I'm glad to announce a new project's on which Comtaste is working on : YuBuk. Flex with cross scripting techniques, Google MAPS, AJAX with Scriptacolous and Prototype libraries are some of the technologies involved in this project.
It was very fun to see how a simple web based old style application in some months turned into a real rich internet application.
We have published a Case Study on our site, where you can have more details.
Yubuk is a platform which is
accessible on the internet and on mobile terminals for all those who
love Italy for its enchanting locations, for its excellent cuisine and
exceptional hotels.
Yubuk.com contains information on ten of the
“coolest” locations in Italy, information which is accessible to all
and to which all the users can contribute and create, modify or comment.
This is one of the best and most useful mash up Rich Internet Application we've worked on. In fact to be able to conceive new and richer modes of fruition, the
technological choice has also required a careful analysis of the
languages and the standards of highest profile.
Starting from the initial prerequisites, at Comtaste we have analyzed the following list of
technologies was opted for which together has contributed to create a
true and real mash-up application:
- AJAX with Scriptacolous and Prototype libraries
- Flex with cross scripting techniques
- Google MAPS
- PHP
- Zend Framework
- MySql
It was chosen to use Google Maps to visualize, through the
use of its API, the restaurants, hotels and all the locations present
in the data bank of Ybuk.com. Furthermore, Ajax and Javascript
functions were adopted to reduce the minimum traffic of data and
download only the data relative to the portion of map visualized by the
user. Through the use of the combination of Flex and Javascript
technologies additional filters were made available to the user to
optimize the searches on the map.
The increase of the visits
to the site has brought (and will continue to bring more) an increase
of traffic and load on the infrastructure web server. To avoid problems
of instability or delays on the site, it was decided to separate the
principle applications of the site on two different servers, Apache and
PHP 5 was installed on the first, and instead MySOL is present on the
second. Both applications were configured in order to obtain the best
performance in relation to the load.
To improve the entire
infrastructure of the site, a course or restructuring of the code was
undertaken to exploit the potential offered by a powerful and famous
PHP framework such as Zend. Security, reliability, modulation and
integration are just some of the benefits that such a choice entails.
The Zend Framework uses the latest development technology to be able to
produce flexible and extendible code, using the standard design pattern
for the web applications, the model-view-controller (MVC). Furthermore,
in the framework, there are also functions present among which
internationalization and localization, authentication, session
management, search, cache and integration with external APIs.
The
activities on Yubuk are up and running, with a continuous assistance
for the improvement and evolution of the service. Important goals have
already been achieved, measurable especially in terms of the
improvement of the user experience and the ranking of the portal.
In a few hours I'll give my speech about 
On 17th September will start the 
TotalTraining goes online with a 24/7 service. Its great learning contents that you were able to buy on DVD basis are now online. So you can see whenever you want, wherever you are.
The 
As a media sponsor for the AJAXWorld Conference we can provide you with some discount code for registration.
The first issue of AJAXWorld Magazine was presented at 
Wishing to better respond to the needs of companies operating in the ICT sector, Smau 2006 will be totally reserved to professional visitors.
This workshop will cover the core basics of Ruby including: arrays, hashes,
- Microsummaries, regularly-updated succinct compilations of the most important information on web pages. Site and third-party developers can both provide them, and users can choose to display microsummaries instead of static titles when they bookmark pages with microsummaries. 
Comtaste
