A Look at the RunRevLive.09 Lineup
What you can expect from RunRevLive.09

by Heather Nagey

Conference is nearly on us. Despite a challenging economic climate, it looks like being the biggest one ever in terms of attendees, both in person and online.

For the first time ever, RR have offered a small number of scholarship places to carefully selected applicants. Take-up on this has been enthusiastic, with some great applications.

I'm really looking forward to meeting you all, putting faces to the names, and spending four days talking Revolution. I'd like to tell you a little bit about what we've got lined up for you. Four days of Revolution Fest :). Lets break it down a bit and look at what will be going on each day.

Day Zero - The Training Day (or is it?)
On 1st of September we kick off with a whole day of immersion learning. Jacqueline Landman Gay and Devin Asaytake you through your first Revolution application, starting with the basics and finishing with both a server and browser-enabled application. Bring a laptop, pin your ears back, and roll up your sleeves. If you get stuck, there will be plenty of RR staff on hand to help.

Perhaps less publicized, on Day Zero we are also offering a second track, for the more experienced Rev developer. If you don't need to attend a particular part of the training course, pop next door and sit in on some fascinating half hour sessions from experienced Revolution users. For example, when you build cross-platform applications, chances are good that at some point your Rev scripts need to talk to Java classes. "Working with Java Classes" from Jan Schenkel demonstrates various ways to setup communication lines between these two technologies: processes, sockets, message queues, web services and externals. Or how about Mark Wieder's session on "Testing Web Apps", covering client-side strategies for testing web applications, using the Document Object Model, developing test cases, creating robust web code, and creating regression test suites. Very topical with the arrival of 4.0 and the webplugin, and perhaps a new area for some of you to think about.

And of course, there are facilities for coding kitchens, one-on-one developer sessions and socializing with your peers, throughout the day.

In the evening of Day Zero, we have a very special event. Robert Cailliau, co-developer of the WWW, will be giving a presentation titled "A Tale of Two Revolutions"**. We've invited local business and the press to this event. This is followed by a cocktail reception at Dynamic Earth.

Day One - Keynote and Web Plugin
On Day One, 2nd September, Kevin Miller will give the Keynote address for the main conference. The day is then mainly focussed on the new Revolution releases, including revWeb, revServer and on-Rev. You should leave with a good understanding of how all these different pieces fit together, and the exciting new capabilities 4.0 will be bringing you.

This day also covers using the Data Grid, with Trevor DeVore, its creator, several sessions on database use, and two advanced sessions on the new Externals API with Mark Waddingham, our Director of Technology. Mark Waddingham outlines the all-new externals API, which for the first time enables high performance exchange of binary data, as well as multi-dimensional arrays. Additionally, the API enables passing of pointers to data, dramatically reducing memory footprint and increasing execution speed because data no longer needs to be moved to external processes. This new API dramatically expands the possibilities for extending Revolution functionality.

Day Two
The morning of Day Two will talk about plugin applications - creating them, integrating them with the desktop, building a revlet. There is also a substantial session on Behaviors and Custom Controls by Trevor DeVore, which will help you truly grasp the power of this feature introduced in version 3.5 of Revolution.

revServer in the spotlight
The afternoon of Day Two is essential to anyone professionally interested in server applications. Two hours on building a webstore from Andre Garzia are preceded by information on jQuery, PHP integration and Ajax from James Cant, our in-house Web expert. Revolution user John Craig (creator of the popular Air Traffic Control game) will be giving a session on User States, covering logins, accounts and permissions. His aim is to show you how to improve the user's experience of your website and give it more of a desktop application feel. Some lighter excitement will be provided by Malte Brill, showing you how to create a web game with 4.0.

Day Plus - the NDA day
If you signed up for the whole conference, you also get to come along to our offices and hear about what we have planned, in progress, and still under wraps to the general public. To access this information, you will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement on arrival. This session will not be covered by the Simulcast, it is only open to inperson attendees.

But this is not all we have on offer. RunRev staff and expert speakers will be on hand in the halls and kitchens to help solve your coding problems and answer questions. Many of our revSelect Vendors will be here, ready and willing to demonstrate their products to you. So if you want to know for example how to use chartsEngine in your particular project, come along and talk to Malte Brill. If FMPro Migrator has always puzzled you, David Simpson will be on hand to walk you through it. And if you have any questions about customer service, revUp or maybe you have a project you'd like included in revSelect, come along and talk to me!

** attendance at this event must be confirmed in advance as places are limited.

About the Author Heather Nagey is the Customer Services Manager for Runtime Revolution Ltd.