From Emanate5

Contents 1 Application Structure 2 Installation Manager 3 System Manager 3.1 Table Wizard 3.2 View Wizard 3.3 Screen Wizard 3.4 Form Wizard 4 Emanate5 Client

Application Structure

An application in Emanate5 is a frontend to a managed database. The application itself is defined by the contents of the database. This combination of an application and a managed database is referred to as a System.

Applications are a combination of tables, views, screens, and forms.

• Tables contain the definition of data objects that are stored in the database, providing the context of the application.
• Views are used to combine lists of data objects as reports and specify what information to display in these reports.
• Screens are used to design the way a user interacts with views and forms and define the structure of your application.
• Forms are used to view specific objects or a combination of related objects in the database, and edit and enter new data into the system.

When creating an application, first you define the tables. Then you create views and screens to present your data to the user. Forms are automatically generated by default, so are defined when refining the way a user edits and enters data.

Installation Manager

The Installation Manager is used to manage your collection of Emanate5 systems.

When first running Emanate5, it will present the first time registration screen. Fill in your desired username (e.g. 'admin') and password (entered twice for verification) and you are ready to proceed. Press the 'Register' link and you will be logged in and taken to the installation manager main screen.

When running Emanate5 normally, it will first require you to log in and then present the installation manager main screen.

To create a system, click on 'Create System'. This will ask you for the system details. Fill in a system name (lowercase, no spaces) which is used to identify the system, notably in URLs. Also provide a more descriptive display name, which is used when the application wishes to display some text in the context of the system. Click on the 'Create System' link and your new system is ready momentarily. You will be returned to the installation manager main screen.

To manage or design an application, click on the system you wish to work with and click on the 'Manage System' link. It will load the System Manager.

System Manager

The system manager is where you specify your database schema and design your Emanate5 application. On the left of the system manager window is a tree-like list of components of the system. Each component contains objects that define the system. When clicked on, they open a screen on the right that lists the contents of each component. In a new system, these lists will appear empty - each screen has a 'Create' link (e.g. 'Create Table') that will open up a wizard for creating a new component of that type.

Table Wizard

Tables are the cornerstone of your applications; they define data structures and the way data structures link to each other.

The simplest way to design data structures is to break down what you are storing into distinct parts. For example, a company may have many employees, so it is desirable to define a company in a separate table to that for an employee.

The table wizard has 3 main components relevant to basic applications:

• Columns

The columns are what describes the structure that you are storing. For example, in a Company table it might have a column for name (a string) a size (a number).

• Connects to

Here you define the basic relationships - called Arms - between a table and other tables. For example, an employee works for a company, so in an Employee table, it would connect to the Company table with the description 'Employer'. However, since a company typically has many employees, there would not be a corresponding connection in the Company table to the Employee table.

• Summary

This defines how a row of data from the table appears when summarized. Use a combination of columns, strings, and arms to present a meaningful summary of a row from the table. For example, an Employee table might have 3 summary components - a 'Name' column, a string " from ", and the Employer connection. Thus, an example row from the Employee table would be summarized as: "John Smith from Mega Corp".

View Wizard

Views are for viewing table rows in context. That is, a view combines several related tables together and displays rows and the links for those rows and any subsequent links.

When creating a view, it first asks for a table from which to start the view. This table is the focal point of the view. For example, to create a contacts list from an Employee table and a Company table, the focal point - the table containing the context of the view - is the Employee table, so you would choose this as the table to begin the building the view with.

The view wizard has 3 main components relevant to basic applications:

• Nodes

The paths of tables to be combined into this view. In our example, select the 'Employee' node, click the 'Add table' link, and select the table arm 'Employer'.

• Columns

These are the columns to be shown in the view. Select a table, matched to a table from the nodes by its preceding letter (the same table may appear multiple times in the nodes) and a column from the table or the table summary. The 'Adv' checkbox is for advanced use. Specify a column name if the column (or table name if using the table summary) is not appropriate. You can also specify column width in characters (-1 means automatic) and whether the column should shrink to fit.

• Filters

Assign filters to narrow down the returned rows in the view. In our example, where the Employee table has a column 'phone number', assigning a filter can eliminate contacts with no number present to restrict the contacts list to useful contacts.

Screen Wizard

Screens define the application interface. A screen combines views and forms together in a flexible manner to make creating fairly complex application interfaces a straightforward process.

A screen is a combination of screen components. Screen components are given labels (e.g. View1, Form1) to help identify them when specifying inter-dependencies.

If you want more than one component in your screen, you need to change the root component to be a Layout component. Then use the 'Insert' link to add more components. Layout is either horizontal or vertical. To create more complex layouts, use multiple layout components.

For a view component you must specify a view to use (top selection widget) and optionally a form to use when viewing and entering new data from this view (second row of selection widgets). A view component may be filtered against other view components in the screen. Use the 'Add filter' link to add new filters.

A form component allows embedding a form on the screen which is populated when selecting a row in the view that the form is dependent on.

Form Wizard

When inputting or editing data, a user is presented with a form. Emanate will automatically generate such forms, but often it is desirable to assign default values to, set properties on, or hide specific fields. Occasionally the automatic layout itself will be inadequate. The form wizard is used to provide customized forms according to the needs of an application.

• Tables / Nodes

A form is constructed from a set of related tables. Use the 'Tables' tab to assign the related tables for this form.

• Manage Fields

Use this tab to set field editable and display options, as well as default values. Tick a field to override the default display and editable settings or assign a default value for a field.

• Design

Here you can customize form layout. You can do this in two ways - either by reordering the visible fields or by designing your own form.

Emanate5 Client

The client interprets the application definition, as specified in the System Manager, and presents the application interface to the end user.

The design principle behind the client is that it should be very straight-forward and intuitive.

Once a user is logged in, they are presented with the main client window. There is a list of screens in a column on the left hand side and the current work activity displayed in the main body of the window. You can have multiple work activities open at the same time, managed with tabs.