Qt mini-application for Datazone
This started out as a small external development job at the beginning of 2017, but has developed into a long-term partnership. This project is a classic example of our customer’s satisfaction with the quality of our work, and shows how one development job often leads to a well-working partnership.
Datazone has developed the program Miramo, a world-leading document composition software package, designed for automatic formatting of information extracted from databases and other data sources, including XML and PDF. Miramo dynamic publishing solution is successful because it improves quality, reduces cost, and ensures compliance and information accuracy. It is outstanding in the market because of its flexibility, speed, and scalability.
Our job – project development
Datazone Ltd, a developer of the automated document production software Miramo, needed extra resources to advance the capabilities of a Qt-based GUI component. They devised a mini-test project as a basis for evaluating potential suppliers.
Viking Software was the outstanding winner in Datazone’s evaluation. The price we quoted was not the lowest. But the quality and efficiency of its solution meant that it was far ahead of its competitors, in terms of overall ‘best value’.
Datazone was looking for help to developing their product. So our job was to expand the possibilities within the program Miramo, through the development of a stand-alone Qt mini-application showcasing additional features. The application was an addition to the existing document composition software package. Furthermore, Viking Software also delivered a clean-up of the existing code in the process. During this project, multiple change requests arose, and Viking Software’s extensive experience was required.
Viking Software came with valuable resources and know-how from other projects from other industries and hereby added things we didn’t think of. (…) Viking software makes it manageable for the customers.. they are very productive and successful.
The fixes
The project description was well-defined: develop a stand-alone Qt mini-application for drawing Bezier-curves.
We carried out several small improvements. First and foremost, we implemented many bug fixes, and the application was made a lot more stable. This heavily applied to the undo and redo functionality. Furthermore, we implemented UI/UX improvements. Which were, for example, a custom color picker (adapted combo box), a small spinner indicating that a job is running in the background and a new nicer picker. At the same time we cleaned up the code, and unit tests were added. During this process, multiple inherent change requests arose both from the project as well as the project owner. Handling these changes require extensive experience leading to bigger insight.
A great match
Parts of the project development were put out to tender and amongst the responses, five were selected and given more detailed project description. The response was mainly quotations which left our solution the most ideal one because this solution contained a Qt mini-application illustrating a Bezier curve. This provided Datazone with a fully developed solution, with only a few corrections to be made.
Viking Software’s solution was a 98% match of our need for technique combined with a sense of humor. That was an unbeatable sales technique compared to simple quotations we received from the other developers.
The Qt mini-annotation makes it easier for the users to communicate with each other in the same document
Simplifying the document processing
Expanding the possibilities within the program
A more simple and user-friendly program, taken to the next level
A flexible product for a variety of different companies
Features with multiple purposes
Timesaving and cost-efficient for the customer
An interesting and more vivid program
Easy to install and a possibility for customization
Improved stability of the application
A strong beginning helps create a long-term partnership
Since the beginning of this project, Viking Software and Datazone have developed a strong foundation for a long-term partnership. After the Bezier curve application, Viking Software has continued to solve many different tasks important to Datazone and our partnership has grown from established to familiar and well-known.