Competencies

Secret Orange has developed a number of strategic, technical and creative skills which are continually growing and providing the solid base required to design and build high caliber solutions.

Strategic

Secret Orange realises that stategy is one of the most important elements of a successful project enabling development to remain on time, on budget and satisfy the original business requirements.

Secret Orange will invest time and effort in the early stages of a project to fully understand the business processes within your organisation which is essential in order to develop a usable and ergonomic solution.

You can expect detailed technical/functional specifications and mile stone based project plans before development commences allowing you, the customer, to see exactly what will be delivered and when.

Technical

Secret Orange's main in house competencies are undoubtably of a technical nature; all of which complement each other.

Website Presentaion

Secret Orange recognises the importance of clean and efficent presentaional programming and methodologies which include:

  • Valid and semantic use of XHTML markup which aids cross browser compatibility and future proofing
  • Efficient use of CSS for page styling, giving rise to a clean separation of content and presentaional code
  • Optimised graphics for best quality imagery and download time
  • Use of AJAX technologies (if applicable) to enhance the richness of the application

Backend Programming

Secret Orange has chosen to use Microsoft's .NET platform to provide the foundations for most of it's solutions. Although .NET is certainly not the only viable platform out there, it strikes Secret Orange as a robust, scalable and now proven technolgy which is backed by one of the largest companies in the world which should provide comfort knowing that support for this technology will be guaranteed for many years to come.

A list of frequently used technologies is shown below:

  • Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1/2.0 (C#,VB.NET)
  • ASP.NET 1.1/2.0
  • .NET 3.0 Windows Presentaion Foundation (WPF) (XBAP's etc)
  • MS SQL Server 2000/2005
  • TSQL/SQL - Stored Procedures
  • AJAX Technologies - Microsoft's Altlas implementation
  • Microsoft Enterprise Library 2.0
  • MS SQL Server 2000 Data Transformation Services (DTS)
  • XML Web Services
  • XML/XSLT/XSD
  • XHTML/CSS
  • JavaScript
  • Flash/ActionScript 2.0
  • Tridion R5 (Enterprise Content Management System) - Tridion
  • Ektron (Enterprise Content Management System) - Ektron
  • Microsoft Content Management Server - CMServer

Below is a list of technologies used for past projects but not used on a regular basis:

  • Macromedia Director Lingo/JavaScript
  • MS Access Database
  • MySQL
  • Managed C++
  • C++
  • Direct Show (via .NET Interop and Managed C++)
  • Managed Direct 3D (basic 3D rendering and working with video)
  • Macromedia Cold Fusion
  • Python

Secret Orange uses Visual Studio 2005 Professional for all development and will deliver source code in the form of a Visual Studio Solution.

Database Programming

Allmost all solutions require a database for persisting valuable content and data. As Secret Orange is currently heavily influenced by Microsoft technologies it comes as no surprise that it recommends a SQL Server based solution; ensuring tight and seamless integration with ASP.NET.

Secret Orange has extensive experience with database administration and programming, especially within MS SQL Server, ensuring that your data will be stored and accessed as effieciently and safely as possible.

Creative

Creative competencies include both graphical design skills (which are outsourced to professional freelance designers) and usability skills. Usability is key to ensuring a solution is ergonomic and in turn a productive tool for your organisation.