sexta-feira, 25 de janeiro de 2013

Aplicativos para celular - muito além do facebook

Celular inteligente, os chamados smartphones, há tempos deixaram de ser uteis apenas para efetuar e receber ligações ou mesmo tão somente para acessar redes sociais. Seu poder computacional os transforma em verdadeiros computadores de mão,e cabe ao universo dos aplicativos fazer com que transformemos nossos aparelhos portáteis em dispositivos de fato “smarts”.

samsung supera nokia maior vendedora de celulares mundo

Aos profissionais de TI, estamos diante de um mercado enorme, com grandes desafios e mudanças de paradigma, vide excelente artigo do nosso colega Cezar Taurion, intitulado APPS: MONETIZAÇÃO.
Aos usuários fica a reflexão para encararmos esses aplicativos como ferramentas uteis, capazes de nos prestarem serviços como uma disponibilidade sem precedentes desde os primórdios da internet comercial. Fica o desafio de selecionarmos, dentre tantas coisas digamos, não tão uteis assim, o que nos é relevante.

Dentro desse universo, me chamou atenção os aplicativos sobre finanças, especialmente, finanças pessoais.

A maioria se propõe ao controle financeiro em si, onde os usuários administram seus rendimentos, economias e gastos, apresentando em tempo real a situação financeira do usuário, lhe permitindo fazer projeções ou emitindo alertas para maneirar nas contas. Geralmente esses aplicativos contam com recursos adicionais, tais como proteção por senha, exportação e importação para/de planilhas e infográficos que ilustram muito bem as informações e projeções.

Outro segmento de aplicativos de finanças pessoais são aqueles que, através dos princípios da matemática financeira simulam cálculos de prestações, taxas de juros e projeções ajudando seus usuários a se planejar melhor durante as compras e financiamentos, o que faz os destacam diante dos demais, uma vez que possuir esse tipo de conhecimento aumenta significativamente poder dos usuários de argumentação durante uma negociação.

Um desses aplicativos é o smartBuy recentemente lançado em uma versão para android e que conta um uma versão demonstração grátis. “É um aplicativo de finanças pessoais que colabora com as informações que precisamos ter em mãos na hora de negociar empréstimos, financiamentos, comprar móveis e eletrodomésticos, veículos e até imóveis, cujo principal objetivo é economizar dinheiro”, explica seu criador, que também disponibiliza um blog, fanpage no facebook e twitter onde os usuários trocam experiência sobre negociações e planejamento com a ferramenta.

Bom meu amigos, estamos diante de um mundo relativamente novo com enorme possibilidades e cabe aos dois lados, profissionais de TI e usuários, saber como tirar melhor proveito disso.

Grande abraço e até a próxima…

quarta-feira, 23 de janeiro de 2013

Exploring Microsoft SQL Reporting Services - Part 01


Hello folks, here we initiated a series of articles where we will make a practical and theoretical approach, this powerful and that is little explored Reporting Services. In that first moment we see the version of SQL 2005, is still the standard tool database in most of our customers, but we soon an explanation of the 2008 version, good fun.

PART 1 - INTRODUCTION TO REPORTING SERVICES

Microsoft SQL Reporting Services is a comprehensive reporting platform. Part of the Business Intelligence framework based on services, tools, APIs for development, publishing and management reports, the RS was initially presented as an add-on for SQL Server 2000 in early 2000, then the 2005 and finally the 2008.

Reports of RS are based on RDL (Report Definition Language), which is nothing more than a dialect of XML created by Microsoft. And, since the environment is closely integrated with RS platform. NET framework, its development tools are Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 - even though the actual SQL Server 2005 has a shell called Visual Studio 2005 Business Intelligence Development Studio ( BIDS).

With RS you can create reporting solutions as part of an application, called Local Mode, which is similar to the model used in Crystal Reports or Microsoft Access. Besides this, we model the remote reporting, operating as a web application hosted on a Web Application Server (IIS) and accessible via HTTP protocol. Finally, we have, through the Report Builder tool, a way for users to create their own reports, attending corporate environments, developers, architects and users.

For any reporting solution that makes use of the RS environment, makes use of the evidence adduced in the figure below. Since the interaction between these elements varies according to the model of the report - but they will always be present, the process of creation to consumption by the end user.

Figure 1.1 - Correlation between elements of Reporting Services
Figure 1.1 - Correlation between elements of Reporting Services


In Figure 1.1, we have the diagram of the relationship between the key elements of a solution based on Reporting Services, which will detail the following relationship:


Reports
Correspond to the front-end data and properly formatted to match a graphical representation of a functional and operational RDL file, with specific characteristics, according to their type. Reports can be invoked by a client application - be it a Windows application, Web, by any technology that consumes WebService or even the environment itself Reporting Services.

Application client
Applications are able to implement, manage and view reports, and the Main Report Manager, BIDS, Visual Studio applications. NET Windows and web through ReportViewer control, and application-Office Report Builder Model.

Structure volatile data  structures are created in memory to temporarily store the results of queries that will be displayed in reports. These queries are implemented as stored procedures, views, T-SQL statements as well as OLAP cubes. DB Access Engine are the various possible mechanisms to access the data. Corresponds to the sources of data access to SQL Server, Oracle, OLE DB, ODBC and Analysis Server Databases - OLAP.

Data repositories
They are the data sources from which it extracts the information for reports created and accessed via the Access DB Engines.

RS supports some of the most useful types of reports, assisting users in better distribution of information, they are:

Tabular : used to distribute the information as a table, with a number of columns previously established, similar to data from excel;
Free: The information is placed arbitrarily as is most convenient for the user. P eg reports the type master-detail;
Chart: The data is presented graphically; Correlation: the report information are correlated in two Cartesian axes forming an array, for example, a report of the temperature from a set of cities;
DrillDown: reports that allow expandable sections, such as correlation reports, x products sales, which allow you to display subcategories of products; Interactive: are reports that allow the use of special features such as documentMap, links, among others. For example, reports similar to the view of the document with Adobe Reader PDFs with bookmarks.

Figure 1.2 - Tabular Report

Figure 1.3 - Correlation report


Figure 1.4 - drilldown report


Figure 1.5 - interactive report

Figure 1.6 - features

That's it, folks! So far we only started our exploration to the fantastic world of Reporting Service. In the next issue we will see the first of report templates: the so-called "Local Mode."

Best regards...