2017 Apprentices

Welcome to our 2017 Carlisle apprentices

This week we welcomed a trio of aspiring web developers to our year long apprenticeship programme. They will undertake technical training as part of a national peer group, alongside on-the-job learning and support from our team. They are joined by Matthew Proudman who started on the same day as a Junior Developer.

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Choosing the right mobile technology

Choose the right technology for your mobile app

There are a number of ways to build an app. At one end of the spectrum, there’s a website that feels like an app. At the other, there’s a true ‘native’ app - the ‘native’ bit means it’s joined at the hip to the device, so the user interface (UI) of both the app and device’s operating system (OS) feel identical, and the hardware capability of the device can be fully utilised. Following on from "you need a mobile app, now what?" - this second article on mobile explores the options available.

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apps on screen

You need an app. Now what?

In the first of a two part series on mobile apps, we take a look at common questions asked by organisations when starting a new mobile project. Part one outlines getting your project and strategy and supplier right. Part two details alternatives to building a traditional native mobile app.

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P4Health keynote

The NHS must share problems to make savings

Last week’s Procurement 4 Health event at Birmingham’s NEC made for a sobering reminder of the depths of the NHS’s financial challenges. The event is mainly aimed at procurement professionals and suppliers working with, or looking to work with the NHS supply chain. The increasing reliance on technology in all aspects of medicine and the recent focus on Cybersecurity made technology a recurrent theme. However, the positive take-away from the day was a strong focus on collaboration and partnerships which, coming from an open source technology background resonates with many of our own views about how to solve big problems.

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Ayse Jamieson

A trio of new Scottish faces across our Carlisle and London offices.

Who’d have thought that recruiting for three very different roles at opposite ends of the country would result in hiring three talented individuals who grew up within eight miles of each other? The Hydrant Upbeat family has seen a recent flurry of new faces across both our Carlisle and London offices with a totally co-incidental, but strangely connected past.

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Upbeat Productions

Growing national presence, new faces and additional services.

Hydrant are pleased to announce that we are now part of Upbeat Productions Ltd. Joining forces allows Hydrant to offer a wider range of technologies and creative expertise and a larger team as well as national coverage with staff based throughout the UK, including central London.

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Breadcrumbs

“Breadcrumbs” and “Active trails” in Drupal 8

A regular feature we've needed a solution for in any Drupal website build is how to handle showing the breadcrumb and active trail (highlighted menu items). Drupal Core has always catered for this by using the menu structure, but when it comes to placing another page or pages of a certain type into the this active trail, a contributed solution has been required.

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