I am a programming language, development tool, and platform junkie with many interests, but at the moment I am serving as a .NET developer for Newsberry. Newsberry is an old project with a huge codebase. And guess what? I have to learn it. I’ve been doing that for some time now, and I daresay I have been making good progress. Here I’d like to share some tips and techniques both on the technological and philosophical level that have proven themselves useful.

Keep your thoughts organized and don’t forget the big picture

I know many people just get the source code, compile it and start running it in the debugger, trying to get an idea about what is going on. This may be a good strategy for smaller projects and one-off scripts that you find on the web, but it does not scale well. At best, you will achieve good knowledge about a part of the system (the portion of code you have read through), while you will have no idea about the rest. Don’t forget that there is a good chance that you don’t understand anything as the code can only answer the “How is this application built?” question. You will not get the “Why” part, and that is often crucial in order to understand the “How” bit.

My first steps were to get an account over at http://www.newsberry.com/ and start playing with the system. I had to first learn how it works as a user, so that I know what problems it solves. Once I felt confident I knew it at a reasonable level, I got to the source code part. I had to learn a lot about the problem domain – I was an email marketing newbie, and the body of knowledge on the subject is huge.

After you know enough about the business domain, you can start playing with the source code. To me the most important part in a system is its deployment story. You have to know the various components in the system: what are the jobs they perform, how they interact, etc. Newsberry is pretty complex: it has several web sites, Windows services, mail servers, and a couple of custom tools. Getting to know those components is essential. Exploring their interactions will quickly expose holes in your understanding of the business domain, and you have the duty and the opportunity to fill them. There are two tools that helped me here:

Mind mapping

I have been using mind maps for years, and I am used to drawing them on paper or with a computer program. They are a great tool to organize your thoughts when learning something. My guess is that they boost your understanding by stimulating the creative parts of your brain. They trigger that by making you produce something instead of passively reading up on a subject. Anyway my theory really doesn’t matter – all I care is that mind maps work for me, and I recommend everyone try them too. So, how do I use mind maps when learning Newsberry? Using my favorite mapping program, Freemind, I started creating maps for the email marketing process, Newsberry system deployment, data flow throughout the system such as email generation and transformation. As an example, here is a screenshot of my deployment map:

You can use maps to store all kinds of information: from the high-level overviews down to the nitty-gritty. Again, the most important thing is not the map itself, but the process of creating the map. Try it – It works!

Virtualization

Now that you are pretty comfortable with the deployment architecture, you want to get your hands dirty. Of course, you can’t do that on the production server. You can’t do it on the staging server too – I didn’t want to do something stupid and kill the staging environment or destroy the CI process just because I don’t know the system yet. You can’t really test on your machine either, because… well because you have to be able to deploy your program everywhere and it is too easy to hardcode settings that work on your machine only. That is why, apart from running the system on my development machine, I decided to recreate the production environment in a virtual machine. My virtualization solution of choice is VirtualBox. It is fast, easy to use and offers tons of advanced features too. I quickly got a Windows 2003 server OS installed on a VM, and started playing. I configured my virtual network cards with the same IP addresses that the server had. I edited my hosts file to redirect domains to the local machine. I installed SQL Server and imported a test DB full of usable data. I got an SMTP server running that was able to deliver mail to several fake domains. I could then fetch that mail using POP3 and inspect it for errors or write automated tests. I even went ahead and duplicated the CruiseControl.NET setup so that I could test CI builds as if they were running on the real build machine.This looks like a lot of work, and it really is. I am glad I did it because it helped me learn how the system operates. I went through the horrors of administering an SMTP server, configuring IIS, fighting SQL Server, and, at the end, I came out stronger. I really recommend using virtualization to safely play with a new, unknown system. One VirtualBox tip: use the snapshots feature as often as possible. If you manage to destroy your system, just revert to the previous snapshot, and you’ll be running again in seconds.

Use code exploration tools

One word here: Resharper. Many think it is a refactoring tool, but it is really much more. Load all your code in a Visual Studio solution, and start poking around. I use Resharper’s “Find Usages” feature to find who calls a given method, what code uses a property or sets a new value. The tool is indispensable.

Another tool that deserves mention here is Reflector. It does not work with source, but decompiles assemblies instead. It has great code analysis features, and you can quickly understand how a method is used, who instantiates a given class, etc. Not needing the source code makes Reflector the perfect detective tool that allows you to unobtrusively poke even at your production code.

The ultimate method

Well really there is no such thing as the one and only codebase learning technique. You can’t use purely a technical approach or a purely theoretical one. Creating software is a complex collaborative process, and you can’t understand how a large system works using only of the two approaches.

I am sure there are a lot of useful techniques one can use to learn a new codebase quickly that I have not covered here. What are your tools and methods of choice? Share them in the comments!

Selenium IDE

There are many different ways to automate tasks and Selenium IDE is just one of them. Selenium IDE has been around now for some time. It’s a small add-on for firefox which allows you to run and record tests for your web application. The reason I use Selenium IDE is because you can use it without almost any interference in your process of manual testing. Selenium IDE is lightweight and very easy to use and it’s constantly improved.

When I do manual testing, I cover the areas that I wante to test, and as I go, I turn on Selenium IDE and record tasks. I try to record scenarios that I will use later in other tests. These small Selenium IDE test cases are recorded so I will not waste time on common tasks, which would be repeated numerous times. Automating small tasks can speed up testing tremendously. This way you would spend time on reviewing parts of the application which are important, rather than spending time on common, everyday tasks.

Here is a simple scenario of my usual review of new functionality on our Newsberry project: Recently we released monthly plans, which required a lot of sign up testing. During testing of the sign up process, I recorded some scripts in Selenium IDE (simple html scripts), for signing up users, adding senders and activating them. This is the usual process you would use when you are creating a new account. Now, these scripts were used a lot during the review of monthly plans, but they were used a lot later during other reviews too. By recording small tasks, you can simply re-run them later, and not worry about doing the same process manually over and over again.

The beauty of the process is that it takes only couple of minutes to do this. These are not complicated test cases, test suites, no, these are very simple scripts, which everyone can run. You can simply send them over to developers, designers, and they can use it the same way you did, as long as they have firefox installed on their computers.

The Navigation

We have to admit that the navigation was not entirely easy to understand on the previous version. The biggest problem was that the hierarchy of the different navigation elements was torn appart. The new version does a much better job at grouping all the actions and presenting them with much better visual weight.

Have a look at the Subscribers page for example. I’ve marked the different navigation levels with numbers, with 1 being the the highest level and 4 being the lowest. As you can see, the new design even got rid of the fourth level, making it much easier for navigating through the application. At the same time, your eye does not need to jump from left to right/right to left when you move between the main areas (Dashboard, Lists and Templates).

Yes, we removed the left sidebar

Some customers might be a bit confused that we removed the left sidebar. But we did this in favor of consistency. For instance, a Camapaign was created within the Campaigns section of the application. Lists and Templates were created via the sidebar. Sounds wrong, doesn’t it?

Now, we basically had two options:

• Add a “Create Campaign” button to the sidebar
• Remove the sidebar and add “Create List” and “Create Template” buttons, just like the “Create Campaign” button

As you probably noticed, option two won. Removing the sidebar really helped to clean up the overall design, which results in less confusion for the viewer.

We really hope that these changes help to speed up your interaction with Newsberry and make the overall experience more fun.

So, what’s different?

We have been thinking about a way to keep the old functionality intact, but adding a new fresh look to it. Thanks to our designer Gilbert, Newsberry got a completely new face. If you have been using Newsberry before and you liked it, we’re sure you will love it now!

What have we done?

• Moved Subscriber Lists to their own section at the top to make them more easily accessible.
• We’ve moved the tabs for Account and Help to the top so they are always visible.
• Moved our Help System to an outside application called Tender. This will allow our customers to post questions, comments and feedback as well as post private issues for our customer service.

These are only small changes which you would notice when you first log into your Newsberry account, but it does not stop here. During the makeover, we have completely redesigned navigation, buttons, tabs, modalboxes and much more.

For example, take a look at the redesigned “Create a Campaign” page:

Want to see for yourself? Login to your account or signup now!
 
The adventures of Newsberry do not end here. We have a lot more cool stuff planned for 2009. Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates.

Besides the fact that we are very happy that this happened, I want to talk about the use of icons on the site today. Long story short, for myself icons have two big roles when it comes to design:

• Explain certain actions visually, so they are more clear to the user
• Support the visual design

In general, icons can contribute to your overall design the same way a typeface, a color or an image – they don’t have a minor role in the visual hierarchy. I stumbled upon a lot of websites which make use of free or stock icons. I don’t want to convict the use of them, but in my eyes custom made icons really help to make your design stand out from the crowd. 

That said, it was a no-go for me to use free or stock icons anywhere on Newsberry. Even if they don’t match the taste of the shiny-icon crowd, I put a lot of love in these little bunch of pixels. Come on guys, it’s easier than you think – inspiration and help is everywhere.

So, I hope you enjoy the new look of the site. What? You ask if the new public site is the last stop on the road? No Sir, there are more adventures ahead of us:

We just released an exciting new tool in Newsberry, behavioral targeting. Now you can target and segment subscribers based on who opened emails, clicked links, and which emails bounced. This new tool will help you maximize response and create follow up emails based on subscriber behavior.

Here are some basic ways you can use this new tool:

• Send an email to all subscribers who clicked on a specific link.
• Send a follow up email to only those people who opened your email.
• Send an email to anyone who clicked a link or opened your email in the past five campaigns.

Read more about this new feature in the help system.

Highrise is an online contact manager and address book, which keeps contact info centralized, sharable, and safe online. By integrating with Newsberry, you can synchronize contacts between Newsberry and Highrise. This is the first integration tool for Newsberry and we plan to release more in the near future.

How does it work?

By integrating with Highrise, we offer:

• Automatic updates of name, email, and phone number in Highrise to your Newsberry list
• Posting a note in each Highrise contact when a campaign is sent.

In Newsberry we provide two ways of importing subscribers:

• Importing contacts from csv and excel files
• Manual import

Now, if you have a Highrise account, you can import subscribers by integrating with Highrise. Not only can intergrate contacts, but you can do it for every list that you have in your Newsberry account. Every list can be integrated with a different Highrise account.

You don’t need to worry whether your contact list in Newsberry contains all the contacts you have in your Highrise account. If you add, update or delete contacts in your Highrise account, you will notice the same changes in Newsberry. Newsberry will synchronize the contacts between Highrise and Newsberry for you automatically.

You can add contacts from different sources to your account (manually, by importing through csv, xls files or by Highrise integration), and all of them will coexist in your list.

Keep a record of it

One more cool feature about Highrise integration is that we post a note to your Highrise contacts whenever you send a campaign.

Give it a try!

The feature is available for Free and Paid Newsberry accounts. To give a test run, sign up for a Newsberry account. To learn more, read the Highrise integration article in Newsberry’s help section.
 

We’d like to be as open as possible about our goals and plans. With that in mind, here are some things we are focusing on in the next 6 – 12 months.

• Increase the number of blog posts about our thoughts, successes, and failures.
• As our products grow, begin to transfer most of our attention to products and a portion to client work.
• Improve test coverage in our applications, starting with better regression tests.
• Create a more unified message and brand to our customers between Wildbit and our products.
• Start working on our next product, hush hush for now.

Of course, we have many great features and plans for Beanstalk and Newsberry. We’ll post more about them as we get close to a release. Make sure to follow us on Twitter, we’ll be posting much more.

Get SenderScore Certified!

In addition to some great new features, we’re also happy to announce our recent partnership with SenderScore. What does this mean for you? Well, it means that your campaigns are now monitored across the the largest email network in the industry, providing improved delivery to get your emails to the inbox.

You can get certified too. Now that we are a partner, we can get your company certified as well to ensure the best delivery. For a limited time, we are offering a free demo of the tool set to 10 customers only. Email support@newsberry.com to get involved.

Add users and set permissions

In Newsberry, you can now create multiple users for each account and apply specific permissions. Permissions can be set per list according to responsibility. For instance, you can give someone permission to only view reports in one list, but create and send campaigns in another.

To learn about user permissions, read the help article.

Improved subscribe forms

We’ve released a major upgrade to subscribe forms and fields. You now have full control of the subscribe forms that you can insert into your site or send to your subscribers. This includes creating drop-downs, checklists, and showing/hiding fields from the public. You may notice our API is available as well. Stay tuned for more information.

Learn all about the new subscribe forms in our help section.

This weekend we finished up our agenda, which we’d like to share with everyone. We think it is important that our customers and clients know our plans, goals, and priorities. Have a look at the retreat agenda on Beanstalk.

We’re already making progress on strategy and having a good time. A few embarrassing rounds of pool volleyball is always a good time. Turkey and the town of Gocek, where we are staying, is incredibly hospital and very beautiful. The town is located in the Mediterranean just at the base of some impressive mountains and cliffs.

If you’re interested, you can follow the photos on our Flickr group throughout the week.

So, what’s on the agenda?

The company retreat is all about strategy, learning, and relaxing. We’ve been working really hard on a bunch of projects over the past year, so we have a lot to cover. Here is a short list:

• Celebrate the past year’s success.
• Plan and discuss Beanstalk goals.
• Discuss process issues and room for improvement.
• Set goals for Newsberry growth and plan the time line and tasks.
• Smoke hookahs and eat well :)
• Some short Rails training for the .NET guys and designers.
• Take out a Gulet for the day.

We’re really looking forward to just hanging out and focusing on the next steps to improve Wildbit overall. With our products growing quickly, we’re starting to shift more toward product work, which requires a new shift in process, roles, and responsibilities. I’m confident the retreat will result in some really nice improvements for our customers and clients.

Gilbert Guttmann

Gilbert has been a customer on Beanstalk since almost the beginning. We talked many times in chat before we received his response to the design position. It’s a great thing to hire from within your community. Gilbert also created weplaythis.com, a really cool site for people who love gaming. You see a lot to come from Gilbert in Newsberry, Beanstalk, and MeetPips.

Petyo Ivanov

Petyo is our next addition to our rails development team. In the past, he has worked for some great companies, including Telerik. So far Petyo has been doing great things on MeetPips (our latest client project) and a new video project that will be released very soon. He’ll also help with the growing demand on Beanstalk.

Please welcome Gilbert and Petyo to the team. You can expect to see a lot of great things from them.

• Adding drop-downs, check lists, and multiple option fields
• Changing the order of fields in your subscribe form
• Hide or show specific fields to your subscribers

Learn more about the changes and full features in the Newsberry help section.

Here are some screen shots:

We also try to be as honest and transparent as possible. Just today a customer asked how the new deployment feature was coming. It’s taken a lot longer than we expected and many people are waiting for it. I could have easily said “It’s almost ready” to keep him waiting. Instead, I wanted to get him excited and let him know we’re working hard. Nothing shows this better than giving a sneak peek at what is coming. So, I grabbed some screen shots of the new tools and uploaded them to campfire. Now he knows what to expect, and more important, knows that we are really working hard to make things happen for our customers.

Transparency is just as important on the positive notes as they are for the negative.