FR: More thoughts on Config tool

If you have questions or if you want to share your opinion about Aware IM post your message on this forum
RLJB
Posts: 914
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:16 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

FR: More thoughts on Config tool

Post by RLJB »

A few more ideas to speed up config tool:

1. On any window where you are doing rule work, have line numbers and Aware Rule syntax highlighting available (even bracket matching will help)

2. Be able to Open the report designer tool and still work/access other BOs and area's within the config tool

3. Extension of point 2. With current config you are currently "going down the worm hole" alot, meaning you open windows upon windows upon windows to adjust one thing, and Save > Save > Save to get back. This is ok BUT often you want to check something else when you are doing this, eg you build an invisibility condition and can't remember the Attribute you want from a form. Would be Awesome to be able to go down two or more worm holes at once. So I'm thinking multiple windows open (like i get on Gimp or AI etc)

3. Default settings per user (as discussed previously) especially being able to set attribute widths

4. One click to test (as previously mentioned set by my Preferences) and also a Keyboard shortcut to do it

5. Ability to put comments into Rules (ie ignored by system but helpful to others understanding what is going on)
Rod. Aware 8.6 (latest build), Developer Edition, on OS Linux (Ubuntu) using GUI hosted on AWS EC2, MYSQL on AWS RDS
ACDC
Posts: 1138
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2007 5:03 pm
Location: California, USA

Re: FR: More thoughts on Config tool

Post by ACDC »

I totally agree with all the above, its all about productivity. It will be dramatically enhanced.

One other suggestion is to be able to sort the attribute by attribute type on the object. So if I am looking for all my number attributes, i can locate them together in one section of the grid by sorting on the type column. Its a simple feature and should be easy to implement.

The other one that takes up a lot of time is setting the attribute width on forms, having an option to set the default attribute width on the form would be great .. like under "center align form" have " Default Attribute Width".
The form layout tool is painful, anything that makes this process simpler will go a long way reducing the pain.

This one has been mentioned before, having a "Disable" checkbox on each rule that allows the developer to remove the rule from the sequence without having to delete it in its entirety.
pureist
Posts: 427
Joined: Sun Jan 24, 2016 10:00 pm

Re: FR: More thoughts on Config tool

Post by pureist »

6. a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG form designer would probably account for close to the single biggest productivity booster
...it would have an accompanying tree in a panel showing the hierarchy of the components/controls (similar to the Responsive Grid (Nested) tree style).
BenHayat
Posts: 2749
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:48 am
Location: Fla, USA
Contact:

Re: FR: More thoughts on Config tool

Post by BenHayat »

pureist wrote:6. a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG form designer would probably account for close to the single biggest productivity booster
...it would have an accompanying tree in a panel showing the hierarchy of the components/controls (similar to the Responsive Grid (Nested) tree style).
Although very desirable, but that's a huge undertaking. That's a single version by itself.
However, the IDE really needs some serious productivity tools, it's way over due.
But we need to see the next Mobile phonegap version first.
kklosson
Posts: 1617
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:19 pm
Location: Virginia

Re: FR: More thoughts on Config tool

Post by kklosson »

I seem to recall at the Las Vegas conference that Vladimir had mentioned that a "more intuitive" form editor was on is roadmap.
V8.8
MySQL, AWS EC2, S3
PDFtk Toolkit
BenHayat
Posts: 2749
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:48 am
Location: Fla, USA
Contact:

Re: FR: More thoughts on Config tool

Post by BenHayat »

kklosson wrote:I seem to recall at the Las Vegas conference that Vladimir had mentioned that a "more intuitive" form editor was on is roadmap.
Wasn't that at beginning of 2015? :wink:
kklosson
Posts: 1617
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 3:19 pm
Location: Virginia

Re: FR: More thoughts on Config tool

Post by kklosson »

Yes, April.
V8.8
MySQL, AWS EC2, S3
PDFtk Toolkit
RocketRod
Posts: 907
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:22 am
Location: Melbourne

Re: FR: More thoughts on Config tool

Post by RocketRod »

I would like the Search Rules action to be extended to also search applicability conditions everywhere they can be used.

Cheers Rod
BLOMASKY
Posts: 1470
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 10:08 pm
Location: Ocala FL

Focus on Aware's Core Competency

Post by BLOMASKY »

Most companies that start well and then crater forget what their core competency is. Certainly happened to Magic and I can name dozens of others.

Another way to say this: It's easy to make a lot of $$$. Just find something that you are better than everyone else in.

IMHO, Aware is better than everyone else in:
1) Speed of Development
2) Speed of Maintenance / Updates
3) Very high level, mostly non-procedural, development paradigm.

I would be willing to bet (at least a nickel) that so many of us spend HOURS aligning our screens / forms to look just how our client requests. This is a HUGE time waster and IMHO the updating of the form designer has to be at the top of the list (Yea Ben, even before phonegap!)

Now, you can do MOST anything (not everything, but MOST) with the tools available for form design, but if you need anything more "interesting" than a simple form... plan to devote a fair amount of time "tweaking"

Also, Aware does allow us to use Javascript and/or HTML in a lot of places, but the editors for those are quite primitive. Again a huge time waster.

Lastly (for now anyway), we all have a lot of diff. ways we code and every time I create a new form or query, I have to remove all of the filters, change the paging options, remove a bunch of default buttons, etc. It would be so nice to have a config file (Hell, I don't care if its a text file that I have to edit!) that will control many of the defaults

Thats all for now. Back to the Tequila with Chili


Bruce
BenHayat
Posts: 2749
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:48 am
Location: Fla, USA
Contact:

Re: Focus on Aware's Core Competency

Post by BenHayat »

BLOMASKY wrote: Back to the Tequila with Chili

Bruce
The chili on the top of Tequila, is going to give you a massive heartburn... :D
customaware
Posts: 2391
Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2012 12:24 am
Location: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Re: Focus on Aware's Core Competency

Post by customaware »

BLOMASKY wrote: we all have a lot of diff. ways we code and every time I create a new form or query, I have to remove all of the filters, change the paging options, remove a bunch of default buttons, etc. It would be so nice to have a config file (Hell, I don't care if its a text file that I have to edit!) that will control many of the defaults
++++++
Cheers,
Mark
_________________
AwareIM 6.0, 8.7, 8.8, 9.0 , MariaDB, Windows 10, Ubuntu Linux. Theme: Default, Browser: Arc
Upcloud, Obsidian....
Image
johntalbott
Posts: 619
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2015 11:16 pm
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Contact:

Re: Focus on Aware's Core Competency

Post by johntalbott »

BLOMASKY wrote: I would be willing to bet (at least a nickel) that so many of us spend HOURS aligning our screens / forms to look just how our client requests. This is a HUGE time waster and IMHO the updating of the form designer has to be at the top of the list (Yea Ben, even before phonegap!)
What are you going to do when your client says they want a mobile app with native hardware integration? How many hours will that take you to build?
VocalDay Solutions - Agility - Predictability - Quality

We specialize in enabling business through the innovative use of technology.

AwareIM app with beautiful UI/UX - https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/crfUrrVeB3t
BenHayat
Posts: 2749
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:48 am
Location: Fla, USA
Contact:

Re: Focus on Aware's Core Competency

Post by BenHayat »

johntalbott wrote:
BLOMASKY wrote: I would be willing to bet (at least a nickel) that so many of us spend HOURS aligning our screens / forms to look just how our client requests. This is a HUGE time waster and IMHO the updating of the form designer has to be at the top of the list (Yea Ben, even before phonegap!)
What are you going to do when your client says they want a mobile app with native hardware integration? How many hours will that take you to build?
In my app, after initial setup done on desktop browser, 80% of my app's daily use is via Mobile. Any time I demo my app to a prospect, their # 1 question/demand is that, they want to run it as an app (hybrid will do) and not in browser. It's funny, same user on the desktop wants the freedom of running on browser, but when it comes to Mobile, they don't want to run in browser. Second thing is that most apps people use, give them access to phones hardware/software services (like taking picture directly in the app or calling Barcode reader in the app or access to Geo location live), which only Phonegap provides at this point. Without phonegap implementation, I got nothing to sell no matter how pretty my screens are. That's the reality.
mrbdrm
Posts: 349
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2012 11:44 am

Re: Focus on Aware's Core Competency

Post by mrbdrm »

BenHayat wrote:
johntalbott wrote:
BLOMASKY wrote: I would be willing to bet (at least a nickel) that so many of us spend HOURS aligning our screens / forms to look just how our client requests. This is a HUGE time waster and IMHO the updating of the form designer has to be at the top of the list (Yea Ben, even before phonegap!)
What are you going to do when your client says they want a mobile app with native hardware integration? How many hours will that take you to build?
In my app, after initial setup done on desktop browser, 80% of my app's daily use is via Mobile. Any time I demo my app to a prospect, their # 1 question/demand is that, they want to run it as an app (hybrid will do) and not in browser. It's funny, same user on the desktop wants the freedom of running on browser, but when it comes to Mobile, they don't want to run in browser. Second thing is that most apps people use, give them access to phones hardware/software services (like taking picture directly in the app or calling Barcode reader in the app or access to Geo location live), which only Phonegap provides at this point. Without phonegap implementation, I got nothing to sell no matter how pretty my screens are. That's the reality.
Exactly
RentProperty
Posts: 345
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:08 pm
Location: South Africa

Re: FR: More thoughts on Config tool

Post by RentProperty »

3 Things That would probably be pretty easy to implement and that would help TREMENDOUSLY is:

1) if Aware didn't throw away the formatting of the Rules when using Text Form. I hardly ever use the standard form to setup rules because it's much more difficult to see the whole rule. However when you use the Text Form and and have a long for instance when Doing a CREATE Object With A.Attr1=B.Attr1, A.Attr2=B.Attr2,A.Attr3=B.Attr3, etc etc. I usually add an enter after each line so it's easier to see the whole thing and to see what attributes you've done and which ones not. HOWEVER, Aware throws this formatting away, so when you go back to tweak, everything is in ONE LONG Unreadable line. So to find an attribute, you either have to Re-insert all the line breaks or you have to copy to another editor, do a find, and then copy back.

2)Related to the issue above... After the 3rd or forth Line Break... The Context assistant Don't Work anymore.

3) The ability to CTRL-Click to jump to any Query, Process, Form, Attribute, etc from where it is reference. So for instance you have a Rule that Calls a Query... Display MyQuery. While you are working on this rule in the process you quickly want to go to the query, so You Press CTRL and then Click on 'MyQuery' which then opens a new window that takes you directly to that Query. This is how most of the Java IDE's work and it helps TREMENDOUSLY in getting around the code fast and efficiently and reduce the time looking for things alot.

That's just my 2 cents of easy productivity savers. :-)
Hein Hanekom & Werner Hanekom
Sinov8.net
AwareIM Version 5.9 | 6.0 | 7.0 | 7.1 (Windows EC2 R2012 & MySQL)
Post Reply