A New Studio IDE

All the main design tools in Omnis Studio 11 have been redesigned or enhanced including the Studio Browser, Property Manager, Catalog, and the Component Store, as well as many enhancements in the Method editor and Remote form editor, plus we have added a new editor for the Omnis configuration file.

In general, lists and text labels in the design environment have more padding, colors and text have been softened, and all icons in the IDE have been redesigned. Taken together, we believe these enhancements make it quicker and easier to create web and mobile applications using Omnis Studio 11.

Studio Browser

When you start Omnis Studio 11, you’ll immediately see the enhancements we’ve made to the Studio Browser. The mechanics of creating and managing libraries are largely the same, but we have dramatically improved the layout and overall appearance of the Studio Browser to make it easier to use and to navigate.

Omnis Studio 11: the new Studio Browser

The Libraries option in the Studio Browser is now called Project Libraries and this is the default option displayed when you start Omnis Studio. You can create a new library using one of the options: Web and Mobile, Desktop or Blank. The ‘Web and Mobile’ option creates a new library containing a NewRemoteForm and a Remote_Task, ready for you to start adding JS components, while the Desktop option creates a NewWindow for desktop use.

Property Manager

The Property Manager has been redesigned to make it easier to find and set properties. It now has a panel at the top containing the common properties for a component or object, including its object name, its location and size, its data properties (including $dataname), as well as the visibility and state properties (see below left).

Omnis Studio 11: new Property Manager and Catalog

The ‘Show All’ option has been renamed ‘Advanced’ and is now placed at the bottom-left of the Property Manager window; the option is disabled (set to off) in new installations of Omnis Studio, so the Property Manager displays a simpler subset of properties for libraries, classes and components, allowing you to focus on creating your first classes and forms quickly and easily. When in advanced mode, you can use the Search box at the top to quickly find a property or subset of related properties, which is sometimes easier than looking under the tabs, e.g. enter color to find all color properties.

Catalog

An extra column has been added to the Catalog window to show the values in the currently selected tab group, which makes it much easier to see the value of individual items or whole groups of items in one place; the new values column is available for the Variables, Constants, Events, and Hash variable group tabs. For example, you can view the values for all instance variables under the Variables tab, assuming there is an instance open (see above right, showing a variable in the new Charts example app). In addition, items in the right hand list of the Catalog are now shown using the relevant syntax color, if any.

Configuration File Editor

There is a new editor to allow you to edit the settings in the Omnis Configuration file (config.json) inside Omnis Studio, rather than having to edit the file in a text editor. The Configuration Editor shows the main groups of items in the config.json file in the left hand list, such as ‘defaults’, ‘ide’, and ‘methodEditor’, and for each selected group the items within that group are shown on the right, for example, the ide group of items are shown below.

Take a Look for yourself

We would like you to try out the new Omnis Studio 11, so visit our website and download the 90-day free Trial version of the Professional Edition: www.omnis.net/developers/free-trial/

Or you can download the free Community Edition, which provides all the tools you need to build a web or mobile application and free deployment licenses: www.omnis.net/community-edition/

If you have questions about Omnis Studio 11, upgrading to the new version, Omnis subscriptions & pricing, or for anything else, then please contact your local Sales office – we have offices in Germany, France, UK, North America, and partners in other parts of the world: www.omnis.net/contact/

The post Omnis Studio 11: A New Design Environment for Faster, Easier Web and Mobile Apps appeared first on Omnis.

Component Store

The Component Store has been completely redesigned and now appears in a vertical panel down the left side of the Remote form editor, with the components arranged in groups, such as Buttons, Containers, Entry Fields, and Lists; this provides a more compact layout than in previous versions where components were listed individually. The following screenshot shows a remote form in design mode and the Component Store is attached to the left side showing the Visualization group expanded, containing the new Chart and Gauge components.

Omnis Studio 11 New Component Store

When you open a Remote Form class to edit it, the Component Store is opened automatically and, by default, it is docked to the left side of the design window (see above). As you move a design window, the Component Store will remain docked and will move with it. You can Right-click on the Component Store to hide/show the labels and configure its layout and docking behavior.

JS Chart & Gauge Components

The new JS Chart component allows you to create different types of chart from list data to display in a remote form. It uses the open source JavaScript library Chart.js (available under the MIT license) integrated into the component, which provides a plethora of chart styles and combinations to represent 2D or multi-dimensional data, including the types: Line, Bar, Radar, Pie, Doughnut, Polar-Area, Scatter, and Bubble (see the new sample library in the Hub for all the types). The new Chart provides a modern interface for displaying list data, with scalable, vector based shapes and animated transitions, providing a great new UI for your web and mobile apps. As with other chart types in Omnis, the JS Chart control gets its data from an Omnis list variable, which should contain 2 columns, with each row in the list representing a complete dataset. 

Omnis Studio 11 JS Chart & Gauge components

The new JS Gauge component provides a way to display numerical values on a Circular, Horizontal or Vertical linear scale, with options to customize the appearance and behavior of the gauge image and the scales – the value for the gauge is provided in the variable in $dataname, but the component provides a high-level of visual customization for the scales and range, including multiple colors in the range markers (see the example in the Hub). 

JS Camera

The new JS Camera control allows the end user to capture images or scan QR codes and barcodes – this allows you to fully integrate image capture & scanning into your mobile apps, which can be applied to many different types of solutions such as manufacturing, retail, field research, or science. After returning a list of cameras and their IDs on the device, you can set the ‘camera action’ property to start the camera, capture an image, or start scanning, either a barcode or QR code. You can store the returned image or embedded information in a Character or Binary variable as appropriate.

JS Floating Action Button, Color Picker & Subform palette

The new JS Floating Action Button (FAB) features a round button that pops up a list of actions when tapped or hovered over, with the first option being a default action – the default icon is a ‘+’ but you can add your own such as an SVG icon. The FAB provides a modern button style to activate tasks in your web and mobile apps, for example, in a form displaying a list of contacts, you could use a FAB to provide options to add a contact (the default action), with further options to edit, call, or email a contact – this style of button is used in most modern email mobile apps.

Omnis Studio 11 Floating Action Button (left), Color Picker example (center) & the Subform palette example (right)

The new JS Color Picker allows the end user to select a color either by sliding a color slider and clicking on the color palette, or by entering a color number in RGB, HSL, or HEX format into the control (above center) – in addition, an alpha slider can be shown to allow the end user to select the transparency for the color. You can add a number of predefined color swatches to the color picker to allow the end user to select a preset color – for example, the color swatches could be colors defined in your corporate branding or colors that are in constant use in your app.

You can now popup a subform as a Subform Palette next to a specified control (above right). The subform could allow the end user to set an option, or you could provide some information such as a help tip. Subform palettes can be opened or closed using two new client commands, or a subform palette can be closed by clicking outside the subform.

JS Tile Grid Control and More…

The new JS Tile Grid control displays a scrollable grid of “tiles” which can be configured to show images, text and buttons. The layout of the grid and the visual attributes for the tiles are specified in a list variable assigned to the control, with each line in the list providing the definition for a single tile in the grid. The new Tile Grid example app in the Hub displays a number of tiles using images from the webshop example applet, which shows how the Tile grid can be used to provide a very visual selection or information grid for end users.

There are many more new components and enhancements to help you create web and mobile apps in Omnis Studio 11.  These include the Scroll box which allows you to group several JS components together in a scrollable area, to produce a more compact UI for smaller screens.

A Side Panel is a vertical panel that can be displayed down the left or right side of a remote form (like a sidebar), containing clickable options, such as a menu of options or other content. Side panels are a common UI element in dashboard style designs and allow you to create a more interactive UI for your web & mobile apps.

Example Libraries and online Gallery

All of the new JS components are featured in the Samples section in the Hub in the new Studio Browser in Studio 11 – the same samples are included in the newly updated JS Component online gallery which is itself a Studio 11 web app.

To try out all the new components and other features in Omnis Studio 11, download a free 90-day trial version here: www.omnis.net/developers/free-trial/

Alternatively, existing users can contact the Sales office for their region to obtain details about upgrading to Studio 11. Please use the Contact us page: www.omnis.net/contact/

To view the new JS components online, visit the Component Gallery here: tinyurl.com/jsgallery11

The post Omnis Studio 11: New Component Store and New JavaScript Components appeared first on Omnis.

Our goal is to provide you with the most intuitive, user-friendly, and powerful tools for application development, and Omnis Studio version 11 delivers on that promise. With the new interface, you can create applications faster and more efficiently, saving you time and money. The new Studio IDE, new JS components, and enhanced design tools & editors make it easy to build stunning and engaging user interfaces that will enhance the user experience.

Deliver outstanding customer experiences 

We are living in an era of customer centricity. A modern, appealing UI and an engaging customer experience are key factors for the success of an application. Therefore Omnis Studio 11 provides many new and enhanced UI controls for mobile, web and desktop that power the design of your apps including:

• Tile Grid –  a new JS component that displays a scrollable grid of “tiles” which can be configured to show images, text and buttons
• Chart  –  a new JS component that allows you to create different types of charts from list data to display in a remote form.
• Gauge – a new JS component that provides a way to display numerical values on a circular or linear scale, with options to customize the appearance and behavior.

Many other important enhancements

Many new UI components have been added, plus hundreds of new features & enhancements, including:

• JS Camera control
  A new JS Camera control allows the end user to capture images or scan QR codes and barcodes.
• OW3 Worker enhancements
  The LDAP Worker has been added to the OW3 group of worker objects. The Python Worker has been added to the OW3 group of worker objects
• System Notifications
  Omnis can now send notifications to the operating system on the end user’s computer, on both Windows 10/11 and macOS; notifications will pop up on the end user’s screen and are added to the Notification Center for the current operating system
• Spell Checking
  Omnis now checks spelling in text in end user apps, as it is entered in desktop forms
• User Constants
  allow you to define constants in a new User Constants class for use in your methods and expressions
• Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTP) / Two factor authentication (2FA)
  Two new functions have been added to the OW3 package to generate and validate Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTPs).
• OIMAGE
  There is a new external called OIMAGE that contains a set of static functions that allow you to resize JPG and PNG image files or perform various transformations on the images including rotation and flipping or automatically generate QR codes.
• Omnis VCS API
  Some functions within the Omnis Version Control System (VCS) have been exposed via API calls, to allow developers to interact with the VCS or its contents programmatically; so developers can logon or logoff, list VCS projects and their status, check out or check in classes, and build projects using the new VCS API method calls.
• PDF/A Level 2 and 3 Support
  for archiving PDF documents

Take a Look for yourself

We would like you to try out the new Omnis Studio 11, so visit our website and download the 90-day free Trial version of the Professional Edition, or you can download the free Community Edition, which provides all the tools you need to build a web or mobile application and free deployment licenses. If you have questions about Omnis Studio 11, upgrading to the new version, Omnis subscriptions & pricing, or for anything else, then please contact your local Sales office – we have offices in Germany, France, UK, North America, and partners in other parts of the world. Go to: www.omnis.net

The post Meet Omnis Studio Version 11 – for faster and more intuitive app development appeared first on Omnis.

In the end however, there is no substitute for just diving in and trying the new software, to try to answer some of those questions*, and to see if the software meets the criteria you have set. When you are ready to start, it is also good that cost is not a barrier to undertaking a full evaluation of the new software – and that’s where Omnis Software can help you a lot, to get you started with your application development project, with no upfront costs during your trial, so you can fully evaluate Omnis Studio and assure yourself that it’s the right tool for you or your team.

*Regarding the questions we asked at the start, Omnis Studio performs well – it provides a wealth of cross-platform functionality, it’s easy to use for those familiar with other development systems or programming languages, it usually takes less time & fewer resources to create an app using Omnis Studio (as our Case Studies show), and Omnis can “talk to” just about any other system, or database, using REST Web services or our dedicated Database Access Modules (DAMs).

Free Trial and Support

To help you in your evaluation, we offer a free trial of Omnis Studio that will last for 90 days (3 full calendar months) and you can sign-up today and download it immediately. The trial version of Omnis Studio is not restricted in any way in terms of functionality, so you can try the full breadth of functionality in Omnis Studio, to create your first prototype Web or Mobile application. And during the 90-day trial period, you can ask any technical questions that crop up, by emailing our support team – you can also sign up to receive regular emails to further help you evaluate Omnis Studio during the trial period.

We feel sure you will get on well with Omnis Studio, but just to ease your evaluation process, and to help you along the way, we are very pleased to help you at any stage during the trial period using our free support offer. So please, go ahead and register for the Free 90-day trial here today: Free Trial

Free Training

Not only do we provide a free trial and tech support for 90 days, we also provide free online training in the Omnis Academy – none of the course materials or videos are behind a pay-wall, so you can access them at any time and for as long as you like, long after your trial period finishes, so you can keep learning and extending your knowledge. Our free training is provided in two formats:

1. You can ‘attend’ a free class in one of our Online Training sessions. These are live 60-90 minute sessions hosted by an Omnis specialist, either from the Consulting team or Tech support, who have many years experience of helping customers achieve their development projects. There are SIX courses, including the first aimed at complete beginners to those more suited to experienced programmers. If you are just starting with Omnis or evaluating it for your next project, we suggest you take the “Omnis Studio Basics in Developing Web and Mobile Apps” course, which is firmly aimed at beginners. For more details and to register, please go to: Online Training
2. The other free option is to step through our Video Tutorials. The online course is split into FIVE parts and shows you how to build a complete, working application for managing food and drink orders in a restaurant, which could be adapted to many other service businesses or e-commerce applications. We provide a video for each part (in English and German), and complete PDF documentation to download (in English, German and Spanish) – the videos are recorded by Andreas Pfeiffer, a senior consultant in our German office who has many years experience supporting and training Omnis developers. Plus we provide the application code (libraries) for each stage of the tutorial for you to download (available on the Video page). To start the online course, please go to: Video Tutorials

Here is the first part of the Video tutorial, to give you a taster…

Further questions?

As you can see, there are many ways to start developing your first JavaScript Web or Mobile application using Omnis Studio for free, and with many different ways to get help during the evaluation or prototyping stage. If you have any questions at any stage, then we urge you to get in touch, by contacting our Tech support or sales team, who will be delighted to help you. We feel sure you will like Omnis Studio and will find it useful for creating your application – we’re here to help you succeed in your application development project, while saving you time and resources along the way, so please do get in touch if you need help: Contact us

App Development White paper

And if you still have questions about Choosing the right App Development Software for your next project, then you may like to read our special White Paper, exactly about this subject. The white paper covers all the Key criteria you need to consider when choosing an application development system – please take a look at our White Paper and again, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

The post Start developing JavaScript Web & Mobile applications with Omnis Studio for FREE appeared first on Omnis.

Our Omnis Developer Resources web page is the main hub for all the technical information and help that you would ever need, and apart from our paid-for technical support, all of it is freely available from us, our partners, or the Omnis developer community. The main areas of help and resources include:-

• Developers – full online Documentation for Omnis Studio 10 and an archive of older versions and tools; a whole catalog of Tech Notes that cover a vast array of technical tips and techniques; access to a Video Library including playbacks of conference sessions.
• Downloads – free access to the Latest Installers for Omnis Studio 10; the installers for the JavaScript Wrappers; installers for Patches and Updates; and many other downloads.
• Forum – here you access the discussion forum provided by the Omnis developer community; sign up today and join the discussion! You can join the forum here.

You can access the Omnis Developer Resources here. There are many other external and third-party resources and we will list a few of them here.

Omnis on GitHub

There is a repository on GitHub containing over 100 useful tools and libraries, including: a library to demo OAuth2 integration with Omnis; a JavaScript Bridge (JSCBridge) allowing you to run the Omnis JS Client within oBrowser; a sample application OmniSnap, showing local database, GPS and camera support in a Serverless Client app; a JSON defined Signature Component to capture users’ signature; a JSON defined component to display star ratings. See Omnis of GitHub here: github.com/OmnisStudio

Omnis on YouTube

The Omnis YouTube channel contains many video of sessions from Omnis Developer conferences as well as other learning resources, including the Omnis Academy 5-part training course showing you how to create an application from beginning to end – available in English and German. Visit our YouTube channel here.

Omnis Online Training

We provide 6 100-minute training courses on a whole range of topics, including: the “Basics”, Database connectivity, Messenger apps, Menu systems, REST web services, and Mobile apps. The Omnis Academy also provides a structured online training course, with videos and full documentation which you can access at any time – this is available in English and German, plus the docs are available in Spanish. Sign up to our online training here: omnis.net/developers/academy

Partner Program

If you want to use Omnis Studio for your next development project then we seriously recommend joining the Omnis Developer Partner Program (the ODPP), in which you will gain access to the right mix of application development tools and technical services, such as Technical Support and Consultancy. Access information about the ODPP here, or speak to our sales teams in your region, via our Contact page.

The post Developer Resources from Omnis Software will Help you Build World-class Web & Mobile Applications appeared first on Omnis.

Sample Libraries in the Hub

You can learn about the JavaScript Components right inside Omnis Studio – if you go to the Hub when you start Omnis Studio (it should be selected by default, see above), then select the ‘Samples’ option, to show all the code samples (libraries) for all aspects of application design, then you’ll need to select the ‘JS Client’ option to show just the JavaScript Component sample libraries. You can then click on any individual library, such as the ‘JS Bar Chart’ library, as shown above – the library will open in the Omnis Studio IDE, and it will be opened automatically in your web browser, so you can test the features of that component.

The JavaScript Apps Gallery

As well as trying out the JavaScript Components in the Omnis Studio IDE, you can see them live on our website in the ‘JavaScript Apps Gallery’, which is found here: www.omnis.net/platform/#jsgallery

Here you will find various Sample Apps, or Applets, that show the full power and range of Omnis JavaScript applications using the JavaScript Client and its components. To view a sample app for each component, select the ‘Omnis Components’ option from the Gallery page. The JS Bar Chart sample library is shown:-

Documentation and Tech Notes

You can learn all about each of the JavaScript components in the Omnis Online Documentation on the Omnis website, in the ‘Creating Web & Mobile Apps’ online guide:- www.omnis.net/developers/resources/onlinedocs/WebDev/00about.html 

There is more in-depth discussion of some of the JavaScript components, and the Omnis Server (used to power your web & mobile apps) in the Technical Notes, also on our website:- www.omnis.net/developers/resources/technotes/index.jsp

Online Training – JavaScript Client and Components

You can gain a great introduction to the Omnis JavaScript components, and the general tasks of creating an app in Omnis Studio, by attending one of our FREE Online Training Courses. In all of the online training courses you will be able to design a remote (web) form and use many of the components we have been discussing here. The online training courses last around 100 minutes, are provided in English, German and Spanish, and they are scheduled throughout May and June. Go to our website, choose your language/location, then your preferred course title and date. Sign up for the online training here:- www.omnis.net/developers/online-training/

The post Create Powerful, Rich Web & Mobile apps using JavaScript Components in Omnis Studio appeared first on Omnis.

The new Online Training provides six different courses, each 100 minutes long, and conducted by our own Omnis trainers and technical consultants, who have many years’ experience using Omnis Studio and developing applications for customers large and small, and for many different types of industry – so they are well versed in all the different steps needed to create successful web and mobile applications.

The online training includes a course for beginners or existing Omnis developers who are new to Omnis Studio 10 or developing JavaScript applications for the first time – the other courses build on those basic skills and cover more specialized or advanced topics, including: Omnis Studio Basics, Database Connectivity, Developing a Messenger App, Implementing a menu system, Implementing a REST Service Client and Server, and Developing Standalone Mobile Apps. Here is the schedule for the whole of April 2020:

We are very excited to bring you the new Online Training which will hopefully mean you and many application developers will learn more great Omnis technology to use in your current and future application development projects. The new training is available on our website:

www.omnis.net/developers/academy/ 

Choose ‘Online Training’ and then your preferred language/time zone: EN (Europe), EN (USA), ES (Español), DE (Deutsch). The English courses are run for European customers (CET zone), or those in USA & Canada (EDT zone) – and more dates and locations will be added, so please bear with us as we roll out this extensive new program of training.

Video Tutorials

In addition to the new Online Training courses, we provide a comprehensive set of video tutorials, recorded by Andreas Pfeiffer, our Senior Consultant and experienced trainer in the German office – we provide 5 full length videos, step-by-step documentation, and complete resource libraries that you can download from our website.

We feel sure that if you spend the time to work through the video tutorials, you will learn so much about application development, and be able to use the skills you have gained. The video tutorials are available here:

www.omnis.net/developers/video-tutorials/

The post New Omnis Studio Online Training proves to be a hit with Web & Mobile App Developers appeared first on Omnis.

See you in Las Vegas

We regret to announce that due to the increased risk of Coronavirus #Omnis Software has been forced to postpone the Omnis Developer Conference in Las Vegas scheduled for March 24-25, 2020. We will reschedule the event for later in the year.

We so look forward to welcoming you at the Hampton Inn Tropicana in Las Vegas, Nevada, for our North American Omnis developer conference. The conference will take place over 2 intensive, technology-rich days on March 24 – 25, 2020, and there will be some time for fun & entertainment as well, since the hotel is just a couple of minutes from the main strip, and all that goes with a short stay in the iconic betting resort & self-proclaimed “Entertainment Capital of the World”! We hope that the location will suit as many Omnis developers as possible and hope you can attend – we urge all existing developers and those new to the product to attend, to learn the latest features in Omnis Studio 10.1 (and 10.2), and to hear about our exciting plans to drive the company forwards!

The conference is hosted and introduced by the company’s Chairman David Lewis, who will also be available for meetings if you wish to discuss any requirements or issues you might have. On the first day, Tuesday 24 March, we will include sessions on all the latest developments of Omnis Studio 10.2 (which will be available in beta), the product road map and business update presented by senior members of the Omnis development & management teams, who will fly out from Europe for this event. On Wednesday 25 March there will be workshops and in-depth sessions to help provide Omnis developers with the skills to optimise new/existing applications, improving end user experience and maximising the value of their applications. There will be ample time for break-out sessions, or personal discussions with Omnis staff and among developers themselves – in fact these opportunities ‘on the side’ of the conference are the most valuable for collaboration and exchanging experiences with fellow developers.

The detailed conference agenda will be released in the coming weeks, but in the meantime we urge you to get your registration done ASAP – the Early Bird offer on the conference fee ends at the end of January so hurry!

More information and the registration form is here: www.omnis.net/events/#2020

Later in the year – an anniversary conference

Then in June 2020 (16 + 17th) we are pleased to announce we will hold our Omnis Regional Developer Conference in Europe, but with an extra special twist… This year Omnis Software will be celebrating its 40th anniversary and we would love to see as many of you as possible to help us celebrate this momentous occasion for the company – there are not many software companies that can boast about being 40 years old, and we are proud of our roots and the Omnis product history, and we are very excited about the months and years ahead for the company. We will release further details about this special developer conference as soon as we can, which will include full details about all the technical sessions (on Omnis Studio 10.2 etc), as well as the anniversary party details!

So check out our Events page regularly for details of this & many other great events in the coming year: www.omnis.net/events

We look forward to seeing you soon — and helping you to use Omnis Studio to create or develop some great software solutions!

The post Develop, innovate, learn, share – at the Omnis Developer Conferences 2020 appeared first on Omnis.

The enhancements in Omnis Studio 10.1 include the following:

• Easier debugging with new Variable Panel
  The Variable panel is a powerful addition to the Method Editor that allows you to view and modify variables while you debug and step through your code: as execution pauses, the panel displays the values of all the current variables, and you can drill down into the hierarchy of objects and variables (see below for further images)
  
• More assistance while coding to help you code more quickly
  There are many enhancements in the Code Assistant including: Method name matching to allow you to find a method name as you enter code; Command Keywords are added to a command automatically when pressing Tab; a new option Copy Value in the Variable menu allows you to copy the value of a variable
• Faster, more optimized apps with SQL Worker Lists
  You can now specify that a SQL list or row uses a SQL Worker Object (of the same DAM type as the SQL session object) to perform SQL operations asynchronously in a separate self-contained thread (or synchronously if preferred).
• Better management for Web app sessions
  Remote Tasks used with the JavaScript Client now have a concept of being ‘suspended’ to allow greater control over how client connections are managed using the new properties $suspendedtimeout and $suspendconditions
• Improved user engagement for mobile apps with new “Toast” messages
  There is a new client command to allow you to popup “Toast messages” (small temporary notifications) on the client similar to Android toast messages
• Improved user experience with new and updated JavaScript components
  The JS Video control has been rewritten to remove its reliance on jQuery, and as a consequence the control has some new properties and events; in addition, the Data Grid, Toolbar, Date Picker, and Tree List JS controls have all been enhanced
• Better web experience on macOS with Chromium (CEF) support
  The macOS version of the OBrowser window control (see below) now uses the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF), which the Windows version of OBrowser already uses; the macOS version of OBrowser now supports the standard OBrowser CEF configuration settings using the cefSwitches configuration item within the config.json
• Better user experience for desktop apps with new animations
  There is a new library and object property, $animateui, that allows you to animate certain window class controls. Tree Lists have the new property, so when enabled the contents of a node will animate when it opens (also used in some parts of the Studio IDE such as the Method list in the Code Editor); plus the Tab Strip has some new type constants to animate the tabs. There are two new window class External Components: an iOS-style Switch control and a Multi-button
  
  Tree list (left) and OBrowser with CEF support on macOS

Download a Free Trial of Omnis Studio 10.1

The new release is available to all supported developers (on the ODPP), or if you would like to try out all the new features, you can download it today and register for a free 90-day trial:
https://www.omnis.net/developers/free-trial/

The post Latest Release of Omnis Studio 10.1 Accelerates Web & Mobile Application Development appeared first on Omnis.

Dan Ridinger has spent his career successfully combining the worlds of education and business – which is why he appreciates Omnis Studio so much.

Commercial expertise….

Dan first encountered Omnis in 1985 (“basically I was looking for a cross-platform development tool as I wanted to build my own set of products to run on a PC and Mac”) and has been a loyal customer and advocate ever since.

During an illustrious commercial career, developing real-life applications such as Mediator and GalleryGuard and partnering with major global brands including Motorola, Dan has seen at first-hand the real-time commercial advantages of the Omnis Studio application development environment.

“Once Omnis became a true single-source multi-platform, I was able to get more from the environment and so was able to develop enterprise level applications.”

“Omnis covers the entire life cycle. You can use it as a prototyping tool, so whatever you do – it becomes a real application. You can create databases with it or easily integrate it with industry standard databases, so you don’t need to generate any scripts from scratch if you don’t want to do it the hard way. That makes it especially great in terms of code management.

“It also can be written so that it is externally aware of different devices, allowing developers to develop applications all over the world with a minimum of barriers – a key advantage in a globalised economy.”

Bridging the gap between university and the real world….

As a sessional instructor at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Vancouver, Canada, Dan believes that Omnis gives his students a distinct advantage over those from other higher education establishments.

“One of the main reasons why I brought it into the education sector was that without Omnis Studio my students wouldn’t get proper exposure to these types of tools. I’ve had comments like ‘I didn’t know there were tools like this out there’” he explains.

“I was just showing them last week about how to get started with a prototype.  They were just blown away that I had all the baseline code I needed to develop the app. It was basically ready to go – right out of the box.”

For Dan, encouraging his students to appreciate the real-world pressures of tight timescales and even tighter budgets is a key aspect of his delivering the curriculum that underpins his “Project Requirements Engineering” course.

Omnis Studio – making light work of application development….

And Omnis Studio, with all its single-source multi-platform advantages, is his application tool of choice. Whilst some students like to go back to coding fundamentals, Dan is at pains to stress that that is a luxury available to few in the real world.

“The key thing I want my students to understand is not so much the coding skills themselves, rather it’s all about their use of time. When a student requests to write an application from scratch, I say well that’s fine, but in the real world, that’s not going to work: you have deadlines. Employers are not going to say just because you like doing it that way – then great!”

Omnis Studio 10 – a significant upgrade….

He also emphasises to his students that Omnis Studio allows them to create functional prototypes rather than just mock up applications.

“They can see they can build something and it works, it’s real and it’s based on the requirements we face in the real world. When you do a mock-up there’s so much latitude for misunderstandings! With Omnis Studio, there are no such mis-communications

They’re developing applications that actually work and can be seen working. So, students develop real applications, not mock-ups which don’t work.

Dan builds simple Omnis Studio applications right in front of his classes over the course of just half an hour – just to emphasis his points.

When asked about the advantages to his students of the recent Omnis Studio release, Dan is unequivocal.

“It’s got object oriented programming, database access and has the contextual status of roles built into it.  The other aspect which differentiates it from other tools is its ease of integration into hardware such as the serial connection, making it easier to connect to devices.

“And it’s definitely a significant upgrade on the mobile side – very much so” he enthuses. “With the mobile side of things, if you don’t have this you wouldn’t even be considered anywhere. You’ve got to have mobile app development and with Omnis Studio it’s all in one package.”

Omnis Studio – the opportunity for other universities….

Dan believes that more universities should be offering Omnis Studio on their computer studies courses.

“I may be being controversial here, but I would say some universities don’t always have the right levels of contemporary experience in industry. More and more of them are saying to me that we here at SFU have an advantage in seeing what’s going on in the real world and they don’t always have that ‘luxury.”

He also praises Omnis Software’s support, both that provided by the company itself and its large and growing developer community.

For Dan Ridinger, the future is Omnis. “I teach between 65 and 100-plus students each semester. All of them now know about the Omnis concept, that it is out there and that it’s a fully integrated and industrial strength development tool!”

—
Interview & words by
Paul Simon Dip. CIPR
– clear-sighted public relations solutions
m: 07578910265

Dan Ridinger was interviewed by Paul Simon, who we are delighted to welcome to our blog today as a guest writer. You can read more about Dan’s GalleryGuard solution for managing items in a museum or gallery in our Case Study.

The post Teaching students all aspects of application development – by a leading Omnis developer appeared first on Omnis.