Code On Time: Application Factory

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Application Factory

Wednesday, August 24, 2011Print Subscribe

Printing of Pictures, Upload/Download, Bug Fixes

The latest release 5.0.0.70 of Code On Time has introduced the following improvements and bug fixes:

Only one BLOB handler is registered even if more than one reference exists in the project fields.
Clearing of a blob will now clear the special fields <FieldName>ContentType, <FieldName>Length, <FieldName>FileName.
If a picture field is defined in a grid / data sheet view then it will be fitted proportionally to the available space. If multiple picture fields are present then all columns will fit in the dimensions of the page. This applies to ASP.NET 4.0 web apps only.
Upload/Download mechanism has been enhanced to support externalized storage of binary content. It is now possible to declare a placeholder field in a data controller and respond to UploadFile and DownloadFile commands in business rule methods to store the binary content outside of the database.

We are expecting to publish the second part of Upload/Download tutorial later today.

Code On Time will be offering two standard upload modules that will store any content in the file system or in Windows Azure Storage. The goal is to offer out of the box solution that requires zero coding.
An enhancement has been added to the business object builder to prefix aliases in automatically produced SQL statements embedded in the data controllers to prevent naming conflicts that may occur if a table has a column with the same name. We have further refined the enhancement to narrow its impact on existing projects.
Logging of messages produced during code generation has been changed to further increase speed of the process.
The ability to customize labels has been restored. You can enter FieldName=Label Text pairs on the Business Logic Layer page under Text Label Construction section.
Correct filter details are presented if you apply a filter to a Boolean field.

Labels: Application Factory, Azure, BLOB, Release Notes, Reports, Web App Generator

Tuesday, August 23, 2011Print Subscribe

Enhanced Charts, Sample Databases

New release of Code On Time web app generator includes a collection of bug fixes and enhancements.

Chart support was enhanced to allow X axes with grouping for data fields of type Date and DateTime. For example, create an ASP.NET 4.0 project with the sample Northwind database and activate Project Designer. Find Orders data controller on All Controllers tab and create a new view of type Chart. Configure the data fields of the chart as shown in the picture.

Generate the sample app and activate the new view. You will see a chart of orders groups by quarter. You can now print the chart by clicking on print icon in the pager area of the chart view.

It is now possible to create a database straight from the web app generator database connection configuration string.

Sample databases are support for MS SQL Server. For example, you can create Northwind sample with just a few clicks.

User interface of the Project Wizard has been changed to present Business Logic Layer, Membership and Authentication, and Features pages as tabbed views.

URL Hashing is the new EASE feature available in Unlimited edition. The purpose of this feature is to encrypt any hyperlinks produced by Navigate action, Hyperlink Format String, and History. URL Hashing will also ensure that any attempts to specify URL parameters other than _link or ReturnUrl will result in Access Denied message. This allows to provide assurance that only authorized commands are passed to the application. The tutorial will be available shortly.

New projects will not be trying to treat table/view names with “_” in them as the source of grouping schema. This property can be enabled on Features page if needed. Most developers will not want this feature to be enabled.

Repeating patterns of words in labels of the baseline app are now detected. The code generator will reduce any patters with up to four words.

The issue with master detail navigation and switching between grid and form views has been resolved.

Multiple selection in grid views with a single primary key will affect Report and Actions items on the action bar. Only selected records are included in the output of reports and export actions if a multi-row selection is detected.

SQL Server’s hierarchyid and geography fields are now correctly processed. It is now possible to create an application from Adventure Works 2008 R2 without any errors.

The bug with "View Details" arrow in Project Designer views has been fixed.

Check Box List now fully supports context fields, which allows implementing cascading dependencies on many-to-many fields.

Memory management in the code generator has been improved to further increase the speed of code generation. The benefits will be visible in Premium and Unlimited editions on quad-core machines.

Hyperlink Format String with lookups is working correctly with NULL values when Relationship Explorer or URL Hashing is enabled.

Rendering of an automatic report from the view with multiple image fields will result in a correctly generated report.

Labels: Application Factory, Charts, EASE, Release Notes, Web App Generator

Wednesday, July 27, 2011Print Subscribe

User ID/ Name Lookup, EASE, Access Control Rules, …

New update delivers the first component of EASE (Enterprise Application Services Engine). Use Access Control Rules to implement sophisticated data segmentation in multi-tenant applications.

Here is the list of the latest enhancements:

Access Control Rules are included in Premium and Unlimited edition.
Data controller fields can now be marked as “hidden” under General section of field’s property page in Project Designer. Hidden fields are included in all data views but not visible to end users. This feature may be useful in implementing application-wide access control rules.
Lookup fields with Items Style now support Copy property for multi-field copy. Read the access control rules tutorial to see an example.
It is now possible to create a user account straight from a lookup field with Items Style of User Id Lookup or User Name Lookup. Only users authorized to access membership manager will be able to create new user accounts. See access control rules tutorial for an example.
Component DataViewTextBox now correctly refers to the new Ajax Control Toolkit implementation of Auto Complete Behavior. See example at /blog/2010/03/custom-search-bar-with-auto-complete.html.
Significant enhancements to the speed of code generation. Web App Generator creates code up to 40% faster.
Sandbox project in Web App Factory now has its own AssemblyInfo.* file to prevent MSBuild "fatal error" in the progress log.
Controller.cs(vb) has been split in 4 files to improve the speed of code generation and simplify maintenance.

Labels: Application Factory, EASE, Release Notes, Web App Generator