Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) As an introduction to PWAs, let’s build a mobile app the fastest, easiest way, using the Progressive Web App model. A PWA is both a mobile app and a website. Built with HTML, CSS, and javascript, the website can be viewed as either a website on your laptop or a mobile app on your phone or tablet. No need to develop a separate native app for every platform! What does “App-like” mean? PWAs can work on […]
Accurately identifying and authenticating users is an essential requirement for any modern application. As modern applications continue to migrate beyond the physical boundaries of the data center and into the cloud, balancing the ability to leverage trusted identity stores with the need for enhanced flexibility to support this migration can be tricky. Additionally, evolving requirements like allowing multiple partners, authenticating across devices, or supporting new identity sources push application teams to embrace modern authentication protocols. As organizations expand their user […]
Two years ago, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) came to AIS with an outdated online budgeting tool called the “Texas Reality Check” for middle and high school students. The application, designed to give students a clear sense of how much their desired future lifestyle will cost and what education and career choices will support it, was plagued by performance and accessibility issues…and its young target demographic was simply tuning it out. AIS modernized the site for teen sensibilities, streamlined the […]
Microsoft Power Apps and Flow have been generally available since late 2016. They’re both tools that allow business users to streamline business processes without the use of code. Microsoft positioned Power Apps as their recommended replacement for InfoPath as the business user’s forms designer, and Flow as their replacement for SharePoint Workflow. While these are welcomed replacements, both solutions also provide a broader level of support to the Microsoft stack and across a wide array of third-party applications. I’ve recently […]
For the last few years, I have enjoyed participating in HOUR OF CODE – a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. In 2017, 154,012 Hour Of Code events were registered worldwide. To show how much fun (and useful) coding is, I wanted the kids to build something real, vs. simply making their favorite character walk left or right. I decided to use the MIT App Inventor tool for my Hour of Code sessions. App Inventor […]
AIS recently completed work on a complete revamp of the Texas Workforce Commission’s “Texas Reality Check” website. Texas Reality Check is an Internet-available, fully accessible, responsive, mobile-first and browser-agnostic design. This website was tested for accessibility, performance, vulnerability scans, and usability. Background Texas Reality Check (TRC) is targeted at students on a statewide basis, ranging from middle school to high school (with some colleges and universities making use of the tool for “life skills” classes). The goal is to inspire students to […]
Durandal is a popular Single Page Application (SPA) framework for web development. I recently had the need to develop a WinJS project for Windows 8.1 and wanted to make use of our existing in-house Durandal expertise, so we used Durandal. In this article, we’ll go over what’s needed to get the Durandal Starter Kit running in a WinJS application.
Microsoft announced a significant and dramatic convergence of its Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 platforms during the Build 2014 conference. Approximately 90% of the WinRT APIs are now converged between the two platforms. Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 includes features that enable developers to take advantage of this platform convergence. The Universal Apps project template is one of those features.
Answers.com needed a Microsoft partner that could upgrade their Windows 8 application to maximize the use of a variety of new 8.1 features. Expediency was of the utmost importance in this instance and based on our prior experience with Microsoft, they knew we were the best partner for the job. AIS upgraded the Answers.com Windows 8.0 Store application to 8.1, meeting Answers.com goal of getting it done as quickly as possible. Our team also validated the application through the Microsoft […]
At AIS, our Account Teams work with our clients every day to produce IT solutions that solve business problems. We work closely with our CTO organization to ensure that we are researching the latest technology and services in a manner that is applicable to our clients and prospective clients. We recently applied this to a business problem that required an organization to quickly — and with no notice — stand up a website to collect hundreds, or potentially millions, of […]