- Browser
- Configuration Toolkit
Browser Configuration Toolkit
Building Flexible Systems for Change
The applications we develop are written to be very flexible. We can tailor our current applications to meet specific requirements very quickly. Our prime objective is to confer competitive advantage through systems flexibility and quick adaptation to changes in the business processes.
Component Re-Use Supports Consistency and Quality Assurance
Our generic models provide a framework of re-usable components that easily fit together. The Gensol Toolkit enables a non-programmer to configure Browser screens so that the resulting modules are consistent in behaviour. The toolkit also provides the environment and tools to specify the business logic. Quality Assurance is enhanced because the re-use of components avoids rogue programming errors.
Component Re-use Supports higher Productivity in Development
Assembling and configuring pre-built components is so much more productive than asking a programmer to write a program from scratch. And this facilitates accurate documentation.
Application Software is Easy to Use
The Browser screens are configured using consistent Styles and Templates ensuring the same look and feel. This makes the software application very easy to understand and use.
Gensol Applications are Easy to Maintain and Support
The payback is obvious - we can train people to develop complex applications for Internet and Intranet use very quickly. They become productive very quickly. The standards in consistency and quality assurance can be maintained to the highest spec. And this is scalable. So we can develop a large solution rapidly and cheaply. Then subsequently, this application may be maintained with a minimum of effort.
The 'tab' style is used
Each module in the Web Modules Enquire List corresponds to a browser window in your application.
In this illustration there are 27 browser windows or modules in the Catalogue application. But these are powerful structures holding not just the window configuration details but also the business process scripts and other information that defines the links to other modules.
Creating a Module
It is always better to clone an existing module but if a suitable subject to clone is not available then use the built-in wizard. Here you see that there are rapid build sequences for each model type. At the conclusion of the wizard sequence you end up in the Design window for the new module where refinements may be made to the overall design configuration.
At release 3.1 of Gensol Browser there are just 7 models in use!
Configuration Mode
Most of the designer's work is carried out in Configuration Mode. This option in the toolkit menu enables the designer to interactively run with the browser program and design. As soon as you click on the Configuration Mode button the application is invoked and runs in exactly the same way as it would normally operate except it carries an extra picture button called Design.
As you continue to run the application and drill down into the links, you come to the point when a module must be modified or you wish to investigate the configuration details.
Just click on the Design button and the Design window for that module will be invoked showing the design specifications (see over).
The Design window for browser modules behaves in the same way as for Reports and Client/Server modules. You can see that the toolbar and menu bar are the same.
Select and right click on an object in the Design worksheet and click on Properties:
This reveals that the object is a link to another module in addition to being displayed information.
The toolbar and editing facilities within the Design window enable the designer to position and size objects easily and to define their many other properties. These properties are easily found ... they are bound in a straight-forward manner to the objects and may be amended or viewed with just a right-click of the mouse.
The Configuration Mode is very powerful because the designer may save and close a design window and test the window 'at runtime' with a very quick sequence of steps. The design window may then be invoked again quite easily and the process of configuration continues.
We have found that most applications incorporate very little formal business logic once you dispense with the need to code the 'presentation layer' or the screens. The Gensol methodology leverages the fact that the basic window structure has already been developed and the designer merely has to 'move some furniture around'! For example, the designer does not have to program what will happen when a user of a module clicks on the local function picture buttons that are included as part of a normal browser window. Their functions have already been accepted as part of the generic model. And this applies to a very large portion of the functions used in the windows.
The designer must appreciate that the models supported by the Gensol Toolkit for Browser windows presume a stateless engine. The application and web server are unaware of the identity or of any other information related to the currently 'logged-in' users. They simply process the tasks that are set by each browser module.
The only place where the important and true business logic is to be found in a Gensol Browser application is held as an ASP script.
Click on the Design button to enter 'Design' mode:
Then click on the File\ASP option to review the business logic.
The business logic is encoded as Application Service Pages (ASP) code, and is maintained in this purpose-built editor.
This code is retrieved at runtime when the user invokes a module through a link. The code is interpreted and typically the associated business logic involves conditional updates to the affected records in the database.
This ASP code may access data in any ODBC - compliant data source. (One of our objectives in 2002 is to find a way to generate this ASP code having defined the business logic using a smart case tool specifically designed for this purpose. In this we are driven by customer requirements.)
The database definition and maintenance is achieved through the use of the Database Utility tab menu.
Click on the Database Tables button to reveal the main tool.
You may open an existing group and display it along with foreign key specifications between the tables defined in the group.
One of the main objectives of the Gensol methodology is to hide unimportant technical detail and in so doing we may downgrade the skills required to do a job. The Database Utility is sufficient for us to define and maintain the database schema and with it we do not need to use the complex manuals and tools supplied by the database vendor.
The best way to come to appreciate the Gensol Toolkit for Browser applications is to use one of the Gensol applications first. Then use the toolkit to amend an existing module and create a new one. Browser windows are supposed to be very simple requiring lower skill-sets to use effectively than would be required for the more function rich client/server application windows.
A fairly typical configuration is one which employs a Gensol Client/Server application in a local network including some 'thin client' users that require rich functionality in a distributed network to the same server. Then some browser screens are used by other users that are distributed, possibly mobile, or that require a simple link from another browser application to the Gensol application. Call or email me if you are interested in this technology.