Web 2.0

Code On Time release 80.11.0 further narrows the gap between the features of Desktop and Touch UI. The key features frequently requested by developers are ability to calculate field values with business rules and conditional visibility of fields and categories. Fields also need to be marked as read-only when certain conditions are met.

Touch UI now introduces an enhanced implementation of these features. We have also increased performance of core features in Desktop UI.

Both Desktop and Touch applications can now take advantage of simplified configuration for calculated fields. Developers can now set Causes Calculate property of a data field to true to trigger Calculate command whenever the field value has changed.

Both Desktop and Touch UI now implement and enhanced processing of dates to ensure that dates are correctly displayed across time zones. Dates are now passed in JSON format with additional processing of time zones both on the server and on the client.

Azure SDK 2.5 is supported in this release.

jQuery Mobile 1.4.5 is supported in this release.

Touch UI applications support multiple columns of input fields in forms with tabs.

Touch UI applications have new options in application settings.

Initial List Mode can be set to be displayed Summary Views on all pages instead of See All mode. This view displays a traditional action bar above the subset of rows visible to the user.

Button Shapes option allows to turn off the outline of buttons for a cleaner look.

A thin outline is the default option for buttons in forms.

We have removed icons from the form buttons for a cleaner look.

Lists and grids now promote an action in See All mode.  Promoted action is the first “positive” action available to the user.

Summary views now display view selectors on the left side of the action bar buttons. Button “…” located right next to a view selector provides access to the context menu of a data view.

Summary view also display aggregates. We are working on displaying aggregates in See All mode.

Here is the same view of Products display in “List” style with aggregates listed below it.

Next release is expected to go out before the end of the year with the following features in Touch UI:

• Blob Uploading.
• Enhanced Advanced Search.
• Support for many-to-many fields in search screens.
• Hyperlink fields will be displayed in context menus.

The upcoming update 8.0.9.0 will introduce numerous enhancements to the Touch UI in the apps created with Code On Time.

Application navigation menu is now displayed on the toolbar if a space is available. Multi-level navigation options are displayed on a single panel to simplify selection.

We have removed “Home” button and replaced it with standard “bars” commonly found in modern apps.  The button is now called “Menu”. The button is visible in the top left corner in the screen shot above.

Button “Menu” will display navigation menu options on a typical smartphone.

Button “Menu” will display only the basic menu options such as language selector, settings, and login/logout options on devices with larger screen .

The context menu button is now called “More”. It is displayed on right-most side of the toolbar when actions are available.  You can see the button in the screen shot above next to the search icon on the toolbar.

“More” button on the right side of the toolbar provides access to all actions that can be applied to the data view focused on the page. Actions with “Grid”,  “Action Column”, “Action Bar”, and “Form” scopes are rolled into a single set.  The slide-out panel is displayed on the right side of the screen when “More” button is pressed.

Developers can include custom actions in both “Menu” and “More” panels.

Rows of a grid will also display “More” button right after the first column. The next screen shot displays “More” button next to Company Name field value.

This button will open a context menu of the selected row. Actions with scopes “Grid” and “Action Column” are included the context menu.

“More” button is also displayed in the data cards of a list. It is displayed either in the top right corner or in the bottom right corner of a data card.

Summary master views and child views display action bar options. The child view with the list of Employees displays “New Employee”, “Edit”, “Delete”, “Actions”, and “Report” options. The buttons with text labels are automatically reduced to icons or hidden on narrow devices. The entire set of available actions is always accessible via “More” button displayed to the left of the view name.

Application framework now seamlessly integrates Bootstrap, the popular framework that makes it easy to define  responsive content. Here is an example of a dedicated login page based on Bootstrap. Learn about the framework at http://getbootstrap.com.