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 developer to configure Windows and Reports 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 Windows and Reports 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 reports and screens 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

As a result the number of window modules for a medium sized application such as the trackdown Exhibits is only 145. But these are powerful structures holding not just the window configuration details but also the business process scripts and other information that defines the nature of the connectivity with 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 Client/Server there are just 9 models in use!

Configuration Mode

But most of the designer's work is done using the Configuration Mode. This option in the Client/Server menu enables the designer to interactively run 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 two extra picture buttons, Design and Wizard.

As you continue to run the application and drill down into the menu options, 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.

Here we have invoked the Enquire by Exhibit Item module. All the tab pages in this screen are made visible. Just click on the tab label of interest and its design is revealed:

Select and Right click on the 'Q' button in the header tab page and click on Properties.

This reveals that the button invokes a generic module called 'Review Dates':

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 Close or the Save buttons. Their functions have already been defined as part of the generic model. And this applies to a very large portion of the functions used in the windows.

As a result the only place where the important and true business logic is to be found is usually held just behind a command button or a special picture button.

Click on the Design button to enter 'Design' mode:

Then click on this object and right click and select the properties.

It is revealed as a Computed Field with a condition.

Close out of this window to return to the design window for the Exhibit Disposals module and click on the Print Disposal Advice button to select this object and then right-click on it and select the Properties.

Here you see the Procedure that is linked to this button is called:

m2015_Print_Disp_Advice

To see and edit this procedure click on the Edit Procedure button. This will invoke our built in Stored Procedure Editor so you can easily edit the code.

The business logic is encoded as a Transact SQL stored procedure and is maintained in this purpose-built editor.

The pictures on each line provide a simple device to help the designer appreciate the business logic.

This code is retrieved at runtime when the user clicks on the command button it is associated with. The code is interpreted and typically the business logic involves conditional updates to the affected records in the database. Currently, no compile process is required.

The database products supported are Sybase SQL Anywhere and MS SQL Server or MSDE.

Database Design

The database definition and maintenance is achieved through the use of the Design Table module. The toolkit is very comprehensive.

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.

Reports

Each Gensol application includes reports and transactions such as invoices or special forms that have all been developed using the Gensol Reports report writer, which is also included with every application. The Gensol Reports report writer is also included for the developer in the Gensol Toolkit. It functions in much the same way as the Generic Models Toolkit except there is no Configuration Mode. You can review or amend an existing report by first selecting it from the list and then by using the Design button.

This will immediately retrieve the report specifications and present the design window. Notice how similar this is to the Module Design window. (Link to the Gensol Report Writer.)