Alpha Software

How to build an Ajax Web application in Alpha Five: "The Tutorial, Volume 1" now available

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:32:37 PDT

When InfoWorld journalist, Ph.D., and international man of mystery, Martin Heller, joined Alpha Software, we didn't waste any time putting him to work. After many sleepless nights and thankless weekends, Martin has produced the first volume of what we think will be the be-all, end-all tutorial on how to build, test, deploy, and maintain Ajax Web database applications with Alpha Five Version 10.

THE TUTORIAL: Ready to be read

Ultimately,"Alpha Five Version 10 Web Applications: The Tutorial" will consists of three books.

Volume 1

Teaches you how to create Ajax Web grids against SQL databases, without programming.

Volume 2

Will teach you everything else needed to create Web applications with Version 10 without programming.

Volume 3

Unleashes the full power of Version 10 by teaching how to program with the product and utilize its rich client- and server- event models for Web applications.

I'm proud to say that Volume 1 is ready to ship. I'm doubly excited by this. At one level, it's great to announce that this is available. But at another level, this plugs a hole that we have had in our supporting material for Alpha Five.

Customers, colleagues, and partners have been pointing this out to us for too long. The problem was one of resources and bandwidth, and I'm happy to say that we've invested in that in the form of Martin Heller. Here you have the first fruits of that investment.

If you want to read the first chapter, go ahead. It's on me. The level of detail Martin provides is, in my opinion, remarkable. If you like what you read, you can buy the PDF download for only $24. Or, if you still like "dead trees" editions, you can get that for $34, and you'll still get the PDF. Once you read Volume 1, you'll see how valuable all three volumes are sure to be.
Here's a look at the table of contents.

Section I: Hello, Alpha!
Downloading & Installing Alpha Five Version 10
Introduction to Databases
Kinds of Databases
Kinds of Alpha Database Connections
Creating your first Alpha Five project
Starting Alpha
Creating a new, empty database and project
Navigating the V10 IDE
About the Northwind database sample
Creating a connection string for Northwind.mdb
Saving and naming the connection string
Displaying a database table in a Grid
Creating a Grid component
Choosing a Grid template
Grid definition forms
Connecting the Grid to the Northwind database
Picking a table
Picking fields
Previewing the grid
Working Preview
A note about Web projects
Summary

Section II: Parts of the Grid
Grid overview
Grid layouts
Tabular
Form (Columnar)
Detail views
Search parts
Kinds of searches
Lookup searches
Ways to combine searches
Organizing search results
Quick search
Alphabet buttons
Query-by-example row
Summary

Section III: A Grid for All Seasons!
Grid styles
Shading and dividers
Titles and sorting options
Record navigation
Grid update settings
Detail view options
Kinds of grid fields
Text box and text area fields
Hidden and label fields
Checkboxes, radio buttons, and push-buttons
Image and link fields
Drop-down box fields
Edit-combo box and auto-suggest lookup text fields
Special controls
Field properties
Formatting
Field validation
Master layout templates
Creating your own Grid component templates
Filtering and ordering a table in a grid
Using SQL Select Statements with a grid
Watermarks
Tab, Accordion, Container, and Frame controls
Liquid Forms
Summary

After you look at the first chapter, let me know what you think. If you decide to buy the book, send us your feedback. If there's anything you think we've missed, let us know because there is still time to influence the second and third volumes.

Alpha Five Version 10 Feature Peek #47: Automatic prompting for missing arguments

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:30:49 PDT

There's a new feature on the desktop side of things in Alpha Five Version 10 that I'm eager to tell you about. Arguments are used extensively in reports, passive and active-link tables, and in custom Xbasic. Now when you create an argument, any values that are missing will be prompted for in the dialog box. And you can use combo or list box controls.

Switch over to the video to see a demonstration of the new feature in action.

ARGUMENTS: New feature auto prompts missing values

How to use Oracle stored procedures and functions

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:08:15 PST

One of our customers, Harry Titlbach from Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung in Germany, sent me an interesting question. I passed it over to Kurt Rayner, Alpha's Vice President of Research and Development. He copied me on his technical reply.

Reading that, it occurred to me that Harry's predicament and Kurt's answer could be useful to some of our readers. Here is Harry's original, unedited e-mail followed by Kurt's unedited response.

Hi Richard,

I'm evaluating Alpha Five Version 10 with the 30 day trial (15 days remaining) for
Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, Bonn, Germany. For information about the "Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung" please look at our homepage http://www.fes.de and http://www.fes.de/sets/s_fes_i.htm.

Starting this year, we have a new project with the goal to give our colleagues abroad better, and direct support to our Oracle 10g database applications.

We still develop with Oracle Forms 6i Client/Server (1000 Forms/Reports) and have a lot of PL/SQL coding with stored Procedures/Functions and Packages in our Oracle database.

For Forms C/S in the Web today we use Windows Terminal Server and Citrix Metaframe. For various reasons we don't use the Oracle options of Web forms 10g/11g, Jdeveloper 11g and Apex yet.

I found Alpha Five on the Web and had the idea that it could help us to build some new C/S and Web solutions. To see if it would make sense to work with Alpha Five and Oracle I did some short trials.

Please look at my question at your Forum: http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/alphaforum/showthread.php?t=84537, "Oracle stored functions."

Also by reading your documentation, it seems there is today no solution with Version 10. Are there any plans to give support for calls to Oracle Packages in Alpha Five Version 11? i.e.:return_value := PACKAGE_NAME.package_function(param_IN, param_OUT, param_INOUT, ...)

For Return values and Parameters with Oracle types e.g. NUMBER,CHAR,ARRAY,OBJECT,BOOLEAN,REFCURSOR, ...

With kind regards,
Harry Titlbach
IT-Referat
www.fes.de

There's Harry note. Here's Kurt's reply.

Hi Harry,

Sorry for taking an extra day to get back to you on this. I believe you will be pleased by the result.

First, let me clarify that the native interface to Oracle for Alpha Five is Oracle Call Interface and is accessed using the XBasic object SQL::Connection. Active link tables and Web applications access Oracle using this object.

Using SQL::Connection and XBasic, you should be able to execute any just about any SQL allowed through the interface by Oracle. For example, the internals of the Alpha Five database syntax handler for Oracle use it to create tables and indexes, generate Java and PL/SQL stored procedures, create sequences, and add triggers to newly created tables.

Second, there was indeed a bug in both the Oracle and the ODBC drivers that prevented output arguments from being populated correctly. Since this feature is not employed by casual users, it isn’t clear how old the issue is, but it has been corrected and the fix will be available in any patch created and distributed after today.

The problem you describe below can be addressed in one of two ways. You can either use the function in a SELECT statement, or execute the call in a PL/SQL script. The complete XBasic scripts are shown below for both Oracle and SQL Server, but in summary:

The correct syntax to select the result of a scalar function in Oracle is:

?c.Execute(“select COUNT_EMP(:lower, :upper) as l_Count from dual”)
?c.resultset.data("l_count")

Note: This works now.

To retrieve output parameters from a stored procedure or function you can add an argument to the SQL::Arguments object for each output parameter as follows:

dim args as sql::arguments
args.add("l_count", 0, SQL::ArgumentUsage::OutputArgument)
?c.execute("begin :l_count := COUNT_EMP(:lower, :upper); end;", args)
?args[3].Data

Notes:
1. The output argument was not being populated correctly. This has been addressed and will be available shortly in a patch.
2. The value SQL::ArgumentUsage::OutputArgument indicates that the parameter is output only. There is an enumerated value for each of (input, output and input/output).
3. The SQL is wrapped in a BEGIN/END pair. This seems to be required by OCI for the script to execute properly.

Some documents are attached (one, two, three, and four) that may be helpful in exploring the SQL database functionality in Alpha Five.

Going forward, please do not hesitate to report any issues with our interface to Oracle (or the product in general) to Alpha Software using the e-mail address a5v10bugs@AlphaSoftware.com.

Each e-mail sent to this address is forwarded to the entire development team. It is our intention to provide a robust and rich interface to each of the major databases, and knowing each issue you encounter and what you need to accomplish helps us to focus our efforts.

Thank you for letting drawing our attention to this issue. We look forward to hearing from you as you explore Alpha Five Version 10!

Regards,

Kurt Rayner
Vice President - Research and Development
Alpha Software

I can't say whether or not other Web development tool vendors provide this level of personalized support. I am proud to say that we do whenever we can.

If you run up against a wall when you're using our products and you need some help getting over it, please feel free to write to me directly. I'll make sure your question gets to the right person. (Try sending Bill Gates a note about a problem you're having with MS Access.)

PC Pro highlights Alpha Five Version 10's simplicity, effectiveness, and more

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:29:41 PST

It's only March, but I got my hands on the May issue of PC Pro, a computing and technology magazine from across the pond. When I saw that the editors dedicated three pages to Alpha Five Version 10, I knew I was going to REALLY like this issue.

One of the things I liked about the article was the step-by-step walkthrough of building an application, complete with screenshots. It was very well done and reminded me of the best days of PC publishing.

What a lot of Americans don't realize is that in the United Kingdom and Europe, "dead tress" publishing is very much alive. Which is why publications like PC Pro are still thriving over there, while most of the U.S. tech trade publications have gone mostly, if not entirely, online.

If you miss those days, grab the next flight. Meanwhile, order the issue because the articles aren't available online yet (when they are I'll post the links here.)

Alpha Software donates $270,000 to support the nonprofit community through TechSoup Global

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:25:03 PST

About two years ago, we donated a truckload of copies of Alpha Five to TechSoup to help nonprofit organizations. I'm happy to tell you that we're continuing our partnership with them. We announced it to the world today via a press release.

Alpha Software Donates $270,000 to Support the Nonprofit Community through TechSoup Global

Latest donation brings Alpha Software's total contributions to an estimated $500,000

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alpha Software continues to power socially responsible businesses through its support of TechSoup Global, a technology resource provider to nonprofits. Today, Alpha Software announced it is making an unlimited number of software licenses of its latest version of Alpha Five Version 10, the company's industry leading Ajax Web database development tool, available to nonprofits and libraries through TechSoup. Over the past five years, nearly 700 nonprofit organizations throughout North America have received Alpha Five through TechSoup, a value of $273,540. This latest donation is expected the reach the same number of nonprofits, bringing the value of Alpha Software's total donations to nonprofit organizations through TechSoup to over $500,000. The nonprofits are using Alpha Five to create highly interactive, easy-to-use Web sites that let them manage their volunteers, donors, programs, and finance data. And with Alpha Five Version 10, it's easier than ever for nonprofits to build rich Internet database applications without having to learn to program, thanks to the company's patent-pending "Codeless Ajax™" technology.

"The value of our donation goes beyond the raw cost of the software," says Richard Rabins, Co-Chairman of Alpha Software. "There's an important human component to working with TechSoup. Our software is being used to support great social causes, such as dispatching volunteers and life-saving equipment to disaster areas, helping people find housing and jobs, improving communities through fundraising, and so much more. The array of nonprofit organizations and missions being helped by our software is unlimited."

TechSoup is a one-stop resource that provides nongovernmental organizations, nonprofits, libraries, and community-based organizations with computer hardware, software, and services they need. Through the partnership, Alpha Five Version 10 is now available for download to all nonprofits and libraries registered with TechSoup.

In addition to providing the database software, Alpha Software and TechSoup are scheduling a training seminar to help nonprofits get the most out of the platform quickly. TechSoup will also provide instructional articles, worksheets, online forums, message boards, and blogs.
"We have been delighted to introduce Alpha Software's innovation and generous spirit to so many nonprofits since the beginning of this program in 2005," says Gayle Carpentier, Director, Business Development, TechSoup Global. "We look forward to seeing the advances and innovative uses of this powerful software in the field now and in the years ahead. It is the support of great partners, like Alpha Software, that makes it possible for TechSoup to achieve our mission every day."

ABOUT TECHSOUP
TechSoup Global is a comprehensive nonprofit technology resource provider to nonprofits and NGOs around the world, employing a staff of 184, and deploying a budget of $23 million as of December 2009. Founded in 1987 as CompuMentor, TechSoup conducts a range of programs on the international, national, and local level, including the operation of its nonprofit technology Web site, TechSoup.org (www.techsoup.org) where nonprofits share their experiences and learn about technology through online forums, events pages, surveys, blogs, and Second Life. Its distribution service for technology product donations, TechSoup Stock (www.techsoup.org/stock) has served almost than 112,000 organizations, distributed over 5.5 million software and hardware products and enabled nonprofit donation recipients to save over $1.6 billion in IT expenses in 32 countries around the world.

ABOUT ALPHA SOFTWARE
Since 1982, Alpha Software has been providing developers with award-winning tools that make it easy to build business applications. Today over 1 million developers and tens of millions of users rely on Alpha Software's Alpha Five. The company is privately held, and based in Burlington, Mass. Alpha Software can be found on the Web at http://www.alphasoftware.com. The company's blog is located at http://blog.alphasoftware.com.

Contacts
Alpha Software
Media contact:
Kate Ritchie, 610-642-8253
KateR@GregoryFCA.com

or

Company contact:
Richard Rabins
Richard@AlphaSoftware.com

Alpha Five Version 10 Feature Peek #46: Multiple language definition support

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:39:56 PST

Hola! Bonjour! Jambo! Buongiorno! There are so many different ways to say hello. And when you're building a database application, there a lot of languages you might need to create it in.

Arguably, internationalization wasn't as much of an imperative 10 or 20 years ago as it is today. In the client server era, you weren't necessarily having people around the globe connecting to your internal corporate applications. In the global Internet era, by definition, your application might need to be available to people all around the world. And it should respect them by speaking their language.

This is one of the reasons we made sure to include support for internationalization in Alpha Five Version 10. Language definitions were first introduced in the grid component, but they now have been extended to the Tabbed UI component and the page layout builder. Watch the video to learn how to use language definition strings in each.

NEW V10 FEATURE: Language definition strings extended

This post is rated "R"

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:57:35 PST

Warning: The following post contains hardcore technical information. Developer discretion advised.

One of the risks about promoting a product around ease of use and speed of development is that developers assume it has some of the limitations that other RAD platforms have. Namely, it runs out of gas when you need to tackle the really hard problems.

We've spent a lot of time over the past 16 months talking about and promoting Codeless Ajax, our main message being that Alpha Five Version 10 makes it easy for developers of all skills levels to quickly build highly interactive Web applications without coding. Drag and drop, click here, click there, and your basic application is built.

In fact, to put a fine point on this, we were recently featured in InformationWeek, showing how Alpha Five Version 10 can build an enterprise application in five minutes.

We heard these complaints about Visual Basic when the Web came along, and you hear them about Access, IronSpeed, FileMaker, and others. But you won't hear these complaints about Alpha Five Version 10. The purpose of this post is to explain why, and to illustrate the depths of capabilities that Alpha Five Version 10 can achieve.

The interesting thing about Alpha Five Version 10 is that the application development capabilities scale as well as the applications themselves. That is, from the novice developer who needs to pull together a quick Web application, to the hard-bitten enterprise pro who wants absolute control over every aspect of the application and needs to integrate it with Web services or enterprise systems.

It only takes one video to demonstrate how easy it is to use Codeless Ajax. That's the single requirement, build an Ajax application quickly.

I want to share with you some more videos, part of our growing library of demos, that show you all the muscle that's under the covers of Alpha Five Version 10. If you're the kind of developer who likes to get your hands dirty, and you want speed and power, these videos will show you what Alpha Five Version 10 is capable of.

Part of this deep power is due to Alpha Five Version 10's robust EVENT model, for both server-side and client-side, support for REST services, CSS support, the ability to support custom code with xBasic or SQL, and the ability to connect with any SQL back end without having to rewrite your code.

Go ahead and grab yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of wine (depending upon the time of day). Cozy up with a warm laptop and spend some time with these videos to see what Alpha Five Version 10 can do.

Alpha developer Peter Conway shows beautiful application-user interface designs that make the user experience extraordinary. In part one and part two of his video, you'll see his designs and how he was able to build an application without using any code. I challenge anyone to detect that these are actually Ajax Web database applications built in Alpha Five Version 10.

Our newest series of videos gives you a short tutorial on the various server-side events in the grid.

Watch Alpha developer Bob Moore build an application five minutes going through just a few steps.

View our ever-growing library of over 50 videos we've created just for you that demonstrate all of Alpha Five Version 10's features.

InformationWeek challenges Alpha to build an enterprise Ajax app in five minutes

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:27:12 PST

There is one sure-fire way to get a critical, objective journalist to pay attention. Prove that your technology is a true outlier -- something that offers capabilities no other product can match.

We put our money where our mouth is when we reached out to Fritz Nelson, editorial director for InformationWeek and the executive producer of TechWebTV. Fritz periodically runs videos of various IT solutions on his blog, Full Nelson.

We promised Fritz that we could build an enterprise-class, Ajax-powered Web application in five minutes without coding using Alpha Five Version 10. He agreed to put us up to the challenge, and he wasn't forgiving.

He wouldn't give us an additional second. He wanted the entire application built without using any code in five minutes -- no excuses. At one point we were a little concerned. We knew we could do it, but there wouldn't be any breathing room. We had to live up to what we pitched.

As you can see from the video that appeared today on InformationWeek, we met the challenge. Alpha's Dave McCormick met with Fritz and walked him through the Alpha Five application built in five minutes. The application was designed and built by Alpha developer Bob Moore.

As you can see in Fritz's video, he and Dave are watching the playback of Bob building the application. Dave explains what's going on as the video unfolds. Here's the full video that Fritz and Dave are watching. Again, this complete application was built in five minutes in Alpha Five, without and video cuts or edits. What you see here is what you get.

Can't get enough of this five-minute stuff? Bob also recorded a voice-over version, where he explains each step in detail. Tip: Bob's videos are best in full-screen mode. After the video starts to play, click the teeny-tiny-eensy-weensy-microscopic-impossible-to-see zoom button to the right of the progress bar. It looks like a small "X."

One of the interesting things we learned while producing this video is that it takes longer to explain an Alpha Five Version 10 application than it does to build one. Bob Moore joked in an e-mail thread that it takes him 15 minutes to explain what he is able to build in five.

If this kind of power can be delivered in five minutes, imagine what you could do when you spend a few hours or days developing a solution (here is an example of a web app built in Alpha Five v10 in a few hours.) We also believe there is no other application development tool in the market that can build a comparable system in five minutes.

If you're an Alpha developer, we encourage you to share Fritz's post with any of your skeptical colleagues so they can see the power of Alpha Five Version 10 for themselves. If you haven't tried it yet, download the Alpha Five Version 10 demo now.

Thanks again to Fritz for his interest in Alpha Five Version 10 and the considerable amount of time he invested producing the video. We're very excited by his coverage.

Why you should use a staging site for your Alpha Five applications, and how to set one up

noreply@blogger.com (Martin Heller) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:28:07 PST

Publishing changes to a production Web site can be nerve-racking, unless you mitigate the risk by testing first on a staging site. Here's how to set one up without needing another physical server or a second Alpha Five server license.

Unlike desktop applications, which are typically revised on a schedule measured in months, Web applications are revised often. There's a temptation to make a change in the hope that it will fix a problem. But some of the time, an ill-considered change will do nothing, make things worse, or break something else.

We advocate a widely used approach to Web development: Maintain a development site, a staging site, and a production site. Most Alpha Five developers use their own PCs as their development site. Many publish directly to their production site after quickly testing their work on their development machines. Unfortunately, that does not give a wider audience a chance to test the new site.

The use of a staging site not only helps you to test your own changes, it can help you test patches to the Web Application Server. While Alpha tests its own patches, there might be aspects of your application that differ from Alpha's test cases. Therefore, you should always test patches before you put them into production.

We've broken the process of setting up an Alpha Five staging site into seven easy steps.

1. Install a second copy of the Alpha Five server. Download a current copy of a5v10_AppServer.exe if you don't already have one, and run it. When you get to the destination location screen, change the destination folder from the default (C:\Program Files (x86)\a5V10 Application Server or C:\Program Files\a5V10 Application Server) to another location, perhaps C:\Program Files\a5V10 Application Server2. Also change the program manager group from the default (Alpha Five Version 10 Application Server) to another group, perhaps Alpha Five Version 10 Application Server2.

2. Change the port number or IP address. After installation is complete, run the new server and bring up its server settings. Change either the server port (on the General tab) or the IP address binding (on the Advanced tab) to be different from your primary server. We often put the staging server on port 8080, assuming that the production server is on port 80. If you want to use different IP addresses and your primary server has a blank address binding, you might need to enter IP address bindings for each Application Server. For your convenience later on, give each server a different systray caption on the Advanced tab.

3. Create a new Web root. Change the document root for the new server in the General tab from the default (C:\A5Webroot) to something else, perhaps C:\A5Webroot2 or C:\A5Stagingroot. Copy the contents of your normal Web root to your new staging root using Windows Explorer, xcopy, or robocopy.

4. (Optional) Create an FTP server for the new Web root. If you publish to your server using FTP, create a second FTP server instance that points to your new staging Web root. Also, create a new publication target in your Alpha Five IDE that uses this second FTP server.

5. Publish to the new staging site for testing. The next time you have changes to publish, instead of going for broke once it works for you on your development computer, publish to the staging site and ask your colleagues, the stakeholders, and your testers to run it through its paces. Give them plenty of time to get back to you with a yay or nay.

6. Apply patches to the second Alpha server for testing. The next time you have the opportunity to apply the latest server patch from Alpha, apply it to Alpha Five Version 10 Application Server2 and test your staging site thoroughly. As before, ask your colleagues, the stakeholders, and your testers to run it through its paces, and give them plenty of time to get back to you.

7. After acceptance, publish to the production site or patch the primary Alpha server. Once your testers have given your new version and/or the new Alpha Five patch their seal of approval, apply the same changes and/or patch to your production server. Lastly, test the production site to make sure that you applied the same changes as you did to the staging site.

Now you won't stay up at night worrying that you made a breaking change. By testing on the staging server first, you eliminated most of the risk involved in updating a live site.

TechTarget's SearchOracle says Alpha Five Version 10 is a "complete solution"

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:05:44 PST

TechTarget's SearchOracle, the leading independent source for the Oracle community, had some nice things to say about Alpha Five Version 10 as part of a recent review. In particular, this paragraph stood out for me when I read the article.

"What is nice about Alpha Five V10 is that it’s a complete solution. The product offers a full complement of development tools and bundles in a Web application server that serves up any Alpha Five Ajax applications that work with any Web browser. Arguably, there is no quicker way to bring an application to the Web than with Alpha Five V10."

Don't stop reading there. Here's the full TechTarget SearchOracle review.

THE COMPLETE SOLUTION: SearchOracle.com says Alpha Five Version 10

Alpha Five Version 10 Feature Peek #45: Showing row-level errors in a pop-up window

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:22:14 PST

We're human. We all make mistakes. Sometimes we miss a required field when we're filling out forms online. We've made an error. Normally an icon appears next to the missed field alerting you to fill it in to get to the next window.

But some forms are so long it's easy to miss the icon. As a developer, you want the user to know they've missed a field so they can quickly solve their problem. The last thing you want is a user wondering why that form won't submit.

Now there is a new feature in Alpha Five Version 10 that lets row errors be displayed in a pop-up window, along with the icon. This ensures that the error message cannot be missed. This video demonstrates the new error reporting feature in the grid component. Watch it, learn it, and use it. Enjoy!

ERROR!: New error reporting feature in Alpha Five Version 10

Tell us what you're doing with Alpha Five Version 10

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:17:06 PST

We want to feature you on our blog, in our newsletter, and in a podcast. Yes, you! I'm sure you're asking, "Why me? What makes me so special?" Using Alpha Five Version 10 is what makes you so special. ;) We created the product, now I would love to know what you're doing with it.

Businesses and institutions big and small use Alpha Five Version 10 to create some pretty amazing stuff. From making a process more efficient to developing a database that houses millions of records on the Web, I want to hear how Alpha Five Version 10 is giving your company a competitive advantage.

Whether you're a start-up with two employees or a well-established company with thousands of workers, you'll be able to share your story with the world. While you're at it, you'll be exposing your company to a whole new audience too.

If you're interested, e-mail me your contact information and a brief summary of what you're doing with Alpha Five Version 10. I can't make any promises, but this could turn you into an Alpha Five Version 10 star.

SYS-CON's David Strom calls Alpha Five Version 10 "powerful"

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:45:24 PST

David Strom at SYS-CON says that Alpha Five Version 10 is, "powerful but not at the expense of ease of use." See what else he says here.

SYS-CON: Codeless Ajax is powerful

InfoWorld's Martin Heller joins Alpha Software

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:30:08 PST

It's no longer a secret. I'm thrilled to tell you that Dr. Martin Heller has officially joined Alpha Software as Vice President of Technology and Education. He'll continue to blog for InfoWorld, but just not about us. :) Yes, he's a bona fide journalist. And we were willing to make that trade to bring his valuable knowledge and skills to Alpha Software.

We distributed a press release detailing his new role. I hope you join me in welcoming Martin, and congratulating him on his new position. Here's the release we put on the wire today.

Dr. Martin Heller Joins Alpha Software as VP of Technology and Education

Veteran InfoWorld journalist is now part of Alpha’s executive team

BURLINGTON, Mass. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- From editor and columnist at BYTE.com to the Strategic Developer at InfoWorld, Martin Heller is a voice that developers around the globe trust. Now this respected technology journalist has joined Alpha Software’s executive team as Vice President of Technology and Education. In this new role, Dr. Heller will be responsible for the ongoing development of the Alpha Software wiki, Alphapedia; authoring and delivering Alpha Software training courses; directing development of Alpha Five’s documentation, help, and online support systems; and producing other content crucial to the success of Alpha developers, including white papers, blog posts, and more.

Dr. Heller will also serve as a strategic advisor to the development team building Alpha Five Version 11, the next generation of the company’s industry leading Ajax Web database development tool. As a result of joining Alpha Software, Dr. Heller will no longer cover the company’s products or directly competing products in his InfoWorld blog.

“We’re thrilled to have someone of Martin’s background, experience, and reputation in this new position,” says Richard Rabins, Co-Chairman of Alpha Software. “World-class technology needs world-class documentation. With Martin’s unique blend of programming and editorial talent, we know we made the right choice to ensure all of Alpha’s content will give our customers everything they need to be successful.”

For the last 24 years, Dr. Heller has been a Web and Windows programming consultant. He has served as Senior Contributing Editor and the Programming Windows and Web Dev columnist for WINDOWS Magazine. He was a frequent reviewer at PC Week (now eWeek) and GCN, and a writer for Developer Pipeline, ComputerWorld, and DevX. Dr. Heller has authored or co-authored almost a dozen PC software packages and half a dozen Web applications.

He holds bachelor degrees in physics and music from Haverford College as well as a master’s and doctorate degree in experimental high-energy physics from Brown University. Dr. Heller currently resides in Andover, Mass.

ABOUT ALPHA SOFTWARE

Since 1982, Alpha Software has been providing developers with award-winning tools that make it easy to build business applications. Today over 1 million developers and tens of millions of users rely on Alpha Software’s Alpha Five. The company is privately held, and based in Burlington, Mass. Alpha Software can be found on the Web at http://www.alphasoftware.com. The company’s blog is located at http://blog.alphasoftware.com.

Contacts
Alpha Software
Press contact:
Kate Ritchie, 610-642-8253, ext. 162
KateR@GregoryFCA.com

or

Company contact:
Richard Rabins
Richard@AlphaSoftware.com

eWeek names Alpha Five Version 10 Product to Watch

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:07:26 PST

Every month, eWeek editors name new or newly updated enterprise-class products they think should be on IT professionals' radars. This includes products and services that promise to create efficiencies as well as competitive advantage. We were honored to learn that Alpha Five Version 10 was determined to be a product to watch.

I want to thank the editors for choosing Alpha Five Version 10. See who else stacked up here.
(When you click on the link - you will see a slide Show. Alpha Five v10 is the second product in the slide show. Thanks.)

PRODUCT TO WATCH: eWeek says Alpha Five Version 10

Alpha Five Version 10 Feature Peek # 44: Show or hide the alphabet button search bar in a grid

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:36:06 PST

When you create a grid that is going to include hundreds or thousands of records, being able to easily sort them is crucial, and well, just plain convenient. You're probably familiar with the alphabet button search bar, then, if you've ever created such a beast. It lets you quickly search for records in a grid that start with a certain letter.

But not every project results in a large database that would benefit from an alphabet button search bar. In the case of a grid with only a few records, you might want to hide the alphabet button search bar. Now, when the search results appear, the tool is no longer visible. It makes the grid look cleaner and smoother, and doesn't consume screen real estate unnecessarily.

This video shows how you can use JavaScript system events to dynamically show or hide the search bar.

HIDE AND SEEK: How to hide or show the alphabet search bar based on number of records in a grid

Government Computer News compares Alpha Five to FileMaker, Access, others

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:28:32 PST

Government Computer News just published its annual roundup of database software. This year, as in years past, GCN compared Alpha Five, FileMaker, Microsoft Access, and several other tools.

Two main points the reviewer makes (I'm quoting verbatim):

"[Alpha Five is] the only participant in this roundup that can compete with larger databases."
"Alpha Five beats FileMaker and even Access when it comes to advanced features such as script building and Web application development tools."

Amen!

Here's the entire review. And if you haven't tried our latest version, you can give Alpha Five Version 10 a test drive right now.

Codeless AJAX, transparent windows, shadows, and desktop-like experiences on the Web: One developer pushes the limits of Alpha Five

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:29:39 PST

Everybody loves their babies. They're cuddly and cute, but you never know what they're going to grow up to be. You want your son to be a doctor, but he grows up to be a rock guitarist. You want your daughter to be a painter, but she grows up to be a lawyer.

It's just the same when you're a marketer of database development software. Alpha Five Version 10 was officially born in January when we launched it. It's still an infant and we really don't know what's it's going to grow up to be.

What I mean is, developers in our community continually send me examples of what they're doing with Alpha Five Version 10 as they explore its new features and test its limits. I'm constantly amazed at the things they can figure out to do with the tool, things we didn't even conceive of when we designed the fundamental product.

Here's one example. Developer Peter Conway, as many of you know from past posts, has been exploring Alpha Five Version 10's ability to create ultra-contemporary user experiences. He's been able to create the kinds of things we see in Microsoft Windows 7, such as transparent windows, shadows, curved edges and more -- without having to write any code. The difference is he's doing it with Web applications that are driven by Alpha Five Version 10 with Codeless AJAX, not desktop applications!

Take a look at this video that Peter put together for me with his latest experiment. It blew me away! And I think it will do the same to you. Like I said, we could not imagine everything users would do with Alpha Five Version 10. We build the tool with tons of capability. What you do with it is up to you.

Watch the video below to see Peter's innovations in use.

Microsoft Access developers revolt against Access 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:15:36 PST

Microsoft database developers are apparently in an uproar over the upcoming release of Microsoft Access 2010. You need to look no further than Microsoft's own Access 2010 Web site to see the evidence. At the end of this post, I've posted some of the images we captured of developers' comments. (Better look at them now before Microsoft takes them down.)

It makes me wonder ... if Microsoft doesn't care enough to respond to the developers on its own Web site for its "hot new" product, how much do they care about the product at all? How much do they care about the database developers who need to use it?

Monitoring what developers are saying in general about Access boils down to one key point. They are apoplectic that the only way you can get MSFT Access databases on the Web is through a complex and incredibly expensive SharePoint solution that only the largest organizations can justify.

From talking to people in the know, my understanding is that it will cost at least $10,000 to get a Microsoft Access 2010-driven Web application up. That's just for the Web. If you want it on your intranet, factor in the additional costs of CALs (concurrent access licenses). No wonder developers are in an uproar. They can already feel Microsoft's hand scraping the bottoms of their pockets.

From Microsoft's perspective, we understand why Microsoft is doing this. SharePoint is aimed at major organization, and this Sharepoint centric approach is aimed at selling more Sharepoint licenses. But what you need to remember is this: Microsoft Access is no longer a platform for database developers. It's a platform for SharePoint developers.

The rants on Microsoft's Web site aren't the first time we've heard rumblings from unhappy Access developers. In December we started a new series, "A developer's thoughts on Microsoft Access 2010" with Martin McSweeney, Head of Development at CMITS.net. I encourage you to read Martin's view of Access 2010's limited Web capabilities and overall "lack of beef." His thoughts are representative of Access developers everywhere.

We also recently published a comparison grid that helps developers see how Alpha Five Version 10 stacks up against Access, because the rumblings have been so loud. I expect many developers will abandon, or start to plan to abandon, Microsoft Access this year. The comparison grid is an excellent resource to have for any migration planning.

Another resource for MS Access developers is Martin Heller's course, which can quickly train you how to build database-driven Web sites with Alpha Five Version 10.

And now, the screen shots I promised.

Dogs in the office? Yes!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:41:10 PST

Bouncing down the hallway like a kangaroo, but in an ungainly fashion. That describes my dog and company mascot, Clifton, in a nutshell. He's gained about 20 pounds since I last shared any Clifton stories with you.

Regular readers know about my "bring your dog to work" philosophy. It's not just talk. I eat my own dog food (pun intended). Clifton is here every day with me. I probably should start cutting a check each week for client relations services, but frankly, he prefers jerky.

He also opens doors for me, in more ways than one.

Recently we ordered pizza for lunch, and I didn't want Clifton to bother us while we were eating. I put him in my office and shut the door. A few minutes later, there he is, bouncing down the hallway with our pizza in his sights.

Did I leave the door ajar? I couldn't imagine that had he figured out how to open the door, because to leave my office, you have to pull the door in. I can see a dog figuring out how to push a door open, but pulling it in? No.

An investigation ensured. I shut my office door, walked away, then slipped around the corner and watched. Sure enough, Clifton gets on his hind legs, and puts both paws on the handles. He pulls the handle down and, keeping one paw on the handle, pulls the door inward with his other paw. Sheer canine genius.

I'll try to capture a video of Clifton the Wonder Dog in action, and share it here. Meanwhile, here's a shot of him enjoying himself in the snow a few weeks back. The Boston area was hit pretty hard in January, but it was no fur off his back.

Got a "dogs in the office" story you'd like to share? Write to me and I'll post it here, or comment on this post.

DON'T MISS OUT: Only a few seats left for Alpha Five Version 10 training classes!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:16:07 PST

Alpha's Live Hands-On Alpha Five Version 10 Training Classes have sold out. But don't worry! We're opening up A LIMITED number of seats due to popular demand. Plus, you'll SAVE $100 if you sign up right now.

As I mentioned to you in December, "Alpha University" is a hands-on, in depth training course that will teach you how to build modern Ajax-enabled Web database applications rapidly with Alpha Five Version 10.

Here's why you should attend. The courses will accelerate your Alpha Five Version 10 learning curve for building Web applications that look and perform like desktop applications. The courses will position you to take full advantage of the mega trends as outlined last month by New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman, who describes the "Great Inflection."

The courses will be taught by Dr. Martin Heller, who writes the "Strategic Developer" Blog for InfoWorld, and as you know, is a well respected author, educator, and developer. The training is taking place at the Hilton Garden Inn in Burlington, Mass., on Feb. 22 - 26.

Make sure you take a look at last month's post about the training classes for all the details, or head to the registration page to sign up today!

Alpha Five Version 10 Feature Peek #43: An alternative way to configure the Tabbed UI component

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:36:22 PST

Wouldn't it be nice to have some flexibility when configuring the Tabbed UI component in Alpha Five Version 10? A normal Tabbed UI component has a series of buttons down the left or right side. But what if you don't want them there?

Using the page layout component, you can put the buttons directly on the home page that is displayed when the Tabbed UI component is first opened. It's as easy at that, but watch the video to get the step-by-step details.

The AppGap is impressed by Alpha Five Version 10's Codeless Ajax technology

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:00:29 PST

The AppGap's Bill Ives gave Alpha Five Version 10 a test drive back in July. I recently spoke to him as part of the official launch of the product. Here's what Bill had to say.

CTOEdge, CBR, and ebizQ give Alpha Five Version 10 two thumbs up

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:12:48 PST

As you might have heard, we officially launched a little product called ALPHA FIVE VERSION 10 on Tuesday. Sorry for the SCREAMING CAPS, but I'm still pretty excited.

We got a lot of love from the press even before we launched this game-changing software, because we were sharing alpha, beta, and RC versions with them. Some additional coverage has been generated since the launch. I'll continue to post the press coverage we receive right here on the blog. And I'll kick that off with these three fresh ones.

First up, CTOEdge's Mike Vizard highlights the simplicity and the ease of use of Alpha Five Version 10's Codeless Ajax technology. Thanks Mike for checking the product out. We appreciate your time and insights.

Next up is CBR. They chose to focus on how Alpha Five Version 10 visually builds rich Internet database applications easily.

Lastly, ebizQ shared all the news about our release with its readers.

Thanks to all the reporters who thought our news was important to cover.

Comparing Alpha Five Version 10 to Microsoft Access, FileMaker, and Iron Speed

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:20:14 PST

Since August 2008, we've been maintaining a grid that compares Alpha Five, Microsoft Access, FileMaker, and Iron Speed. This is a decision-making tool for developers who ask the question, "How does Alpha Five compare to other database products?"

It's a very important question. We pitched a lot of people in the media to publish a comparison. Unfortunately, we weren't able to pique anyone's interest in doing a tough head-to-head test of the leading tools on the market. Frankly, we think it's because the trade magazines are under-resourced these days.

Well, we took it upon ourselves to invest in creating this grid, because we think it's important to potential customers. It's maintained for us by an industry analyst.

To reiterate what we said when we first published the grid, the reviewer's marching orders are to make sure he keeps the features list up to date and accurate. That's it. There's no effort whatsoever in this process to make Alpha Five Version 10 come out ahead of any other products. Rather, we leave it to you to decide.

So take a look at our fancy PDF version of the comparison product grid. You can also go to CompareAlphaFive.com to see a shareable, online spreadsheet version.

Please let us know if you see anything that's inaccurate in the grid. We'll correct any inaccuracies or errors immediately. And please feel free to share this with everyone you know. If you're a blogger or journalist who wants to use our grid, go ahead. Just let us know when you do so.