Application Builder

Code On Time web app generator has introduced impressive capabilities for rapid application development over the last year.

• Drag & Drop development is now fully supported in Project Designer.
• The application framework now includes a unified business rules engine. SQL, C#/Visual Basic, JavaScript, and Email business rules are supported.
• Dynamic Access Control Rules allow sophisticated data segregation based on arbitrary criteria.
• Virtualization of data controllers at runtime enables implementation of custom workflows.
• Custom Membership and Role Providers can be generated straight from the application database tables.
• RESTful Application Server component is included in the application framework to enable development of one-of-a-kind user interface while taking advantage of the generated code and customization.

We will continue introducing new easy-to-use features in the design environment and application framework.

The features will be delivered in three phases followed by an introduction of a new product, http://cloudontime.com.

Phase I

• Second Generation Data Sheet view with support for hierarchies, horizontal and vertical scrolling, column resizing, reordering and freezing is the industry’s first web grid that rivals features and performance of desktop implementations.
• Tools for Excel is a new design tool providing an alternative application development environment integrated in Microsoft Excel. Both beginners and power users will benefit from the ability to perform massive rapid changes to the project configuration elements.
• Mobile Client Library will enable creating a single web app that adapts its presentation on mobile and desktop devices. Existing web apps created with Unlimited edition of Code On Time will automatically take advantage of the new client library. Developers will have an option to introduce desktop-only and mobile-only pages.
• Multi-User Support in Designer will enable automated merging of designer transaction logs from multiple users.

These features will begin rolling out starting in February of 2013.

Phase II

• Support for ASP.NET 4.5 will be introduced in the application framework.
• DotNetNuke Factory will be updated to support DNN 7.
• BLOB Adapters will enable code-free configuration of binary content processing with externalized storage in the file system with optional image preprocessing. Windows Azure Storage will also be supported as a replacement for the file system.
• Native Import processor will handle uploaded files in CSV format without the need for Microsoft Access Database Engine to be deployed to the server.

Phase III

• Map View is a new view type that will enable presentation of data on Google Maps and Bing Maps.
• Enhanced Lookup Styles will enable “basket” presentation of many-to-many fields with extended item selectors.
• List View is a new view type that will enable presentation of multi-column lists of data items.
• Calendar View is a new view type that will enable presentation of data as a generic calendar with drag and drop support.

Cloud On Time

Adding a few extra ingredients to a live web app created with Code On Time can turn an application into a full-fledged Software-as-a-Service solution.

For the past year we have been developing enterprise-level tools to enable code-free implementation of Dynamic Access Control Rules and data controller Virtualization Rules. Both tools require additional tables to be included in the application database.  New view types finally allow us to create high quality administrative user interface for these tools.

One of the required ingredients of a SaaS solution is a content management system. A built-in CMS allows creating and managing virtual pages that can be stored alongside the Virtualization Rules.

Another ingredient is an online data controller designer. Such tool can be used to alter application data controllers at runtime and allow creating new ones. Our experience in developing the Project Designer built into the application generator shows that it can be accomplished with relative ease following the same model.

Combine all four ingredients together (Dynamic Access Control Rules, Virtualization Rules, Content Management System, and Online Data Controller Designer) in an Azure Factory project, and you will have an Online Application Builder hosted in Windows Azure Cloud.

How would one program a hosted web app with the Online Application Builder? Every app will be provided with a private Windows Azure SQL Database. SQL business rules and JavaScript business rules will be the two available programming facilities that will require no changes to the core application. The core application will have an embedded RESTful Application Server component to enable complex one-of-a-kind user interface development when needed.

Management tools for Dynamic Access Control Rules, Virtualization Rules, and Content Management System will be incorporated into the core application framework and become available to Code On Time developers shortly before Cloud On Time goes live.

It will be possible to export a hosted Cloud On Time web app to a private Cloud Factory project that will be supported in Code On Time web application generator.

The “Filter Expression” property allows limiting the records displayed in a specific view by an SQL compatible logical expression.

The default Orders grid view in a sample Northwind web application displays all orders.

Let’s create a new view by the name of “Orders This Month” that will only display orders placed in the current month.

Start the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab. Right-click on Orders / Views / grid1 node, and press Copy.

Right-click on Views, and press Paste. A duplicate of view “grid1” will be created.

The properties screen for the new view will be open in the Project Browser. Make the following changes:

Press OK to save. Double-click on Orders / Views / grid1 node.

Change the label:

Press OK to save. On the toolbar, press Browse.

Navigate to the Orders page. The All Orders view will continue to display an unfiltered list of orders.

Use the View Selector dropdown in the top-right corner to switch to the Orders This Month view. Only orders placed in the current month will be displayed.

When the command is configured in order to retrieve data from the database, the Filter Expression is parsed by the application framework and any standard filter operators will be replaced by the SQL equivalent. SQL compatible logical expressions may also be used. In the example above, the filter is passed to the application framework as the following:

$thismonth(OrderDate)

The framework converts the filter to the following where expression.

"Orders"."OrderDate" between @p0 and @p1

This expression is then inserted into the select command and passed to the server.

with page_cte__ as (
select
row_number() over (order by "Orders"."OrderID") as row_number__
,"Orders"."CustomerID" "CustomerID"
,"Orders"."EmployeeID" "EmployeeID"
,"Orders"."OrderDate" "OrderDate"
,"Orders"."RequiredDate" "RequiredDate"
,"Orders"."ShippedDate" "ShippedDate"
,"Orders"."ShipVia" "ShipVia"
,"Orders"."Freight" "Freight"
,"Orders"."ShipName" "ShipName"
,"Orders"."ShipAddress" "ShipAddress"
,"Orders"."ShipCity" "ShipCity"
,"Orders"."OrderID" "OrderID"
,"Customer"."CompanyName" "CustomerCompanyName"
,"Employee"."LastName" "EmployeeLastName"
,"ShipVia"."CompanyName" "ShipViaCompanyName"
from
"dbo"."Orders" "Orders"
    left join "dbo"."Customers" "Customer" on "Orders"."CustomerID" = "Customer"."CustomerID"
    left join "dbo"."Employees" "Employee" on "Orders"."EmployeeID" = "Employee"."EmployeeID"
    left join "dbo"."Shippers" "ShipVia" on "Orders"."ShipVia" = "ShipVia"."ShipperID"

where
(
("Orders"."OrderDate" between @p0 and @p1)
)
select * from page_cte__ where row_number__ > @PageRangeFirstRowNumber 
    and row_number__ <= @PageRangeLastRowNumber