The basics of an Edit Screen in Wolf

An Edit Screen in Wolf Platform-as-a-Service allows the visual representation of your Entity. When you create an Entity, the Default Edit Screen is automatically created for you - instantly. However, you may create any number of Custom Edit Screens in an Entity to allow flexible representation of your data.

Lets take a look at the basics of an Edit Screen and how it will assist you to visually represent your Entity. Consider the Default Edit Screen which gets created automatically every time you create an Entity in the Wolf Designer Console.

Expand the Default Edit Screen node.

A Tab exists under the Default Edit Screen (this is only in the case of the Default Edit Screen). Tabs are often used for logical grouping of data/fields. For example, in an Entity used for storing contact information, different tabs may be used for storing business data and personal data of the contact. You may define any number of Tabs in your Edit Screens to fully represent your data.

A Section exists under this Tab (this is only in the case of the Default Edit Screen). Sections are often used for logical grouping of data/fields in a Tab. For example, in a Tab containing personal information of a contact, we may have one section for the addresses and another section for the phone numbers. A section is also the place where you can start adding fields to your Entity.

Note - It is a good practice to provide meaningful names to the Tabs, Sections and Fields of your Edit Screen. I have skipped this part since this is a demonstration.

After providing the suitable linkages to Menu items, the Edit Screen can be accessed on running the application.

So there you have it. The basics and the structure of an Edit screen in Wolf PaaS.

Don't forget to check out the real time help in the Wolf Designer Console while building your applications.

Nominate WOLF Platform-as-a-Service for the Crunchies, Best International Award

Top 13 reasons for using WOLF SaaS Designing Platform

Most of the reasons for using a SaaS are already known. But is there any SaaS designing platform which provides you all these?

Multi-tenant SOA Architecture
24/7 application hosting service
Develop without writing technical code
Turn on - Automatic Platform Upgrades
Grids for inline editing and entering data
Access Ready-to-use Starter Biz Solutions
Custom Branding, template personalization
Embed functional widgets in any other solution
Migration & copying of applications with design
Prototyping, Versioning, Real-Time Sync Module
SAS 70 audited, best of the breed IT Infrastructure
Showcase your application in WOLF Solution Gallery
View analytics via Dashboard items & Graphical charts
Service Layer Abstractions using XML based Business Rules Engine
Ready Rules to port and manipulate data from different software programs
Import Export or filter data from Word, Excel, Project Management or CSV files
128 bit SSL encryption, NO CLOUD LOCKIN – Save your DATA in your own DATABASE

Software TO IMPROVE YOUR Business and NOT OTHERWISE- Most software's are developed using proprietary programming languages & require technical skills not known to the larger world. WOLF is the only Software Platform-available-as-a-Service which lets Business Users develop applications without writing a single line of technical code. Up and Running within minutes. It reduces the economics of creating, utilizing and maintaining software for customers. Wolf requires no special skills or software to install and helps to reduce capital expense. It eliminates the upfront expense of software purchases like Database, Middleware and technical upgrades all automated online, substantially reducing supporting IT costs.

Quick, easy, convenient and cost effective- To start using your WOLF based SaaS applications, you only need to visit a customized web URL - How easy can this get? You reduce your cost of developing serious software by more than 70% - Quick and Cost effective! Without writing even a single line of script/code…

Quick implementation cycle - To start using your WOLF based SaaS applications, you only need to visit a customized web URL - How easy can this get? You reduce your cost of developing serious software by more than 70% - Quick and Cost effective! Without writing even a single line of script/code…

Customized solution for every customer, the consultative approach- Often a standard solution does not fit your needs, which is why WOLF Platform delivers customization OnDemand without any hassles or high cost. WOLF’s unique technical architecture allows customers to turn on automatic upgrades & also enhance custom features and processes within days with very little investments. So don't forget to demand additional features from your WOLF SaaS provider.

Multiple cloud compatibility, Standardization and Infrastructure - WOLF SaaS applications are accessed by all users across the organization using a browser simultaneously. These software's are developed and are running on the XML standard developed by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) which aids information systems in sharing structured data, especially via the Internet. In addition to adherence to such high standards, WOLF Platform is offered from a highly scalable, secured Cloud Computing Infrastructure, available with 100% uptime guaranteed, factoring OnDemand scalability with the option for you to choose your own preferred Cloud provider to save your business data or to even install your own WOLF Platform copy as a RunTime License. We understand our customers need for high data security and privacy which is why the data resides within your premises or preferred cloud.

Mobility and Global accessibility - Anytime, anywhere access using a browser. Collaboration and accessibility of data over geographically dispersed locations using multiple devices. You gain by accessing your business systems via mobile, PC, Kiosk or any internet enabled device.

On Demand, pay as you use - Development as a service, use as a service, deliver as a service and when customers need - they pay as per the services used. No more hardware servers to manage, no special software license, no development language to learn - Just a browser and an internet connection.

Data Portability and Integration - Let's face it - data is spread across DIFFERENT systems from different VENDORS. Some are structured systems such as a Microsoft Excel ® , CRM, IMS, ERP, SCM, FINANCIAL, PROJECT MANAGEMENT, PAYROLL, ACCOUNTING, etc. For generations, software product vendors have touted about their API's for accessing data with different competing protocols and added to the laborious work. With WOLF, you don't need to deal with another API - Just drop a ready business rule to connect with your required system and HOLA - you are connected. Want to get your systems connected - speak to us right away.

Data Security- All Wolf based SaaS applications are accessed over 128-bit secured SSL connection and are hosted in a 100% uptime guaranteed, load balanced – SAS 70 state-of-the-art data center. Wolf also provides a very robust Security Management module which allows you to create-manage Roles/Users for the system & provides you with complete control over different views, changes or data additions. We have enabled 'Physical', 'Application' & 'Access' controlled security for all SaaS applications. Remember: YOU ALSO HAVE THE OPTION TO SAVE YOUR DATA IN YOUR OWN LOCAL/PRIVATE DATABASE SETUP.

Multitenancy- In general, Multitenancy refers to a principle in software architecture where a single instance of the software runs on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor's servers, serving multiple client organizations (tenants). With the Wolf multitenant architecture, the software application is designed to virtually partition its data and configuration so that each customer organization works with a customized virtual application instance and upgraded online by Wolf, the OnDemand SaaS provider. You can leverage and rely on our strict service level assurance for prompt online support,services & information.

Application Scalability - How many records would you need to manage using your online system? Can we start with a million records? The WOLF SOA late bound architecture allows you to manage and manipulate data without posing constraints on your bandwidth. You can add users whenever you need and upgrade your software with the latest releases whenever available.

Freedom from being locked inside a particular technology - Wolf based SaaS Software continues to grow independent of technology changes. The Platform separates the business definition from its code counterpart, making the business application survive beyond current technologies. Providing more freedom for customers and reducing the burden of technology change. Extremely useful for customers having limited capability in software development but having high automation and process needs.

WOLF SaaS pricing model - WOLF SaaS offers an attractive OnDemand pricing model based on the application. Applications are usually priced on per user/per month basis with the option of purchasing extra storage and users, ranging from USD $ 9 to USD $ 48/- Delivers higher ROI and greater simplicity and ease of use.

Human Touch - We provide an experience and not a technology product. Customer service and feedback are actionable items and not reports for us. A service business is built around customer needs, you are assured to get one to one personal service not just via our trained customer support & partner implementation team our entire management staff. Try an idea and experience our product/service.

On Click Help in the Wolf Designer ...

The latest buzz within the team is the On Click contextual help - recently released for the Wolf Designer. This context specific help is a guide for beginner, advanced and works even for expert users. I am a bit surprised with some of our partner team members who found the help really 'HELPFUL' :) The idea revolves around assistance based on the area of the application which you are currently working on using the designer. Let's have a look at the layout of the Wolf Designer .



In the figure above, the right most section is the "On Click Help" which dynamically generates help text depending on the node/element of your Application (in the Solution Explorer) which you are currently working on.

The "On Click Help" provides you with the following contextual information about the current node -
1. A brief summary of the node
2. A list of "Must Do's" while/before using the node
3. Some points to remember
4. A set of possible actions you can perform at the node
5. A set of actions to guide you if you're just getting started

Let's say this is your first time working with a Search Template. When you left click on the Search Template in the Solution Explorer, contextual help related to the Search Template is generated in the "On Click Help" section. It will now guide you in completely designing this Search Template with a basic definition, steps in getting started, essential actions and points to remember.

Additionally, you can reference the Help for individual "Properties" of different elements/nodes by clicking on the property (For example - properties of fields, search templates, etc.)

Don't forget to check out the "Getting Started" section if you're logging in for the first time.

We have taken a step further in assisting you to design and develop your customized web applications. Feel free to contact us at support@wolfframeworks.com for any further assistance.

We are happy to help.

Simple steps in building your first Wolf based Business Application online

Thanks for raising the request - friends! Here you go ...

Your Workspace (My Account) - After registering with Wolf Platform-as-a-Service, you receive an e-mail from Wolf with your User Name and Registration Password.
When logging in for the first time in the "Sign In" Page use this User Name and Registration Password and click the "Activate and Login" button to activate/login to your account.


Once logged in you are directed to the "My Account" page, click on the "Edit Profile and Passwords" button to change the system generated registration password from the "Edit Profile" page.

For subsequent logins to your Wolf Account from the "Sign In" page, login using your User Name and Password and click the "Login" button .

Applications in Your_Account - In the "My Account" page, click the "Add a new Application" button to create a new web application.
You will be directed to a page where you need to provide an Application Name and Super User details for your Application.
Once created, you will see the new Application on your "My Account" page along with two modes - "Design" and "Run" .
Remember, you are the Super User by default for this application and have access to both these modes :
1. "Design Mode"- where you can design your web application.
2. "Run Mode" - where you create Roles and Users for your web application as a Super User.

Clicking on either of these modes requires you to login using your Super User credentials.

GOLDEN RULES FOR THE WOLF DESIGNER:

1. Remember to Save and Publish all changes.

2. Refresh the Preview Section to view changes (where applicable) by right clicking on the Preview Section and choosing Refresh.

Let's start designing using the Wolf Designer -
1. Go to the Application Node in the Solution Explorer. Give your application a meaningful name.
2. Create an Entity.
3. Add fields in the Default Edit Screen of your Entity.
4. Create a Search Template for your Entity. This search template allows you to use a ready search template and choose the fields as results as defined in the Default Edit Screen for the Entity. You can also provide a search criteria.
5. Create a new Navigation Item. Link the Navigation Item to the Search Template of your Entity created in the last step.
6. Click the "Run" button from the Wolf Designer console toolbar to take you to the Run mode of the application. As a "Super User" you can create Roles, add users, give credentials to different Navigation items and Entities and invite Users to start using your web application.

In the Run Mode as a Super User -
1. Click on the "Manage Users" button to start creating users for your web application.
2. Click on the "New" button in the toolbar to create a new user. Fill the appropriate details in the "General" tab . For the "Default Folder" field choose "Solution Root". The user may optionally be given access to the Design mode of this application by checking the "Designer" checkbox.
3. In the "Entity Data Access" tab, provide access to the Entity/Entities created by you in the Wolf Designer Console. You may decide whether the User needs to be given Edit/Delete access to these Entities or both. For "Folder Name" field choose "Solution Root".
4. In the "Navigation/Menu Access" tab provide access to the Navigation Items created by you for different Entities.
5. After creating the User, logout of the Super User and Log in to the Run Mode using the credentials of the newly created user to access the Run environment of your application. You will be able find those Menu/Navigation Items which have access to the Entity Forms and start entering and viewing data.

Here's the design process diagram:

The next time you are on the "My Account" page, you may access the Run/Design mode of the Application using the credentials of the newly created User or the Super User.

Don't forget to access the real time node specific help. It guides you step by step. If you face any challenges, please drop a mail along with a screen shot (if you can) to support@wolfframeworks.com - Our team is happy to help.

Any queries or want to know more, Business Rules, Reports, Template customization? Please schedule a demo with us.

End of file error - While working with Wolf Designer

Lately, we have received a few queries from our users regarding a popup message which they have encountered while using the Wolf Designer. If you have received the following message, you have an older versions of Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) installed:

Please upgrade your MS XML to the lastest version - MS XML 6.0. The latest version is available as a free download on the Micrsoft Website and can be downloaded from here directly.

The recommended component for download is shown below or you may choose the components most appropriate to you -

Installation of this component would enable you to seamlessly build your web applications in Wolf PaaS. If you face anything else (strange popups) - Do let us know - support@wolfframeworks.com

Thanks.

The basics of search templates in Wolf PaaS

Search templates (or search screens ) in Wolf PaaS allow the User to filter the available records and to find relevant records in his web app.

Consider a scenario in which a Tester using the Defect Tracker requires to find all Defects(records) having a "High" severity. The Tester simply enters the search parameter in the "Search By" option and presses the "Find Now" to generate the relevant defects.

Additionally, the User may also filter the records using a combination of multiple parameters .

Lets take a look at basics of creating these Search Templates in the Wolf web based application Designer .
When a user creates a new Entity, by default a "Search" option is provided among the Entity elements. This option enables the designing of custom Search templates .

As the first step, the User needs to Right-click on the "Search" button and then choose "New Search Template".
Doing so would automatically create a Search screen for the User with the "Criteria" and "Results" node.
It is important to note that the search screen is always associated with the fields defined in the Entity under which it exists. (Fields are defined in the Edit Screen).

The User may then define the properties of the template such as the name of the template , its behaviour, etc. as per his requirements. For the sake of simplicity, we limit ourselves to the task of giving a name to the template, say "Test Search".

The "Criteria" option is used for specifying the key fields which will be used as a criteria for searching the records. The user may include any number of fields which he desires to use as a criteria for filtering his records.

The "Results" option is used for specifying the fields of the filtered records which will appear in the results table.

In the Search screen these appear as shown -

For specifying the criteria, the User needs only to right click on the "Criteria" option and add the fields which he desires to use as the search criteria. The user can specify multiple fields as per requirements.

A similar technique is used for selecting the fields which the User wishes to display in the results .

There is an array of options available in Wolf for further customization of Search templates, which are not discussed here for the sake of simplicity.

Once the User is done with designing his search template, the next step is to associate this search template with a Navigation Menu item. This menu item provides access to the newly created search screen in the "Run" environment of the application.

The User decides which of his web app users need to be given access to this newly created menu item and provides the access to them accordingly.

That's it... the User can now run his application and use this search template for filtering his data.

I'll discuss more about the flexibility of the Search templates in a later post.

Breaking down the saga of vendor lock-in

We dream of a world filled with different types of software’s available as-a-service which talks to each other and understand the language of business, not only code. Democratizing Technical Innovation using the internet - enabling greater competition & innovation in the marketplace - help customers to make the best choice at the best price point.

Since the day Amazon (R) released their EC 2 plans for running Windows, I just knew this couldn't have been timed better, specially with Microsoft's (R) own cloud offering 'Azure' hitting the market soon. This brings a few crucial insights for us, our industry and to our dream:

1. Rate of adoption in using cloud environments are bound to increase within different customer segments, especially due to the economic doldrums & the service model. Competition within cloud providers will also get the cycle to change – meaning a lot more emphasis will be on standardizing support services, SLA's and standardization of communication protocols, reliability, scalability on sudden surges of use & freedom for customers data.

(2) Fear of being locked in a cloud is surely to come down with competition heating up neck to neck with more feature choices, interoperability between clouds, open standard platforms such as Wolf and price wars. Contacts will move to contracts and evaluations will realize their due budgets for implementations. Guess, the transition from early majority to early adopters is finally beginning to start.

(3) Participation of a large foray of web application development platforms & SaaS applications are begining to mushroom, which will need to support multiple technology cloud environments as opposed to dominating customers with specific code & database driven technology offering. Meaning, you could be a web application development PaaS sitting on a specific cloud but you cannot limit your customer’s data and will, feel the need for adding support for your customers to switch between different clouds running on different environments and also introduce interoperability between different PaaS. Not the case for application development platforms on the internet, now.

(4) Emphasis will shift from thinking about enabling your organization web as a complex technology decision towards a Strategic & Business Model decision which provides easy – seamless - business experience for your customers. I have talked about this in detail earlier (http://wolfpaas.blogspot.com/2008/10/essential-decisions-for-choosing-good.htmlTrue) True internet principles will reinforce as opposed to specific vendor dominance. Development of standards could become lot faster than what is it now.

(5) Configuring a cloud services is much easily done today than the traditional way of configuring a new database 20 years ago. If we agree to that, a lot of emphasis will shift from coding to creatively designing the best software service on the internet. This could spark the participation of a much larger audience in the field of information communication technology and bring disruptive innovation to the marketplace. Emphasis will shift from a company to a community, vis-à-vis programming ability to the ability to provide services on the cloud.

(6) The world of mashups and Interoperability is gone beyond Gas buddy, thank you all. I am fan of Google®, I love Microsoft ® and have cut code using object based programming for several long years. The magic of cloud computing is that it works as a bridge between the commercial world and the open source environment –a bridge where have not’s can participate due to the openess and low cost of usage and so will the enterprise functional guys along with their programming teams. It is a different matter that Microsoft® UI library is not on rent as a service, but if it did – I would love to drop a Business Rule to call a webservice and mashup with a customer cloud based data service to make the best looking & working ERP for them. Mass customization for Enterprises using mashup technology - Made available OnRent - huh :)

(7) Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) is off the ground and out of the box (It's in the cloud) - Most CIO's are planning to consume services as opposed to building them which solves their business problem real time. They just can't be restrained by what's in the box, pressures are mounting very high. Remember Bridgestone Corp and Prof. C.K. Prahalad: 'If imagination is key to innovation, the Japanese tyre manufacturer Bridgestone Corporation has plenty of it and the latest innovation from their assembly line is proof enough. Sealing the gap between products and services, Bridgestone has created a line of sensor fitted tyres that send signals of its wear and tear to a network helping fleet owners keep track of the usage of tyres. With this Bridgestone is selling an experience in a physical product'. SOA over cloud delivers such services, can you imagine something that you would need? Or, are you still dealing with managing cultural, political, quality and governance issues for your SOA architecture?

Guess it’s time to walk the talk – do you have a programmable read-write platform which manages data across clouds or even a private database? Thinking cloud? Need interoperability across Business applications and web communities?

Please talk to us, we have some more thoughts…

Sunny Ghosh
CEO
Wolf Platform-as-a-Service

NOTE: The views expressed above are purely personal and for informational purposes only. WOLF FRAMEWORKS INDIA PVT. LTD MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Did you know that all forms in Wolf platform have auto validation of fields?

The Wolf web based application designer enables the addition of a large array of fields in your SaaS business app. These fields are part of edit screens or forms which assist the user to design and develop their custom web apps.

Let me give a quick example. A Wolf user wants to create a form for handling Tasks .

Some of the fields used for defining a Task in the application are:
1.Task Number- a unique number to identify the Task
2.Target Date- the due date for the Task
3.Task duration - the time required for Task completion
4.Task Subject - the subject of the Task (a text field)
5.Task Description- a description of the task (a long text field)

Task would require 4-5 different fields to completely describe it. As we know, application developers are often daunted by the task of testing their web apps. Additional testing of fields in an application generally leads to even higher testing time.

The Wolf web based application designer eliminates the overhead of testing web apps for field validations by providing auto validation of fields.

An example - any field of the "Date" type, would automatically prevent the addition of alphabets. Moreover, an attempt to add an invalid date such as "32/12/2008" would immediately prompt an error message as shown below -

This functionality extends to the addition of any invalid Date format .

It is important to note that, Wolf extends this functionality to all fields existing in the Wolf PaaS Designer saving the application developers valuable time in terms of testing . Wolf enables the web app designer to concentrate on the design and functionality of his application.

Happy to get you started :)

Building a RSS News Aggregation application using Wolf

Hi friends,

We recently helped a partner to build an RSS News Aggregation application.

RSS is a popular format for delivering regularly changing web content over the internet. Many news-related sites,blogs, etc. syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to subscribers and doesn't need any further introduction.

This Wolf application allows users to obtain their favourite web content and store/view the content from their own website. Moreover, it allows filtering and searching of the obtained RSS content, etc.

The first step to using the RSS News Aggregation was to enter the URL for the RSS news feeds.
This is done as shown below-

On pressing the "Update" button -

1. The entered URL is checked for validity.

Here's the simple code attached below

HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(RSSfeedLocation);
webRequest.Timeout = 6000;
HttpWebResponse webResponse = (HttpWebResponse)webRequest.GetResponse();
Stream responseStream = webResponse.GetResponseStream();
string responseEncoding = webResponse.ContentEncoding.Trim();
if (responseEncoding.Length == 0)
{
responseEncoding = "us-ascii";
}
StreamReader responseReader = new StreamReader(responseStream, System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding(responseEncoding));
return responseReader.ReadToEnd();

2.The XML content at the given URL is obtained.

3. The URL specific XML format is processed & converted into the Wolf specific XML format.

Here's the simple code attached below

string transformedXML = string.Empty;
XPathDocument xPathDoc = new XPathDocument(new StringReader(sXML));
XslCompiledTransform xslTran = new XslCompiledTransform();
xslTran.Load(new XmlTextReader(stream));
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
{
xslTran.Transform(xPathDoc.CreateNavigator(), null, sw);
transformedXML = sw.ToString();
}
return transformedXML;

4. The data in Wolf XML format is then automatically presented to the user in his Wolf application.

WolfSession.Session obj = new WolfSession.Session();
System.Net.CookieContainer c = new System.Net.CookieContainer();
obj.CookieContainer = c;
string userAuthentication = obj.IsUserAuthenticated("youruserid", "yourpasword", "yourapplicationid");
//call the commit webservice method with the transformed XML
wfobject.Object comObj = new wfobject.Object();
comObj.CookieContainer = c;
try
{
string xmlfname = comObj.commit(wsfCommitXML);
MessageBox.Show(xmlfname);
}
catch (Exception error)
{
MessageBox.Show(error.ToString());
}

You can see the consolidated RSS aggregation from the Wolf application as shown below -

The RSS news aggregation obtained from the URL is presented item wise to the User in Wolf PaaS. The user is presented with all the details of the news items such as Headline, Description, etc.

The User can click on the individual items to view the full story!

Let me know if you need more assistance, will be happy to do more.

Two way communication with our platform - Invoke a web services from a business rule

Hi,

We released the ability for two way communication with Wolf Platform-as-a-Service. It’s quite obvious that every application has some sort of a callable API which allows inbound communication. Something very advantageous would be to enable an outbound communication.




It can be used in different scenarios, for example:
1. Exports – Our Business Rules can fetch information from its local host and post it to external, GET, POST or SOAP interfaces.
2. Notifications - Various Services Can be invoked during certain instances. A Short Messaging System for example upon achieving a certain task.
3. Logging - This is the most common of course. In its simplest form a log can me maintained externally with information integrated from GeoLocation based web services and User Activity.



I have attached two screen shots for you to see how easy it is to call and enable an outbound web service. If you try and achieve something interesting, don't forget to drop me a line …

Did you know about the different Wolf PaaS Controls?

The Wolf web based application Designer is the starting point for designing and developing your customized SaaS business solution.

The entire Designer is accessible over a Web browser and has four powerful controls/widgets (called Wolf Controls or Wolf Widgets), arranged in a chronology of logical order, to enable you to develop your web app.
Note- Wolf Controls are purely AJAX based.

The four Wolf Controls that assist us in building custom web apps are:

1. Wolf Entity Designer
2. Wolf Navigation Designer
3. Wolf Rules Designer
4. Wolf Reporting Designer


Let us consider each of these individually.
The Wolf Entity Designer -This is essentially the starting point for designing your Business Applications.
This corresponds to a real world Entity and possesses a state, properties, data, screens and has rules acting upon it. The entity is equipped with an Edit screen for visual representation.
The Wolf Entity Designer enables us to create a new entity or work with previously created entities. The Wolf Navigation Designer -The navigation designer enables the building of navigation menus. These menus behave like a window, enabling the Users to provide access to different screens of their web app as per requirements.
The Wolf Navigation Designer enables us to create a new navigation item or work with previously created navigation items.



The Wolf Rules Designer -The Business rules are the heart and the brain of any Business application. The business rules manage the state of the business applications and entities. The flow of the entire application is controlled by these rules.
The Wolf Rules Designer enables us to create a new Business or work with previously created Business Rules .

The Wolf Reporting Designer -The complete package for tracking and analyzing your business application . The Wolf Reporting Designer enables the User to create advance analytical reports, charts, print HTML reports or quickly embed the reports to make advanced dashboard items as part of a HTML page.

The Wolf Reporting Designer enables us to create a new Report or work with previously created Reports.




We have seen in brief the different Wolf Controls/Wolf Widgets which will enable you to build your complete customized web apps.
Check out videos on what is an entity and how to get started building your web applications or even check out some sample Business Rules - Just click and customize here.


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Did you know about all the screen elements of your Wolf Designer?

The Web Based Wolf Application Designer comes equipped with a large set of screen elements to assist you in building your custom web based business applications.

To familarize ourselves with the Web Based Wolf Application Designer, lets have a look at the console layout and the various screen elements.

The first thing to notice are the various buttons provided on the upper half of the Wolf Designer .

Next, we consider the other elements of the Wolf Designer .


Note - All Screen elements change as per your selection in the solution explorer. Every time you click on a node in the Solution Explorer window the Tools, Properties and Tabs will adjust their display automatically.

Let us consider each of these screen elements in turn and see how they can assist us in quickly building custom web apps.

1. New - Drop down which presents you with the types of nodes that can be added under the current node.

2. Open - Drop down which presents you with the list of previously added/saved nodes that can be opened at the level of the current node. This is useful only at the topmost node level.

3. Close - Closes the currently selected node.

4. Remove - Removes the Currently selected node.

5. Move Up/Down - Moves the currently selected node up or down.

6.Save - Saves the root node for the currently selected node. Most of the previews where ever applicable are generated when the save tool is clicked.

7. Publish - Publish is what you will click before you want to test your changes in the Runtime Interface. This moves the changes into a published state. All changes to the selected node will be made public.

8. Run - Invoke Wolf Runtime Interface.

9. Solution Explorer - This is more like a navigation pane. The Selected node controls the environment around the screen.

10. Properties - The list of available properties and their existing values (if any in the case of saved elements). Changing the properties of a selected node will change behaviour during Runtime. The changes will reflect in available previews only after Save/Publish and subsequent Refreshing of the preview pane. The effect of the changes are explained in the help tab .

11. Tabs - The Start and the Help tab are static. Other tabs will open based on the selected node and their configured previews. Many nodes do not have any associated previews so don't be alarmed if there is no action in this part of the screen when you make a selection.

MOST Importantly - If you want to refresh the complete environment use CTRL + F5 and not F5 . To refresh the previews you can right click and refresh inside the respected tab content area.

There you have it... a list of screen elements which will enable you to build your Web Apps in the easiest and quickest possible way .

Did you know about the "Save" and "Publish" option in Wolf PaaS Designer?

Ever notice the "Save" and "Publish" buttons in the Wolf Design Environment and wonder what they are all about? The "Save" and "Publish" options enable any changes you make to reflect instantly in your Web app.

Firstly, let me familiarize you with the various locations of the "Save" and "Publish" options in the Wolf Web Based Application Designer . The top of the Wolf Designer comes equipped with the "Save" and "Publish" buttons to allow easy saving and publishing every time a change is made.

In addition to these buttons, every node in the Wolf Designer which is currently being worked upon presents the "Save" and "Publish" options when it is right clicked.


As the name itself implies, the "Save" button enables you to save all the changes that you have made to your current node. However, this option only enables your changes to be saved. Your changes do not reflect in your web app just yet.

The "Publish" button enables these changes to reflect in the Wolf Run Environment instantly , i.e., the saved changes reflect immediately in your web application.

Once the action is complete, the user gets an alert specifying that the action is complete and can view these changes in his web application. Let us consider an example to illustrate this.

Lets say the User wants to change the name of a field in an Edit Screen in the Wolf Designer Console.
The User goes to the Edit Screen, selects the field whose name needs to be changed. Assigns the new name to the field. Clicks "Save" to save the new name of the field. Then "Publish" the changes so the new name now reflects in the Run environment of your Application.

The User also has the option of saving a set of changes made to an app before publishing them. On Publishing, all saved changes will reflect in the web app .

So Please Remember - After making any changes in your Wolf App don't forget to "Save" and "Publish" your changes in the Designer :)

Essential decisions before choosing a good Platform-as-a-Service...

Lots of debates and discussions on Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service are currently in attention. Mckinsey ® recently released their Enterprise Software Customer Survey 2008 which notices the State of Innovation in the software industry in a very high upswing with SaaS & SaaS Platform as an important trend impacting businesses worldwide. Belonging to the Web Application Development Centric Platform-as-a-Service segment, we are happy to address some of the most frequently asked questions & evaluation criteria – which will assist organizations to make their next choice for preferred platform much easily. We will not attempt to define what is a PaaS - Mckinsey has a great 10,000 feet view on this, but may try and reassess the role of application development centric Platform-as-a-Service as we see it.

The concept behind Wolf Platform-as-a-Service is to bring together the ability to develop, use and distribute ready-to-use business software over the Internet in rapid time/speed. Everyone knows that the advent of SaaS & PaaS systems is fueled by the growing stability/rich user experience of internet based applications, maturity of SOA architecture and the need to extend Business Processes outside the organization boundaries providing seamless application interaction experience for knowledge workers. Apart from these, platforms such our Wolf Platform-as-a-Service are build up from ground up with late bound Service Oriented Architecture to remove the mundane/repetitive process from software development, separate the evolution of new technology from customers business process which blatantly adds to more pain & cost and believe we have added substantial innovation in our Platform apart from just offering it as a service :)

In general, most PaaS need a standard browser, comes bundled with RIA based designing/development environment in a locked cloud environment. Try opting for a different cloud, the PaaS could behave very strangely. Apparently, centralized data storage is one of the most important bottlenecks for growth of SaaS and SaaS development platforms worldwide. Nevertheless, PaaS manages/exposes external interactions via web services for mashups & has built-in workflow or rules based designer, versioning, user collaboration, with multi-tenancy, common services such as authentication, billing-metering-monitoring, etc all bundled together. A complete solution to your business software needs, in fact some of them even have social community features for a large spectrum of web application development.

The model is definitive next generation and is the best example of aligning current IT systems with extended business processes using internet as a service backbone which could bring lot more application stickiness, help organizations to unite the strengths of different applications without further capital investments & could very well be de-facto standard for developing software for the next generation. Everything is going inside the Internet, right? For us it is a powerful mean to increase the reach of software applications using different delivery formats to a new set of customers, never thought before, on rent of-course.

As a customer for PaaS, you access the system on pay-per-use or choose between multiple per user per month subscription model or take a ready-to-use business application. The cost covers app maintenance and technology upgrades and guess what, you can also get your app customized to your needs or Do it yourself (DIY), making it a natural and preferred choice for many organizations hassled by the speed of change, complex technology & expensive infrastructure. As Dana Gardner puts it across in his recent post, ‘The new lock-in, they will say (correctly) is not technical but in terms of convenience, simplicity, power, and cost. Seduce them, don’t force them, might be the mantra.’

Interestingly if you contrast this to the likes of a software developer, it’s all about:

1. Innovating rather than just typing
2. Extending the knots without worrying about
- Low level code
- Object/complexity
- Interoperability
- Drive faster prototyping
- Shorter development cycle with minimum worries & efforts to maintain & make great
software available as service.

Summarize the thoughts & you could very well believe the age of mainstream ´user innovation’ is here; remember Eric von Hippel & his outstanding book ‘Democratizing Technical Innovation’.

Nevertheless, the current PaaS offerings might seem a bit confusing to customers & the community itself. To us, we see Application Development Platform as a Service in two different flavors:

[1] one which introduces & makes you think about your next software as complex technology decision and

[2] one which lives up to the promise of simplified technology, empowers businesses with freedom to manage business processes and data & different cloud based systems, brings interoperability & can be accessed across multiple internet enabled channels driving a lot more freedom for business users and ease for software developers.

To give you a simple hypothesis: Compare the needs of a software developer managing a large retail application used by more than 20,000 users & the needs of a retail house business analyst - planning to redesign/enhance their existing IT system to manage 20,000 customers over the internet. It is the choice the target user makes, and his target benchmarks for technology & business design which comes in play. Whether to use another technology to revive the legacy & subsequently make another legacy or to extract the business definition from technology and enable both to live separately? I guess only they would know…

Fundamentally, if everyone believes that a step up from native platforms is what Platform as a Service is all about – then Microsoft.NET ® or Java ® offered as a service on the Internet would have been the ideal platform, right? Any other development centric platform will then need to be benchmarked against these platforms, isn’t it? Does it not remain a technology decision as to which to select. And does it not make it more difficult with more and more Development Centric PaaS platforms rolling out each day. So what does one continue learning as a developer – Java ® - Microsoft.Net ® or the new PaaS way with its own language?

Aren't these platforms designed to provide services? It might be just wise thinking to take a different approach this time by taking the technology decision out of it and putting the service parameters in place. Let the ones making the PaaS worry about software development & delivery while the user gets more control over the Business Application, target achieving their expected user experience, build communication with existing infrastructure, achieve planned performance benchmarks – and leave the rest to the PaaS vendor to provide as service.

The Best Designed Business on the Internet is what one needs to rethink upon. The best software will only get better with technology improvements & internet & with evolving standards & embedding a good business design into technical software will only lock the potential of such a design.

For most organizations continuously grappling to find the answers for common Decision Parameters in choosing their next preferred platform, please realize we are only an enabler and it is our job as technology services companies to enhance our software platform. Focus on your needs and business design and signup for a good service is what we recommend. Click and have a look at the essential decision criteria list attached below:














Sooner than later, organizations evaluating & planning to invest in Platform-as-a-Service will come to terms with these different decision parameters for making their choice. Until then it will only be unfair to compare apples with pears? We rather focus on technology and hope when you make your next business application – you think twice before putting your business into the software or choose a platform which delivers software to enable your extended business model onDemand ...

Sunny Ghosh
CEO
Wolf Frameworks

NOTE: The views expressed above are purely personal and for informational purposes only. WOLF FRAMEWORKS INDIA PVT. LTD MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Reports using Wolf Platform as a Service

Ok... I've created my Business Application using Wolf Platform as a Service . I have my Business Process in place.

So what next??
Oh... I need a Report on critical details on which my process depends!!

Lets revisit my favourite Business Application - the Defect Tracker, to see how I can generate a simple Report using Wolf PaaS.

Three main components are required to create a Report using Wolf Platform as a Service -
1. A Wolf Business Rule to define the content of the Report
2. A Wolf Report that uses the Business Rule in Step 1 to generate the Report
3. A Navigation item which makes the Report in Step 2 accessible in the "Run" environment of the Application
All these steps will be implemented in the Design Environment of the Wolf PaaS.

Lets say I need a simple report on the number of Defects logged per Defect Severity.

Step 1 - The Wolf Rules Designer assists me in writing my Business Rule for generating the Report.

Lets take a look at the Business Rule required to generate the report -


The Business Rule simply obtains all the records logged in the Defect Tracker grouped by their distinct Defect Severity and performs a count of the number of records under each distinct group .

Step 2- The Business Rule created in Step 1 is then used to generate a report using the Wolf Reporting Designer.

In this step we create a Wolf Report called "Total Defects Per Severty" using the Wolf Reporting Designer.

This report is shown below -
As the "DataSource" for this Report, we use the Business Rule designed in Step 1.

On adding the DataSource and Saving and Publishing the changes, the report is automatically configured as per conditions defined in the Business Rule of Step 1.

The "Detail" section of the Report is used to specify the desired layout for the Report.

Step 3-
We then link the Report created in Step 2 to a Wolf Navigation item in order to make it accessible in the "Run" Environment of the Application(Remember we are performing these 3 steps in the Design Environment).

This can be achieved by simply creating a Navigation Item using the "Wolf Navigation Designer" and linking the Report created in Step 2 to this Navigation Item.

Once these steps are completed, I proceed to give the approporiate people access to the newly created Navigation Item.

I go the run environment ....and voila -

I have my report with the desired information.

Wolf PaaS further comes prepackaged with the ability for me to Export my report to Word or Excel and to Print my report.

So there you have it.... a simple report in Wolf PaaS .

Go ahead and explore the power of Business Rules and Reports using Wolf PaaS.

Implementing your Business Process using Business Rules in Wolf Platform as a Service

I recently went thru' a very interesting way of implementing a Business Process by making use of Wolf Platform as a Service Business Rules widget. The uniqueness of the Business Rule is the flexibility it encompasses while my business scenarios change (sometimes beyond my expectations) ..

The most common complaint while Testing an application and reporting Defects for the defect tracker application was the cumbersome Process adopted in the Testing Process and how a custom process is the need for most App Testers.

The basic requirement in the Testing Process is to reduce the time taken from detection of a Defect to its closure . For instance, while testing a small application a tester might need to adopt a "New Defect" --> "Fixed" --> "Closed" process. Let's call this a "Simple flow through Defect scenario" and in most cases this should do .

Now if we consider a scenario where the teams are working across geographies/locations and it involves a large drawn process involving several sub processes. In this case, there are generally more steps involved such as an indication that Work is in progress and to refrain from testing , Uploads are awaited to fix the defect ,etc depending on the steps involved .

It is clear then , that there is no definite Testing Process which works across all applications/organisations.

Let us now consider how a Business Rule in Wolf PaaS allows us to implement a custom Testing Process.

Let us assume we already have an Entity Defect which has, among other fields ,two fields called Current Defect Status and Next Defect Status.
The Entity Defect basically contains all the information related to a single Defect such as its Severity, the Defects Description , the Application in which it was detected , etc.

Can an Entity called "Status Table" which contains two fields - "Present Status" and "Possible Status".

"Present Status" is analogous to the "Current Defect Status" and "Possible Status" to the "Next Defect Status" of Defect Entity or in other words,what next states of a Defect are possible based on its current state.

For Ex -
Consider a "Simple Flow through Defect Scenario-
The entire process is defined as-

1. IF Present State = "New" then Possible State = "Fixed"
2. IF Present State = "Fixed" then Possible State = "Closed"

Let us now consider a more complex process in which a "New" Defect can be dealt with in multiple ways . This can be defined as-

• IF Present State = "New" then Possible State = "Retest" OR
• IF Present State = "New" then Possible State = "Upload Awaited" OR
• IF Present State = "New" then Possible State = "Work In Progress" OR
• IF Present State = "New" then Possible State = "Deferred"
  

Similarly, we define in "Status Table" for each of the Present States what are the next Defect states possible.
Lets call this process as "Status Mapping" and it contains the crux of the Testing Process adopted.
Note- The entering of these values needs to be done via the corresponding Edit Screens related to the Entity.
Once we have completed this Mapping process we then proceed to the Business Rule portion which relates the fields in the "Status Table" Entity to the corresponding fields in the "Defect" entity.

The Business Rule in Wolf Platform as a Service is shown below -

The Business Rule provides the mapping between the "Present Status" --> "Current Defect Status" and "Possible Status" --> "Next Defect Status".

Hence, the entire custom Testing Process is implemented using the Business Rule.

An important advantage of this method of implementing a Business Process is that there is a level of abstraction between the Testing Process and the Defect Tracker Application.
Therefore, if the need arises to change the Testing process it can be done by changing the "Status Table" and the Defect Tracker remains largely unaffected.
Hence any change to the Testing Process, however big or small, does not effect the Defect Tracker application as a whole.

Business Rules are really the muscle of the Wolf Platform as a Service.

Check out the Defect Tracker at :Wolf Solution Gallery

Bugs and The Defect Tracker .

"I got bugs
I got bugs in my room
Bugs in my bed
Bugs in my ears
Their eggs in my head
Bugs in my pockets
Bugs in my shoes
Bugs in the way I feel about you
Bugs on my window
Trying to get in
They don't go nowhere
Waiting, waiting..."

Do YOU feel this way often??Relax... it's a song by Pearl Jam called "BUGS" :-)

But wait... this is how I feel too....... every time I find a Bug in my Software program!! :-(

Bugs or Defects are every one's nightmare come true... more so for a Programmer...
They are constantly playing "Hide and Seek" with the Programmers!! They are the itch which doesn't seem to go away!

Statistically speaking, the later a bug or defect is detected the higher the cost incurred in fixing the Defect..
So... in simple terms .. catch your Defects early... and eliminate them...

But it's easier said than done....HOW do I keep track of all my Defects? HOW do I manage the Defects I've found? How Do I eliminate these Bugs once and for all? The questions are endless!!

and... VOILA... We had a partner who built a "Defect Tracker".... Using Cloud Computing they went once step ahead by building a Web Based Defect Tracker using Wolf Platform as a Service to help me track my defects anytime and anywhere!!
Plus it came equipped with some really cool features which enabled me to implement my custom Defect Tracking Process !!

But don't take my word for it... go ahead and try the "Defect Tracker" for yourself and see the "Bugs" disappearing from your Process.

Visit the Solution Gallery at :Wolf Solution Gallery to check it out for yourself.

ISV's love us ...

We are going public... I mean the public beta release for Wolf PaaS is almost ready :)

Trying to gather the team -- we were all out for lunch today and happen to meet a dear old customer from our application development days. For simplicity, I would keep my friends identity anonymous and refer him as 'George'.

George runs a very successful market research and online analytics venture with most of their customers belonging to the fortune 500 with offices in UK, USA, Ireland and India. Their success is built upon the time tested research and customer analysis methodology which is deeply ingrained in everything they do. Over the years, they have heavily relied on technology and recently internet programs for customer access, running campaigns and digitizing business rules for 360' customer analysis. So to say, an ISV (Independent Software Vendor) which has done exceptionally well...

In 2001, when they moved their client server based research system on the internet, we suggested them the .ASP route, which cost him approximately INR 500,000 (USD$ 21000000 at current currency value), which worked great unless the threat of limited support for ASP got to them like Pascal did, and handed them over to Microsoft .NET with VB.NET & another fresh round of budget/investments. Turns out he is on the verge of another change, simply because every customer demands a SaaS enabled copy and he thinks this would help him to break even on his heavy technology infrastructure and unlock from expensive hardware-software licenses, etc. Such is the unappreciating world of technology ...

Let’s jump to the people side of things - where the scenario is bit scarier! The in house software development team with George has increased two times and seems like most of the time is spend on requirement analysis, system design and communication regarding business rule changes which is tied down to the software code. The software seems to be running the business, not him.

Now that we were all down with a few more rounds of caffeine, well past our next scheduled meetings -- we spoke at length on some of the concepts behind our PaaS and how technology evolutions have little or no implications on our cloud applications. We went right across his pain points, addressing the separation of software code from business rules and touched upon the dangers of SaaS – locked inside a cloud. We could see the shine on his face, the customer acceptance in his own eyes and will never forget his astonishing comments, 'If only I had a transformation engine, I could change my business rules and get it to work with all the software’s in the world’

Hastily, I couldn’t resist, ‘This is why we exist George, thank you for assuring us -- ISV's do love us a lot…’

The Taxonomy of Entity Relationships in Wolf PaaS...

Hi Friends,

Today we released a really cool functionality – reference of Entities in the Entity Preview window for Business Analyst. Some of you might remember, previously when you would drop and click an Entity you would not have anything on the preview section unless you click on the Edit Screen Preview; where you could see the different fields/attributes of the same entity only.

Now, here’s the change:

As you can see in the above image, the Entity ‘Account’ has been referenced easily. The cool thing is not only the ability to see the relationship of the Entity with other business rules, navigation, attributes but also the Taxonomy of relations and reference of each & every entity of the system in relation to the Account Entity.

I guess it should be easy for you to define the tree of most used Entities and most important data for your own applications now.
Thanks,

DesignBuster

To invoke a Wolf based SaaS application from a .NET program

Hi Friends,

Recently we designed a small web based billing application for our partner using our Wolf XML Platform. The partner needed the billing application to work with their existing product, which can be accessed online. So here's the simple .Net Web Services & how to invoke it from your application for you.

The first thing was to authenticate the user using the login ID and password from the application.The second thing was to invoke a business rule of our application & it will give the output in xml format. And the last thing was to use web service since it is independent of OS ,independent of programming languages and easy to use. Here are the steps, you should try when you get time :)

Steps to invoke a webservice in our application:

First step:
create a windows application and click on the solution explorer window & then click on webreferences then enter the url of webservice http://www.wolfframeworks.com/webservices/wf.session/session.asmx?wsdl
this url is for login authentication.

Second step:

add a reference to this url http://www.wolfframeworks.com/webservices/wf.object/businessrules.asmx?wsdl

Third step:

//code to authenticate user id & login
/******************************************/
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
WolfSession.Session obj = new WolfSession.Session();
try
{
this.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;
System.Net.CookieContainer c = new System.Net.CookieContainer();
obj.CookieContainer = c;
string s = obj.IsUserAuthenticated("your login id","your login password","application id");
//application id You can see the application id in the Run URL. Please refer to the ?appid= querystring parameter.
MessageBox.Show(s);
}
catch (Exception Ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(Ex.Message);
}
this.Cursor = Cursors.Default;
}
/***********************************************/

Fourth step:

//code to invoke a business rule
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
WolfSession.Session obj = new WolfSession.Session();
try
{
this.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;
System.Net.CookieContainer c = new System.Net.CookieContainer();
obj.CookieContainer = c;
string s = obj.IsUserAuthenticated("your login id", "login password", "application id");
/*--------------------------------------------------------------*/
wolfbusiness.BusinessRules obj1 = new wolfbusiness.BusinessRules();
try
{
this.Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;
obj1.CookieContainer = c;
string var = "";
string x = obj1.processbusinessrule("name of the business rule", var);
MessageBox.Show(x);
}
catch (Exception Ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(Ex.Message);
}
}
catch (Exception Ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(Ex.Message);
}
this.Cursor = Cursors.Default;
}
}
Last step press F5

click on first button it will give ur expected output in xml format
true
if ur login id & password is correct
false
if ur login id & password is wrong
click on second button it will give ur expected output in xml format.

All the best and dont forget to send me your feedback...

SharpDeveloper

ISV’s can’t afford to be locked in?

Every year has seasons and every season is different and yet, every year these seasons bring different change based on global impacts. Every business has different seasons, say to launch new line of products or to maximize sales in a certain territory and yet, every season bring different change based on global impacts to introspect and re-innovate …

Today most software vendors are caught between the change of seasons, one which demands large scale standardization in offering/price across different mass consumption markets and one where customers demand ‘Leadership/Innovation’. Put this in context we are talking about working with South America, South East Asia, China and attend to our G7 customers :)

Bringing uniformity across the globe demands standardization, lowering of cost and higher levels of innovation. SaaS is only a starting point which most ISV’s can’t afford to ignore. SaaS brings standardization and lowers cost for customers and vendor, see the chart below.
SMEs benefit hugely using SaaS applications in compared to traditional Software models.

But what about freedom, customer social responsibility, innovation and democratizing technical innovation? Any thoughts … More on this next week …

The story of KJ...

I met my buddy KJ, aka 'Kishore the Juice Maker' - The owner of the Juice Jam Junction chain on last Tuesday. He is currently dealing with a few challenges.

Here’s the itemized list mentioned below -

Even though his procurement boy buys the right quantity of fresh Oranges from the whole seller every morning, his inventory always goes dry by the end of the day - forcing him to close his 13 odd shops in town much earlier than planned. He has raised his purchase quantity, but his sale does not go-up! Simple case of theft inside the business process :) - turns out that the purchase guy had made a better Business Process for stealing oranges from Kishore's inventory. The inventory was not digitized or maintained in any software program.

Secondly, his competitors are able to provide a better price on their glass of juices - even though KJ gets the best rate from the whole sale market for his fresh Oranges. He seems to be running out of competitive offerings on his business. Does marketing help to drop prices and make more sales? If the answer is 'NO' then how can this work for his competitors? For a diehard analyst – this was just a chip and a putt, ‘Your friends have a better optimized business process than you my friend. If only you could make a simple inventory application, the purchase boy could have accessed and filled out the details on the quantity and prices of Oranges in real time from the wholesale market on a daily basis, the store manager could have logged inside the same inventory application when they open shop for the day and see the price on Oranges and select the marketing plan which he can offer based on the prices of the day and know the exact amount of sales he can offer under those prices. How about two cents (2¢) for the first 20 juice glasses?’

KJ was all happy, ‘But how & why do I buy or manage a full ERP – hardware-software-customization/maintenance plus people… this isn’t going to work for me! '

Nothing could have made me happier than to help KJ out. We made a small inventory app in a day’s time, added 3 roles, made a couple of business rules for each of the deals based on the Orange prices of the day and made it available over a PDA. KJ now is all set to offer his best price for the day and he pays me $ 20 dollars a month for everything.

If only I can reach out to the KJ’s of the world. Can someone help??? I can pay – OnReach!

Letter to Dr. Ruth …

Letter to Dr. Ruth … (Click on the Dr. Ruth link to get the original version)

Dear Dr. Ruth,

I am writing to thank you for opening my eyes & life. The anti-aggressive hormone therapy which you started a few weeks back for getting your clinic’s business software upgraded using my programming skills 'FREE' has made me realize a few truths!

I understand the computer didn’t build a business first; a business built a computer first. The computer also didn’t build software, businesses build software into a device called computer. The age old technical programming language which I use is geared to enhance software & not businesses in the long run. Nevertheless, software’s have digitized business processes and in the process locked businesses inside software code, but I understand businesses build processes first. So unfortunately and ironically – my technical software skills isn’t enough for me to enhance your clinic’s patient information system anymore, you can DIY (Do-it-yourself)…

Under your therapy, I have realized software programmers like me are just mere cogs in this epic industry & without any further delay I have prescribed the anti-ignorance therapy to all my software friends around the internet & have asked them to stop luring about the world of Wachowski Matrix. To express the message, I have cited examples of colonization and rise of democracy, regulation and deregulation, the rise of globalization, mass-collaboration, consumerism, social production and cloud computing & capitalism

I have also initiated a project called, ‘Business Definition Software Service’ which will be an open standard Platform-as-a-Service & can be used to develop business software’s within days without programming. It keeps the business entities, logic, rules, seperate from software code so your app can be enhanced without software upgrades & helps to read, write, change your software without technical programming skills. This project is based upon the new high level XML based business language called WBRX, which is my brain child.

While this is keeping me occupied, I regularly get chest pains, nightmares about angry customers whose businesses I have locked inside software code and would like you to know that your Sybase database license will expire by the end of this month, the company does not renew those old licenses anymore, the rent of the hardware servers have never been paid by me, your patient history dates cannot be queried -- I had hard coded them using PASCAL -- which will not support 8 digit date formats and t e s p t s nt wor t j d g hgs re shu w euur rj ddjfd dhd he ejjje ejeje…~¨¨¨¨¨~… j d g hgs re shu w euur r…~…………………………~…………………………~……………………~………………………… ............................................................... ................................................................................................. ............................................................................................ ........................................................

Another business win, software was only consequential...

It’s been a long time… Can’t remember how we got together and got started with developing our platform for business. There were clearly many points of discussion then, ‘How can a software platform help to build a engaging relationship with customers and partners? Why should technical software’s have such high prices & intellectual ratings? Can we truly enhance productivity & lower cost for any business by creating technical software – is it possible? Why creation and recreation of software hurt customers with more cost, time and higher learning curve? Why do we lose customers when we enhance our versions? Is every software in this world – computer language dependent? Is there a computer which understands the language of business? Can such a language become equivalent to the tune of modern accounting terms such as balance sheet – which every businessman understand?’

Clearly, we were not going to develop another technical software and add to the chaos. We simply couldn’t afford too.

Now -- It’s obvious that we were asking the right questions. Without them being answered we wouldn’t have closed our fifth partner deal today. What seems to have happened since those days of inception of our product to this day of delivery is a long battle of unwinding. Unwinding years of experience & knowledge in creating our intelligent software platform which businesses could read, understand, build & enhance without code. We call it our ‘Business Definition & Designing platform’, the world’s first of course :)

So this is just a quick post to celebrate another business win over technical software, with our software which is business language driven & not otherwise :)