Modelingsoft

(WinRT, HTML5) My dear customer, you are at the safe side!!

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:00:00 GMT

We haven't blogged for a quite a while, not for lack of content or news, but rather for “Stop & Think”.
Delivering new nightly builds of S-Expert 3.0 is a great, but it could be an endless loop, so when you reach a degree of satisfaction and stability you must stop and think “What’s next?”

So much as happened in the last couple of months, actually it started at the Build conference in September, when Microsoft provided details about their next operating system Windows 8. After this conference, there has been a fair amount of uncertainty about the future direction of the Microsoft development platform.
Windows 8 supports two categories of application: traditional desktop applications and the new WinRT, or Metro style applications which represent the future of smart client development. Of course all applications that run today on Windows 7 will run in the Windows 8 desktop environment.
You could find a lot of detailed information about Window 8, Windows Runtime, and Metro style applications over the internet.

Another big event at this year is HTML5 which eventually was introduced at W3C Developer Conference in November. The best quote I heard about HTML5 is “New standards for a new web”.
HTML5 has been designed to deliver almost everything you'd want to do online without requiring additional software such as browser plugins. It does everything from animation to apps, music to movies, and can also be used to build incredibly complicated applications that run in your browser.
There's more. HTML5 isn't proprietary, so you don't need to pay royalties to use it. It's also cross-platform, which means it doesn't care whether you're using a tablet, smartphone, netbook, notebook, ultrabook or Smart TV, if your browser supports HTML5, it should work flawlessly.

These new technologies reminded me with an older definition of S-Expert (I wrote it in August 2010):
“S-Expert is an integrated modeling environment contains guidance packages, code templates, professional designer, and bunch of model editors. This environment delivers the experience and best practice that helps you build efficient, scalable, and reliable business application can face the future.”
It is not a kind of new advertisement to S-Expert, but it is the right time for you to be happy because you chose the Model-driven development approach in general and S-Expert in particular. You should be happy because your application can face the future.
Let’s examine in details how can your applications that were generated by S-Expert face the future?

1. Abstraction:
This new era (WinRT & HTML5) lead us to the fact "The Change would be inevitable", which Modelingsoft built upon. Each new day proves that sticking with a specific technology is awful (especially with Microsoft technologies ). S-Expert always fights on the opposite direction by abstracting your application components from the implementation technologies, which means that you can substitute any of the underlying frameworks in any of the development life cycle phases with little efforts. With S-Expert your models outlive technologies (so you still have something when your first language or platform becomes obsolete that you can use for your next generation solution).

For example: If you are working on WPF, Silverlight, or even WP7 application with S-Expert, then using the “Metro Mold” (It is not related to “Metro Man”, it is the upcoming Mold for building Metro style apps) by one click on the blue triangle button (Generate), you could generate a full Metro style application that can run under Windows Runtime. Your project, views, controls, and page flow are generated automatically and reflect the same architecture of your legacy application. Even your custom code will be ported in less effort, where we already take care of the underlying details (Actually if you try to get an overview into your custom code in the client side you will find that most of it is a logic code rather than framework specific code).

2. Structure of the generated applications:
    2.1 Multitier architecture
    S-Expert helps to enforce hard standards of layered architecture and consistency. The generated code is designed to be flexible, reusable, and scalable. The presentation, the application processing, and the data management are logically separate processes. By breaking up an application into tiers, developers only have to modify or add a specific layer, rather than have to rewrite the entire application over. With this solid architecture you can build Metro style or HTML5 apps that directly consume your generated service layer.
    2.2 MVVM
    Applications should avoid all “code-behind” the XAML controls, and should use the MVVM (model-view-view model) design pattern to cleanly separate all code from the XAML. S-Expert approves the MVVM as the only relation between your C# code and XAML code. This pattern will help you porting most of your View Models to Metro style apps.
    2.3 MEF
    In S-Expert, we always take care of choosing the right technologies and frameworks. MEF is one of these frameworks that empower the generated applications. We are happy because Windows Runtime supports MEF and most of the code that uses MEF will work natively in the Metro style apps.

3. Support
You should be sure that we support you, and support your porting process. If you have any question, need detailed advice, or even need a custom development, you are welcome!!

We are also happy with what we have achieved and are very excited to complete our vision to effectively moving MDD right into the core of the .NET software development mainstream.

Finally, we are happy to announce that we are working on S-Expert 3.1.
S-Expert 3.1 New features:
•   New Mold called “Metro Mold” for building Metro style applications, totally integrated with S-Access & S-Service Molds.
•   ASP.NET MVC 4 with the new capabilities of HTML5 and CSS3.
•   Mobile web with ASP.NET MVC 4, HTML5, and jQuery Mobile.
•   Support Silverlight 5.
•   Support WPF 4.5.
•   Support Entity Framework 4.2.
•   Support NHibernate 3.2.
We have not a due date yet, but as our initial plan, the first beta version could be available in this spring.

In another context, here in Modelingsoft we are going to expand our business, and we are looking for a proper partner or venture capital that can believe on what we are doing, realize the potentials of such a product, and help us getting wider market. If you interested or need further information, Please contact us.

Workflow Services Mold has been shipped

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:00:00 GMT

We are happy to announce that Workflow Services Mold has been shipped.

You can watch a quick tutorial about the new mold:

You can also download Full S-Expert with the new Mold from here.

The following items describe the details of the new Mold:

1. Define the Contract:

Each Service in the S-Expert designer will have a hosted Workflow designer associated with it, so we can define Operations either by the workflow designer or by the S-Expert designer.
In the S-Expert designer, when you add new Operation to a Service, the Workflow designer will be updated with a new Receive Activity with that Operation name. And if you add new Receive Activity to the Workflow designer, a new operation will be added to the S-Expert model.
The Workflow designer is synchronized with S-Expert designer, any change in one of them will reflect into the other.
If we add Operation Parameter in the S-Expert designer, new parameter will be added to the Receive Activity and vice versa, and when we set the return type of the Operation, that will affect to the Workflow designer by adding Send Reply activity to the Workflow designer and vice versa
Workflow designer is hosted in S-Expert designer so you can easily edit your model.

2. Implement the Contract business with Workflow Services:

When you select any Service and press ‘Go to Implementation’ smart command, a Workflow designer control will be opened to author its operations business.
The Workflow designer can automatically use your S-Access assets like repositories, where Workflow Services Mold will generate an Activity Library project that contains custom code activities for each entity repository method like Save, Update, and Delete.
To load any entity repository method on your Workflow designer, just click on Add Repository Activities button, select the Entity then its custom code activities will be loaded to the Workflow designer toolbox, so you can drag and drop any of these activities to implement your operation business.
You can override the implementation of any generated custom activities. You can also add your own custom activities to be auto loaded in the Workflow designer.
Another very useful feature that all Data Contracts will be added automatically to the Workflow designer, so you can directly use it as external types in your Workflow.
All Fault Contracts will be added automatically to the Workflow designer.

3. Generated staff:

Workflow Services Mold will generate WCF Workflow application project which contains all defined Services contract and their Operation’s implementation xamlx files.
Workflow Services Mold will generate a host project for xamlx services.
Workflow Services Mold will generate an Activity Library project that contains custom code activities for each entity repository method like Save, Update, and Delete.
For each Entity Repository method, CodeActivity and AsyncCodeActivity will be generated. In your workflow, you can use any of them.
Workflow Services Mold will generate a client classes for both Workflow services and ordinary WCF services with MEF support.
Workflow Services Mold will generate Test Cases for the generated services.

4. Editing your model and import tools:

You can edit any generated xamlx file with the S-Expert hosted Workflow designer.
You can edit any generated xamlx file by the ordinary Visual Studio Workflow designer, and use Update model from xamlx tool to copy changes to S-Expert.
Workflow Services Mold will provides an Import tool which can be used to import any predefined xamlx files into S-Expert model.
Workflow Services Mold will provides an Import tool which can be used to import Contracts from existing dlls.
Workflow Services Mold will provides an Import tool which can be used to import Workflow Services defined by C# code from existing dlls.

5. Extensibility:

You can extend the synchronization code (between the S-Expert designer and the Workflow designer) to add new behaviors.
You can extend the S-Expert hosted Workflow designer. For example add more tracking or persistence functionality.
You can override the generated custom activities code.
You can add any new custom activity to the activity class library, and it will be auto loaded into the Workflow designer toolbox.

It is the first public release of Workflow Services Mold, your feedback / suggestions are really appreciated.

Sculpture Toolkit 1.0 Beta

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:00:00 GMT

We are happy to announce about our second product Sculpture Toolkit.

Sculpture Toolkit is a modeling platform that contains a set of generative components and runtime infrastructures for developing .NET model-based solutions.

Let’s start with the first component 'S-MODEL' which enables you to create your own models. With S-Model designer, you can describe your domain model elements such as Domain Types, Domain Classes, Domain Properties, Domain References, and Domain Enumerations. S-Model runtime empowers your models with many out-of-the box functionalities like Meta-Data definitions, Serialization, Validation, Copying, Comparing, and Transaction Management.

Based on your model you can use the second component 'S-DESIGN' to create your own custom graphical designer. Visually configure your designer Shapes, Connectors, and Toolbox, then generate rich, fully customizable, and extensible WPF designer that works natively inside your Visual Studio.

You can also use the third component 'S-PAD' to create your own custom textual language. Write your language tokens, styles, and syntaxes, then generate grammar, parser, and full customizable language editor with different facilities like intellisense, text colorization, and real-time syntax checking.

Finally you can use the fourth component 'S-GENERATE' to create your own custom code generator. This generator has the ability to understand your model instances and generate artifacts. Visually author your generation process scenario which may have more than one template, each with multiple options. S-Generate utilizes and extends Microsoft T4 templates to easily write your templates. S-Generate also provides an API to facilitate Visual Studio core automation like project and project item construction.

With these integrated and unique components you can create full .NET model-based solutions in a very easy and straight forward.

Click here to watch a quick tour video about Sculpture Toolkit.

You can download Sculpture Toolkit from Visual Studio Gallery.

Waiting your feedback!

Nightly news, 19 June 2011

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:00:00 GMT

New build of S-Expert 3.0 RTM is available.

S-Expert 3.0.5.2911 Release Notes:

[Improved] More options in the Visual compare tool, including the ability to filter the differences.
[Improved] Add optional parameter for the translator to enables passing the initial value of the return object.
[Improved] Add the missed DLLs to the S-Expert source code (more).
[Improved] Add some references that need to be included for basic controls in Silverlight Mold (more).
[Improved] Better management for the Description field in the Database Synchronization Wizard (more).
[Improved] Validate binding Element properties.
[Fixed] 'SiteMaster' Template Fails when any Module does not have Use cases in ASP.NET MVC Mold.
[Fixed] Fake Repositories has been generated for the child entities in Entity Framework Mold.
[Fixed] Foreign keys were not generated in the NHibernate mapping files.
[Fixed] Miss the private variable 'this.selectedObject' while adding a Smart Command from the Mold Editor (more).
[Fixed] If an entity property name is changed that is used in an association the generator returns error (more).
[Fixed] If two Data Grids on a view have the same column name then you get a compile error (more).
[Fixed] Add validation rule to prevent ambiguous Final States from being connected to the same Use Case (more).
[Fixed] Data Grid events behind code do not generated in the Silverlight Mold (more).
[Fixed] In the Queryable method, the ordering parameter is always sent as "false" to the service in the WCF Mold (more).

The new build is available at Visual Studio Gallery.

Workflow Services Mold

Mon, 23 May 2011 22:00:00 GMT

We are happy to announce about our partnership with Netropix Communication Networks to create a new Mold called Workflow Services Mold.

Through this Mold we will update the WCF Mold to meet the Workflow Services technology. The new Mold would allow the user to still define regular WCF services and add Workflow Services in combination and the Workflow can be edited either in code or using the VS2010 WF Designer. Workflow services could be called also by the client and can call WCF services as well.

We are still in the phase of gathering the requirements.
All your ideas / suggestions about how you imagine the integration between S-Expert and Workflow Services are greatly appreciated!

Nightly news, 8 May 2011

Sat, 07 May 2011 22:00:00 GMT

New build of S-Expert 3.0 RTM is available.

S-Expert 3.0.5.2480 Release Notes:

[New] ASP.NET MVC Mold Beta.
[Improved] Exported images does not limit to 1900x1200 (more).
[Improved] Proper treatment for descriptions that contain commas (more).
[Fix] Miss the Molds when Reopen the model without restarting the IDE.
[Fix] Import an edmx model crashes (more).
[Fix] Import assembly, Include parent properties does not work properly.
[Fix] Import database that Using functions (like getdate()) in column's default values (more).
[Fix] Duplicated'Int32CompletedEventArgs' class when you have two operations with 'Querable' equal true.
[Fix] Action State 'Go to implementation' Smart command issue when the module name not equal the module project (more).
[Fix] Data access error when try updating Entity (Associated with another Entity) through CRUD operations.

The new build is available at Visual Studio Gallery.

Nightly news, 12 April 2011

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:00:00 GMT

New build of S-Expert 3.0 RTM is available.
S-Expert 3.0.5.1201 Release Notes:
[Improved] Add 'Save as Image' functionality to the designer surface context menu (more).
[Improved] Enable UI CRUD for complex entitis (Inherited entities, and entities with Complex Types) (more).
[Improved] Delete obsolete files from the generated folders (more).
[Fix] Include Extended properties in the Compare process.
[Fix] Nested Complex Type in Entity Framework Mold (more).
[Fix] Duplicated Complex Types in NHibernate HBM.
[Fix] Build error when Decision point calls another use case (more).

The new build is available at Visual Studio Gallery.

Nightly news, 16 March 2011

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:00:00 GMT

New build of S-Expert 3.0 RTM is available.

S-Expert 3.0.5.840 Release Notes:

[New] Oracle Support.
[Improved] Enables multiple projects with different technologies in the same solution.
[Improved] Enables select 'None' in the PS Molds Manager.
[Improved] Multiple improvements in the Database Synchronization Wizard.
[Improved] Include extended properties in the Compare and Merge tool.
[Fix] Update Model from SQL Azure database error.
[Fix] Database Transaction in Entity Framework Mold.
[Fix] Inclusive StringLengthRule Validation issue.

The new build is available at Visual Studio Gallery.

S-Expert 3.0 RTM has been shipped

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT

We are happy to announce that S-Expert final version has been shipped.

We also happy to announce our new web site with the new company name Modelingsoft the migration process from dawliasoft.com to modelingsoft.com will be completed within few days.

All subscribers can get their product key from downloads page of the new web site modelingsoft.com.

S-Expert 3.0.5.702 Release Notes:
[New] Window Phone 7 Mold.
[New] SQL Azure is now supported by Database Mold.
[Improved] Multiple Designer improvements.
[Improved] Multiple Mold templates improvements.
[Fix] Multiple fixes based on the users’ feedback.

S-Expert 3.0 RTM is available at Visual Studio Gallery.

Beta version of S-Expert 3.0 documentation

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Dear all,

You can view a beta version of the S-Expert 3.0 Documentation.

It is not the final, we still working on it.

You can notice some changes on the screen shots where the screen shots captured from the RTM, not the public version [RC].

S-ACCESS

S-SERVICE

S-FORM