7 specs, your app is likely to get rejected.

Android, Eclipse and an Open Source Environment

Unlike iOS, however, Android is open source, meaning that pretty much anyone can take the code and manipulate it to do things that it might not be able to do out of the box.  When this is done, the code is known to have been Forked.  Forked code typically isn’t supported as the standard code base, but it is exactly what allows companies like Amazon to produce their Kindle line of tablets.  They started with Android, and then made it unique to serve their purposes.  Very cool in its openness, but all those forks can gum up the works a bit for the developer.  There are a ton of variations in the Android ecosphere, as we discussed in our post about operating system fragmentation a few days back.

Just like the Android Operating System, the recommended development tool, Eclipse, is also open-source.  While we’re way past the days when open-source meant buggy and risky – Red Hat, JBoss and Spring Source have all proved it to be enterprise ready – there will always be some aspect that might cause some frustration.  After all, the nature of open source has a lot of individual contributors adding to the project.

When you look at Eclipse by itself, it looks fairly polished, but when you try to accomplish a task that might be done by simply dragging and dropping elements in Xcode, the process in Eclipse is not so simple.  Let’s use an example common to both iOS and Android development – creating a layout with table views.

In Xcode, the iOS developer can just drag and drop a TableViewController, make a cell prototype, set the outlets and then step up the respective delegate and data sources.  Then the developer can  edit the dimensions of this table view from the Xcode GUI Builder.  Pretty simple.

But in Eclipse, it is a bit more complicated.  There isn’t a GUI builder baked into Eclipse, so developers pretty much have to go to the manifest file of a list view and make changes to the dimensions there until the desired result is achieved.  Admittedly this is not a massive roadblock, but it is certainly a bump in the road to someone just beginning to learn how to do Android development.

We’re not trying to say that one environment is better than the other, but to instead state that they are definitely different.  It is important to consider these types of things if, like our company, your team needs to develop cross-platform solutions for your customers.  The timeline on the Android side likely will have different variables to factor in compared to your iOS development timelines.  Trust us when we tell you that your client will not know about these issues, and they probably won’t care.  It is up to you to set expectations from the beginning and understand how to target the delivery date with all of these cross platform development factors in mind.

In the first part of this series, we covered how a SharePoint Migration can be a frustrating experience.  In part two, we continued with that theme and spoke to how the Word Automation Service itself can cause you some issues.  We encourage you to review those two posts before reading the gripping conclusion!

Taming the Word Automation Services

Presuming that you have read the other two posts in this series, we should all be on the same page as far as what we’d like to do with the Word Automation Services (WAS), but the question remains: How do we get WAS to do what we want?

We’re going to tackle that head-on by covering the steps needed to set up the foundation for a successful script using PowerShell.  The goal being to use WAS in SharePoint to convert all documents in a folder from one format to another.  In this case we’ll focus on converting MS Word docs to Adobe PDFs.

Before we dig in, be sure that you have a connection established within SharePoint for the Word Automation Services.  In the code that follows, please note the elements denoted by <~ ~> are intended to show that you will need to add information from your specific SharePoint environment within that element.  You can use this handy cheat sheet to determine what you’ll need to supply:

PS – Name of Proxy Service SPURL – URL of SharePoint web LOC.IN – Location of file or folder containing the original document(s) LOC.OUT – Location of file or folder to deposit the converted file(s)

#Connect to Word Automation Services

$wasp = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy | where { $_.TypeName -eq "<~PS~>" }

$job = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Word.Server.Conversions.ConversionJob($wasp)

  Hopefully you placed the name of your Proxy Service in the "<~PS~>" slot above…

Presuming that you’re still following along, the next step is to access the site which contains the documents in question.  Be sure to insert the specific information needed in the locations indicated in the code below.

# get the site, folder containing documents to be converted, and folder to store the converted documents

$web = Get-SPWeb <~SPURL~>

$inputFolder = $web.GetFolder("<~LOC.IN~>")

$outputFolder = $web.GetFolder("<~LOC.OUT~>")

  Now we need to create a custom job to perform the conversion as well as to set preferences as to how the service should complete the process. 

These preferences include the final format of the document(s) as well as to specify how the documents are handled during and after the conversion process.  You will have to decide exactly what options are important to you, so you may need to do some research on that score.  Still, here is some code to get you started on a simple conversion.

#set up conversion job

$job.UserToken = $web.CurrentUser.UserToken

$job.Name = "ConvertAll: Docx to PDF"

$job.Settings.OutputFormat = [Microsoft.Office.Word.Server.Conversions.SaveFormat]::PDF

$job.Settings.OutputSaveBehavior = [Microsoft.Office.Word.Server.Conversions.SaveBehavior]::AlwaysOverwrite

Next up is a method to select the source and destination folders, and then to initiate the conversion job.  You can also use Central Administration to amend the frequency of the job you’re running.

#Add input and output folders and start conversion"

$job.AddFolder($inputFolder, $outputFolder, $false)

$job.Start()

Lastly we want to share a bit of code that will provide a final report on the times converted.  We do like to be able to verify this stuff, just to be sure!

#view status of job

$status = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Word.Server.Conversions.ConversionJobStatus($wasp.Id, $job.JobId, $null)

$status

When Mobile App Developers take a look at the two predominant platforms in the mobile space – iOS and Android – they see a tale of two different kinds of users.  In the iOS ecosphere, it seems as soon as there is a major upgrade to the hardware or the operating system, the masses move to quickly update and adopt.  Yet those who have Android powered devices don’t seem as willing to rush to the newer stuff.

Since the release of iOS 7 last September, Apple is currently reporting that 78% of Apple mobile devices – iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch – are now running the new operating system.

iOS Installed Operating System Versions and Percentages

Meanwhile, Google also pushed a new version of the Android operating system, when Kit-Kat, aka Android 4.4, was pushed at the end of October.  Admittedly, the Kit-Kat rollout only was made available to select Nexus and Motorola devices, but it only registers a 1.4% adoption rate as of this writing.

The bulk of Android users seem to have made version 4.1.x, or Jelly Bean, their preferred operating system, with 59.1% of the base having installed version 4.1x – 4.3, which all fall under the Jelly Bean code name.

Much of this slow slog to the latest operating system isn’t due to a lack of desire on the part of the users.  Rather the device manufacturers have to customize the OS a bit to run on their smartphones and tablets.  When you keep in mind that the hardware producers and the carrier networks are more interested in selling a new device and resetting the terms of the carrier contract with each sale, the motivation to offer a free upgrade to the OS can be lacking.

How does this impact Mobile Development for Android or iOS?

The problem for developers, of course, is in deciding what OS to embrace.  That is relatively easy for iOS developers, as they can safely code with iOS 7 functionality in mind, knowing that they will produce a solution that four out of five iOS users can readily adopt.  If they back fill to iOS 6 as well as iOS 7, then they are hitting 96% of the user base.  That’s the beauty of a closed eco system, where Apple is producing both the hardware and the Operating System.

With Android app development, it won’t be the easy to come up with a comprehensive plan.  Take a look at this pie chart of the various builds and adoption rates of the various flavors of Android:

Android Installed Operating System Versions and Percentages

Clearly there are a lot of potential customers that might not be able to use your app if you don’t account for multiple variations of Android OS when you code.

Even if you go with the path of least resistance – and just focus on the three versions of Jelly Bean – you’re still ignoring 40% of users who are on Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich or Kit Kat.

We can’t tell you what to do – the needs of your client are going to have to drive that – but we can tell you that if you want to hit as many Android devices as possible, you are going to have some additional development challenges and problems to overcome.  As such, be sure to factor those into your scope of work estimates.  As far as your clients can see, there are two operating systems – iOS and Android.  It is up to the developer to clearly explain to the customer that there are a lot of variations beyond the top lines, and to adjust expectations accordingly.

How have you dealt with this issue?  Are you clients willing to adjust their expectations when you share the details of platform fragmentation?  Let us know your stories.

Brings Comprehensive Print Functionality to Microsoft’s Enterprise Collaboration Tool

ATLANTA, GA. January 7, 2014 – Unbounded Solutions today announced the availability of Printing Services for Microsoft SharePoint 2013.  Completely rewritten to take advantage of the enhancements found in the latest version of SharePoint, the product joins compatible versions for SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2007 to give SharePoint users the ability to print a folder full of documents, or selected documents with just a few clicks of the mouse.  

“Our customers made it clear that they needed this functionality as they upgraded to SharePoint 2013,” explained Unbounded Solutions Director of Technology, Manuel Munoz.  “Microsoft SharePoint is a fantastic collaboration tool, but there is still a compelling need to be able to print documents without tediously opening and printing each item one at a time.  Printing Services for SharePoint 2013 also allows users to print any or all versions of a single file, making it simple to compare multiple iterations of any document.”

With Printing Services for SharePoint, worker productivity and efficiency are greatly enhanced as a variety of documents created by multiple applications can be printed by simply selecting the files in question and then clicking the print button.  By way of example, a user might select two Excel spreadsheets, three Word documents, two PowerPoint presentations and a PDF of a white paper and send all to the printer without the need to open each file and application. 

Equally impressive, the software makes it easy to print Calendar Events as well as all attachments, InfoPath forms and Lists.  It is simple to setup and configure an array of printing options, to include SharePoint Web Applications, Site Collections and views at the Site Level. 

“Enterprises are always looking for ways to enhance productivity and get a great return on investment,” noted Business Development Manager, Jeremey Webb.  “Think about the time it would take a user to print all of the documents needed for a sales meeting or a budget review.  Instead of going into each app, locating the right document, printing multiple copies, and then repeating that process who knows how many times, the user can quickly select the documents needed directly from SharePoint and print them in the numbers needed in just a few moments.  Do that often enough, and the software will pay for itself in terms of enhanced productivity.”

Printing Services for SharePoint 2013 is available immediately, with a 14 day free trial available at SharePointPrinting.com.  As part of the product kickoff, all who download the trial will be entered into a drawing for an iPad mini tablet, while those who choose to purchase the product by January 31, 2014 can take advantage of a 20% discount off of the price of the software.  

About Unbounded Solutions, Inc.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Unbounded Solutions is a global leader in Microsoft SharePoint & Exchange services and Mobile Application Development for the Enterprise.  With offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and India, Unbounded Solutions consultants deliver customized mobile business apps for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile platforms while continuing to expand its SharePoint and Exchange practices.  Unbounded Solutions is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, which has three times been named to the Inc. 500/5000 list of fastest growing companies.

To learn more about Unbounded Solutions, please visit http://www.TheUnbounded.com.   and follow the company on Twitter @TheUnbounded.