Iatek : Blog .NET CMS Portal Software

	The Periodic Table of Social Media Elements I decided it would be interesting to correlate the latest social media terms and brands into a elemental chart. This is chart is a prototype and will continually evolve from reader input, but let's start with some basic social media elements: Social Media Elements Tw - Twitter Fb - Facebook Fr - A friend Fo - A follower Up - A status update or posting Fm - Last.fm Fl - Flickr Sh - "Shorty" or url shortener Fd - A feed (usually RSS) Ob - An object Co - Retro content, community or collaboration software Dg - Digg Compound Social Media Elements APi - Interface to expose some data and functionality Msh - A mashup or remix of a core element Tags: Social Media cskelly \| Jun-4-09

	Top 5 Web-based Twitter Clients A lot of Tweeple (Twitter users) are using desktop and mobile clients like seesmic, tweetdeck, twhirl and tweetie, but I don't find a lot of reviews and stats on Web-based Twitter clients. With it's killer API, and average Web UI, I think more developers should bring on Web clients that re-mash Twitter. Best of all you don't have to download anything to clutter up your hard drive. Here are the ones that I found: TwitIQ http://twitiq.com A "Smarter Twitter" client provides a clean interface and layout to tweets, trends and friends. The multiple account management features is great if you represent multiple "Tweeple" across more that 1 Twitter account. TwitIQ also lets you track content via "channels". A channel might be based on a keyword search, hashtag or user and is useful as a targeting tool. TwitZap http://www.twitzap.com TwitZap is almost a clone of the standard Twitter/home with an additional search feature that enables you to "channel" Twitter content based on tags, keywords or users that you want to keep tabs on. It's good for searching, but the TwitZap interface is lacking on other management features. Basic stuff that a Web client should have like following friends or posting tweets. It does let you easily hop over to Twitter to manage your account from there. TweetGrid http://tweetgrid.com TweetGrid is a not so pretty, yet super-flexible Web client that lets you control the layout and Twitter content. It is a dashboard-style interface whereby you can control what Twitter snippets you want to see and search. I've found it to be slow recently -- although this may be a result of the Twitter API getting bogged down. TweetVisor http://tweetvisor.com TweetVisor provides a somewhat cluttered, yet very useful interface that lets you manage Twitter and take advantage of widgets. In focus are quick views to your friends timeline, replies and direct messages. There are 2 layout templates ("tweetvisor" and "deck") that provide variation. I happen to prefer the deck layout since it provides a list of trending topics in a focal point that is noticable, but not it the way. It also, offers integration with TinyUrl and TweetShrink so that you can easily shorten your urls or extend your tweets as needed. TwitPic integration makes it easy to post pics in your tweets. Tweetium http://tweetium.com This is a clean, lightweight interface to Twitter that is packed with features. If you have more time, check out the complete list of Twitter apps here: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps. Blending Mix also compiled a more complete list of Twitter clients in Jan 2009. Tags: Twitter cskelly \| Apr-27-09

	UpdatePanel and Multiple Update Panels Recently I integrated some AJAX features into PortalApp using the AjaxControlToolkit. My page contained several UpdatePanel controls and one UpdatePanelAnimationExtender, that I need to use to display a "Please Wait" panel while a GridView was updating. Thanks to Matt Berseth for the great demo. Then I ran into a little glitch. The progress indicator worked great when my GridView was udpating, but it also tried to pop-up when ANY of my other Update Panels were updating. This was a problem. Using help from this post, I added to 2 new JS functions to my page that enable the JS to know which control is doing the PostBack: function pageLoad() { var manager = Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance(); manager.add_initializeRequest(OnInitializeRequest); } function OnInitializeRequest(sender, args) { var manager = Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance(); currentPostBackElement = args.get_postBackElement().parentElement; } These were added in addition to the OnUpdate and OnUpdating functions I used from Matt's blog post. Then I just changed the declaration of the UpdatePanelAnimationExtender to: <ajaxToolkit:UpdatePanelAnimationExtender ID="UpdatePanelAnimationExtender1" runat="server" TargetControlID="TabContainer1$TabPanel1$updUpdates" > <Animations> <OnUpdating> <Condition ConditionScript="currentPostBackElement.id.indexOf('updUpdates') > -1"> <Parallel duration="0" > <ScriptAction Script="onUpdating();" /> </Parallel> </Condition> </OnUpdating> <OnUpdated> <Condition ConditionScript="currentPostBackElement.id.indexOf('updUpdates') > -1"> <Parallel duration="0"> <ScriptAction Script="onUpdated();" /> </Parallel> </Condition> </OnUpdated> </Animations> </ajaxToolkit:UpdatePanelAnimationExtender> Success! The progress indicator now only shows for my "updUpdates" panel that contains my GridView. Tags: UpdatePanelAnimationExtender AJAX cskelly \| Apr-2-09

	What makes a CMS, a CMS? This is an age old question in the Content Management world. In 2007, Deane at Gadgetopia came up with some really good answers. What's great is the list is broken down into essentials and nice-to-haves. At it most basic level a CMS should: Accomodate information that can take many forms -- text, images, hyperlinks, etc.. Enable users that are often non-technical personnel to manage site content. Facilitate content management as a collaborative effort that may involve various roles. There are many definitions of a CMS. Here is the CMS defined according to typo3. A content management system (CMS) is a computer application used to create, edit, manage, search and publish various kinds of digital media and electronic text. CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing industry-specific documentation such as news articles, operators' manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, and marketing brochures. The content managed may include computer files, image media, audio files, video files, electronic documents, and Web content. Tags: Content Management cskelly \| Mar-17-09

	Twitter Offspring What are you doing? Thinking that I was wrong about Twitter. When I first came across it -- I couldn't see the point. Who really cares what me or anyone else is doing? It reminds of those co-workers that are at your desk talking all day while your actually trying to be productive. As reality would seem, Twitter does matter and there are now oodles of unexpected twitter remixes and mashups that are now (instantly) sharing in the success. A slick API client: http://www.tweetium.com A stock site: http://www.stocktwits.com A MLM site: https://easytweets.com A microblogger re-blogger: http://www.loudtwitter.com/ A counter: http://twittercounter.com A feed service: http://www.twitterfeed.com A tag cloud: http://www.twitscoop.com An African-American Twitter directory: http://www.tweemix.com A brand tracker: http://www.trackingtwitter.com/brands So what do you think has made it such a success? I don't think people care so much about the tweets as the simple open API that make it easy to mash-up Twitter. What will you think of next? Check out a complete list of Twitter sites and add-ons at EveythingTwitter. Tags: Twitter cskelly \| Mar-17-09