The Application Builder is perhaps the most advanced web development automation tool available to web developers. With just a few clicks, users can create complex database-enabled Web applications with dozens-or even hundreds-of web pages for data management and administration.
CodeCharge Studio combines visual interface design tools with an integrated development environment (IDE) to enable developers to create powerful and sophisticated web applications in record time. CodeCharge Studio features powerful HTML and code editors, an HTML design component, project explorer, property browser, dockable tool windows, and many other features desired by professional developers.
Component Builders are key constituents of CodeCharge Studio and help users assemble Web pages from multiple components such as Grid, Editable Grid, Record, Directory, Login, or Search. A Builder is a dynamic wizard that creates the appropriate component on the page by allowing the developer to specify the database table and fields that are used to display, validate or accept information.
Developers can easily select tables and stored procedures or custom SQL as the data source for their data-aware forms. A Visual Query Builder is provided for visual creation of SQL statements.
CodeCharge Studio goes the extra mile in protecting generated Web applications by implementing additional security features that prevent users from externally modifying forms and submitting invalid data to the server. CodeCharge Studio allows developers to define secure role-based access to each page or form.
CodeCharge Studio can generate programming code in C# and VB. Net (ASP.NET), VBScript (ASP), ColdFusion, Java (Servlets or JSP), PHP, and PERL. Since the project model is stored in XML format, the programming language can be changed at any time and the same project can be regenerated in multiple programming languages.
CodeCharge Studio has an open architecture and is fully extensible. Most of the functionality is implemented as HTML, JavaScript, XML, and XSL. Users can customize almost any part of the built-in functionality or develop their own components, such as Builders, Components, Actions, and Styles. In the future, users will be able to obtain the CodeCharge SDK and develop their own code generation templates.
CodeCharge Studio supports most existing databases via JET and ODBC to establish the design-time connection. The server-side connection can be made using JET, ODBC, JDBC, ADO, DBI and PHPLib to connect to databases during run-time.
CodeCharge Studio supports multiple database connections to allow Web applications to utilize multiple data sources, for example, to validate user access against an external user database.
The site diagram feature enables the developer to produce a visual representation of the pages within the site as well as show how the pages are linked to one another.
CodeCharge Studio can be installed as an Add-In for Microsoft FrontPage. The Add-In extends Microsoft FrontPage using a set of code-generating Builders, a project explorer, properties browser and code editor. FrontPage users can use all of CodeCharge Studio's features directly within their familiar environment.
Web pages created with CodeCharge Studio can be opened with any web editor, either by opening the HTML files saved by CodeCharge Studio on the disk, or by right-clicking on a page within the CodeCharge Studio IDE and selecting Open Externally. After a page is modified and saved, it is automatically available back within CodeCharge Studio.
CodeCharge Studio comes with ten templates and examples of pre-built web applications that can serve as starting points for your applications. These applications are ready for customization and adaptation for organizational needs.
Applications generated with CodeCharge Studio can be easily extended by adding custom code or by using any of the predefined Actions. Actions are user-definable code components that are inserted into events. Many actions are provided with the product, while additional actions can be created by users and shared with others. Internally, actions consist of XML and XSL code that can be easily customized.
CodeCharge Studio users create web applications by connecting to a database and placing data-aware forms and components on a page. During the page design process, the representation of the project and all of its pages is saved in XML format in addition to HTML code that contains the page design.
Several sample databases and applications are provided with the distribution to help you get started with CodeCharge Studio.
The Editable Grid component enables the editing of multiple records simultaneously. It allows to create order processing, inventory management, shopping cart, or any other ERP-type system whose integral functionality involves the manipulation of multiple records.
The Directory component facilitates the creation of a Yahoo style Directory or Index. The Directory is made up of a hierarchy of categorized listings which the user can navigate through. This makes the Directory component especially useful when creating Web portals where information is provided taxonomically.
The listbox component has been improved to allow the end user to select multiple values within the listbox, unlike in previous versions where only one value could be selected. The Multi-Select listbox can therefore be used in database tables with one-to-many relationships.
The Date Picker component enables the user to specify date values by selecting a date from a pop-up calendar. The pop-up calendar is a small browser window which contains a monthly view of dates and also has the capability of scrolling backwards and forwards to other months.
The process of transferring files from the end users machine to the server can now be accomplished by using the File Upload component. This component generates the necessary code to enable an end user to select files from their machine and submit the files so that they are uploaded to the server.
The CodeCharge Studio example pack comes in the form of a CodeCharge Studio project within which there are different sub-projects which implement various programming techniques.