WinStudio

Developing WinStudio Applications

This topic is a high-level overview of WinStudio applications and the multi-tier application development process.

Middle Tier

A middle-tier IDO (Intelligent Data Object) consists of a set of properties, one or more of which constitute the IDO's identifier or key.

For example, a customer IDO might consist of the following properties:

• Customer ID
• Customer name
• Customer address
• Credit limit

Since each customer has a unique Customer ID, this property could serve as the IDO's identifier.

A collection is the result set returned by an IDO. For instance, a customer collection might consist of zero or more rows containing customer information. Collections can be retrieved, navigated, and updated.

In the simplest case, an IDO corresponds to a relational database table, an IDO item corresponds to a row in the table, and an IDO property represents a column in the table. In more complex cases, an IDO can map to parts of multiple tables, and some properties might not have corresponding columns.

Client Tier

A WinStudio form is a window that implements a graphical user interface for a part of the application. A form contains one or more form components. Components correspond to controls or fields on the screen such as text boxes, buttons, check boxes, drop-down lists, grids, charts, and graphics.

In a standard data maintenance application, a form is bound to one or more collections. Each component might be bound to a property of an IDO from one of the form collections. Or a component might be bound to a collection itself. Forms can also include global objects, such as variables, validators, strings, scripts, and other objects whose operation affects more than one form.

WinStudio stores these objects in the forms database. When a WinStudio application is deployed, the developer can use WinStudio functionality to customize forms, components, and global objects (including building new forms). These customized objects are tagged as different versions and are stored in the forms database.

Development Process

To build a WinStudio application, you follow this process:

• Use Configuration Manager to set up a development environment, including creating databases and a development tools login. A tools login automatically has Vendor developer editing permissions in WinStudio. Thus, objects you develop in WinStudio are saved as Vendor default versions in the forms database.
• (Optional) If you want to run and test forms locally, you can use the IDO Runtime Development Server (IDORuntimeHost.exe). If you decide to use this tool, make sure you have the framework services configured properly. For more information, and the appropriate procedures, see the help for the IDO Runtime Development Server utility.
• Create a data model and use the SQL Server Table utility to build the table or tables for the IDO. At this time, you can write any needed stored procedures related to the IDO. You can later alter the schema as necessary.
• Use the IDO development forms in WinStudio to define an IDO that encapsulates the table or tables, and optionally define methods on the IDO, which generally map to stored procedures. You can add custom code to the IDO. The code will be retained during any future regeneration of the IDO.
• In WinStudio, use the New Form Wizard to generate an initial version of a form. First, select your collection (the IDO that returns the result set). Then select the properties that the IDO publishes on the form and provide other basic component properties for each IDO property (caption, validation, drop-down list, and so on). WinStudio generates a new form. This initial form usually requires further adjustment and additions. Use the editing capabilities of WinStudio to finish the form. You can iterate through any of the previous steps as often as necessary to fine-tune your application.
• Use WinStudio to finalize your application interface. For example, you can build the Master Explorer for your application, and you can test and diagnose problems by running forms.

You can also use the New Form Wizard to create a form as an extension of an existing form. For more information, see About Creating New Forms by Extension.

Alternately, you can use the New Data Maintenance Wizard to generate your SQL table, IDO, and form all at once. For more information about this option, see About the New Data Maintenance Wizard.

Related Topics

Customizing Deployed WinStudio Applications

Customizing the Explorer

Editing Permissions

New Form Wizard

New Data Maintenance Wizard