Thanks EPiServer for an excellent party!

Yet another time has EPiServer delivered an excellent partner event. But this time, it was our time to congrat them. It was alot of people there, all to gratulate EPiServer for there tremendous success!

I didnt have the pleasure to attend at the Nalen, so please comment you'r view of the EPiServer 6 partnerpreview, that was!

The flowerstory
When I arrived at the party I was struck, in the elevator, by the fact that I had forgot to buy some flowers or a present from a our company to EPiServer. But I knew one thing, the dresscode and maintheme of the party was the color orange, so the choosing of flowers shouldnt be to hard to accomplish.

So I threw up my phone and fast as lightning searched for "Flowers" in Google latitude, and for my big relief there was a flowershop just around the corner. I was hot as ... hell? ... after a very stressed trip from Kalmar, so I hung off my jacket in the wardrobe, and went back out to buy some flowers. Then the darkest of clouds stacked up and threw a flood over me. Wet and tired I storms into the flowershop and the the flower clerk just looked at me an smiled, and shouted back to the florist. "- Another orangeclothed man, prepare the orange flowers!" Then I bounces into a businesspartner of mine, Mikael Herkommer on Inexor, who's just about to buy the larges flowerbouquet I've seen. We laughs about the coincidance and I orders a similar bouguet ... but larger! :)

So EPiServer, maybe there are a very good time to get a official flowersponsor for free :). Their owe you that, after that two thirds of the guests brought flowers from them. A big hand for "Regeringsgatans Flowers" and for their undwindling creativity with flowers, cos I coudnt remind my self of seeing two similar flowerbouquets among all those flowers.


I will not miss EPis next partner event, thanks again EPiServer!

Äntligen är SiteValidator släppt!

Idag lanserar vi verktyget SiteValidator. SiteValidator hjälper företag och myndigheter att själva kontrollera att deras webbplatser är tillgängliga för alla.
Verktyget kontrollerar automatiskt att ett antal grundläggande krav för tillgänglighet uppfylls när nya sidor skapas eller ändringar görs på befintliga sidor och rapporterar det automatiskt till redaktörerna.

- Enligt våra egna mätningar är det väldigt få webbplatser i Sverige idag som lyckas bra med sitt tillgänglighetsarbete, säger Niklas Jägerklou. Utmaningen är först att se till att en webbplats tillgänglighetsanpassas när den utvecklas, något som ofta görs bra. Sedan försvinner utvecklarna av webbplatsen och den tas över av redaktörer som inte är specialister på tillgänglighet och nivån sänks successivt över tid.
Vi står även bakom webbplatsen Validerat.se, där 913 webbplatser som drivs av myndigheter analyserats. Den mätningen, som presenterades i februari, visade att två tredjedelar av de offentliga webbplatserna hade brister i valideringen av den tekniska koden. Med nya SiteValidator byggs testerna ut för att omfatta mer än enbart validering av kod.
En tillgänglig webbplats följer bl.a. de tekniska standarder som säkerställer att en webbsida fungerar i alla typer av webbläsare, bland annat med de hjälpmedel som används av vissa funktionshindrade. Men standarderna är bra för mycket annat till exempel för att göra webbsidor synligare i sökmotorer och öka livslängden på webbplatsen, eftersom även framtidens webbläsare troligen kommer att följa standarderna.
- Man kan tycka att eftersom fördelarna är så stora med att ha en tillgänglig webbplats så är det konstigt att inte alla webbplatser håller en hög nivå, säger Niklas Jägerklou. En anledning är att det inte funnits bra stöd tidigare med verktyg som SiteValidator. Det är helt enkelt för lätt att göra fel.

Fakta om SiteValidator
Nya sidor kontrolleras automatiskt mot W3C:s validator
15 olika tester genomförs automatiskt både för utvecklare och redaktörer. Saker som testas är exempelvis att det finns textalternativ för grafiska objekt och att formulär och tabeller används på rätt sätt
Innehåller ett rapportverktyg som tydligt informerar om vilka fel som finns på varje sida
En realtidsvalidator som ger varje enskild redaktör information om ifall en sida är godkänd eller inte
Helt integrerad i EPiServer

Vill du veta mer?
Kontakta: Niklas Jägerklou, pressansvarig, Meridium. E-post: niklas@meridium.se,Tel: 0480-426077, 0709-37 66 60

EPiDesk 3 News!! Its on its move!

The roadmap for EPiDesk 3 is ready for launch, and we are eager to inform you that EPiDesk 3, has higher potential than we could imagine. Im going to list some things that you might be interested in, and give you some teasers on whats on the board.

This is no promises, but our hopes and goals. Which means that if not all these things are implemented in the first release of EPiDesk 3, it may come in a future update.

• First of all, we want it to fully support EPi CMS5. We want it to use all the advantages of the latest EPi-technology, and therefore a more attractive product.
  
  
• Next news is spelled with three letters WWF... and its not World Wide fund for nature... no its Windows Workflow Foundation... we realy hopes that this will give EPiDesk 3, a hole new dimension, with multiple workflows, better connections to external systems, and much clearer progressoverview.

Let me state an example:

Assume that we have a company that sells computers. When a order comes in, the orders to our suppliers, for the various components, will simultainously be sent out. (the parallel workflows, a number of purchase orders are sent simultaneously to different subcontractors). When all contractors have delivered the goods, the matter will be forwarded to an assembler. He clears the order and reports the case, and a message will also be sent to the billing system. (to an external system). And all the operator needed to do, was to supervise the order! Neat, ey?

• Get rid of the all to complex admin interface, and instead make a customized EPi-standard administration menu, within EPiServer.
  
  
• Is an inbuilt reporting tool necessary?... We're not certain of that, because you can use the more powerfull and strict SQL Server Reporting Services, if you want to do real deal reports. This also makes it possible for the providing company, to build a customer-suited reporting service. We're not done thinking about this part, we might find reasons for implementing a standard reporting tool, still. But please help us to fill in our blanks!
  
  
• Achiving? We have an idea of putting in a separat pageprovider, to make all old cases searchable, and accessible even if their 3 years old.
  
  
• Have you tried to install EPiDesk, as it is today? Don't! :) We want this to be a simple task, as it is with i.e. ImageVault. Maybe use EPiServers new installation standards, or building on our own standards. We also wants to get rid of most config-files, and replace it with a setup under the admin API. This to make it possible to customize the views by the EPi-plugin model.
  
  
• The forms-creator. This is also a part that divides our thoughts. But one thing is clear for us, everything is better than as it is today. Either we're just erasing the functionality of formbuilding in EPiDesk, in favor of a implementing a standard webservice to send in forms through, or just makes a new form-creator worth its name, its going to be better than today.
  
  
• The mailmotor... the heart of EPiDesk, is maybe one of few things in EPiDesk 2 that actually works quite good. But we have some ideas, like improved attachment support, and some buggfixing to do.
  
  
• HEAR UP! A NEW GRAPHICAL STANDARD! Which will actually make EPiDesk sellable! :) As it is today, no one wants to use EPiDesk "out of the box". EPiDesks design makes babies cry, and grandmothers to swear. But we dont want people to get depressed each time the log on to EPiDesk... We want them to CHEER! Therefor are a new GUI and a new graphical standard i top of our highpriority list. More of this later on, when i can give you some sneakpeaks. (maybe i May or June? Who knows?) BUT MOST IMPORTANT, for you EPi-partners! We will make IT ALL, customizable for you... just like EPiServer. We want you to put youre fingers in the cookiejar, and impress the customer.
  
  
• And at last on our roadmap we also have some things in the category of övrigt (remaining)... In the reminderfunctionalty we also want to create a administrationGUI to enable you to set diffrent kinds of timers, put in special holidays etc. We also wants to make a better support for the indexing to load balanced servers.
  
  

We need you!

What are your experiances of EPiDesk, or any other casemanagement system, for that matter? What do you wish EPiDesk to accoplish? Please enlighten us! We are more than open for your feedback and resource gathering. Cos even if we've already gathered some experiance and facts, does our combined knowlage overwhelm our, for now, gathered intelligence. If you have some ideas, please send us an email, either me at simon@meridium.se or our productmanager Johan Magnusson at johan@meridium.se . See ya on the EPiDays, 10th of Mars!

To all EPiServer folks, Mery Christmas!

Meridium wants to thank everyone who've been part of our EPiServer partner-network this year. Here comes a Christmascard for you all!

ProcessMap 3.0, SNEAKPEAK-screens! Much to look forward to!

Here you can see some sneakpeaks from the development of ProcessMap 3.0, which probably will be released Q1 2009.

Here is some of the new keyfunctions of ProcessMap 3.0, which will, in all likelihood, be implemented in the newest version.

- A new fresh GUI, Ajax and .Net 2.0

- Much improved API

- New rights, "Administer album"

- A new editor with filterfunctions

- Drag n Drop files into the process

- Firefox support

- Wizards for "seldom-users"

Remember, this is only sneakpeaks,

and no official release preview.

As you can see on the GUI, its very reminiscent of MS Office 2007 layout!

This is the format tab. But dont be concerned about the "numbers" instead of icons. The simple truth is, that the icons is simply not done yet! ;)

Here is another screenshot.

There are still much to accoplish on the development. But this will give you the indication of where we're leading the product, in 2009!

Hopes this gives you some inspiration to use the new ProcessMap 3.0 next year!

IT-Chefen writes about Riksidrottsförbundet and ImageVault

Yesterday, did IT-Chefen write about the projekt of Riksidrottsförbundet (The Swedish Sports Confederation). ImageVault was also mentioned as the primary way of their new picture archive, though EPiServer. This enabled for example the possibility of storing all the pictures that all the sports-clubs in (SSC) wants to publish on their local webbsite.

Sogeti is the ones whom created SSCs webbsite, though their new and open minded way of working with EPiServer and ImageVault. They created the webbservice "IdrottOnline" (SportsOnline) wich for instance enabled for all local clubs to, though a very easy way, create their own webbpage, to share pictures, administration and communication though the webb.

Already have about 5000 compounds joined since initial release. And they hopes that over 10.000 compounds has joined up, autum 2009.

Very nice reading, Good work Sogeti!


Read more at
http://www.itchefen.com/?action=view&id=0-737&clog=0-737#0-737

or in google-english
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.itchefen.com%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26id%3D0-737%26clog%3D0-737%230-737&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=sv&tl=en

Visit Sweden, Sweden's best site in 2008!

It was very fun to read the article in Internet World, where they lists Sweden's best sites in 2008, when Visit Sweden tricks first place. Visit Sweden is a reference project for more than Cloud Nine, who hold the strings. This is an award which many of us share, as well as Euroling writes on their blog, it is not less than 5 different companies involved, which Meridium is one of them. Meridium's involvement is in our module Image Vault, which has a major role in VisitSweden.com.

Margareta Björnberg, project manager for Visit Sweden says this about the site on Internet World:

"- One of the objectives of the new website was to enhance the experience of Sweden when the visitor to the Web site. The site will inspire. We have more and larger photos and all images are tagged with geographic information so that we can put them almost on the meter when, where they are captured on a map. All images are clickable and can be viewed in a larger version and you can always see where in Sweden a picture is taken. Just the map and the inspiring parts of the site is what I am most pleased with on the remake. We hope that this site arouses curiosity and desire to visit Sweden. "

Image Vault's ability to store and publish high-resolution originals in many different web formats has been a key factor in the image handling of thousands of images every day of Visit Sweden. We are very proud to have been a part of the Visit Sweden project.

A big thank you to Cloud Nine, which holds EPiServers, Meridiums (ImageVault), Eurolings (SiteSeeker), and many others flags highest in Sweden! Keep up the good work!

More about this can be read at:
Internet World
Dagens Nyheter
Newsdesk