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Posts from October, 2017
Monday, October 16, 2017PrintSubscribe
Rich Text in Touch UI

By default any HTML content stored in the database table column will be displayed in the raw format with the tags plainly visible to the end user. Rich text mode will force the framework to prevent encoding of the values and let the browser to render the content with the formatting. Property Text Mode of a data field  enables rich text formatting when set to Rich Text. End users will have access to the text formatting options available on the special toolbar displayed when the field is focused on the form.

Rich Text Editor in apps with Touch UI.

The formatted text will also be visible in the Grid and List view styles.

Rich Text formatting in visible in Grid and List styles in apps created with Code On Time.

If the Text Mode is set to the default value, then the formatting tags are revealed as plain text.

By default Rich Text formatting tags are revealed in plain form.

Button “…” displayed on the right side of the formatting toolbar will bring up a full list of formatting commands available to the user.

The panel of RTF options activated from the built-in RTF editor in apps with Touch UI.

Developers control the Richt Text Format (RTF) toolbar with the tags assigned to the data field.

Tag rtf-frame will display a frame around the field content when the focus is received.

A frame may optional surround the boundaries of Rich Text in apps with Touch UI.

Tag rtf-toolbar-location-bottom will set the preferred location of the formatting tollbar to be at the bottom of the field in the form. This option may prove to be useful when implementing messaging forms with the the recepient and subject displayed above the field value.

An optional location as the bottom can be specified for RTF fields in apps with Touch UI.

Note that the framework will move the toolbar above or below the field boundaries as the user scrolls the contents of the form. The text boundaries will grow as the user types in more content.

Tag rtf-editor will force a dedicated editor form to be displayed when user activated the field with the Text Mode set to  Rich Text. This mode may help when a long text is expected to be entered as the field value. User can press Ctrl+Enter keyboard shortcut to save the contents when edting is finished to retun to the data form.

A dedicated rich text editor form can be activated by default or when user preses F11 while editing RTF text in apps with Touch UI.

Tag rtf-editor-fullscreen will display a fullscreen editor window upon activation.

A fullscreen editor can be specified as the default editing option in apps with Touch UI created with Code On Time app generator.

The dedicated editor form can be activated by pressing F11 when the rtf-editor tag is not specified and the focus is on the Rich Text field.

Individual commands on the toolbar can be controlled by providing a combination of rtf-command-(command-name) tags. For example, if a limited text formating is desired then rtf-command-bold rtf-command-italic rtf-command-insertUnorderedList combination of tags will transform the formatting toolbar as follows.

Developers have a control over RTF formatting commands in apps created with Touch UI.

The complete list of supported formatting commands is presented in the table.

Tag Description
rtf-command-formatBlock-p Formats text as a paragraph. This option is avialable in under Format drop down on the toolbar.
rtf-command-formatBlock-blockquote Format text as a quotation. This option is avialable in under Format drop down on the toolbar.
rtf-command-formatBlock-h1 Format text as Heading 1. This option is avialable in under Format drop down on the toolbar.
rtf-command-formatBlock-h2 Format text as Heading 2. This option is avialable in under Format drop down on the toolbar.
rtf-command-formatBlock-h3 Format text as Heading 3. This option is avialable in under Format drop down on the toolbar.
rtf-command-formatBlock-h4 Format text as Heading 4. This option is avialable in under Format drop down on the toolbar.
rtf-command-formatBlock-h5 Format text as Heading 5. This option is avialable in under Format drop down on the toolbar.
rtf-command-formatBlock-h6 Format text as Heading 6. This option is avialable in under Format drop down on the toolbar.
rtf-command-bold Format text as bold.
rtf-command-italic Format text as italic.
rtf-command-underline Format text as underlined.
rtf-command-strikethrough Format text with a strike through.
rtf-command-insertUnorderedList Format selected text as unoredered list or start a new unordered list.
rtf-command-insertOrderedList Format selected text as ordered list or start a new oredered list.
rtf-command-justifyLeft Align the selected text to the left.
rtf-command-justifyCenter Align the selected text to the center.
rtf-command-justifyRight Alight the selected text to the right.
rtf-command-justifyFull Justify the text to fill the full width of text boundaries.
rtf-command-indent Increase indentation of the text on the left side.
rtf-command-outdent Decrease indentation of the text on the left side.
rtf-command-removeFormat Remove formatting from the selected text.
rtf-command-rtf-editor Enables an option to activate a dedicated editor for the field content.

Additional formatting commands will be available in the future releases. Don’t hesisitate to contact customer support if specific formatting options are desired.

The implementation of rich text formatting is based on the native content editing capabilities of the modern browsers. Applicaiton frameowork will use P tag to format paragraphs accross different platforms and strip all formatting when the text is pasted from the clipboard. The implementation of rich formatting is touch friendly. The new RTF editing support will be also utilized in the upcoming page builder of the built-in Content Management System (CMS) available in the apps created with Code On Time.

Note that variations in the implementations of content editing by browser vendors may produce a slightly different formatting output but appear the same to the end users on different platforms. An attempt to provide a unified formatting across various platforms will require creating a full featured document editor, which is not an easy task.

There are great RTF editors out there. Many of them are with a permissive licensing. Some of the editors are already providing a decent touch-friendly user interface. We will be integrating support for the leading solutions in the future implementations of the framework. Custom RTF editors are equipped with their own extensive user interface. Therefore we will be offering external RTF editor integration as dedicated forms via rtf-editor tag extensions. External editors will display on top of the forms. If you would like to sponsor an integration of a particular RTF editing framework, then please contact customer support to request a quote.

Monday, September 18, 2017PrintSubscribe
Executing Requests with the Client API

All apps created with Code On Time app generator contain a single client-side API used for all server-side operations, including Select, Insert, Update, Delete, Report, Batch Edit, etc. One significant advantage of using a centralized API is that any style of user interface is able to access the same API – this has allowed the co-development of Classic and Touch UI.

Another major advantage in the client-side API is that developers are able to extend their apps with custom behavior utilizing the same data access routines – any access control rules, data controller customizations, and security restrictions will also equally apply to these custom requests.

To access the client API from custom JavaScript, simply call the method $app.execute(options) with the required parameters set on the options object. See a list of available options parameters below.

Property Description Default Value
controller The controller to direct the request to. (required)
view The view of the controller to use. grid1
done
success
Callback function when the request was send and received successfully. First argument contains the results. List of records can be found under the result property equal to the name of the controller.
fail
error
Callback function when the request failed.
command The name of the command to execute. “Select”
argument The argument of the command to execute.
lastCommand The last command name.
lastCommandArgument The last command argument.
pageSize The number of records to return in a single page. 100
pageIndex The page number to return. 0
filter An array of field filter objects. Each object must have 3 properties:
- “field” specifies the field name
- “operation” specifies the filter operation to perform
- “value” specifies the value of the filter. For operations with two operands (such as “between”), specify an array of two values.
values An array of field value objects. Each object can have the following properties:
- “name” specifies the name of the field matching the one defined in the controller.
- “value” specifies the current value of the field.
- “newValue” specifies the new value.
- “modified” specifies that the new value will be used in any Insert or Update expressions. Setting “newValue” will set “modified” to true by default.
selectedValues An array of strings that contain the primary keys of the selected records. Used for batch update.
tags Specify a list of tags that can be processed on the server.
requiresData Specifies if data should be returned to the client. true
requiresAggregates Specifies if aggregates defined on the view should be returned with the request. false
fieldFilter Specifies a list of fields to include in the response for each record. Not setting this value will return all fields.
format Specifies if field values should be formatted when the results are returned. true
includeRawResponse Specifies if the result should include the raw response in the rawResponse property. false

The simplest way to test your queries is to use the Developer Tools Console, available in most modern browsers.

First, browse to your running site in your favorite browser. Press “F12” to bring up Developer Tools. Switch to the Console tab.

Using the Console tab of Developer Tools to test the $app.execute() API.

You may now begin typing in $app.execute() requests in the console. Note the use of console.log(result), which will print the JavaScript object to the console when the request returns.

The following examples will use the online Northwind sample.

Select

The simplest use case for using the API is to request a page of data. See the following example below on how to fetch the first 10 records from the Orders table where the field “ShipCountry” is equal to “USA”.

$app.execute({
    controller: 'Orders',
    pageSize: 10,
    filter: [
        { field: 'ShipCountry', operator: '=', value: 'USA' }
    ],
    done: function (result) {
        console.log(result);
    }
})

The result shown in the Developer Tools Console.

Selecting 10 orders with a filter.

Insert

In order to insert records to a particular table, the request must specify the “Insert” command and a list of field values. This list is represented by the values property. Each field value object contains a field name. Values that will be assigned to the new record are stored in the field value’s newValue property. The primary key of the table is added as a field value object with the property value equal to null in order for the response to return the new primary key of the inserted record.

$app.execute({
    controller: 'Orders',
    command: 'Insert',
    values: [
        { name: 'OrderID', value: null },
        { name: 'ShipCity', newValue: 'San Diego' },
        { name: 'ShipCountry', newValue: 'USA' }
    ],
    done: function (result) {
        console.log(result);
    }
})

See the results below.

Inserting a record using the $app.execute() API.

Refreshing the view in the browser window will reveal the new record.

The new record is displayed in the grid.

Update

When performing operations on an existing record, either the primary key or an array of selected values must be specified. New field values must be specified in the newValue property.

$app.execute({
    controller: 'Orders',
    command: 'Update',
    values: [
        { name: 'OrderID', value: 11083 },
        { name: 'OrderDate', newValue: new Date() }
    ],
    done: function (result) {
        console.log(result);
    }
})

The result is shown below.

Updating an order via the $app.execute() API.

The result can be seen by refreshing the list of orders.

The updated field value is visible by refreshing the page.

Delete

Delete operations must specify the primary key in the values array.

$app.execute({
    controller: 'Orders',
    command: 'Delete',
    values: [
        { name: 'OrderID', value: 11079 }
    ],
    done: function (result) {
        console.log(result);
    }
})

See result below.

Deleting a record.

The rowsAffected property will be equal to “1” if the record was successfully deleted.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017PrintSubscribe
CMS (Site Content) & OAuth Registration Form

Open Authentication (OAuth) allows secure Single Sign-On in distributed cloud infrastructure. For example, you may build a collection of business applications that use Azure Active Directory to manage users. Individual applications do not store original user information and instead rely on Azure Active Directory to manage users, control sign-in, as well as offer password recovery, suspicious activity detection, and general account security. In this example, each custom application is registered with Microsoft Graph and maintains it’s own configuration settings to delegate user sign-in to Azure Active Directory.

Delegated security speeds up your application development while conforming to high standards of account management and protection.

Release 8.6.6.0 of Code On Time web app generator now offers an easy way to register authentication handlers for Google, Facebook, Windows Live, Identity Server, Microsoft Graph, SharePoint, DotNetNuke, and upcoming Cloud Identity (replacement for ASP.NET Membership in applications built with Code On Time).

The dynamic nature of OAuth configuration requires a place to store settings in the application. Make sure to enable the Content Management System in the database of your app. Log in as admin to your app, and navigate to Site Content.

Site Content page represents the content management system of your app.

Click on the plus (+) button and a form will ask the type of content the user wishes to create. Two options are available – (custom) and Open Authentication Registration. Future releases will allow creating access control lists, custom pages, data controllers, user profile images, workflow register entries, etc. Developers will be able to create editors for custom content items in their applications.

Creating a new Site Content record.

Choose “Open Authentication Registration” option and press OK. Select the Authentication provider from the list of available options in the Open Authentication Registration form, and additional configuration parameters will be displayed.

Selecting an authentication provider on the Open Authentication Registration wizard.

Enter the required properties and press “Save” to register the provider.

Open Authentication Registration form for an existing record.

The new registration record will be displayed in the Site Content. Selecting an existing OAuth registration will reopen the Open Authentication Registration form.

The new registration entry has been inserted. 

User Synchronization

When clients complete authentication with an external provider, the provider returns a username to the app. If a user account is found with a matching username in the application database, then the client is logged in as that user. If the matching user account is not found, what will happen next is determined by the provider configuration. If “Synchronize users” is enabled, a user account will be created with that username and randomly generated password and password answer. If the “Synchronize users” property is disabled, then the user is denied access to the application.

Synchronizing users via external authentication.

Most of the time, you will want to enable user synchronization to create “shadow” user accounts in your application database automatically. Shadow user accounts are representations of the external user identity in the application database. Changes made to these accounts will not affect the identity configuration managed by authentication provider. These accounts represent a cached user name and email. The user password, contact, and identity recovery information is not stored in the application data. If the user is deleted or renamed, then only the cached data is changed. Next sign-in authenticated by the provider will create another shadow user account.

If synchronization of users is disabled, then you will need to create user accounts ahead of time. The passwords assigned to these accounts do not need to be known to the users. Successful authentication by a registered external provider will log in the user with a matching name to the app.

Many applications save references to users in special columns (for example: Modified, Created, ApprovedBy, Owner, DeletedBy, etc). If authentication provider is enabled, then references to shadow user accounts will be recorded.

User Role Synchronization

Many OAuth providers maintain user roles. When a user is authenticated by an external provider, the provider may return a list of roles or groups assigned to that user. If “Synchronize user roles” is enabled for that authentication provider, then the reported user roles will be assigned to the user. Any shadow user roles assigned to the shadow user but not matched by the provider will be removed.

Requesting a list of user roles requires adding a system account to the provider registration. The system account must have permission to access the roles or groups of authenticated users.

If “Synchronize user roles” is enabled, press ADD SYSTEM ACCOUNT to save the registration record. You will be redirected to the authentication provider to acquire permission to read user roles.

Synchronizing user roles via external authentication.

If authentication is successful, the provider will redirect back to the Site Content page and update the registration record with system access tokens. The application will use the system access token to obtain shadow user roles from the authentication provider on each successful login. Access tokens do expire periodically and will need to be renewed. Simply select the provider registration and click Add System Account.

Auto Login

If only one authentication provider is used to confirm user identities, then consider enabling “Force users to login with this provider”. If an anonymous user tries to access this application, then the app will immediately redirect to the authentication provider for sign in. This will also happen if the user logs out.

Enabling auto login for an external providier.

To access the system login form and sign in with an internal user account, append “?_autoLogin=false” to the URL of the page in your browser.

Redirect Uri and Local Redirect Uri

The Redirect Uri property determines the address that the provider will return to after a user has been authenticated. For providers that support defining more than one Redirect Uri, the Local Redirect Uri property will be passed to the provider when the app is running in “local mode”. This automatic switching makes it easy for developers to test the authentication pipeline on a development machine, without having to publish the app.

Specifying Redirect Uri.

Simply type in the address of your site (myapp.azurewebsites.net), and it will be expanded to the correct full URL (https://myapp.azurewebsites.net/appservices/saas/[ProviderName]).

Facebook

To create a registration for OAuth integration with Facebook, the properties Client Id, Client Secret, and Redirect Uri must be specified. Client ID and Client Secret can be obtained from the Facebook Developer Dashboard. Synchronization of roles is not supported.

Configuring Facebook OAuth Provider.

Google

The Google Developer Dashboard will provide the Client Id, and allow developers to generate a Client Secret. Adding system account also allows storing blob data in Google Drive by configuring the Google Drive Blob Adapter.

Configuring Google OAuth Provider.

Windows Live

The Microsoft Apps Dashboard allows creating new clients and secrets. Role synchronization is not supported.

Configuring Windows Live OAuth Provider.

Microsoft Graph

The Client Id and Client Secret values can be created from the Microsoft Apps Dashboard. The Microsoft Graph OAuth provider allows users to authenticate with their Windows Live, Office 365, Azure Active Directory, or SharePoint Online accounts. The Tenant ID property controls the source of external accounts. Specify the value “common” to allow all sources. Enter the specific Tenant ID of your tenant to restrict access to the app to only those accounts registered in the specific tenancy.

Configuring Microsoft Graph OAuth Provider.

If “Synchronize user roles” is enabled, be sure to press Add System Account to grant your app access to the roles or groups of the tenancy.

SharePoint

The Client Id and Client Secret properties can be acquired by navigating to “https://mysite.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/AppRegNew.aspx”. Make sure to replace the root with your SharePoint site URL. The Client Uri property is equal to “mysite.sharepoint.com” if you are connecting to SharePoint Online.

Configuring SharePoint OAuth Provider.

When configuration is complete, be sure to press Add System Account to allow the app access to the SharePoint groups of each user that authenticates with your app. This also enables storing blobs in SharePoint file system via the SharePoint Blob Adapter and creating “service” data controllers from SharePoint lists in your site.

DotNetNuke

Configuring a DotNetNuke portal as an authentication provider requires installation of Cloud On Time Connector for DotNetNuke. Specify the authentication endpoint in the Client Uri property. Define a comma-separated list of tokens in the Tokens property. These tokens will be persisted to the SiteContent table for each user. These tokens can be accessed by calling @Profile_Token_Name in SQL business rules or GetProperty(“Token_Name”) in code business rules, replacing the colon (:) with an underscore (_).

Configuring DotNetNuke OAuth Provider.

Identity Server

Be sure to consult the documentation of your Identity Server installation on how to configure authentication clients.

Configuring Identity Server OAuth Provider.