A CRM Development Backstory

The LOB Chronicles cover everything from architecture to UX to the nitty-gritty code and everywhere in between.  The series has ended, but there's still lots to take away from it so read on!

  • img 1
  • img 2
  • img 3

Follow the LOB Chronicles

Subscribe
Episode 13: Extending RadScheduleViewThursday, November 4, 2011

Episode 13: Extending RadScheduleView

This week, we’re going to look at another major control that is being utilized in the CRM demo to help keep track of activities – RadScheduleView. This control is used across the modules of the application for activities display, plus due to the architecture of the control we’ve been able to do some really cool things with the dialog window that you’re used to seeing.

Episode 12: Looking at a (Rad)GridViewThursday, October 27, 2011

Episode 12: Looking at a (Rad)GridView

In this episode we explore the view CompanyOpportunitiesUserControl, delving into the more advanced uses of RadGridView that exists in the application today. We explain how the functionality built into this control is helping to enhance our CRM demo.

Episode 11: Bringing in the ControlsThursday, October 20, 2011

Episode 11: Bringing in the Controls

We take a closer look at what controls from the RadControls for Silverlight suite help make this application tick. In particular we focus on the Dashboard module, discussing RadDomainDataSource, RadSparklines & RadBulletGraph, RadUniformGrid, and RadCoverFlow.

Episode 10: UI ConsistencyThursday, October 13, 2011

Episode 10: UI Consistency

This episode is all about UI. When you think of an application that you use every day, say Outlook, do you really care if the developers used MEF, MVVM, if a Repository is being used, or if extensive UX work went into figuring out the flow of the application? If you're a developer you might, but the other 99% of the world is going to look at an application first and only critique it if something goes wrong or doesn't "feel" right...

Episode 9: The Repository Pattern + Source Code Is In!Thursday, October 6, 2011

Episode 9: The Repository Pattern + Source Code Is In!

In this episode we discuss our CRM application's handling of data-namely how and why we use the Repository Pattern to ensure consistency in accessing data. You developers will especially love this post as it is the first of many more to come with source code!

Episode 8: Solving a MEF DilemmaTuesday, October 4, 2011

Episode 8: Solving a MEF Dilemma

In the last episode, one of the commenters was a little critical of the 'magic' behind MEF, and rightly so as many of us like being able to trace the exact line that code will go through as opposed to relying on the magic of composition to work everything out for us. Here we bring you one of those unexpected issues in which the 'magic' behind MEF is a little demystified as well as our creative solution to the problem.

Episode 7: MEF, Attributes, and Behaviors (Oh my!)Thursday, September 22, 2011

Episode 7: MEF, Attributes, and Behaviors (Oh my!)

In this episode, following exciting announcements from //Build/, we go full speed ahead with CRM's development and talk about MEF, Attributes, and Behaviors.

Episode 6: Development Best PracticesThursday, September 08, 2011

Episode 6: Development Best Practices

In honor of the Build conference we dive into our current codebase in order to highlight some of the development best practices taking place already why these are important to *your* development both today and tomorrow. While we don't have time to discuss every technique being used in this blog post, we will explore three specific things already woven into our development practices...

Episode 5: Beginning DevelopmentThursday, September 01, 2011

Episode 5: Beginning Development

We begin development by explaining the solution structure. With an overall look and feel for the navigation model, as well as what views will be needed when interacting with the application, we delve into our use of MVVM and Prism.

Episode 4: Let's Talk About Data!Thursday, August 25, 2011

Episode 4: Let's Talk About Data!

Taking a step back from our UX and UI discussions, we focus on the data that will drive our application. In building an application that seamlessly helps end-users achieve their business goals, we must develop a CRM that can efficiently handle large volumes of data. With that in mind we introduce OpenAccess ORM.

Episode 3: Better UI through UXFriday, August 12, 2011

Episode 3: Better UI through UX

Dive into how we construct a better user interface (UI) utilizing the tools that our User Experience (UX) experts have put before us. We translate UX into UI in terms we can all understand, including views, navigation, and everyone's favorite click-count.

Episode 2: Exploring User Experience (UX)Friday, August 5, 2011

Episode 2: Exploring User Experience (UX)

Learn about the theory and practices behind UX. Here design meets function and we explore what an end-user, John, of our CRM is most concerned about and how we can address those concerns in this line-of-business application. Basically, 'what does our CRM need to help John achieve his business goals?'

Episode 1: Introduction the LOB ChroniclesFriday, July 27, 2011

Episode 1: Introduction the LOB Chronicles

A short introduction to our plans for building a CRM demo - goals, technologies, and what you can expect at the end.