LeSeries Framework

LeSeries

The LeSeries platform enables users to create enterprise applications in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of traditional development methods. Applications are not developed from scratch, rather they are initialized with LeSeries, a fully functional skeletal application out of the box that has all the functions and algorithms for processing transactional, interactive applications. LeSeries comes with a host of runtime features and all the plumbing and infrastructure for n-tier deployment, thus removing this concern completely so that developers can focus on the business domain. The promise of the long awaited industrialization of software development is here. Some of the Applications built using LeSeries Framework are Le Factor, Le Hospital, Le ERP, The Steward, Le Retail, Carla, DynaCubes, and others.

LeSeries Framework

LeSeries Framework is the visual environment which allows customers to build and maintain applications.? It covers the entire spectrum of application development and because no coding is involved, designs are immediately executable within the Framework, allowing for instant gratification and functional testing.

During Specification, the user is concerned with all data and service bound objects.? Here, all database connections, web services, plug-ins, DLLs etc. are ‘introduced’ to the system in a quick and easy manner.? Once introduced, metadata about this information is held in the repository and can be accessed at any time. Further metadata information can be added by the user to enrich the application information being accessed.

During the Design phase the user is concerned with creating User Interfaces (UI) to access and manipulate the data introduced during the Specification stage.? Here, all business rules, events, actions, UI aesthetics and workflow aspects are put together using the ‘Drag & Drop’ paradigm rather than coding.? Because there is no coding or even code generation, these designs are then instantly executable, virtually eliminating what is normally done during Unit Testing.

The Run phase can be conducted in several ways, primarily depending on deployment requirements. However, the most immediate of these is the ‘Run’ mode within the Framework, whereby individual User Interfaces containing events and actions can be tested.

To Deploy the application, several decisions are required, as follows:

• Does the application run in the same environment as development?
• Should the application be distributed (Client/Server, multi-tiered)?
• Should there be only Web access?
• Are PDA’s and other mobile devices used to access the application?
• Where are the production databases housed?
• What type of platform will the application run on?

Whatever the answer to the above questions, nothing needs to be done as far as the application is concerned. The deployment is simply an environmental concern and revolves around configuration of LeSeries.

LeSeries has a complete set of modules for complete application development.? The following are some of the features included in the Framework:

• Database Tool
• Schemas & Metadata
• Windows & Templates
• Functions, Events & Actions
• Business Rules
• Services (Web Services, Messaging Services)
• Data Groups
• Plug-Ins
• Security
• Audit
• Help
• Language Tool
• Reporting Tool

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LeSeries Application Server (Client, Server, Web, PDA)

When an application is designed in LeSeries, it is ready to run!? Not only does it run in a standard multi-tiered environment on virtually any platform, but it also runs on the web, without any further coding or deployment.? There is no compilation of code, no source code control, no huge migration effort and certainly no balancing act between design and runtime.? The move to production is simply a matter of copying a database and updates to the application do not require deployment on each client machine!

Furthermore, the runtime provides the customer with a huge set of functionality, out of the box, irrespective of the data model used or schema used.? The following sections describe in detail the level of functionality that is available in the LeSeries Application Framework.

Security

The security features within LeSeries are extremely powerful and deal with every aspect of application components as well as application data.? The following are the various levels of security provided:

Users & User Groups

Ability to add users and user groups dynamically and grant / revoke access for the user groups

Application Level

Ability to grant / revoke access to an application by user group, simply by checking or un-checking a box

Window Level

Ability to grant / revoke access to individual windows within an application

Window Control Level

Ability to grant / revoke access to any control in a window, such as a field, button, drop down etc.

Functionality Level

Ability to grant / revoke access to functions such as Add/Update/Delete/View etc.

Schema Level

Ability to grant / revoke access to individual tables or attributes in a particular schema.? For instance the balance in an account must only be visible to a particular user group, in any window.

Data Level

By far the most comprehensive security feature, which applications do not typically have. This feature provides the ability to grant / revoke access to data within the database to a particular user group.? For instance a user group must only be able to access a particular?or group of products rather than all data.

System Level

Ability to grant/revoke access to system functions such as security, audit log, design etc.

Auditing

Ability to decide what is auditable and what is not

• At table level
• At field level

Facility to show what data has changed by the following criteria:

• User, Schema, Table
• Function/Action (Add/Update/Delete)
• Users
• Date and Time

Highlights exact changes that have taken place on each field in a table with a full before and after image of the data

Window Design at Runtime

Ability for the users to customize / design their version of a window at run time.? This includes moving fields about, changing fonts, changing colour and names of buttons, resizing items, using different images etc.

Ability to redesign the window layout such that the menu tree, message area, shortcut area and other aspects can appear in a different location within the main window, or indeed in a floating position

Ability to define shortcuts bars and shortcut items such that the users define their own set of menus and quick keys for an application.

Help Tools

Ability for users to be able to define help for the system dynamically.

Multilingual capability

• The ability to select any language which is context sensitive, i.e. English appears left to right and Arabic appears right to left
• Ability for the users to dynamically define their own language text

User Defaults & Preferences

• Ability to dynamically set up windows to appear upon login
• Ability to set up default data as filters to appear in selection or search items for a display, so that the user does not have to enter these values every time
• Ability to define one of several menus to appear upon login.
• Ability to define a default language
• Ability to define default directories for pictures, objects etc. for the application to pick up from.

Window Operations

• Ability to limit the?amount of data retrieved from the database by any field.
• Ability to filter retrieved values by any field on the window or table.
• Ability to display or hide any of the values on a window
• Ability to make mass changes, such as all items in a column in one go, instead of having to do this a record at a time.? This is in order to save time in voluminous, homogenous changes.

Import/Export Facility

• Ability to dynamically define an import or export (or both) format for exchanging data with Excel, CSV files and XML.
• A user can map any field in the import/export format to a field in the database.
• Ability to invoke the import or export and view a log for results.