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Enlide at E-Commerce Geneva 2009

2009-05-25T13:14:00Z

Enlide will be present at the 3rd E-Commerce Geneva edition on May 28, 2009.
We will be helping web agencies to learn how they can deliver powerful applications. Enlide.

Enlide dev team is getting bigger !

2009-03-27T16:05:00Z

Hello Damien. Who are you ?

Hello ! I am Damien Rollot, I live in France close to Geneva (Switzerland). I graduated last year and now I am getting in the real world ;-).

Why did you choose to join the Enlide team ?

Mainly because the product is very exciting, and the development team is young and efficient. To be involved in the Enlide development was really exciting.
What really made me choose to get involved is the screencast I found on the website. I immediately started thinking on what I could design with it. Whatever the language a developer prefers, he now can build his project and then deploy it on many platforms without fully knowing them. I found the feature really powerful !

What's the highlights of Enlide ?

The strength of Enlide is its ability to fulfill your needs. You don't have to fully master the platform where you want to deploy your app on. Develop your project on Enlide and then export it to any available platforms you want. This new approach is really a breakthrough.
Companies like web agencies can save a lot of time and money. Without hiring experts for every platform, they can focus on applications developments and Enlide will manage the platform complexity.

How did you learn you way around Enlide ?

Quite easy, Enlide is very intuitive. Just drag and drop elements to design interface and code your core application. Enlide assist you but you stay the real master !

What are you in charge of ?

I am in charge of the platform integration into Enlide. I integrate platforms specifications so that project design process could be totally transparent for developers. I also ensure that they connect correctly to the Enlide architecture.

How do you see Enlide in the future ?

We will integrate more and more different platforms of different kinds (web, mobile, ...). But it's mainly developers knowledge that will bring a lot to Enlide. Enlide Community content is one of its strength. Finding quickly resources increase your efficiency.

What would you tell to a friend, developer too, about Enlide ?

Don't bother to learn platforms complexity, use Enlide. Pick up the platform you want to work on, leave the plumbing and boring part to Enlide and have fun building your project !

Finally, some fresh news about Enlide !

2009-03-19T13:58:00Z

We kept silent the last few weeks 100% focused on the development of Enlide. All this is going to change completely in the coming months with the official release of Enlide !

It’s still a secret but we can tell that it’s scheduled for this summer !

New year resolution

2009-01-15T19:37:00Z

Actually, just one : provide what developers need.

Meet us at Startup Academy night.

2008-12-03T17:15:00Z

Following the Startup Academy program (don't panic no text messages to send ;-)), Enlide will be present at the price-giving night friday, september 5th 2008, from 07:00 PM at La Cantine (151 rue Montmartre, 75002 Paris).

Hicham Aissaoui, cofounder and Chief System Architect of Enlide, will be present to answer all your questions about Enlide.

We will be happy to meet you and share business card.

Et voilà !

2008-12-01T14:23:00Z

As you can see with the French flag above, these website and blog are now also available in French.
The French blog feed is available here.

For better reading, the blog has also been graphically improved.

First Enlide Screencast.

2008-11-14T20:57:00Z

First of all please refer to older posts for an introduction to the Enlide user interface.

Why a video ?

This first video aims to show you how you can easily build applications with Enlide for a large variety of platforms. It shows how intuitive the interface is, we are developers too.

We select the iGoogle startpage as the target platform. This video could have been done with any other platform. No sound. Because talking is cheap and we assume that you have already seen a desktop ide ...

Why a mortgage calculator ?

The team agrees that the traditional "Hello world" was too much associated with desktop applications. We wanted something different that would reflect the current world mood ;-). Yes, a mortgage calculator. Of course, it's not the only reason. Following the KISS principle (Keep it Simple and Smart), we wanted a preview of the basic but powerful features of Enlide. For us , it means a short unedited video and a simple working application.

Of course, the code edited is provided for demonstration purpose, please don't send us messages like "your forgot to test if the variable ...".

The mortgage calculator is available at www.enlide.com/app/ben/mortgage/index.xml. It has not been obfuscated so you can see what kind of code is generated. You will be able to obfuscate or change the production settings. To see it in action just click here. This last action has not been automated as you are not logged in, your application is only available as long as you keep the igoogle cookie.

What have you seen ?

Look at the left of the "New Project" tab, sometime a loading icon appears. It shows you that your action has been taken in account.

Here are the simple steps to build your application :

Project information :

select a project, or clone an existing one from the Enlide Community.
select a platform : each platform item shows additional information about its Enlide integration completion status and the integration leader. You will be able to join the team to improve your skills or even add a new platform (not some of them appear on the video).
fill in the platform specific metadata. A link to the platform documentation is available when provided.
fill in data about your application : your url, and useful information when sharing it within the enlide Community (visibility, tags...).
finish by selecting your application licence and by reading the legal stuff.

Entering the Designer :

add an asset : at any time the user could upload assets from its Hard drive, from the web or within the Enlide Community.
select your component : it's a simple sequence of components Drag and Drop and customisation with the SmartBar( property change, alignement...)
use the explorer to ease your component tree navigation.

Entering the Source Code Editor :

three simple but powerful elements : add attribute, events, or functions to your application. It's the dynamic part of your application.
the source code is always associated with the selected component in the Designer mode (the selected component appear at the top of the mode)
simple text editor : usually a well written source code should be split in short functions, that's the reason why you don't need a complex source code editor. We will extend it with developers requirement if really needed. We don't want to provide a confusing source code editor full of unuseful features.
need a function ? First of all, lookup within the Enlide Community if someone has not ready done it. How many mortgage calculator has been around ? In 3 step : search, select, import, you have a right mortgage calculator function !

Deploy :

Your application is deployed at iGoogle in development mode. As soon as your application is ready for production, it's deployed in production mode for a public access. That's allow you to have different settings in development and production mode.

Enjoy your application at iGoogle, it works !!! Of course.

Why enlide is Different ?

Enlide is the only web development tool dedicated to web applications that automatically bind user interface components with corresponding source code. No Button save !!! Every action is stored. It's very useful to easily navigate your history work (undo/redo).

Everyone agrees that future applications will be a mix of desktop application and a browser. Current tools migrate from desktop to web application.
We have decided to start Enlide from ground up as a web application to develop web application and use web connectivity to give software application a new life.

Follow us !!!

Docked or not ?

2008-10-24T13:25:00Z

Some of our blog readers asked us if Enlide will only be available as a docked windows web application.
Of course not ! In our team, as in Enliders community, we have docked and floating display mode fans so we have developed both.
Enliders could take advantage of their favourite mode by changing it in the Preferences tab.

Who speaks about 3D display mode ? ;-)

Floating display mode

Docked display mode

The central panel : where your thoughts take form.

2008-10-10T13:01:00Z

The central panel includes two basic mode from standard IDE : design and code modes. Both available from tabs. Compared to standard IDE, those modes are adapted for next generation applications. There are light but powerful.

Enliders focus on user application interaction while internal implementation is managed by Enlide. Design and Code are tightly coupled. When a component is selected, by switching to the code tab you get access to its code part.

SmartBar

The Smart Bar at the bottom of each mode is always related to selected components. It enables you to change those components for an easier and comfortable development. The Smart bar fits available features for the active mode.
For example for a selected component, you get access to its placement and when you switch to the code mode, the SmartBar change to display code features. At any moment you get access to only useful features.
Why keep the alignment toolbar in code mode ? Well, take a look to standard IDEs.

Design mode

Enlide enhances your application with components library. The layout site has a grid and is skinned for the current platform.
Layout components are simply groupable and hierarchical relation between components is simply done by drag and dropping a component onto its parent. Resources are available for any component from the Enlide Community or from your personal uploads.

Code mode

It is a synthesis of your component behaviour. Instead of a complex editor, you get access to an efficient step by step process : attributes, behaviours for user interaction, and functions. Each item could be easily share with other Enliders.
Don't like code assistant ? Don't worry, a white-page mode is also available for free coding.

We let you discover more available features ...

Enlide is more than a widget builder ...

2008-07-09T11:15:00Z

We have received many emails from people who have not yet tried Enlide, asking us how we are different from other widget builders.

In fact, Enlide is different from them in many ways, here is the main difference. Other services allow users to create static applications. They could be compared to graphical or template editors.

Our vision is different. Our audience are developers. With Enlide, developers get access to powerful tools to develop dynamic widgets, webapps, and blur the line between desktop and web oriented development. Easier said, comparing those platforms and Enlide is like comparing Dreamweaver and Visual Studio ... Enlide is an online IDE based on adapted compilers, and a collaborative development platform for developers.

Enliders know why Enlide is unique ;-)

The bottom panel : project control and memory.

2008-06-13T13:40:00Z

This panel is dedicated to project changes monitoring and restoring.

The Console tab is the Enlide information and debug output. It displays client-server exchanges : logs, raw data, error code, ... It shows your project status on the server side.

The History tab is the memory of your project. It displays all actions you have performed. Any creation, update or deletion on an element is pushed in the history grid.

Each entry of the history grid is composed of :
- Mode : context where the change occured (Design, Code, Management)
- Executed action
- Targeted item : short description of the component that changed
- Changes : modification description
- Old and new value : value that changed (if available)
- Date and time
- and the useful 'Back in time' link which allow you to instantly restore any previous project state.

You can revert any change at any time. It's an useful smart undo that will prevent you from data lost and a lot of headaches ...

The right side panel : manage your components.

2008-06-06T09:30:00Z

Following the last post, here is the right side panel description.

In the last post, we saw how to add components to the design view. Now, let's focus on components customization and management.

Here is how you can easily customize your components appearence with the Properties tab. For an easy use, component properties are categorized. The properties tab always displays the properties of the currently selected object on the design view. The properties displayed depends on the type of component being edited.

In the below screenshot, the selected component has six properties in background category.

There are three way to edit a property :

- in place : change directly the property value by entering text value,
- selection : use an adapted control. Depending on the property value type, a control helps you set a new value, for example a selectable list, a slider ...
- complex : use an extended view of the property value. Complex values can be visualized with an intuitive view. For example, for color editing, a color picker is displayed.

When many components are on the design view, they often overlap each other and it becomes difficult to visually select a component. It's necessary to index all components.

The components tree is dedicated to this task and is available in the Inspector tab. The component tree is a hierachical view of all created components. It reflects the content of the design view. By selecting a component in the tree, you also selected it in the design view and could perform all management tasks.

With those two new tools, the design process is now simple and easy.

The left side panel : what is inside your current project ?

2008-05-30T10:09:00Z

The left side panel is dedicated to all data used by your project.

By now, Enlide manages four types of element :

- templates : a template assembles components and can be easily re-used within your source code,
- snippets : a snippet is a reusable part of code. It includes all non-graphical elements,
- libraries : a library is an external template or snippet,
- components : a component is a UI element available from the Enlide and Community components library.

Thoses elements are dispatched in two tabs: the Explorer tab and the Components tab.

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The Explorer tab allows you to navigate and perform all tasks on your workspace elements.

The Components tab displays icons for components that you can add to Enlide projects. Each component can be dragged and dropped onto a design view that we will see later on. Components are grouped by category and each one can be expanded or collapsed. Last but not least, the exclusive Community item gives you a direct access to a growing shared components database.

This feature, among others available, reminds you that Enlide is a Social IDE. And by social we means always connected to unlimited resources.

The AISP way.

2008-05-29T16:40:00Z

In next posts, we will introduce parts of Enlide Interface and here are our thought about user interface design.

The end of GUI

     Early user interfaces, or Graphical User Interface (GUI), were based on operating systems multitasking ability without any Human-Computer Interaction model.

     But studies have shown that users usually keep a single window up at a time on their desktop, and the internet user experience is multipages based : users go from page to page. That's the reason why so many UI are not user friendly.

The multipage navigation is visually close to the GUI way of displaying windows : each action could trigger a pop up which in turn could trigger.... But the perceived complexity of application is tightly coupled with the number of modal pop-up.

Then should we re-implement multi-window UI paradigm when designing web applications ?

The Rise of AISP

     At Enlide, we believe in AISP UI : All In a Single Page User Interface. Ajax has bring a lot of features to html pages : drag and drop, auto-completion ... But one of its interesting aspect, it's the ability to group all ui element in a single page. It allows to drasticly reduce the number of modal windows and to improve the interactivity.

     Most developers have faced the problem of grouping controls within forms, pages, or windows and set-up an efficient user workflow. AISP is the answer : dispatch your UI element on a single page and display them when needed. Modal pop-up are reduced to minimum and usability can be extended with each Ajax features.

A simple paradigm applied to application UI design.

Discovering Enlide.

2008-04-15T12:30:00Z

The top or side bar of any web service usually show pretty well its main features, so here is Enlide's top bar.

Enlide is composed of several spaces. When you log into your account, you enter your personal space : My projects.

Left side tabs are spaces used before you create a project. Right side tabs are spaces used within projects.

Your Personnal space contains your collection of projects and helps you perform your management tasks : list, import, export, set up, delete projects ... every project features available.

The Project creation space is dedicated to project creation, of course. Within this space you define a new project with common project settings like title, description but also extended features like platforms target, or visibility attributes within the community.

The Work space is where you are going to spend a lot of time. It is the main part of Enlide magic. Within this space, design, customize, code, generate and deploy your project.

The Community space helps you enlighten the community with your shared assets. It is the rallying point of all Enlide users. Here is the big picture : enhance your project with community assets, code, components, webapps and then share anything your want to extend the Enlide Community.

And finally, the necessary Preferences space helps you make Enlide better fit your needs and environment.

Next ... the Designer !