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Wednesday, February 1, 2017PrintSubscribe
New Theme Engine in Touch UI 2017

A new theme engine in Touch UI is included with the release 8.5.12.0. The brand new themes provide a modern look-and-feel for your line-of-business universal apps. Designed to work with both Desktop and Mobile devices, Touch UI offers a universal solution to application developers. Your end users can point with a mouse or a stylus and click or touch the responsive user interface elements.

The user inteface is customized with themes and accents. A theme provides the main color scheme. An accent provides additional color adjustments. The themes are CSS-based. The new release will ship with a single Light theme.  Additonal core schemes are expected to become available in the future. Accents are JSON files describing particular colors and other properties that will customize the theme. Release 8.5.12.0. ships with 35 accents. Developers can make a copy of any existing *.json accent under ~/touch folder and replace the colors with those that are matching the application requirements. Developers can standardize on a particular theme and accent for their app by deleting the standard themes and accents that are not needed.  The upcoming CoT v9 will also include an interactive theme builder that will allow producing custom accents within the live app.

The screenshots of the new Light theme with Citrus accent are below.

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This is the new Azure accent for the Light theme:

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The new Grapello accent in Light theme in the screenshot showing a modal form:

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The new Plastic accent demonstrates interactive filtering in Light theme:

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The new Berry accent demonstrates the view selector in Light theme:

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This is the Light theme with Dark Knight accent on a small screen:

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The user interface theme is constructed at runtime by applying properties defined in the JSON configuration of the accent to the chosen color scheme of the theme.

This is the actual configuration file for the Citrus theme.  You can create a new accent by making a copy of an existing one and replacing it’s colors.

JSON:

{
  "name": "Citrus",
  "color": "#FFA500",
  "header": {
    "background": "orange",
    "backgroundTransparent": "transparent",
    "border": "#FFA500",
    "paddingTop": 0,
    "icon": {
      "default": "#000",
      "hover": null,
      "selected": null,
      "backgroundOpacity": null
    },
    "text": {
      "default": "#000",
      "hover": null,
      "logo": null,
      "hoverBackground": "rgba(0,0,0,0.05)",
      "selectedBackground": "rgba(0,0,0,0.08)"
    },
    "split": {
      "background": null,
      "icon": { "default": null }
    }
  },
  "panel": {
    "icon": {
      "default": "#0a6332",
      "hover": "#003D00",
      "selected": null
    }
  },
  "buttons": {
    "promo": {
      "background": "#FFA500",
      "icon": {
        "default": "#000"
      },
      "menu": {
        "icon": {
          "default": null,
          "hover": null
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "sidebar": {
    "full": {
      "background": "#0a6332",
      "border": "#0a6332",
      "selectedColor": "#fff",
      "text": {
        "default": "#eee",
        "hover": "#fff",
        "active": null,
        "static": "#80ba99"
      },
      "icon": {
        "default": "#fff",
        "hover": "#FFA500",
        "active": null
      },
      "toolbar": {
        "background": "#0a6332",
        "border": "#0a6332",
        "selectedColor": "#fff",
        "icon": {
          "default": "#fff",
          "hover": "#FFA500",
          "active": null
        }
      }
    },
    "mini": {
      "background": "#0a6332",
      "border": "#0a6332",
      "selectedColor": "#fff",
      "icon": {
        "default": "#fff",
        "hover": "#FFA500",
        "active": null
      },
      "toolbar": {
        "background": "#0a6332",
        "border": "#0a6332",
        "selectedColor": "#fff",
        "icon": {
          "default": "#fff",
          "hover": "#FFA500",
          "active": null
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

 

The user interface elements and behavior are customized via the new ~/touch-settings.json configuration file in apps created with Code on Time 8.5.12.0.

JSON:

{
  "defaultUI": "TouchUI",
  "appName": "Inventory Manager",
  "map": {
    "apiKey": null
  },
  "charts": {
    "maxPivotRowCount": 100
  },
  "ui": {
    "theme": {
      "name": "Light",
      "accent": "Aquarium",
      "preview": null
    },
    "displayDensity": {
      "mobile": "Auto",
      "desktop": "Condensed"
    },
    "list": {
      "labels": {
        "display": "DisplayedBelow"
      },
      "initialMode": "SeeAll"
    },
    "menu": {
      "location": "toolbar",
      "tiles": null
    },
    "actions": {
      "promote": true
    },
    "transitions": {
      "style": "slide"
    },
    "sidebar": {
      "when": "Landscape",
      "mini": true,
      "apps": true,
      "toolbar": true,
      "icons": true
    },
    "toolbar": {
      "apps": true
    },
    "apps": {
      "location": "toolbar"
    },
    "showSystemButtons": null,
    "smartDates": true
  },
  "settings": {
    "enabled": true,
    "options": {
      "displayDensity": true,
      "theme": true,
      "transitions": true,
      "sidebar": true,
      "labelsInList": true,
      "showSystemButtons": true,
      "promoteActions": true,
      "smartDates": true,
      "initialListMode": true
    }
  },
  "membership": {
    "enabled": null,
    "profile": "view switch login logout",
    "help": true,
    "accountManager": {
      "enabled": true
    }
  },
  "help": true
}

Monday, January 23, 2017PrintSubscribe
Identity Manager for Web and Mobile Apps

The user identity manager comes standard in applications created with Code On Time starting with the release 8.5.12.0.

User context menu in the app with Touch UI 2017 created with Code On Time.

The account management screen enables users to switch identity at will. Account Manager may optionally store encrypted login token to enable automatic login on mobile and desktop devices. Users can see all stored identities and have them removed as needed. Issued login tokens can be also invalidated remotely. Every signing into the app will create a fresh “login” token, which replaces the last used for the user name.

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New accounts (logins) can be added directly in the account manager.

Login in an app with Touch UI 2017.

Account Manager works on any form factor:

Account Manager in the app with Touch UI on a mobile device.

The devices with the small form factor will display the current user identity in the “hamburger” menu.

Current user identity is displayed in the "hamburger" menu.   

User identity management options available through the "hamburger" menu.

Offline applications created with Code On Time are passing the  login token in the header of requests to read/write data. Offline app pages are stored directly in the device and cannot pariticipate in the session management of the server-side application components. Thus every request needs to provide an authentication information to access protected resources.

This new mechanism replaces persistent identity cookies of ASP.NET, whcih have been previously used for persistent login in apps created with Code On Time.

The accounts start being persisted on the device when the user selects “Remember me next time” option on the login screen. New touch-settins.json configuration file provides an easy way to disable account manager when needed.

Friday, January 20, 2017PrintSubscribe
Configuring SharePoint Web Part

Starting in release 8.5.12.0, Code On Time web applications created with Premium or Unlimited can operate in Software-as-a-Service mode. Give access to your line-of-business web app from SharePoint Online using this mode. User will be authenticated by SharePoint, and logged into the app as a user account with matching identity. If a user account with username equal to the email address of the SharePoint user is not found, then a new user record will be created. The user’s password and password answer will be randomly generated, to ensure that it is impossible to sign in directly without being authenticated by SharePoint. User roles are synchronized with the groups of the SharePoint identity upon every sign in.

Please note that it is highly recommended to deploy your app with SSL – otherwise, browsers must be placed in “low-security” mode in order for the web part to work.

We provide a free add-in for SharePoint, called Data Connector for Cloud On Time. The purpose of this add-in is to allow easy integration of Code On Time and Cloud On Time applications into SharePoint websites.

Installing the Add-In

The first step to configuring the Data Connector for Cloud On Time add-in is to install the app to your SharePoint site.

Navigate to your SharePoint site, and log in. In the top right corner, press the Gear icon and press “Add an app”.

Adding an app to the site.

On the left side of the screen, press “SharePoint Store”.

Adding an app from the SharePoint Store.

In the search box, paste “WA104380704” and press “Enter” on your keyboard. Select the app from the list.

Finding the Data Connector for Cloud On Time app in the SharePoint Store.

Press the “ADD IT” button to install the app to your SharePoint site.

Adding the Data Connector for Cloud On Time app in the SharePoint Store.

Once complete, a confirmation screen will be shown. Press “Return to site”.

The app has been installed.

Finally, press “Trust It” to finish installation.

Trusting the app.

Adding the Web Part to a Page

Once the add-in has been installed, the “Data Connector for Cloud On Time” web part can be added to any page of your site.  The following instructions explain how you can create a new page and connect an existing Code On Time or Cloud On Time application to your SharePoint instance.

Navigate to the home page of the SharePoint site, click the “PAGE” tab of the ribbon at the top of the screen, and select “View All Pages”.

Selecting 'View All Pages' of the SharePoint site.

Next, select “New” on the toolbar, and choose “Wiki Page”.

Adding a new Wiki Page to the site.

Give the page a name and press “Create”.

Giving the wiki page a name.

After pressing “Create”, you will navigate to the new page. On the ribbon at the top of the screen, select the “INSERT” tab and press “App Part”. Pick “Data Connector for Cloud On Time” from the list of parts, and press “Add”.

Inserting the "Data Connector For Cloud On Time" web part to the page.

The web part will be added to the page.

The "Data Connector For Cloud On Time" web part has been added to the page.

Registering The App

The next step is to register the app in order to enable your web application to authenticate users and query user groups. Click on the “REGISTER YOUR APP” link displayed in the default web part contents, or navigate to “https://mysite.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/AppRegNew.aspx”, making sure to replace the root with your SharePoint site URL.

Press “Generate” next to Client Id and Client Secret fields to generate new values. Enter a title for the app, and specify the app domain. The Redirect URI must be equal to the app domain with the path “appservices/saas/sharepoint” appended to the end.

Specifying the new app registration properties.

Press “Create” to complete the app registration. Make sure to copy the registration details from this screen, as shown below.

Copying the app registration properties.

Next, navigate to your Cloud On Time or Code On Time application, sign in as a user with administrative role, and navigate to your Site Content page. Create a new record with the following properties. The Text property can be composed from the text copied from SharePoint, with the Client Uri added on the next line.

Property Value
Name sharepoint
Path sys/saas
Text

Client Id:
aaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa 
Client Secret:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/aaaaaaaaaaaa= 
Title:
Northwind Demo 
App Domain:
demo.codeontime.com 
Redirect URI:
https://demo.codeontime.com/northwind/appservices/saas/sharepoint
Client Uri:
codeontime.sharepoint.com

Press OK to save the service registration.

It is necessary to associate a system identity to the registration in order to synchronize user roles with their assigned SharePoint groups. Select the row one more time, and press “Add System Identity”.

Adding system identity to the sharepoint registration.

You will be required to sign in and “Trust” the app. Make sure to log in with an administrative SharePoint account. Upon completion, you will be transferred back to the Site Content page, and the SharePoint registration record will be updated with the granted access token.

Configuring the Web Part

Return back to SharePoint and continue configuration of the web part. In the top-right corner of the web part, press the down chevron and select “Edit Web Part”.

Editing the web part properties.

The web part properties window will open. Under “Appearance” section, change Chrome State to “None”. Expand the “Software as a Service” section, and specify the URL of your cloud app in the Cloud property. Optionally specify a Start Page or disable the navigation.

Editing the web part properties.

Press OK to save changes.

Using the Web Part

If the registration has been configured correctly, the Cloud On Time or Code On Time application will load in the web part zone. This application will “talk” directly to your SharePoint instance via OAuth protocol to obtain the user name, email, and groups. The result of this conversation is a prompt displayed to the end user asking to trust the application.

Web part displaying permission request.

If the user presses “Trust It”, then the application will sign the user in with the user’s SharePoint identity, and assign their groups as roles to that user. The user will then be redirected to the start page specified in the web part properties.

The web part navigated to the correct page in SaaS mode, with user and roles automatically created.

Cloud On Time For SharePoint privacy policy can be found here.

Continue to Announcing COT v9