by Derek Du

We struggled with Windows Azure websites because we couldn’t write logs. Using Log4Net to write to log files as we usually do, does not work for Azure Websites because of the limited file permission. We had to resort to email notifications or Virtual Machine when we needed to debug Azure Websites, which was a big headache!

Fortunately, it is all over now. To write t...

by Derek Du

Windows Azure websites allow quick deployment of web applications, but troubleshooting it is quite limited. So, here is a quick reference for remote debugging Windows Azure applications.

1. First enable remote debugging on the Windows Azure website in Configure -> Site Diagnostics -> Remote Debugging. Set it to ON. Also, make sure you select the correct version of Visual Stu...

by Derek Du

If a WebAPI service takes a long time to complete, the caller -- the client side -- may timeout waiting for a response. There are several options to solve this issue, you can increase the timeout limit on the client side and web server side, or use a more persistent connection method like WebSocket and SignalR.

I propose a different way to avoid the timeout issue that all...

by Derek Du

Displaying error message is one of the most basic functions of an application, but it also can be overlooked easily because we often focus on the core functions of the application. There are many ways to present error messages, but in my opinion there are basically three objectives we want to achieve with error message and as long as the design can fulfill those, it is a ...

by Derek Du

Flexibility has a real cost

 
It is common for people to ask UI designers to design a system as flexible as possible. People believe that it is always better for something to be flexible. They think the more flexible the system is, the better the overall experience of the system. However, this is not always true. When we say this design is more flexible than the other one, we ar...

by Emma Tsai

Here are some of my favorite articles I recently read on website development:

1.       How Big Data is Improving Your Customer Experience

It gives several real world examples of how companies leverage customer data to improve the customer experience.

2.       4 Key Ingredients in Great User Stories

The article intro...

by Derek Du

I am building an Intacct customization where we added a custom field on AP Bill. This field must be populated for my customization to work. However, when users create PO transactions, such as a Vendor Invoice via Intacct page, Intacct creates a corresponding AP Bill, which does not have this file populated. It seems the only solution was to use a Smart Event to update the AP Bill to ...

by Derek Du

In a previous post, as part of building a interactive navigation menu, I discussed how to detect the section the current view is in and highlight the corresponding navigation menu item. This post finishes the work by adding actions that make the navigation menu stay on top of the view.

First, let me start by saying that a new feature is recently added to Axure that c...

by Derek Du

UI design is part of my daily work and I use Axure to build mock-up screens all the time. Recently, I updated the tool to its latest 7.0 version and noticed that some of the new features it offers are quite useful. What I found to be the most useful are the ability to pull or push adjacent widgets when a widget is hidden or shown, and the ability to break away the first sta...

by Emma Tsai

Here are some of my favorite articles on website development:
Big Data for Small Business - Why It Matters!

Check out for some tips on tapping into big data.
 
Business Intelligence Won't Help Your Business, unless. . .

"To make real, measurable progress, we must embrace the data-driven business model."
 
The Beauty of Software Testing
I hope you find them helpful and ...