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Application Factory
Thursday, September 22, 2016PrintSubscribe
Geocoding

Geocoding is the process of capturing an address and converting it to exact latitude and longitude coordinates. Starting with release 8.5.11.0, apps generated with Code On Time now support automatic geocoding of address fields with the proper tags, as well as a Geocode() method available in C# or Visual Basic business rules.

Example of result from Geocode method.

Please make sure to follow Google Maps APIs Terms Of Service. Of note is section 10.5.d, which restricts long-term storage of Content.

Both methods below require addition of a Maps API Identifier. The following examples will use a modified version of the Employees table from the Northwind sample project. Use the following script to add the required columns before creating the project.

ALTER TABLE Employees
ADD Latitude decimal(9, 6) NULL,
    Longitude decimal(9, 6) NULL

If using an existing project, make sure to refresh the application after executing the script. Then, open the model for Employees and check the checkbox next to the three new fields to include them in the Employees controller.

Geocoding with Tags

The easiest way to geocode a set of address fields is to tag the source and destination data fields in the view. If the correct fields are tagged, the values will be geocoded when the user saves a new record or updates an existing record. When updating an existing record, the geocode request will only be sent if at least one of the source fields has been modified, in order to avoid extraneous API requests.

Let’s add the relevant tags to start geocoding employees.

Start the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, double-click on “Employees / container1 / view1 (Employees, grid1) / createForm1 / c1 – New Employees / Address” data field node.

Selecting the Address data field of createForm1 view of Employees controller.

Make the following change:

Property Value
Tags geocode-address

Press OK to save the data field. Use the above procedure to make the changes below:

Data Field Tag
City geocode-city
Region geocode-region
PostalCode geocode-zip
Country geocode-country
Latitude geocode-latitude
Longitude geocode-longitude

On the toolbar, press Browse. When the application opens in the default browser, create a new employee.

Entering a new employee.

Upon pressing Save, the geocode request will be sent. If a result is returned, the new employee record will have updated Latitude and Longitude fields.

The Latitude and Longitude fields have been updated.

Geocoding in C#/Visual Basic Business Rules

The tag method explained in the previous section is convenient for automatic update of Latitude and Longitude fields. However, if the latitude and longitude need to be used in a calculation, the Geocode() business rule method can be used. Let’s add a business rule that utilizes this method to geocode the employee’s address and show an alert with the resulting latitude and longitude.

In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab. Right-click on “Employees / Actions / ag4 (ActionBar) – Edit/Delete” and press New Action.

Adding a new action to Employees controller.

Specify the following properties and press OK to save the new action.

Property Value
Command Name Custom
Command Argument ShowLatLong
Header Text Show Lat/Long
When Key Selected Yes

Next, right-click on “Employees / Business Rules” node, and press New Business Rule.

Adding a new business rule to Employees controller.

Configure the rule as following:

Property Value
Type C# / Visual Basic
Command Name Custom
Command Argument ShowLatLong
Phase Execute

Press OK to save the new business rule. Then, press Browse on the toolbar to generate the application, as well as create the relevant business rule file.

When complete, press “Edit Rule” on the action bar to open the file in Visual Studio.

Editing the rule in Visual Studio.

Replace the contents of the file with the following:

C#:

using MyCompany.Data;
using MyCompany.Models;

namespace MyCompany.Rules
{
    public partial class EmployeesBusinessRules : MyCompany.Data.BusinessRules
    {
        
        /// <summary>
        /// This method will execute in any view for an action
        /// with a command name that matches "Custom" and argument that matches "ShowLatLong".
        /// </summary>
        [Rule("r100")]
        public void r100Implementation(EmployeesModel instance)
        {

            decimal latitude;
            decimal longitude;

            // join address parts with "," separator
            string address = string.Join(",", instance.Address, instance.City, 
                instance.Region, instance.PostalCode, instance.Country);

            if (Geocode(address, out latitude, out longitude))
            {
                Result.ShowAlert("Latitude: " + latitude + ", Longitude: " + longitude);
            }
            else
            {
                Result.ShowAlert("Geocode failed to resolve address.");
            }
        }
    }
}

Visual Basic:

Imports MyCompany.Data
Imports MyCompany.Models

Namespace MyCompany.Rules
    
    Partial Public Class EmployeesBusinessRules
        Inherits MyCompany.Data.BusinessRules
        
        ''' <summary>
        ''' This method will execute in any view for an action
        ''' with a command name that matches "Custom" and argument that matches "ShowLatLong".
        ''' </summary>
        <Rule("r100")>  _
        Public Sub r100Implementation(ByVal instance As EmployeesModel)
            Dim latitude As Decimal
            Dim longitude As Decimal

            ' join address parts with "," separator
            Dim address = String.Join(",", instance.Address, instance.City,
                            instance.Region, instance.PostalCode, instance.Country)

            If (Geocode(address, latitude, longitude)) Then
                Result.ShowAlert("Latitude: " & latitude & ", Longitude: " & longitude)
            Else
                Result.ShowAlert("Geocode failed to resolve address.")
            End If
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace

Switch back to the application running in your default browser, and navigate to the Employees page. Ctrl+click on a row to highlight the row. On the toolbar, press  “Show Lat/Long”.

Activating the "Show Lat/Long" custom action.

A message box will be displayed with the employee’s latitude and longitude.

The popup shows the returned latitude and longitude.

Friday, August 26, 2016PrintSubscribe
Converting Mobile and Azure Factory Projects

As of Release 8.5.10.0, Mobile Factory and Azure Factory project types have been retired.

Both Web Site and Web App Factory projects offer the ability to use Touch UI as well as deploy to Azure. In addition, Azure Factory was built around the “Cloud Service” Azure resource type, which has been marked as “Classic” at the time of this writing.

It will not be possible to create new projects of these types. The app generator will continue to provide support for existing projects created with these project types. However, it is strongly recommended to migrate away from these project types in order to gain access to new features in future releases.

Migrating a Mobile Factory Project to Web Site Factory

Mobile Factory projects were originally based on Web Site Factory, with “Desktop” user interface disabled. Therefore, it is quite easy to migrate a project to Web Site Factory.

Open the app generator. In your list of projects, click on the project name, and press Open.

Opening the project folder for a mobile factory project.

This will open the project folder in File Explorer. Click on the “Up” arrow on the navigation bar to move to the parent directory.

Moving to the parent directory.

Right-click on the project and press “Cut”, or check the box next to the project folder and press “Cut” button on the ribbon.

Cutting the project folder.

Click on the “Up” arrow to navigate to the parent directory “Projects”. If a “Web Site Factory” folder does not exist, create the folder now.

Right-click on the “Web Site Factory” folder, and press Paste, or click once on the folder and press the “Paste” button on the ribbon.

Pasting the project folder into Web Site Factory folder.

Switch back to the list of projects in the app generator. Press “F5” to refresh the page. Notice that the project is now of type “Web Site Factory”.

The Mobile Factory has been converted to a Web Site Factory project.

Proceed to generate the application.

Converting Azure Factory to Web Site Factory

Azure Factory projects are more complicated than Mobile Factory projects. In order to convert these types of projects, multiple files and folders will need to be moved. Follow the table below in order to properly convert your project to Web Site Factory:

Source Destination
~/Azure Factory/[Project]/Application.Log.xml ~/Web Site Factory/[Project]/Application.Log.xml
~/Azure Factory/[Project]/Controllers.Log.xml ~/Web Site Factory/[Project]/Controllers.Log.xml
~/Azure Factory/[Project]/DataAquarium.Project.xml ~/Web Site Factory/[Project]/DataAquarium.Project.xml
~/Azure Factory/[Project]/DataAquarium.Version.xml ~/Web Site Factory/[Project]/DataAquarium.Version.xml
~/Azure Factory/[Project]/DataAquarium.Log.xml ~/Web Site Factory/[Project]/DataAquarium.Log.xml
~/Azure Factory/[Project]/[Namespace]/Controllers ~/Web Site Factory/[Project]/WebSite/Controllers
~/Azure Factory/[Project]/[Namespace]/Views ~/Web Site Factory/[Project]/WebSite/Views
~/Azure Factory/[Project]/[Namespace]/Rules ~/Web Site Factory/[Project]/WebSite/App_Code/Rules
~/Azure Factory/[Project]/WebRole1/Controls ~/Web Site Factory/[Project]/WebSite/Controls
~/Azure Factory/[Project]/WebRole1/Pages ~/Web Site Factory/[Project]/WebSite/Pages

In addition, any other custom files such as classes and stylesheets will need to be moved to the corresponding location in the destination folder. It may be necessary to link these files to the solution after generation.

Once all files have been moved, switch back to the app generator and press F5 to refresh the list of projects. Click on the project name and press “Refresh”. Proceed to generate the application.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016PrintSubscribe
Batch Edit, Surveys, Universal Input, Date Processing.

Please take a look at the Roadmap for 2016/ 2017. It covers the next six months of the development cycle.

Numerous new features and bug fixes are included in the release 8.5.10.0.

Batch Edit

This release re-introduces Batch Edit capability in both Desktop UI and Touch UI applications. If multiple selection is enabled and two or more rows are selected then Batch Edit command becomes availabe in the context menu of data rows.

image

Select the menu option and a standard form will display a list of fields.

image

Specify the field values and choose Update Selection to update the selected data rows. A similar dialog is displayed in Desktop UI.

For the feature to work, you must enable Multi-Selection. Also specify an action with the command name set to “BatchEdit” in the group with the “Row” context. If there is no argument then the “grid1” will become the source of fields. If  you have a form with a large number of fields then specify the form view ID in the action argument. For example, try editForm1.

You can also enable Batch Edit everywhere if you set the corresponding option in the Grid Properties of Features section in your project settings. Make sure to refresh the project and the Batch Edit action will be added to all data controllers.

Surveys

The dynamically created Batch Edit form is implemented as a data controller produced on demand with the help of the new technology called Survey Controller.  We will post a tutorial explaining how to work with the survery controllers. See the rodmap for more details.

In the future releases, we will utilize survey controllers to re-implement several features in the Touch UI:

  • Advanced Search
  • Field-Level Search
  • Import
  • Standard Calendar Event Dialog

Survey controllers can be used as replacements for “confirmation” data controllers. Here is an example of a confirmation survey controller that allows selecting Customer, Order, and Order Detail.

image

All questions asked in the survey are accessible to the server-side business rules with the “Parameters_” prefix.

This is the defintion of the controller stored in ~/scripts/surveys/ThreeLevelMD.js file:

image

The survery will be loaded and displayed for any action if you specify the following in the Confimation property of the action.

_survery=ThreeLevelMD

 

You will be suprised to learn that the new “survey” controller is essentially a repackaged version of XML data controllers. The difference is only in the language used to define it.

Code On Time v9 will introduce the visual designer that will enable drag & drop development of traditional and “survery” data controllers.

The roadmap provides some additonal insights into our wide-ranging plans for the surveys.

Universal Input

Countless enhanements are made to Touch UI.  Continue reading to learn more about individual capabilities and bug fixes.

We would like to highlight the ability to create new items directly from with the list inputs with the style of items set as List Box, Radio Button List, and Check Box List. The option is shown as the last item of Category Name in the screenshot.

image

Note that the lookups with Drop Down List style have a distinctive icon as shown in Discontinued field. Users can select items with Up and Down keys, via auto-complete, or via direct selection of options from the menu.

All inputs now provide excellent support for keyboard data entry and navigation.

Make sure to clear New Data View property of lookup fields with these presentation styles if you do not want your users to create new items.

Retired Project Types

We have retired Azure Factory and Mobile Factory projects. Microsoft considers Cloud Service apps to be in the legacy category. We recommend creating standard Web App Factory projects instead.

Mobile Factory projects are effectively Web Site Factory projects minus the ability to display Desktop UI. We have removed this project type from the menu of new projects.

Any existing projects of the retired types will still work. We recommend considering a conversion to the remaining project types.

Date Time Processing

We have completely re-designed handling of dates to eliminate any issued with the time zones.

Features and Enhancements

The list of features and enhancements introduced in relese 8.5.10.0 is presented below.

  • Visible When for data fields and categories is now fully supported in Touch UI. We have a brand new implementation designed specifically for the Universal Input controls.
  • Read Only When for data fields is now fully supported in Touch UI.
  • BLOB utility fields are correctly captured in Touch UI.
  • GEO utility fields are correctly captured in Touch UI.
  • Collapsible categories are now collapsing in Touch UI in response to user actions and when configured in Project Designer.
  • Touch UI now supports Causes Calculate with Universal Input.
  • Touch UI now supports cascading lookups with Universal Input.
  • JavaScript business rules do not trigger recursive Calculate in Touch UI.
  • JavaScript business rules of confirmation controllers can refernce the current row data fields as $current.FieldName.
  • Tab selection remains when user switches between read and write mode in a form in Touch UI.
  • Llong text fields and many-to-many fields have a 40 column minimum width in grid in Touch UI.
  • Ttooltip remains next to the input field when the page has been scrolled to set the focus in Touch UI.
    Touch UI correctly handles "_blank:" prefix in Hyperlink Format String property of data fields.
  • Method RefreshChildren works correctly in Touch UI and modal forms of Desktop UI.
  • Sidebar calendar remains inactive until it becomes visible.
  • Multi-selection mode does not reset selected row when activated more than once.
  • Fixed JavaScript business rule compilation issues related to field references.
  • Automatic configuration of "Copy" property now ensures fields are copied, even when lookup contains self-referring FK.
  • Model Builder no longer creates lookups if the field is borrowed from a different table.
  • Capture of exception on Windows 10 Build 1607.
  • Removed dependency on MSXML6.dll fromt he app generator.
  • User theme is now stored in cookie.
  • Touch UI themes are now served individually based on browser cookie.
  • ApplicationServices.UserTheme property added.
  • Web App Factory contains proper DLLs for ReportViewer.
  • DataView fields are hidden in grid1 and createForm1 at rutnime.
  • Added 'calendar-drag-disabled' tag to disable dragging in Calendar view.
  • Added "Normalize Model Names" checkbox to allow disabling removal of underscores and other non-word characters.
  • Fixed issue with "Edit Rule" in Visual Studio not looking in correct folder.
  • Touch UI  enables Google Maps for localhost only. Any production deployments now require a Google API key due to the policy changes by Google Inc.