VSoft Technologies BlogsVSoft Technologies Blogs - posts about our products and software development.https://www.finalbuilder.com/resources/blogsNo more flash ads, ever.https://www.finalbuilder.com/resources/blogs/postid/688/no-more-flash-ads-everThu, 18 Feb 2010 03:00:00 GMT<br />Yesterday, I stopped all of our flash based ad campaigns... forever.<br /><br />In late 2008, we started a large campaign which introduced our first flash ads. We had some fun making these and received mixed responses - some outrage, some love. But overall, I feel that just by using flash ads to communicate, we were becoming a little too closely affiliated with the many scam like flash ads. You know the ones, those before-and-after-weight-loss-body-shots. <br /><br />Advertising was once a powerful method of communicating, but no more. Thanks to the lowest common denominators in advertising, everyone suffers. Ad blockers are the proof. When the web is filled with before-and-after-weight-loss-body-shots, we block every ad. The 1% of useful information from advertising is not worth the 99% of junk!<br /><br />So what to do? How can we communicate with those who might want what we've got, without the medium implying we're offering cruft?<br /><br />Two ways: education and community involvement. <br /><br />From now on, these two methods will form the pillars of our overall marketing. A reply to a question on stackoverflow. A response to a customer on twitter. It's how FinalBuilder got it's start, before we could afford ad space, and now we're coming back to it because it's authentic and meaningful.<br /><br />Oh, and we have a few other, more exciting plans to get involved in the community. Watch this space. <br />688"Initially I had resisted [FinalBuilder] because I thought it might be too easy."https://www.finalbuilder.com/resources/blogs/postid/687/initially-i-had-resisted-finalbuilder-because-i-tWed, 21 Jan 2009 03:00:00 GMT<p>Nelson Wolf recently published a <a href="http://blog.wolfplusplus.com/?p=55">blog post</a> to introduce the new FinalBuilder action he'd developed. The action checks that all required variables for a project are available at run-time. Quite a handy action if your projects include a lot of subprojects. You can download it from <a href="https://launchpad.net/wolf-fbcustomactions">launchpad.net</a>.</p> <p>He's also created and made available example projects and a 'unit testing' project for the action.</p> <p>I have to comment on one other comment in the post that gave me a good laugh.</p> <blockquote>"Initially I had resisted [FinalBuilder] because I thought it might be too easy."</blockquote> <p>We've previously heard from devs who are hesitant to try a visual tool because of fears that it may restrict what you can automate, but I've never heard of someone avoiding FB because it might make automating builds too easy! <img src="/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/Fck/FCKeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/regular_smile.gif" alt="" /></p>687Broken the Build? Time to get your just dessertshttps://www.finalbuilder.com/resources/blogs/postid/686/broken-the-build-time-to-get-your-just-dessertsFinalBuilder ServerThu, 08 Jan 2009 03:00:00 GMT<p>Suma, a frustrated stackoverflow member, recently asked "<a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/211426/what-punishment-do-you-have-when-someone-on-the-team-breaks-the-build">what other teams do when someone breaks the build?</a>"<br /> <br /> The answers, including photo evidence, were definitely some of the more humourous I've seen on stackoverflow.<br /> <br /> I think I prefer Jeff Atwood's penance of doughnuts over physical foam assault and humiliation, but that's just because of my sweet tooth and not my kindheartedness. <img alt="" src="/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/Fck/FCKeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/wink_smile.gif" /></p> <div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Penance of doughnuts - Jeff Atwood" height="289" src="/blogimages/penance-of-doughnuts.jpg" width="500" /></div> <p style="text-align: right;"> Image source: <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/211426/what-punishment-do-you-have-when-someone-on-the-team-breaks-the-build">Jeff Atwood on stackoverflow.com</a></p> <p style="text-align: left;">If you fear being the target of a Nerf assault, perhaps FinalBuilder Server can help with its <a href="/finalbuilder-server/finalbuilder-server-feature-tour/build-responsibility">Build Responsibility</a> flag. By taking responsibility for fixing the build you can mitigate the wrath of angry team members.</p> 686Seeking FinalBuilder experts available for contractinghttps://www.finalbuilder.com/resources/blogs/postid/685/seeking-finalbuilder-experts-available-for-contraGeneralSun, 07 Dec 2008 03:00:00 GMT<p><span class="DNNAligncenter" id="dnn_ctr365_ContentPane">Kirk Marple, the Chief Software Architect at RadiantGrid Technologies, contacted me recently to find a contractor to help set up </span><span class="DNNAligncenter" id="dnn_ctr365_ContentPane">RadiantGrid's</span><span class="DNNAligncenter" id="dnn_ctr365_ContentPane"> build process. If you're a FinalBuilder expert and available in Janurary 2009 why not contact Kirk?</span></p> <p>You can learn more about the position in Kirk's forum post <a href="https://forums.finalbuilder.com/t/job-looking-to-bootstrap-our-fb-build-process-vs-net-sourcegear-vault/1050">here</a>.</p> <p><span class="DNNAligncenter" id="dnn_ctr365_ContentPane">If you aren't available in January, but are a FinalBuilder professional who would like to offer your skills in future, </span>please also <a href="/company/contact">contact us</a> so we can keep you up to date when positions like these become available. <img alt="" src="/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/Fck/FCKeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/regular_smile.gif" /></p> 685Team Foundation Build and FinalBuilderhttps://www.finalbuilder.com/resources/blogs/postid/684/team-foundation-build-and-finalbuilderFinalBuilder,TFSTue, 02 Dec 2008 03:00:00 GMT<p><span class="nodeText editable">The <a href="http://accentient.com/blog/">Accentient Blog</a> provided an interesting post recently comparing <a href="http://accentient.com/blog/team-foundation-build-and-finalbuilder/">Team Foundation Build and FinalBuilder</a>.</span> It was great to see them offer an unbiased insight in to the distinctive advantages of each of these tools and it's worth a read if you're using or planning to use one or both.</p> <p><span class="nodeText editable">We've had plenty to say over the years about the relationship between FinalBuilder and TFS/MSBuild</span><span class="nodeText editable">/Team Foundation Build</span><span class="nodeText editable">. Naturally, we have a slight bias toward one of the tools, but if you're interested in learning more about combining the two, check out:</span></p> <ul> <li>why you would use <a href="/resources/blogs/i-have-microsoft-team-system-why-do-i-need-finalb">FinalBuilder when you already have Team System</a>;</li> <li><span class="nodeText editable">why <a href="/resources/blogs/team-foundation-build-and-finalbuilder-6-a-match-2">FinalBuilder and Team Foundation Build are a match made in heaven</a></span>;</li> <li>a comparison between the <a href="/resources/blogs/msbuild-wish-list-vs-finalbuilder-feature-set2">MSBuild community's wish list and the feature set of FinalBuilder</a>; and</li> <li>the benefits of using both <a href="https://www.finalbuilder.com/finalbuilder/team-foundation-server">FinalBuilder and TFS</a>.</li> </ul> <p>Finally, I must disagree with just one of Accentient's statments. The final line read:</p> <blockquote><em><quote>As Team Foundation Build matures, it will likely provide a feature parity competitor to FinalBuilder, but it has some catching up to do.</quote></em></blockquote> <p>As Team Foundation Build matures, it may begin to provide feature parity with FinalBuilder 5 or even 6. However, by then we'll be on to FB 7 or FB 8 and we have every intention of making sure these future versions will offer unique and useful features. Team Foundation Build will always have some catching up to do with FinalBuilder. <img alt="" src="/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/Fck/FCKeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/regular_smile.gif" /></p> 684Deploying ClickOnce apps with FinalBuilderhttps://www.finalbuilder.com/resources/blogs/postid/683/deploying-clickonce-apps-with-finalbuilderFinalBuilderThu, 27 Nov 2008 03:00:00 GMT<p>If you want to automate the deployment of ClickOnce apps in FinalBuilder, Dennis van der Stelt has posted an <a href="http://bloggingabout.net/blogs/dennis/archive/2008/11/26/deploying-clickonce-applications-automated-using-finalbuilder.aspx" target="_blank">excellent tutorial</a> on <a href="http://bloggingabout.net" target="_blank">bloggingabout.net</a>.</p> <p>Check it out and if you have any questions, <a href="/company/contact">contact us</a> for help. <img alt="" src="/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/Fck/FCKeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/regular_smile.gif" /></p> 683Pervasiveness of Continuous Integrationhttps://www.finalbuilder.com/resources/blogs/postid/680/pervasiveness-of-continuous-integrationFinalBuilder ServerTue, 02 Sep 2008 04:00:00 GMT<h4 align="center"><font size="4">Do you currently use a Continuous Integration system?</font></h4> <p align="center"><img alt="Continuous Integration among FinalBuilder Users" src="https://www.finalbuilder.com/images/2008-survey-charts/2008-survey-CI-system.png" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Since releasing the full featured FBServer in April, we’ve seen healthy growth in its adoption as a Continuous Integration Server; however, the 2008 FB Survey showed quite low adoption of Continuous Integration systems in general among FinalBuilder users.<br /> <br /> More importantly, of those not using any CI system, 2/3’s did not intend to start using a CI system in the next 12 months!</p> <h4 align="center"><font size="4">Do you plan to start using a Continuous Integration system within the next 12 months?</font></h4> <p align="center"><img alt="Future Continuous Integration adoption amoung FinalBuilder Users" src="https://www.finalbuilder.com/images/2008-survey-charts/2008-survey-CI-system-12-months.png" /></p> <p>For users of an automated build tool, most of whom have free access to a very easy-to-configure <a href="/finalbuilder-server" target="_blank">Continuous Integration server</a>, these are incredibly low proportions! I can only speculate that perhaps the benefits of CI aren’t as well known, or appreciated, as the benefits of a fully automated build and release process.</p> <p> </p> <p>---</p> <p><font size="2">This is the 3rd post in a series discussing insights uncovered in the 2008 FinalBuilder survey. </font></p> 680Top 10 Version Control Systemshttps://www.finalbuilder.com/resources/blogs/postid/679/top-10-version-control-systemsFinalBuilder,TFSTue, 26 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT<h4 align="center"><font size="4">Which Version Control System do you currently use?</font></h4> <p align="center"><img alt="FinalBuilder Cutomer's Source Control Preference Chart" src="https://www.finalbuilder.com/images/2008-survey-charts/2008-survey-source-control-current.png" /></p> <p> </p> <p>This year’s results continue to provide an interesting insight into FB user’s version control tool of choice.<br /> <br /> Most notably:</p> <ol> <li>Subversion has successfully grown to become number 1 among our customers. This is only a few years after trailing SourceSafe significantly in our 2005 survey.</li> <li>Despite the efforts of some influential commentators in the developer community (<a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000660.html" target="_blank">one in particular comes to mind</a>), SourceSafe continues to be a very popular VCS, at least among FinalBuilder customers.</li> <li>It’s interesting, and quite surprising, to see the number of FB users who choose not to use a version control system. We tend to think of FB users as very savvy developers who seek out tools and technologies to improve their productivity, the type of developers some people generally include in the controversial <a href="http://blog.red-bean.com/sussman/?p=79" target="_blank">20% category</a>. However, a surprisingly large number seem to choose not to use version control. I deliberately say choose, because I imagine every developer using FB is well and truly aware of both the options and benefits of using source control.</li> <li>TFS hasn’t come close to SourceSafe in adoption among FB users. I may be told I'm comparing apples with oranges, but it doesn't even look like adoption has grown much since 2006.</li> </ol> <p>A few caveats about comparing this year's results with those of previous years. Each year’s survey has a random sample. This year, the VCS question was also worded slightly differently to that used in previous years.<br /> <br /> In any case, it’s great to know that FinalBuilder supports all of the top 10 Source Control systems, in addition to <a href="/finalbuilder/team-foundation-server" target="_blank">many others</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p>---</p> <p><font size="2">This is the 2nd post in a series discussing insights uncovered in the 2008 FinalBuilder survey. Future posts will look at testing tool usage, Vista adoption and the pervasiveness of Continuous Integration. </font></p> 67999% of FinalBuilder 6 users agreehttps://www.finalbuilder.com/resources/blogs/postid/678/99-of-finalbuilder-6-users-agreeSun, 24 Aug 2008 04:00:00 GMT<h4><font size="4">What is your overall rating of FinalBuilder 6?</font></h4> <p><img src="https://www.finalbuilder.com/images/2008-survey-charts/2008-survey-FB6-overall-rating.png" alt="" /></p> <p>&#160;</p> <p><font size="3">99% of FinalBuilder 6 users agree that the latest version is either good or excellent, while not a single respondent felt FinalBuilder 6 was poor or terrible!</font></p> <p><font size="3">This was one of the heartening statistics found in the 2008 FinalBuilder Survey. It's great to see that we're able to continue to meet and exceed your expectations!<br /> </font></p> <p>---</p> <p><font size="2">This is the first in a series of posts discussing insights uncovered in the 2008 FinalBuilder survey. Future posts will cover source control and testing tool usage, Vista adoption and the pervasiveness of Continuous Integration.</font></p>678