Herding Code 130: Dave Weaver on Loggr - a realtime analytics service built with MVC, MongoDB and SignalR

Episode 130

• Dave runs Markkup, a consulting company and is building Loggr, SaaS application that provides real time logging and monitoring.
• He was one of the founders of Chili!Soft, which was an implementation of Classic ASP that ran on Linux, Solaris, IBM software, and Windows.
• Dave tells the story behind Chili!Soft, which is now Sun Java System Active Server Pages.
• Dave goes into the main features/benefits of Loggr.
• Jon asks about reports and queries provided by Loggr.
• Dave mentions there is an HTML5 version of the dashboard that works well on a tablet as well as an iPhone app. There is also an Android app in the works.
• Jon and Dave discuss the freemium model that Loggr employs.
• The guys move to talking about the stack that Loggr is developed on.
• It is built on ASP.NET MVC2.
• It uses Backbone.js for the client side JavaScript.
• MongoDB is used as the database.
• SignalR is used for the client-server communication to provide live user monitoring.
• Kevin asks about the decision to build a startup on the .NET platform.
• The guys touch on the VB.NET vs C# debate.
• Jon asks about the backup/redundancy story for MongoDB.
• Dave talks about the HTML5 client vs the native iOS app vs the Android app.
• Jon asks about the experience developing the iOS and Android apps.
• There are agents for .NET, Java, ColdFusion, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript.
• You can configure log4net to log to Loggr.
• Dave mentions Loggr uses Rapleaf to display demographics for a user, such as age and gender.
• Loggr also uses FullContact to display the social networks and avatars of a user.
• Jon asks Dave for advice for anyone interested in starting a similar venture.
• Jon asks about the Loggr road map.
• Jon asks about the business and marketing side of Loggr.
• Jon asks if any companies are leveraging the Loggr APIs to create other offerings.
• Jon asks if there is any demand for customers to host Loggr internally.
• Kevin asks if there have been any issues related to versions of the Loggr APIs.
• Kevin asks about downtime and SLAs.
• Jon asks about the process to get started with Loggr.

• Loggr @loggrnet
• Dave Weaver's blog @davidweaver
• Markkup
• Joel on Software post about Chili!Soft
• Sun Java System Active Server Pages (formerly Chili!Soft)
• Mission Research
• Blog post referencing Google Analytics
• Irony on CodePlex
• Loggr code on Github
• Backbone.JS
• MongoDB
• Official MongoDB C# driver
• SignalR
• MonoTouch
• Mono for Android
• Nlog writes to Loggr
• log4net
• Rapleaf
• FullContact
• Evernote
• Exceptioneer

Herding Code 130: Dave Weaver on Loggr - a realtime analytics service built with MVC MongoDB and SignalR