Cloud

Labels
AJAX(112) App Studio(6) Apple(1) Application Builder(245) Application Factory(207) ASP.NET(95) ASP.NET 3.5(45) ASP.NET Code Generator(72) ASP.NET Membership(28) Azure(18) Barcode(2) Barcodes(3) BLOB(18) Business Rules(1) Business Rules/Logic(140) BYOD(13) Caching(2) Calendar(5) Charts(29) Cloud(14) Cloud On Time(2) Cloud On Time for Windows 7(2) Code Generator(54) Collaboration(11) command line(1) Conflict Detection(1) Content Management System(12) COT Tools for Excel(26) CRUD(1) Custom Actions(1) Data Aquarium Framework(122) Data Sheet(9) Data Sources(22) Database Lookups(50) Deployment(22) Designer(177) Device(1) DotNetNuke(12) EASE(20) Email(6) Features(101) Firebird(1) Form Builder(14) Globalization and Localization(6) How To(1) Hypermedia(2) Inline Editing(1) Installation(5) JavaScript(20) Kiosk(1) Low Code(3) Mac(1) Many-To-Many(4) Maps(6) Master/Detail(36) Microservices(4) Mobile(63) Mode Builder(3) Model Builder(3) MySQL(10) Native Apps(5) News(18) OAuth(8) OAuth Scopes(1) OAuth2(11) Offline(20) Offline Apps(4) Offline Sync(5) Oracle(10) PKCE(2) PostgreSQL(2) PWA(2) QR codes(2) Rapid Application Development(5) Reading Pane(2) Release Notes(178) Reports(48) REST(29) RESTful(29) RESTful Workshop(15) RFID tags(1) SaaS(7) Security(80) SharePoint(12) SPA(6) SQL Anywhere(3) SQL Server(26) Stored Procedure(4) Teamwork(15) Tips and Tricks(87) Tools for Excel(2) Touch UI(93) Transactions(5) Tutorials(183) Universal Windows Platform(3) User Interface(338) Video Tutorial(37) Web 2.0(100) Web App Generator(101) Web Application Generator(607) Web Form Builder(40) Web.Config(9) Workflow(28)
Archive
Blog
Cloud
Monday, October 21, 2013PrintSubscribe
Miscellaneous Hot Fixes

Code On Time releases 8.0.1.0 introduces the following features and hot fixes:

  • Learn about new synchronization service and how to share Project Designer changes with other developers involved in your project. Use Team Foundation Service to implement version control of application source code.
     
  • SharePoint Factory apps will not raise exceptions when a Web Part is inserted in a live page of a SharePoint site.
     
  • New property Access allows the data controller views to be exposed on public pages. The default value of the property is “Private”. Anonymous users are not authorized to see data views placed by developers on publicly available application pages. Set "Access" property to "Public" to allow anonymous users to interact with the view.
     
  • Rich text input mode of data fields will not cause an exception in a mobile client.
     
  • Synchronized Project Designer change logs of legacy applications will be correctly merged after automatic refresh.
     
  • Property ApplicationServices.Version correctly treats application version as a string. The previous implementation may have resulted in a compilation error when generated on computers with some European locales.
     
  • Permalinks will not cause exceptions in the Mobile Client.
Monday, December 10, 2012PrintSubscribe
Managed Oracle Provider, Report Action Parameters, Azure SDK 1.8

Code On Time release 7.0.6.0 is now a Microsoft.NET 4.0 application. This results in up to 30% increase in the speed of code generation. The benefit is especially visible on multi-core computers to Premium and Unlimited edition customers.

Full support for Managed Oracle Data Provider (ODP) and extended processing of Oracle-specific data types is now a part of the application framework. Learn to create projects with Oracle databases.

Action “Report” and its variations (Report As PDF, Report as Excel, Report as Image, Report as Word)  are extended with reporting parameters. Use Project Designer to configuring Data property of an action with parameters “_controller”, “_view”, “_count”, “_template”, and “_sortExpression”. Developers can also specify a filter referencing values of the data row selected in the browser. A tutorial will be available this week.

Application generator now supports Windows Azure SDK 1.8 released in November of 2012.

The following enhancements and bug fixes are also includes:

  • Custom Membership provider handles "password attempt window start" and "password answer attempt window start" dates.
     
  • Locked-out user will be able to re-try login when "password attempt window" becomes available. The time interval is controller by Password Attempt Window option. Its default value is 10.
     
  • Password reset is also controlled by the same option when user tries to answer the password question.
     
  • Custom Membership provider uses "Comments" as an SQL alias of "Comment" field.
     
  • Compatibility of field length and type for custom membership providers generated from Oracle databases is included.
     
  • Unique identifier columns of type raw(16) are fully supported by application framework in Oracle database projects.
     
  • Quick Find implementation creates dedicated parameters in Oracle apps when Managed ODP provider is detected.
     
  • Long project names will not cause compilation error in Visual Basic projects with the application framework placed in a class library.
     
  • "Hidden" data fields mixed with visible data fields in a data sheet view will not break focusing of cells.
     
  • SQL and Email business rules are not executed twice when processing custom actions.
     
  • Action Navigate will not disable data view events when "_blank" or any other target is placed in front of the value in Command Argument.
     
  • Role provider binds ApplicationName parameter on-demand.
     
  • Fixed the bug with custom Google Translate API key processing.
     
  • Data sheet view with multiple selection will not scroll to the top of the view when a data row is selected.
     
  • The app generator will not fail to start project builder when Visual Studio without Web Developer Tools is installed on a computer. Only "Web Site Factory" projects can be created if that is the case.
     
  • Virtualization node sets now support MoveNext method and Current property to allow easy iteration when implementing virtualization of data controllers.
Saturday, November 10, 2012PrintSubscribe
RESTful Client-Side Validation

Data integrity can be ensured on different tiers of a web application. Code On Time web apps take advantage of the business rules engine that allows creating JavaScript Business Rules (Client Tier), Code Business Rules (Application Tier), and SQL Business Rules (Data Tier).

About Business Rules

Business rules are abstracted from the presentation of data. Developers manipulate field values directly as if the field values are local variables. The client library and application framework pass collections of values to the business rules making unnecessary a complex task of inspecting user interface elements. A business rule can access “old” value, “new” value, and “current” value of any field. It is also known if a field is “read-only” or “modified”. Business rules are executed in response to actions that have “before”, “execute”, and “after” phase. Changes to the values of the fields may affect the data that ends up in the database. Calculated field values are presented to the user on the client device.

This approach to business rule implementation allows continues improvement to the user interface client library.  It guarantees that business rules will remain unchanged even for the future supported client devices.

Selecting an Application Tier

The major challenge is to select an application tier for a business rule implementation.

The client tier is most commonly used to correct user spelling or for basic data integrity enforcement. For example, formatting of a phone number most definitely lends itself to a client side business rule. Client business rules allow avoiding a server-side round trip.

If a business rule requires a database lookup then the data tier works best in most situation. A script written in SQL dialect of the application database engine can select data from a table, call a stored procedure, and perform complex data manipulations.

Some business rules may require access to operating system resources, file system, or web services. Application tier business rules are written in C# or Visual Basic. The full power of Microsoft.NET is at disposal of a developer. “Code” business rules supersede SQL business rules at a cost of using special classes when a database access is required.

Hybrid Business Rules

If a server-side data is required for a client-side JavaScript business rule, then the business rule is a hybrid. This type of rules is difficult to implement.

The server-code implemented on the application or data tier cannot have a “conversation” with a user. Conditional execution with a user confirmation can be performed on the client only. The client business rule must have a way to request information from the server before confronting a user with requests for additional information.

RESTFul Application Server

Code On Time web applications may include application server components that enable interaction with clients supporting Representational State Transfer protocol know as REST. When enable, the application server components can respond to HTTP requests for information or commands to execute an action.

The  responses to such HTTP request are encoded in XML or JSON. The latter is a great match to JavaScript Business Rules since a response is essentially a JavaScript object.

Example of a RESTful Business Rule

Consider entering of new products in the Northwind sample.

Entering a new product in 'createForm1' in a web app created with Code OnTime application generator

There is product with the name “Chai” with a different price. The existing product is supplied by another vendor.

A list of products in 'Northwind' web app sample created with Code On Time

There may be a business requirement to warn a user about a potential duplicate.

A business rule written in JavaScript may contact the app to verify if a matching product exists. The URL of a web request may look as follow:

http://demo.codeontime.com/northwind/appservices/Products?ProductName=Chai

or

http://demo.codeontime.com/northwind/appservices/Products?ProductName_Filter_Equals=Chai

Here is the response encoded in XML.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Products totalRowCount="1" pageSize="100" pageIndex="0" rowCount="1">
  <items>
    <item ProductName="Chai" SupplierID="1" CategoryID="1" QuantityPerUnit="10 boxes x 20 bags" 
          UnitPrice="$18.00" UnitsInStock="39" UnitsOnOrder="0" ReorderLevel="10" 
          Discontinued="False" ProductID="1" 
          SupplierCompanyName="Exotic Liquids" CategoryCategoryName="Beverages" />
  </items>
</Products>

The business rule can display a warning to a user about a potential duplicate. If a user does not confirm creation of a duplicate product, then a new record is not created.

First, may sure to enable REST requests to the data controller products. Select the data controller in Project Explorer and change it as follows.

Property Value
Representational State Transfer (REST) Configuration

Uri: .
Users: *

This will ensure that only authenticated users can send requests to application server components.

Enter a new JavaScript business rule in Products data controller configured as follows:

Property Value
Type JavaScript
Command Name Insert
Phase Before

Enter this code in the Script property of the rule and click OK button.

var duplicateProduct = null;
$.ajax({
    url: '../appservices/Products?ProductName=' + [ProductName],
    cache: false,
    async: false,
    dataType: 'json',
    success: function (result) {
        if (result.Products.length > 0)
            duplicateProduct = result.Products[0];
    }
});
if (duplicateProduct)
    if (confirm('This product is a duplicate. Continue?') == false) {
        this.preventDefault();
        this.result.focus('ProductName',
            'Product with this name and price of {0} is supplied by "{1}".',
            duplicateProduct.UnitPrice, duplicateProduct.SupplierCompanyName);
    }

This is how the rule will be displayed in Project Explorer.

A 'hybrid' validation business rule in Project Explorer

Click Browse and navigate to Products page. Enter a new product with the name “Chai” and click OK to save the new record.

A standard browser confirmation will be displayed.

JavaScript business rule dispalys a confirmation if a duplicate product is detected

Click Cancel button to prevent creation of the product. The focus will be on Product Name field. The information about the duplicate product will be displayed next to the field.

JavaScript business rule cancels 'Insert' action and displayes duplicate product info next to 'ProductName' field if a user clicks 'Cancel' button in confirmation window.

The script makes a web request to the application server to locate a potential duplicate product. The request is executed synchronously making both user and web browser wait for its completion.

The scripts analyzes the response and displays a confirmation if there is a duplicate product. The supplier name and unit price of the existing product are displayed next to the product name field. A call to the method preventDefault will not allow the Insert action to proceed.

The screenshot displays a JSON response to a request for a product by name as presented in Visual Studio 2012.

JSON response to a request for a product in Debug mode as presented by Visual Studio 2012