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Pitfalls to look out for when writing a canvas game for Android devices

Recently a client approached Metal Toad to develop a prototype game for Android devices and leaving the option of porting it to other devices open. We decided to develop the game using HTML5's canvas element and wrap it in phonegap to bring it to Android devices. In this post I'll talk about the major pitfalls I encountered while working on the project and provide you with some points to keep in mind while developing canvas games for mobile devices. Read More…

A MOET and POET Curve-Fitting Approach to Project Management & Meeting Time Estimation

by Adam Edgerton, Director of Project Management

Find the curves to estimate meeting and project management time (almost) perfectly for your projects! We call it Meeting Overhead Efficiency Theory and Project Overhead Efficiency Theory, or MOET and POET for all of you acronym lovers. Read More…

Project Management Chronicles: Be the Expo

by Barrett Olafson, Senior Project Manager

Imagine this scenario at your favorite popular and busy eatery: A diner informs the server that their order has been undercooked and that their side is not what they ordered; the overachieving, overburdened and busy server returns to the kitchen with the dish and requests a re-fire of the dish to more than one of a number of cooks in the kitchen; all of which are told or hear different interpretations of the diner’s original wishes. Confusion ensues amongst the cooks as to who’s cooking the dish, what temperature it should be cooked to, and what side dish the diner actually wanted, etc. All ultimately leading to a frustrated kitchen staff, wasted time & product, and, likely, an unsatisfied diner. Read More…

Date-boosting Solr / Drupal search results

by Dylan Tack, Lead Development Architect

By replacing Drupal's core search with Solr, it's possible to gain very fine control of the results. Not only is Solr very flexble, but the apachesolr module is generous with its hooks. One potential use is boosting the score based on dates, so that recent documents receive a higher relevancy score. We've used this for the L.A. Philharmonic's ticket calendar to help patrons find upcoming events. Read More…

Drupal 7 Tutorial: Creating Custom Filters in Views

by Jonathan Jordan, Web Developer

I love views. It makes my job easier, so I can focus on the more complex things, rather then having to hand-write queries, create forms for filtering data and it saves time debugging my typos. Every so often you will get a request that can't be accomplished out of the box. If you are trying to customize the options in an exposed form, you may still need to do hook_form_alter(). Or, if you are trying to filter or sort your view by a field that doesn't appear in views, this short tutorial will show you how. Read More…

Adding WordPress to the Arsenal

by Joaquin Lippincott, President & Founder

With the recent acquisition of Etch Software, Metal Toad Media has added a new Director of Digital Strategy, Mike Bijon, and diversified our service offering to include WordPress. Already the world's pre-eminent blogging platform, WordPress has evolved beyond this to be its own Content Management System with a vibrant, active community. For Metal Toad Media this new, enhanced expertise in WordPress adds to our existing digital strategy, Drupal and mobile-focused HTML5 skillset, allowing us to make platform recommendations, truly based on merit and not a preconceived bias. Read More…

Responsive Web Design and HTML5 are the Future

by Joaquin Lippincott, President & Founder

With the latest launch of the Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet, the world is now up to more than five major Android hardware providers. Among each of these, there is also a wide variety in the screen sizes, from the smart phones to mid and larger tablets. Outside of the Android market you have the 800 pound gorilla, Apple with their iPhone, iPod & iPad. And you have RIM with the Blackberry and Nokia (who still can't decide what they are going to use). Read More…

Mobile First – a mirage?

by Dylan Tack, Lead Development Architect

You've heard the hype. The mobile web is exploding, and device sales will soon outstrip PCs. Our desktops and laptops will join VCRs and fax machines in the dustbin of history. Yet, mobile usage share is totally flatlined (perhaps even declining slightly). What is going on? Read More…

How does Google do a barrel roll?

by Dan Linn, Front-End Architect / Fun Master

By now you've probably seen Google "do a barrel roll". If you haven't, head over to google.com and enter "Do a barrel roll". What? You're using IE? Ok, well then no tricks for you. I suggest Chrome. For the rest of us, Google's page does a nice little in place spin. When you saw it you may have thought "How the heck did they pull that off?" or maybe you said "Since when does google use flash?" or possibly "I feel the need... ...the need for speed!". The answer to the first question is easy. I'll show you how they did it: Read More…

Drupal From Scratch: New Site Checklist

by Kronda Adair, Developer & Client Experience Advocate

Set the Admin theme Seven comes installed with Drupal 7 Rubrik is nice but has one bug that doesn’t show view replacement patterns Set the site email address to your preferred administration email admin/config/system/site-information Before Creating any content (fake or otherwise) Create content types !!! Warning: once content has been entered, content types cannot be changed without damaging data Turn on and configure path aliases with pathauto module Turn on clean urls Create text formats for user roles admin/config/content/formats Set up WYSIWYG editors if needed Create image style settings Read More…

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