There’s a place for everyone at ATEC

October 11, 2008

There’s a place for everyone at ATEC
If you’re an Alpha developer, you’ve no doubt heard about our yearly Alpha Technology and Education Conference (ATEC), and maybe even attended one yourself. This year’s conference took place in Atlanta from Sept. 4-6.

Every year, Alpha Five developers from around the world converge for a few days to share best practices, tools, tips, and techniques. But the conference emphasizes more than just theories and concepts of Alpha Five development. Rather, we show developers how to take full advantage of Alpha as both a desktop and Web database development program.

Sound good, but not sure if a full conference is the right place for you to learn more about Alpha Five? Our very own Jerry Brightbill attended this year, and wrote up a fairly detailed summary of his overall impressions of this year’s conference attendees. Here are his notes.

Most of the attendees were not full-time programmers. A significant portion were employees of companies where IT or application development was only a part of their jobs. The people in this category used Alpha Five mainly to fill a specific business need, and only learned enough about the product to meet that need. They had limited resources available to commit to a solution.

Nearly all of the application development was on the desktop using the built-in DBF data format, and most coding was limited to action scripting and simple Xbasic. Networked applications were common, but many were using terminal services or some type of VPN, rather than loading runtimes on users’ computers and using shadowed configurations.

Most of the small companies represented had some type of IT department, even if it was only one person working at it part time. This IT function typically limited the computer configurations allowed on the users’ computers, and was often tasked to do everything as cheaply as possible, which may be why few used runtimes loaded on multiple computers.

There were a few people there who could be considered full-time developers, but most were desktop only. Even the full-time developers used only limited parts of the capabilities of Alpha Five. Some had a commercial product, and limited their knowledge to the requirements of that product.

There were a couple developers who were doing Web development. Interestingly, these developers did almost no desktop development other than reports. A couple had worked on some hybrid solutions, but quickly moved to browser-based-only development.

A number of people were running most of their business processes using databases based on some version of Alpha Five, but very few of these systems could be considered “integrated.” Most were built piecemeal with little initial specification development or overall design.

Other data platforms, such as Excel, Lotus Notes, and paper-based processes, were common elements of the overall “system” in use. Most of the interest and focus appeared directed at solving a specific problem, and not on efficient overall design.

Since most of these systems were used by a limited number of users in a controlled environment, a number of elements considered critical in a commercial application were often not a concern. These limited interest areas included usability, scalable designs, limiting user access to program elements, etc.

Some people could be considered “dabblers” or “hobbyists.” Overall, the attendee makeup was heavily weighted to people using Alpha Five as a tool to solve a business problem. Previous conferences tended to have a larger proportion of the “hobbyist” element.

Many people expressed interest in alternative data platforms, but cost was a major concern. For that reason, many were looking at open source solutions, such as MySQL. Very few even considered more robust enterprise solutions as SQL Server or Oracle.

There was a lot of interest in Web development, primarily as an alternative to internal networked applications. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a large amount of interest in public Internet applications, but that may be because of the makeup of the attendees. Apparently some of the companies hired outside consultants to build limited public Web sites.

Most of the attendees recognized they have to learn new technologies, and the sessions on Web development and SQL were very well received. But there was a reluctance to move away from what they were doing now. As is common in small business, most were working on at least one generation old technology, and many were using Alpha Five Version 7 and Alpha Five Version 8.

A surprising number had not upgraded, as they felt they didn’t need Web capabilities or SQL support and the older versions worked adequately. There was some interest in future developments, but most wanted solutions they could use now.

The main reason given for not moving to Web or SQL was the learning curve. Many of the people were fairly new to database development in general, and had struggled to reach the knowledge levels they had achieved. The concept of learning any additional techniques was daunting.

The overall format of hands-on, two-hour training sessions was very popular. Approximately 50 to 60 percent of the people in each section actively participated, while others just watched the projection screens and followed the learning guides. In some sessions, the percentage was much higher, and some a little less. Each session included discussion periods that introduced a number of topics.

Most attendees expressed the importance of face to face discussion periods, such as question and answer periods, breaks, lunch, and even evening sessions. There was a lot of networking when sessions were not being held. All of the sessions seemed to have a lot of interaction between the instructors and the people in the session.

As you can see, Alpha Conferences are excellent learning environments for developers of all stripes and skill sets. I encourage you to attend the next one. You’ll be glad you did, and smarter, too!

New Carrollton Police Department puts Alpha Five on patrol
The best part of my job is hearing about the new and exciting ways our customers are using Alpha Five to make their jobs easier. I recently had the chance to talk to Lt. Richard Hartnett from the New Carrollton Police Department in New Carrollton, M.D., to see how he’s used Alpha in the force. (I’ve always wanted to say that.)

Hartnett is the Director of IT for the NCPD, and he recently built a database that lets officers file electronic incident reports using the mobile computers in their squad cars, instead of having to fill out tedious and time consuming reports by hand.

Read on, or take a look at the full PDF version.

Customer Profile
The mission of the New Carrollton Police Department is to safeguard life and property, preserve the peace, prevent and detect crime, enforce the law, and protect the rights of all citizens.

Location
New Carrollton, M.D.

Industries
Public safety

Situation
The New Carrollton Police Department needed a way to computerize their incident reports. Their paper forms were repetitive, tedious, time consuming, and at risk for errors or misfiling. Lieutenant Richard Hartnett, Director of IT at New Carrollton Police Department, wanted a database that would let officers write an electronic incident report using the mobile computers in their squad cars. He wanted the reports available to other officers in the field, at the station, and from other counties, all in real time. He also wanted to eliminate time wasted due to repetitive entries. Every time a person was involved in an incident, their information would have to be re-entered on a new paper form. Lt. Hartnett wanted officers to enter information once, then pull up the appropriate database record and update it as necessary. Lastly, computerized forms would solve the problem of space limitations that the current paper reports presented. Lt. Hartnett knew the answer was a Web-based database, but like most cops-turned-IT pro, he didn’t have the programming skills required to build it from scratch. Or so he thought.

Solution
Lt. Hartnett had some IT experience through his previous position at the Berwyn Heights Police Department. He had previously used OmniForm to computerize Berwyn Heights’ incident reports. But that old platform wasn’t Web-based, wasn’t programmable, and required information be batch transferred from officers’ vehicle computers to the station at the end of each shift. After experimenting with several tools without success, Lt. Hartnett discovered Alpha Five. He quickly got up to speed with Alpha Five’s visual approach to application development, and had an initial version of New Carrollton’s database operational in short order. By using Alpha Five’s Action Scripting, component builders, Genies, and built-in Web security framework, Lt. Hartnett didn’t have to write a lick of code. And because the application lived on the Web, he could deploy it once, and provide access anywhere there’s a secure IP connection. He didn’t have to install any software on individual PCs or in officers’ vehicles.

Benefits
The result: a high-performance, intuitive Web database that is now addressing all of the requirements the department established for it. Its design lets officers enter an electronic report in the field, and have that report immediately accessible by other officers in the field or back at the station. And because it’s Web-based, no special software, hardware, or other components need to be installed in officers’ computers or cars. They simply fire up a Web browser, enter the URL of the database, key in their credentials, and get instant access to the entire incident records management system. Alpha Five’s powerful yet easy-to-use tools made it possible for Lt. Hartnett to achieve the lofty goals he established for the database, without having to learn a computer language or writing a single line of code. As a result, New Carrollton and five other municipal police departments are now tied into the system, giving hundreds of local officers access to critical incident information in real time. In fact, the system has been so successful with the six police departments, Lt. Hartnett hopes to expand that access to law enforcement agencies throughout Maryland and beyond.

For More Information
Alpha Software, Inc.
781-229-4500
http://www.alphasoftware.com/

New Carrollton Police Department
301-459-0142
http://newcarrolltonpd.com/