Alpha Software

More proof that we gave you the easiest way ever to win an Asus Transformer Prime or iPad 2!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:45:42 PST

A couple of weeks ago, we wrapped up our commenting contest by picking our winner, Richard Polits. As promised, Richard received his choice of prize, the Asus Transformer Prime this past Friday.

Richard let us in on the big moment when he unwrapping his Asus, and gave us a little more background on himself and his experience with Alpha. Take a look at the un-boxing video here:

We love how Richard got into specifics when he spoke about his trial with Alpha, because that's the reason we created a contest for new developers only -- to strengthen the Alpha community with a variety of feedback. Thanks, Richard! Enjoy!

Want to hear what the rest of our entrants think are the most important features in a universal development platform? Stay tuned, because we're at work analyzing all 300 answers that we'll be breaking down here on the blog.

Jim Dusoe weighs in on Computerworld's "The New Rules for Enterprise Apps"

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:26:20 PST

Computerworld recently took the opinion of our own Jim Dusoe when it comes to enterprise apps. Reporter Minda Zetlin wrote a feature piece, "The New Rules of Enterprise Apps," on what it takes for companies to generate relevant and user-friendly apps, and Jim was among the experts she interviewed for the article.

Jim speaks on the importance of real-time data and data visualization, and his opinion joins others from around the industry.

Take a look at the full article to hear the rest of the "new rules for enterprise apps."

The art of web scaling

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:05:58 PST

Talk to any business person and they'll probably tell you that there's no such thing as too much web traffic -- everybody wants more. That is, until their site crashes because it can't scale.

To help developers and their clients alike understand the intricacies of web scalability, our own Martin Heller,Vice President of Education and Technology, penned a two-part series for TechNewsWorld that dives into web scalability and how to maximize it. The first part of the series ran yesterday, so we waited until the conclusion was up this morning to share it with you today.


Part 1: What It Means and How to Get There

Part 2: The Metrics of Measuring

Thanks to TechNewsWorld for featuring Martin's thoughts. Did these articles help give you a better understanding of website scaling? Let us know in a comment!

Why a Microsoft Access shop chose Alpha for its web application development

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:45:10 PST

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The feedback we get from our developers is our secret weapon. Compliments and complaints alike pave the way for the next version of Alpha.

Robin Bennett is the director of Start Software, an award-winning, U.K.-based software hosting company that trades in a variety of industries. Currently, it is the U.K.'s leading software developer in the asbestos consultancy market, and it is in the process of developing and managing projects that have a web element to them. Robin is a self-proclaimed Microsoft Access developer and supporter who started recently with Alpha Five Version 10.5, so I was really curious to see how Alpha has been working out for him. After we spoke, Robin allowed me to share his findings here.

Although Start Software is traditionally a Microsoft shop, Robin and his team found that Microsoft Access just didn't fit the bill when it came to all of their web-based projects. They were also facing a major SharePoint integration at the time, so it didn't take much to decide to look for another development platform.

"So it's the web that's really changed things, and although we've been really happy with Microsoft Access as a desktop development platform, when most of our systems that we're developing needed to be web enabled, actually it just wasn't doing it for us at all. But really when Access 2010 required the use of SharePoint for its web development work, that was when I started to look around for a better product for targeting the web," says Bennett.

Start Software employs both advanced and junior developers, so there was some initial concern about how quickly it could get everyone caught up. But because Alpha allows developers to get a lot done with little coding required on their part, Robin reported that he was impressed with the learning curve. "It's a really productive platform for learning the program. But equally, it's a really rich environment for the people who understand what's going on behind the scenes and understand CSS and HTML," Bennett says. "A competent Access developer can be productive in Alpha within a week or two."

Robin went on to recall that within six months of beginning work using Alpha, most of his projects were completed with Alpha as opposed to Access. And of course, I was happy to hear that help from us over here at Alpha Software had been helpful. Says Bennett, "The support that we have from the team and from even up to Richard and Selwyn has been tremendous, it's been actually excellent. And the ability for direct contact with the development staff is fantastic and a complete contrast to working with Microsoft."

We've got more coming from Start Software, including a formal press release. But until then, I want to give a big thanks to Robin for agreeing to share his story with us.

We always love hearing from Access shops who are discovering the advantages of Alpha Five over Access. If you have an Access story, feel free to share it with me, and maybe we'll showcase you on the Alpha blog next!

Alpha psychology: Simplifying parent-child relationships

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 08:59:47 PST

If you've just arrived here from Google, let me give you this disclaimer: This is not about your mother.

Master-detail relationships (also known as parent-child) are central to the majority of data-driven applications, so it was an obvious target for improvement when we started Alpha Five Version 11.

In our earlier versions, you can model master-detail relationships using multiple grids. You'd have one for the master and one for the detail, and then you'd embed the detail grid into the master. This works, but it has its drawbacks. A major one is that you would have to use multiple submit buttons -- one for each grid.

We needed to create one screen for the developer that looks exactly like your invoice (or whatever else you're looking to build) with a single submit button that allows you to enter or edit the data as a single, logical form. Now, with Alpha Five Version 11, you can create web-based screens that look exactly like the forms that you have in mind.

The new dialogue's single submit button will automatically save data to the master table and every detail table at once, all wrapped into a single transaction. And the best past is: No coding is required on your part!

We've also switched up the order of your developing process. With this dialogue component, you can start laying out the design of your dialogue before you have defined the tables on which the dialogue is based. That should make things easier on the eyes!

Finally, once you've completed the design of the dialogue, one button tells Alpha to automatically build both the master and detail tables.

And if you're like us and have been searching for a tool to make this easier for years, your search ends here. We've looked around and haven't been able to find any other RAD tool for web application development that allows you to create a form for entering master-detail data as a single transaction.

Want to know more about how it works? It's all completed in two quick steps. First, you design your form by laying out the fields however you want them. Next, tell Alpha how you want your fields to be mapped. Or, if you don't have the time to decide yourself, you can always tell Alpha to create the tables for you.

Take a look at this link for a step-by-step explanation.

Proof that we gave you the easiest way ever to win an Asus Transformer Prime or iPad 2!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 06:39:15 PST

We tapped into the developer universe last month to get an answer to a question that's been on our minds since we started working on Alpha Five Version 11: What are the most important features in a universal development platform?

We wanted honest feedback that we've never heard before, so we decided to ask non-Alpha developers for their two cents by inviting them to answer our latest commenting contest. The contest drew in a whopping 300 developers! The answers were thought-provoking and gave us a lot of ideas on how to keep improving Alpha Five.

Since the contest closed, we've been compiling the data, so stay tuned here for a full analysis of the responses.

The winner, who we picked randomly in the video below, will take home his choice of one of the hottest tablets on the market today, the iPad 2 or the Asus Transformer Prime. Can't take the suspense anymore? Click the video below to see who's taking home the prize!

Congratulations to Richard Polits! For the record, Richard's answer to our question was, "Fewest lines of code to solve a given problem, manageable learning curve, be productive out of the box. Staff enough to develop/support the universality and keep it relevant."

I want to thank everyone who came out and shared their thoughts with us!

Alpha Five Version 11 Feature Peek #33: Eliminate vacant values by calling a dialogue component from a grid

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:48:37 PST

In this video, Selwyn talks about calling a dialogue component from a grid, and then passing that information from the dialogue back to the grid. This is a design patent that's common in Alpha Five Version 11, so we're happy to be giving it a feature peek debut.

Selwyn has constructed a simple example grid to get us started. It consists of a list of customers, showing their first and last names, as well as a customer ID number. By pressing the open dialogue button to the right of each name, you'll be able to open a dialogue in a drop-down window and enter a specified value. Then, clicking the set value in grid button will allow the value to be automatically entered into the current row of the grid.

Then, Selwyn takes you to get your hands dirty when he switches from working preview to design mode to demonstrate how this was accomplished. Once the button option has been selected, you'll see that the window that enables the customization of the button, the onclick event window, pops up.

Once inside, you'll see that this dialogue uses action JavaScript to open the dialogue component. Before that, we've used some inline JavaScript, and by hitting the edit action button, you'll be able to see how it prompts the dialogue to open the component. Selwyn is also able to set the dialogue name, the window style, and more. He can also choose whether or not to enable the auto close of a dirty dialogue, which is a special behavior that allows you to click anywhere outside of the window to close the drop-down menu, unless that menu is dirty.

Now you'll get to take a look at that inline JavaScript, the making of the button that allows your set values to be automatically entered in the grid, and more. If your curious to see how the finished product turned out, check out the video below.

Video

How have you customized your grids with Version 11? Tell us here in a comment.

Alpha Five's best feature: Your feedback baked in

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:31:57 PST

We consider one of our biggest strengths here at Alpha Software to be our active and involved customer base, or as we like to call them, Alphaholics. There's a couple of places you can find Alphaholics. The best place is our message board. If you're not signed up, we encourage you to check it out. It's a great place to find ideas and support while building your apps. You can also find them in our LinkedIn group.

Our Alphaholics work frequently with us by offering their suggestions and ideas that are designed to make Alpha Five the most productive development tool that it can be.

Most recently, we received a request from a very skilled and talented developer, Vaughn Seward, who runs a mid-sized development company in Canada. He has been shifting his development work from Visual Studio .NET to Alpha Five.

Vaughn's a great example of the customer base that I'm always raving about. He brought a problem to our attention, described it in detail, and then gave us some great feedback to let us know the outcome.

I'm going to let Vaughn tell you about his relationship with the Alpha Five team in his own words:

In building Alpha Five grids, we have frequently come across parent-child situations where a field value in the row on the parent grid is required to be available in the child grid. Such as, the filter in a drop-down on the child grid needs to be based on a field from the parent record, a field in the child record needs to be defaulted to a field value from the parent record, and a validation or hide/show decision needs to be based on a check-box from the parent record.

We have found that these and other cases can be handled in a number of different ways by including JavaScript in the child grid, or by creating and passing session variables. When a session variable is used, it has to somehow be created just prior to the calling of the child grid. Because of the timing between what happens on the server and what happens on the client side, it is not a simple matter to make this work.

I therefore recently created a small sample application and sent it to Alpha that showed one way we were currently solving the problem. I wasn't satisfied with our current approaches because they involved making unnecessary Ajax callbacks to set session variables, or subject to possible race conditions if a button was clicked to open a child component before the callback to set the session variable had completed.

The developers at Alpha looked at my test case and came up with an idea for a new feature that they could add to the Action Javascript Builder for the action which opens a child Component. Alpha's solution solved our problem perfectly (see video M41).

I was impressed with the way in which Alpha carefully listened to the problem we were trying to solve and came up with a solution that addressed our specific needs which should also be of widespread interest to all developers.

One of our developers just had the need to use the session-var-setting enhancement. After asking him if setting up session variables was any easier now, he replied: "Yes, I love it."

And there's more where that came from -- I receive emails like this on a daily basis. It means that our Alpha developers are constantly thinking about how we can improve. And as a co-chairman, what more can you ask for?

Thanks again to Vaughn for letting us share this!

How to get an Alpha Five Coffee Mug -- Alpha's all star video

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:23:51 PST

A few weeks ago, one of our creative folks Bob Hebeisen, created this video for fun. It's a parody of the "Ultimate Dog Tease" video that quickly became a sensation on YouTube over the summer. At first, it was intended to be shared only internally, but we got such a positive reaction that we decided to post it on YouTube.

Initially, it got a few hundred views. After that, we noticed that it crept up to reach a few thousand.

But in the last two or three days, it has suddenly shot to over 26,000 views. The video highlights the fact that Alpha Five Version 11 is a good choice for rapid development of data driven business applications, whereas MS Access has limitations in this area.

This came from the fact that a good percentage of new Alpha Five customers are adopting it as the tool to take an existing enterprise, or small business MS Access app, and create a modern, fast data-driven Ajax web app rapidly. In particular, they are comparing Alpha Five Version 11 to other tools for building data-driven web apps such as PHP, Visual Studio, .Net, Ruby, and Java and are concluding that Alpha Five Version 11 lets them get to a finished modern web app in less time without the loss of flexibility or power.

But back to the video. If you go to the video to post a comment, and mention it to a few friends, we will send you a new Alpha Five coffee mug. Be sure to include a copy of your posting when you request your mug.

Please send your request for the mug to me, don't forget to mention the trial of Version 11 in your comments.

A 15 minute training demo on one of the gems of Alpha Five Version 11: the new dialogue component

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:23:34 PST

If you haven't gotten a chance to check out all the features in the new dialogue component in Alpha Five Version 11, here are a few more extended videos that will help you catch up.

The first series of videos I'd like to share is an extended dialogue demo. We'll show you how tables can be created from the dialogue definition, as well as how data can be entered into repeating sections. Through the three videos below, we'll demonstrate how a dialogue with a repeating section can be used to create database tables, and then we'll show how to enter data into the database.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

The next video focuses on moving rows in a repeating section. The rows can be moved both up and down, and you'll also see how to swap rows in a repeating section. This video also shows how you can add buttons to a dialogue component to move rows in a repeating section up or down, or swap rows in a repeating section. In the video, you'll learn how to use the methods that the dialogue component exposes for changing the order of rows in a repeating section.

Video 4

For more where that came from, be sure to check out our video library and all the Alpha Five Version 11 videos.

Merry Christmas from your friends at Alpha Software!

Alpha Five Version 11 Feature Peek #32: How to change the look and feel of your entire app with just a few clicks

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:17:18 PST

I might not know which patterns to mix or what shoes to wear, but I do know how to dress up my apps with Alpha Five Version 11's project styles.

We've designed 12 different styles specifically for Version 11, but the options don't stop there. The new style builder also allows you to roll your own styles into your apps. Of course, that's not including all of the styles that were designed for Version 10 and earlier, which are still available.

But with today's feature peek, we're going to show you how we've taken project styles to the next level by making it easy for you to transform the look and feel of your application in just a few clicks, and all in one place. At the end of the day, we've made using project styles more comprehensive, faster, and simpler.

This video debuts a new feature in Version 11 that allows you to set the style of the components used in a project, all in one convenient place. This is helpful because when you normally create a component, Tabbed UI, etc., you would have to specify the style name for each.

But Version 11 supports the ability to set the style name to project style. By doing this in all your components, you can head to the project style option in the project properties dialogue window and set it to whatever you'd like. In Selwyn's example, he enters "GrGray," a cosmetic change that will set the table to gray. You'll get to see that in working preview.

Selwyn goes back into the project properties windows to show the other color options he could have gone with by hitting the button that brings up the selector, which is to the right of his current entry. This window gives you a close look at all the different project styles you can access in Version 11, and this is just the color customization! Selwyn will take you through a couple of different colors in the video.

But no matter how big your completed project is, you can always head back into the project properties window to customize all of your styles on all your components at once.

There's more on the project properties dialogue component, but you'll have to tune in to the video to get those details.

After watching, tell us how you plan to style your apps in a comment.

How do you defend your Alpha implementation when your company calls for a major Microsoft SharePoint integration?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:51:04 PST

Well, you can come back to the Alpha blog and reference the following article!

"Comparing SharePoint with Alpha" was written by one of our Alphaholics when he was asked to evaluate the possible decision of a Microsoft SharePoint migration. After months of research, he presented the article below to the rest of the company.

Microsoft SharePoint integration is something we see happening more and more in big corporations. But like building a house, a company needs many different tools to be built successfully, so SharePoint might not be the one-size-fits-all solution that it appears to be.

The article pasted below is exactly how it was sent to me -- we haven't touched a thing. Give it a read if you're in the mood for a technical, in-depth analysis.

COMPARING SHAREPOINT WITH ALPHA

I was asked by Bill Brush to evaluate the possibility of using SharePoint as a migration direction from Alpha DBMS which we’ve been using for years.

An important decision in the design a user application is whether to store information in lists or in a database like Alpha which is how NET manages engineering information. The version of Alpha we have is almost 6 years old and does not run well on the new MS OS Windows 7 so there is a compelling reason to examine how to proceed in the very near future.

We are heavily leveraged with legacy applications using the Alpha Application Developer. However, these applications work well and it is likely they can be ported to the newer version of Alpha. The cost for the new product is about $1500. Development time in person-hours is unknown but not daunting. One of the issues regarding this is the lack of planning to implement an upgrade so we’re a bit behind the curve in this aspect of moving forward.

SharePoint has been suggested as a replacement for the current database infrastructure. It consists of lists represented by rows and columns that store data in a similar fashion to a traditional relational database management system such as SQL Server. However, a benefit of lists is that SharePoint includes Web Parts that provide simple methods for managing the data. If the data is stored in a database, it requires custom user interface components to access and manipulate it. These have already been developed and have worked well so this is not a disadvantage.

There are major advantages to storing data inside of a database. One is the availability of all the ACID (Atomic, Consistent, Isolated and Durable) properties of transactions. If NET logic requires transactions (which it does), storing data in a database is preferable to using lists. Also, SharePoint lists are meant to store simple data structures. NET requires a complex data model with intricate relationships, so Alpha is more appropriate. Most Sharepoint application data is relatively simple and does not use transactions which is required with our present applications.

In general, reading and writing to a custom database provides an overall performance advantage. Although SharePoint has made significant strides in its performance, there is still a certain amount of overhead involved in processing lists. One recommendation by some SharePoint product teams is to limit the number of items in a list to 2,000 for each list container. (A container is the root of the list and any folders in the list.) You may be able to manage larger lists by using views that are filtered so that no single view contains more than 2,000 items. Another way to circumvent this performance degradation is to write custom interfaces to manage and retrieve the data. (It is important to note that the 2,000 item threshold has more to do with HTML rendering performance than with the underlying performance of lists as a storage mechanism.) A considerable amount of training and would be required for NET personnel to achieve this and it is daunting.

Lists are great for flat information with changing content, especially when attached to unstructured documents. At least in the current version, lists are not substitutes for databases and shouldn’t be considered so.

There is no really good way for surfacing bi-directionally data from a database into SharePoint – the business data catalogue works only in read only mode and does not allow for updates back to the underlying data store.

Here’s some other points:

Primary and foreign keys: one of the most basic concepts in a database is the enforcement of a unique identifier (either system generated or user supplied) that can identify a record and link across table in parent child relationships.

Transactions: if two changes are required to go together and the second change fails you want the first change to be undone (rolled back).

SQL language: complex queries can be written in code using a standard language. Queries can be saved and repurposed.

Stored procedures: database programmers can write complex routines that can be called as reusable code blocks.

Indexing and query optimization: used to improve performance, indexing allows the database designer to pre-index specific fields that are frequently used in queries to improve performance. In addition, most databases have optimization engines that, based on what you are trying to fetch, will optimize how the data is retrieved.

Large data and binary fields: most modern databases allow you to store large binary files such as video files, large volumes of text, images, etc. in the database. SharePoint can be made to store large files as documents but you only get one per record and a generic binary object. Alpha has not only images but unlimited sized memo fields which we use extensively.

Access outside of SharePoint: lists are accessible outside of SharePoint but only through XML or programming interfaces. Lists are not great data stores to be used for line of business applications written independently of SharePoint, because the integration is relatively poor in comparison to running a SQL query on a database.

Cascading deletes: if a parent record is deleted, its children should also be deleted. In most databases, this can be configured to happen automatically or else reject the delete of the parent until the children are deleted first. This eliminates the risk of orphan child records.

These features are considered basic in databases – they have been around for decades and even the most primitive databases have most of these features. Alpha has them all.

With these considerations, Sharepoint would not be a good choice and would require considerable development and training time and is not recommended. Upgrading to the latest version of Alpha is my suggestion.

Has your company suggested a Microsoft SharePoint integration? What did you think? Tell us in a comment.

Press play on 12 new video component features in Alpha Five Version 11

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:17:09 PST

It's never been easy to integrate videos into a database application. That's one of the reasons we decided to develop our video component for Alpha Five Version 11. But before we even talk about what we've done to make adding videos to your database application easier, let's first ask the question, "Why would you even want to include videos in a database application?"

We examined this question when we first introduced video capabilities in Alpha Five. Some obvious uses include a real estate database of home tours, an insurance company's database of claims videos, or a database of featured speaker videos for an upcoming event. And it doesn't end there. These ideas just scratch the surface.

Our own Bob Moore produced a video that shows off 12 of the newest features we've baked into Alpha Five Version 11's video component. These features will help you meet all manner of video database requirements, and make doing so easy.

Using the video offset to define the starting point in a video
Playing your video after the first click with the autoplay feature
Choosing to play related videos at the end of the clip
Simplifying the viewing experience by removing the video controls entirely
Customizing your app by choosing to show or hide the full-screen button
Immersing your users by enabling the video controls to auto hide
Setting the default resolution to high definition
Choosing to display video information at the start of the clip
Removing the YouTube logo from the video player
Embedding custom playlists and loop options
Equipping a lighter theme for the player controls
Defining related video playlists that accept user defined key

The feature I'm most excited about has to be the argument-driven related video playlists. It makes it really easy to direct users to the most relevant information related to what they're watching.

For example, imagine you're the developer of a real estate database of home tours, and someone looked up a property listing. Wouldn't it be great to have related properties that matched the user's specification show up in a list, without you having to write lines and lines of code? That's the kind of power we're bringing to you with the video component.

Let us know what you think and how you would use it in the comments section.

Alpha Five Version 11 Feature Peek #32 Part 2: Where in the world is ... ?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:59:49 PST

In part one of this feature peek, Selwyn talked us through how to build a table that automatically updates geography fields in Version 11. In part two, we're going to continue and conclude the discussion by conducting a search with Google Maps to demonstrate that.

First, Selwyn enables the search component by activating the component type window, where he checks the box that will allow the grid to have a search field. The map will search on the location field that is actually a special geography data type, along with two other fields he selects.

In working preview, you'll get to see the result of the work done in this video and in part one. To test it out, Selwyn will do a test search for all records in Massachusetts that have an elevation of above 1,000 feet. When the results turn up, you'll see they're clearly marked with the familiar design of the Google Maps component that we incorporated in Version 11.

The search wouldn't work if we hadn't had our location field -- no geography search would -- so be sure to update your geography field each time you make changes to record. To demonstrate this, Selwyn will create a quick record in Massachusetts and set the elevation to above 1,000 feet.

As you can see, once the new entry is submitted, the code for the location reflects in the SQL code below. When the search is refreshed, you'll see Selwyn's most recent entry is included in the results.

Part two winds down with a more in-depth explanation, so make sure to click play on the video below to get the rest.

Part Two

Alpha Five Version 11 Feature Peek #32 Part 1: Where in the world is ... ?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:36:42 PST

No matter what it is you're looking for, you'll have a better shot at finding it if you build a table that can organize your locations by storing latitude and longitude in a records field. In this two-part video series, Selwyn's going to be letting you in on the advanced features of grids based on SQL tables that support the geography data type.

Let's kick things off with the first video. The sample table that Selwyn has set up is a table listing airports from different parts of the world. It includes fields for latitude and longitude, along with the field for location. The location field, (shown on the far left of the screen) is a special type of binary field that's only possible using databases that support the geography data type. In other words, this table is perfect for our demonstration.

Selwyn will start in design mode by heading to edit the fields in the grid builder window. When he highlights that location field, he needs to make sure "location" is selected and checked in the middle window, which is marked "selected" (you'll see in the the video that even Selwyn gets confused here, so make sure to note that specification). When everything its correctly selected, we know that we're working in the location field, and Selwyn will start the customization in the properties window.

The property he's looking for is the geography field info option, which will allow him to enter whatever he specifies in that location field. For example, Selwyn keeps latitude and longitude marked, which you saw earlier when you saw those two fields in the example table.

Because Selwyn also turns on the updates in design mode, you'll be able to see everything working when he switches to working preview. To show exactly what's happening here, Selwyn will change the numbers on the latitude and longitude to show the difference as he goes.

Next, you'll get to see the SQL that was generated when Selwyn changed those few numbers, complete with binary code. Here, you'll get to see that by setting the property of the latitude and longitude, Selwyn was able to create a advanced update statement.

Selwyn finishes things up by explaining how things work if you were to use an insert, and at that point, we're out of time on part one. Make sure to watch the video to get the rest of the details.

But it's not over yet! Stay tuned for part two, coming soon.

Warning: This app is protected by Alpha Five security framework

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:47:42 PST

If you ask me what my most trusted alarm system is, I'd answer that my loyal guard dog, Clifton, does a great job at barking at anything he hears and sees before it gets within a thousand feet of our home or office. But unfortunately, he doesn't have much bite when it comes to protecting apps.

That's one of the many reasons we designed the security framework that's woven into Alpha Five Version 11.

The security framework provides a comprehensive set of services that can be used by Alpha Five developers to protect their apps. It originally debuted in Alpha Five Version 8, and has been continuously updated to stay abreast with current and emerging security threats.

Rather than delve into its many capabilities, I'd like to talk today about how it works with the dialogue component.

Here's the first in a series of security framework demo videos. This video shows how you secure an app with a username and password. This is something very few apps can do without. Watch how it's done here.

Video One

Once you've captured a username and password, you need to store them as well as a broader user profile. This is all held in a database table, and is created at the same time the new user account itself is generated. The account credentials are stored in the web security framework's tables. Any additional information you choose to collect is stored in a related table of your design. Here's a video that shows how this is done.

Video Two

After you've created the user's account, it's easy to modify. You can retrieve the account information, and then allow the user to edit that data. Take a look at the video to see some of these usage scenarios.

Video Three

There's more to come on this, but these are the first steps to securing an app that you've built in Version 11. Don't tell Clifton, but I'd trust this just as much as I'd trust any menacing bark or growl.

Alpha Five Version 11 Feature Peek #31: Super secret sample scripts

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 06:51:04 PST

OK, they're not really super secret. But you do need Selwyn to show you where to find these sample scripts for charting in Xdialog.

Alpha Five Version 11 includes plenty of good samples for charting in Xdialog. And in this new video from Selwyn, we're going to show you how to get your hands on those sample scripts no matter what database you're currently using.

Selwyn gets things moving by opening a new database under "Database Tasks" in the "Select Database" window. When he opens it, you'll see that it's starting out as a completely empty database. To get the scripts in there, Selwyn will head into his code editor and click on his "Task List" drop-drown menu. In that menu, you have lots of options, such as turning on your code library (which you can look for on the right-hand side of the screen while watching); entering the XBasic, Database, or Function Explorers; or looking at other options under the "Scripts/Function" selection.

Now, he'll go into the activated code library and chose from his existing HTML character entries. At Alpha, we try to make things as clear as possible, so it's no surprise that Selwyn can easily find what he's looking for -- it's labeled "Create Learning Xdialog Library."

After clicking, Selwyn gets the window confirming that a code library of all samples has been created. To make that happen, Alpha Five's software automatically searches the sample Learning Xdialog database and creates a whole new code library to include every single script that's in the database.

Finally, Selwyn finishes up by using that library to create his own Xdialog example that modifies the chart examples in Version 11.

But I won't steal his thunder and show you what he comes up with. Click the video below to see the end.

A Thanksgiving thank you to the Alpha Five community

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:11:42 PST

Thanksgiving is the day of the year to let people know you're thankful for them. But since I can't fit the entire Alpha Five community around my table tomorrow, I'm going to tell all of you here.

The first round of thanks goes to the Alpha Five customers. If it weren't for your support and feedback, we wouldn't know what works and what needs a second look. Next, I want to say thank you to our partners for your creativity, passion, and commitment to Alpha Five.

Thanks to our staff and development team for all your amazing innovation and hard work, especially in the past year as we worked on Alpha Five Version 11 -- and a special thanks to my brother Selwyn, as well as Bob, Jerry, and Eavan for keeping us all updated along the way with their feature peeks.

That's the long story short of why I'm thankful this year. I'll be even more thankful if we can keep Clifton away from the turkey ... but that's another tale.

On second thought, with all the great sniff testing he's done this year, maybe he deserves his own turkey! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

Math 101: How to calculate your highest common denominator

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:39:15 PST

If you've picked up Alpha Five Version 11, you've already done it. Let me explain.

While we were working on Version 11, we were well aware of the criticisms and cautionary tales that have surrounded build-once-run-all solutions for years.

We knew that, traditionally, solutions founded on that concept rely on developing "lowest common denominator" applications.

As a result, these solutions are only optimized for low-performance platforms, and consequentially, sub-optimized for the best platforms.

Alpha Five does not do this. In fact, it enables the reverse -- making us the highest common denominator of application development. Does it take an incredible amount of work to get to that point? Yes. But it's work that we've done during the development and beta testing stages of Version 11 so you don't have to.

What distinguishes Version 11's approach to mobile from other platforms is that its components adapt to the platform on which they're currently running to produce the best user experience. A great example of this is our image gallery component. While incorporating its signature features such as pinch-zooming, swiping, and 3-D transforms, Version 11 identifies what browser it's running on and adapts automatically.

It also adapts to a desktop environment by using what it detects to exploit the computer's capabilities. For example, with the image gallery component, you wouldn't have pinch-zooming on a desktop. But because Version 11 is always adapting to produce the highest common denominator, you'll be able to do the same thing using the scroll wheel, as well as with momentum scrolling.

Version 11 also takes full advantage of the screen real estate on each device. You can, for example, define a single grid with one query definition that has different layouts and behaviors for desktop browsers, tablets, and smartphones.

So the formula is: Alpha Five Version 11 = the highest common denominator. And yes, there will be a test!

Wendy Welton, RA: Registered Alpha-holic

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:13:22 PST

Log on to your favorite company's website, pick a color, size, add it to your cart, and proceed to checkout. Sound like you're shopping for jeans? Not quite.

If you're visiting Wendy Welton's website, Artform Home Plans, that's all it takes to choose the design of your new home. Wendy, a Registered Architect, is the President of Art Form Architecture, and Artform Home Plans is where her customers and builders come to select the plans for their additions, renovations, or new homes. She's also an avid Alpha user.

But she wasn't always an avid Alpha user. In fact, she wasn't an avid user of any development tool. Wendy had no experience with website development before she ordered Alpha Five. After suffering through setback after setback with the site, she ordered Alpha Five and completely transformed her company's website all by herself.

So I got in touch with Wendy and asked her to sit down to tell us about her experience. Click play below to watch our Skypecast with Wendy and get the full story about how she became a Registered Alpha-holic.

What have you heard about Alpha Five Version 11? More Version 11 media coverage

noreply@blogger.com (Sara Nugent) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:23:57 PST

Alpha Five Version 11 has been out for a little over a week now, and since ReadWriteWeb and TechRepblic picked up the news, we've been happy to see that a few other publications have been spreading the word as well.

First off, Tab Times mirrored our concerns about the proliferation of development languages in its story, "Alpha Five aims to simplify the business dev of apps across tablets, smartphones and more." Writer David Needle gave us a great feature. He called our approach to generating user experience as HTML5 our "secret sauce." Thanks to David for that.

While we're at it, I'd also like to thank TMC.net and ITbriefing.net for featuring our news release.

What have you heard about Alpha Five Version 11? Let us know in a comment.

Alpha Five Version 11 Feature Peek #30: Making reports pop with a pie chart

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 06:01:39 PST

Alpha Five Version 11 has been officially released, but in case you haven't picked it up yet, or want some extra tutorials showing what it can do, we are going to keep posting Selwyn's helpful feature peeks here on the blog.

We left off with the image gallery component, so let's start with a different way to add visual pop to your apps: embedding charts into a report.

This video from Selwyn shows you how to embed a chart into an Alpha Five report. Selwyn has a simple report set up to get us started. The numbers have been pulled from a standard invoice and will serve as the information used in the sample chart he's about to create.

Selwyn goes with a pie chart that will display a breakdown of the items on the invoice. To give you the best look, he'll head into design mode and increase the size of the detail section. Once he's there, he'll select "embedded chart." Now he's all set up to create the pie chart.

He'll drag the mouse over the report to embed the chart, and as soon as he releases the mouse, the section for the chart will be highlighted. You'll immediately see the "graph data" window pop up. This is where you'll plug in the information that will form the chart. Selwyn chooses to make a 3-D pie chart, and that the source of the data will be a table. There are a multitude of options, and choices will be personal to each developer and his project.

Selwyn will walk you through how to define arguments to further personalize your chart. He also makes some additional changes on the different invoice items. He'll go over how to filter the invoice items so that they show up exactly how he wants them within the chart.

After all customizations have been made and Selwyn takes a look at the finished product in preview, you'll see the report broken up into four separate pie charts displaying Selwyn's specifications for each invoice item.

Click the video below to get the full tutorial. Take it away, Selwyn!

ReadWriteWeb, TechRepublic cover Version 11

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:36:37 PDT

Yesterday, we issued a press release announcing the launch of Alpha Five Version 11. Since then, a few publications have picked up on the scent of our "build once, deploy anywhere" message -- no pun intended, Clifton.

ReadWriteWeb was the first to pick up the story, complete with the video that Bob Moore created to showcase our brand-new image gallery component. We were all excited to be featured on ReadWriteWeb, but it got better when we saw author Jon Mitchell's headline: "When Developers Can Build Once For All Devices, Users Win." Exactly! We couldn't have said it better.

ReadWriteWeb also featured the story on its Facebook page and Tweeted about it. Following suit, Jon personally shared the story on Twitter and Google+.

TechRepublic came next when it featured the launch on its blog, The Software Engineer. It was in its developer news roundup, a feature that highlights important news for software developers.

Close to four million people potentially could have read this article via the ReadWriteWeb feature, based on its audience reach and Tweets.

This is a great start, but we're excited to keep spreading the news! Thanks to both for the shout out! And be sure to Like, re-Tweet, and +1 all of ReadWriteWeb's coverage!

On the 11th month of the 11th year, Alpha created Version 11

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:39:50 PDT

Yes, it might have been a little catchier if we held off until 11/11/11, but we just couldn't wait any longer. Today, we announced the release of Alpha Five Version 11.

If you're a regular on our blog, then you know all about this. For months now, you've been reading about it, watching videos about it, and listening to what the beta testers have to say about it. But we thought we should let everyone else out there in on it, so we issued a press release with all the juicy details.

And because I'm not one to keep a secret, here's one more important announcement: After the sniff test, Clifton told me that he smells a feature pack in the future.

What will your first project in Version 11 be? Take a look at the press release below to help you decide.

Finally: One Development Tool for All Five of Today’s Platforms

Alpha Five Version 11 sets a new standard for integrated rapid HTML5 application development for the building of business apps simultaneously for smartphones, tablets, the web, laptops,

and desktops -- and whatever comes next

BURLINGTON, Mass. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- There are thousands of computer programming tools on the market today, but only one lets programmers build apps for all five of today’s computing platforms without having to use Java, Flash, Silverlight, or other plugins: the new Alpha Five Version 11, released today by Alpha Software. It uses the power of Microsoft .NET and HTML5 to help developers solve a business problem once, and make their app available to users wherever they are and however they like to work—whether that’s on a smartphone, tablet, the web, a laptop or netbook, or their trusty ol’ Windows PC. At last, developers can stop worrying about platform uncertainty, and focus on delivering apps that won’t become obsolete every few years.

“The iPhone, the iPad, and mobile computing have changed everything, but you might be surprised to learn that not all of those changes have been for the best,” says Richard Rabins, Co-Chairman of Alpha Software. “Mobile and tablet computing are great for users, but they’ve added cost, complexity, and uncertainty for companies. IT has been forced to choose between investing in apps for the desktop or laptop, the web, mobile, and new form factors such as tablets. Development teams are burning out. They’re understaffed and overworked, because they have to cope with budget cuts while learning new languages and reinventing apps for multiple platforms. Business leaders are holding back, because they’re worried how the platform wars will shake out -- and that’s compromising productivity and competitiveness. It’s a mess.”

Alpha Five Version 11 cleans up the mess by making it easy for developers to use one tool to build apps for all five of today’s popular platforms. Experienced coders and beginners alike can quickly design, develop, debug, and deploy multi-touch or mouse-driven apps. That means Alpha Five apps run swimmingly well on every device available today, and on any device that comes down the pike.

How can Alpha Five do this so easily in a world where developers are building apps anew for every platform they’re targeting, or depending on third-party plugins like Flash or Java? First, the big idea: Alpha Five can generate user experiences as HTML5, the lingua franca of contemporary computing. Every PC, smartphone, and tablet must support it. Wherever you find HTML5 -- and that’s everywhere -- you’ll find a platform that can serve up Alpha Five apps. Second, Alpha Five’s award-winning Codeless Ajax technology uses persistent server connections to provide low-latency, desktop-like experiences on any device. And there’s more, including:

A comprehensive collection of reusable components that make it easy to assemble applications quickly, without having to write a single line of computer code. These include Alpha’s database grid, form, dialog, security, GIS/data mapping, calendar, charting, video player, animation, image gallery, and HTML5 reporting components.

A rich professional programming environment for developers who like to (or need to) get their hands on the “metal,” including the highly regarded XBasic object-oriented language, a powerful debugging environment, support for version four of .NET framework, and an extensive client- and server-side event model.

GIS/mapping support that makes it easy to build an array of practical applications for industries such as real estate, homeland security, CRM, and military that use GIS data.

Calendar and scheduling support that lets users graphically select dates, book appointments, schedule resources, synchronize schedules, and more. Best of all, it takes just a minute for developers to add this functionality to their apps.

Video support that makes adding video to any application a snap, with full support for Flash and HTML5; public and private videos; and storing locally or on external services, such as YouTube.

Image gallery component that simplifies the process of developing highly interactive applications that use images to drive the user experience. The gallery supports pinch zoom, swiping, and other gestures on smartphones and tablets, while automatically adapting to the capabilities of web browsers on desktops and laptops to support similar functionality with mice and touchpads.

Expanded charting capabilities. There’s a new built-in charting engine, powered by .NET, that generates charts in forms, report, grid, labels, letters, Xdialogs, and web components.

New grid builder component, dialog builder component, custom- and user-defined components, and web components style builder that make it easy to visually build, define, and customize database grids, application dialogs, and web styles -- as well as build custom components from scratch. Developers have never had it easier or been given more control over these crucial application design features.

Animation capabilities that take full advantage of CSS3 to empower applications with extensive animation and other “eye candy,” making apps more fun for people to use, and making it easier for developers to communicate tasks and information in a contemporary style.

A design metaphor that encourages the use of iterative, agile development techniques in real-world scenarios with clients where modifications to applications can be made rapidly.

And a lot more, including RESTful Web Services; support for MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, and other SQL databases; DBF support; an improved Quick Report Genie; easy generation of reports in HTML, Excel, or PDF; a faster and more robust Application Server; a new XBasic Excel API; a more powerful XBasic Class Syntax that supports data hiding; improved auto-complete in the XBasic code editor; substantial improvements to XBasic classes; a rich portfolio of client- and server-side events; a new JavaScript editor with full color coding and auto-complete; tight integration of jQuery in all web components; and that’s just for starters!

“Alpha Five Version 11 is a new tool for a new world,” says Jim Dusoe, Director of System Analysis and Application Development at Alpha Software. “It has everything developers are looking for today in a single rapid application development environment. It connects to all the major databases, supports literally every popular computing device on the market today, and protects your investment by targeting HTML5 for the mobile and web user experience. There’s simply no other development platform that can stack up to Alpha Five Version 11.”

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.

PRESS RESOURCES

Review copies and training available to press and bloggers.

Website: www.AlphaSoftware.com

Blog: http://blog.AlphaSoftware.com

Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlphaSoftwareInc

White Paper: http://server2.alphasoftware.com/pdf/WhitePaper_a-new-world-framework_100411.pdf

Early Customer Reactions: http://www.alphasoftware.com/newsimg/2011_10_30_AlphaFive_v11_reactions.pdf

Download: http://server2.alphasoftware.com/trial/index.a5w

Contacts

Alpha Software
Alicia Buonanno, 610-228-2096
Alicia@GregoryFCA.com

Don't ask me, ask Dan Bricklin

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Rabins) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:16:25 PST

I'm just as into social media as the next guy, but it wasn't until last week that 140 characters had me doing the happy dance.

After watching our new video showcasing the brand new image gallery component in Version 11, Dan Bricklin tweeted, "Alpha Software's upcoming V 11 handles both iPads and desktops in HTML like native apps. Way to go!"

Dan Bricklin is a true pioneer and a guy who's managed to stay relevant for decades in an industry that can change overnight.

That's our goal with Alpha Five Version 11, to provide developers with a platform that will keep their apps relevant no matter how many other development languages come down the pike.

So Dan's stamp of approval means a lot. Thanks for watching and tweeting, Dan!