Alpha 5 v11 Overview AlphaSoftware.com

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Alpha Five Version 11

Alpha Five Version 11 is a new major release of the InfoWorld #1 rated rapid application development tool that lets you build powerful & secure AJAX business database applications for the web and mobile devices significantly faster than with products like visual studio, J2EE, and PHP (see chart below).

ALPHA FIVE has embraced the HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript standard and is the ONE versatile Rapid Application Development framework for all of today’s platforms: mobile, tablet, web.

Animated overview of Alpha Five v11Summary of what’s new in Alpha Five v11Video feature peaks in the Alpha Five blog and on YouTubeA compilation of Alpha Five v11 videos is shown at http://news.alphasoftware.com/v11preview/videos_v11.htm or you can view the videos on the Alpha Five YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/AlphaSoftwareinc#p/u

Data based on a survey of 1000 users of web development tools including Visual Studio, Ruby, PHP and Java

Alpha Software has made a

commitment to HTML5

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Imagine if you could rapidly build any business app once and use it everywhere - on all browsers on the web, on smartphones and tablets.

Imagine if your apps would support the cool functionality expected by users like charting, online scheduling and HTML5 reporting, mapping, images and video.

Imagine no more. That’s exactly what Alpha Five Version 11 does. It’s the rapid anywhere, everywhere app builder.

A Summary of Alpha Five v11 features:Alpha Five Version 11 has a component architecture consisting of a collection of extremely rich grid, form, dialog, security, GIS/data mapping, calendar, charting, video player, animation, image gallery and HTML5 Web reporting components which are designed to speed up the application development process significantly.

The comprehensiveness and depth of the Alpha Five Version 11 components means that for most applications, coding is not needed which in turn results in very speedy development.

In situations where coding is desired, Alpha Five’s RAD tools step out of the way and to reveal a robust and extensive development and debugging environment, a powerful object oriented language, full integration with the .Net framework, an extensive client and server side event model.

For a developers perspective on Alpha Five please click here

The ability of Alpha Five Version 11 to rapidly build and modify working applications that can be shown to clients and then progressively refined based on client input, makes Alpha Five Version 11 the ideal tool for practicing agile development methods for the creation of web and mobile apps that truly meet customer requirements.

Alpha 5 v11 Overview AlphaSoftware.com

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GIS/Mapping supportWith the proliferation of map enabled mobile devices and the broad acceptance of maps Alpha Software has decided that it is important to introduce mapping and GIS support in Alpha Five.

Alpha Five v11 makes it extremely easy and quick to work with data from a database on maps, and to build impressive GIS applications.

This is Video shows Alpha Five›s tight integration with Google Maps. Also see Video 2, Video 3, Video 4.

To see examples where you can perform searches on a map please view - Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, more examples.of data mapping can be found here http://news.alphasoftware.com/v11preview/videos_v11.htm

A popular example using Mapping of data in Alpha Five v11 – creating the store Locator functionality on a web site:

What can you do in fifteen minutes and Alpha Five v11 and one line of JavaScript?

Build a location finder on the web - something that would take days or even weeks with other web development platforms! Watch the video here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/AlphaSoftwareInc#p/search/7/UEtSOw4ebek

Calendar and Scheduling SupportMany applications, especially those for service based businesses can greatly benefit from a scheduling tool to graphically display and select dates on the calendar. This could be used for booking appointments online for any service or resource, synchronizing employee schedules and more. Scheduling functionality in business applications is a heavily requested enhancement to Alpha Five with 56% of beta testers indicating that they plan on using scheduling in applications

that they are planning on building.

With the new Calendar Component, building sophisticated scheduling solutions with Alpha Five is literally a task reduced to five or ten minutes from the weeks or even months that it would take with other tools

Visit the AlphaSoftware v11 YouTube Channel to see the Calendar & Scheduling Support in action or you can go to http://news.alphasoftware.com/v11preview/videos_v11.htm

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Video as part of your database applicationWe’re pleased now to announce another new component in the upcoming Alpha Five v11 - the Video Component builder. It allows you to easily insert video into your applications from a variety of sources.

Users now expect video to be part of the database. It is now important to be able to play both YouTube and private videos residing on any server and have these videos run as both Flash enabled videos on browsers that don’t support HTML5 and also on html5 enabled devices such the iPhones and iPads that don’t support flash

It turns out that there is a lot more to this than meets the eye and its gets complicated very quickly.

The good news is that the new video component builder in Alpha Five v11 is “smart” and hides the complexity for a developer with the result being that building video in Alpha Five v11 web and mobile app is very straight forward.

Examples of Use:

real estate apps that includes videos of houses,or a car catalog with videos of cars,or personnel apps or speaker profile with videos of people,or a repair/construction manual for equipment with how to videos,or education apps with videosor insurance apps with videos of claims sitesor a building management app with video of apartmentsor construction project management apps with video of the project in

construction

Visit the AlphaSoftware v11 YouTube Channel to see practical applications of video with Alpha Five version 11 or you can go to

http://news.alphasoftware.com/v11preview/videos_v11.htm

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Image Galleries: An integral part of modern mobile and web apps.Alpha Five v11 comes with a powerful new component called the Image Gallery Component . We will be doing a series of videos but here is the first one which is an overview video. We recommend watching the video in 720 HD Video 1.

Video 2 (using the Image gallery component within the Tabbed UI component)

Video 3 (using the Image gallery component as part of a grid and then embedded in a tabbed UI)

The new Image Gallery Component in v11 is designed to offer the same experience for both web and HTML5 mobile applications (including gesturing, orientation, swiping, pinch- zooming and momentum scrolling)

An example of an Alpha Five v11 application using an image gallery might be a real estate application where the user goes to their browser and searches for houses contained within a polygon area or a radius of a point on a map. (This functionality is easily accomplished with the new GIS/data mapping in v11.)

The search may also contain criteria such as home price, number of bedrooms etc. Alpha Five will then return results by showing a row/column grid of data that met the search. The result may also show a map with icons for each property that met the search criteria.

Next the user might click on an icon for a particular property which would then bring up all the information pertaining to that property including a gallery of images for that house.( The image gallery functionality would be built using the new Image Gallery Component and it would be called by clicking on a link in the results grid).

The user of the app might also want to see video of the house which would be called by clicking on a different link in the results grid.

Finally the user may want to schedule an appointment to see the house. The video and appointment requirements in this example would be easily met by the developer of this application through the use of the new Video and Scheduling components in Alpha Five v11

Figure 1: Image galleries with pinch zoom, swiping, gesturing and swiping supportFigure 2: Click a button and call up all the data associated with the image.Figure 3: Click a button and view where the picture was taken on a google map

Visit the AlphaSoftware v11 YouTube Channel to see image galleries in action or you can go to

http://news.alphasoftware.com/v11preview/videos_v11.htm

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ChartingBuilt-in charting engine. Include charts in Forms, Report, and Grid components.

We  have  integrated Charts and  added  a Chart  API.  You  can  create  charts  based  on  included  .NET  charting  engine  or  you  can  tap  in  to  3rd  party  charting  tools  such  as  Fusion  Charts

An example of an app built in Alpha Five v11 with Charting and using the Fusion Charts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV378szkmOo

Alpha Five V11 introduces a powerful charting engine. Charts can be used in Form, Reports, Labels, Letters, Xdialogs, and Web Components.

This video shows how a chart can be embedded into a form. Watch Video Part 1, Part 2

This video shows how charts can be embedded into an Alpha Five report. Part 1

The charting features in V11 can be used in Xdialogs. The following video show how you can embed custom charts in your own Xdialogs. Watch Video

The Xdialogs shown in the above video are all in the sample ‹Learning Xdialog› database that ships with V11. Since there are many example scripts in ‹Learning Xdialog› that would be useful to have quick access to, regardless of which database you are working in, we show in this video how you can easily create a Code Library from the examples in ‹Learning Xdialog›. Watch Video Visit the AlphaSoftware v11 YouTube Channel to see v11 charting in action or you can go to http://news.alphasoftware.com/v11preview/videos_v11.htm

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Grid Builder ComponentThe Grid component in Alpha Five v10.5 has historically been where developers have spent most of their time in building Web apps.

V11 introduces a large number of very powerful and “cool” new capabilities to the grid component. http://www.imakenews.com/alphasoftware/index000543806.cfm

Praising V11 Group Breaks, Animation, and Multiple Selection in Lookups

I was just just trying a new V11 feature related to Group Breaks on grids, and thought that I should show off and praise Alpha for some of their new V11 features! Here’s the ‘show off ’ video: http://screencast.com/t/7PqdPZTmH this quote and screencast was posted on the Alpha Five message board by Carol King, an Alpha Five customer who is building a SaaS application in the construction industry using Alpha Five.

Visit the AlphaSoftware v11 YouTube Channel to see the Grid Builder Component in action or you can go to http://news.alphasoftware.com/v11preview/videos_v11.htm

Dialog Builder ComponentAlpha Five v11 includes an extremely powerful new high-performance Dialog Component that supports repeating sections, transactions, rollback and optional Genie-assisted data binding. The Dialog component is ideal for building

questionnaires and forms. The forms can be laid out in any way you want.

Information about new dialog component

Visit the AlphaSoftware v11 YouTube Channel to see the Dialog Builder Component in action or you can go to http://news.alphasoftware.com/v11preview/videos_v11.htm

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Custom and User Defined ComponentsV11 introduces Custom and User-defined Components that allow anyone with HTML, JavaScript, and Xbasic skills to write a component within a pre-defined framework that can easily integrate with Grids, Tabbed UIs, and other Alpha Five Components.

Web Components Style Builder Alpha Five offers an entirely new style builder for Web Components which gives you much greater control over how your web components are styled. One very nice capability is the introduction of sliders for hue, saturation and luminance. These sliders make it very quick and easy to change the color scheme of multiple elements at the same time. The Alpha Five v11 Style Builder and new, attractive Web component styles take full advantage of CSS3.

Visit the AlphaSoftware v11 YouTube Channel to see the Web Components Style Builder in action or you can go to http://news.alphasoftware.com/v11preview/videos_v11.htm

Built in AnimationThe functionality of an application is, of course, paramount! However, in today’s

world of ever improving user interfaces, the appearance of an application is often equally important. To address this Alpha Five v11 takes full advantage of CSS3 and also introduces extensive animation throughout the product to make it extremely quick and easy for a developer to add animation to their applications. Here are just a few examples of how straight forward (and fun) it is to infuse animation into an Alpha Five application

http://blog.alphasoftware.com/2011/06/alpha-five-version-11 feature-peek-10.htmlhttp://blog.alphasoftware.com/2011/06/alpha-five-version-11-feature-peek-11.htmlhttp://blog.alphasoftware.com/2011/06/alpha-five-version-11-feature-peek-12.html

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Plus…. a lot more

Summary of some of the other things in Alpha Five version 11 is shown below:Net Support – Full integration of the .Net Framework V4. Use any of the thousands of .Net classes in Alpha Five. The Xbasic code editor now has full auto-complete for all .Net methods. Click here For recorded presentation on this topic

Web Services - Call web services from Xbasic

SQL Support – Alpha Five offers “portable” SQL support for MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB2 and other backend SQL databases as well as support for .dbf tables.

Reporting – An improved Quick Report Genie and a new Layout Table report allow the easy generation of reports in HTML and Excel. This includes the ability to create Linked Reports, which are even more useful than subreports.

New report style – sheets make it easy to create stunning reports Including HTML5 reports

The Application Server – has been made faster and more robust, and the process of making it compatible with Microsoft IIS at the API level is far along Support for IIS (pdf) Click here for a recorded presentation.

HTML Reporting – Generate reports directly to HTML. No longer have to use the PDF printer driver

Excel Reporting – Generate reports directly to Excel. No longer have to use the PDF printer driver to generate an Excel report. A new Excel API allows you to directly create Excel files from Xbasic. This facility is utilized by the new Layout Table report.

Xbasic – Xbasic is now more powerful. Among other improvements, it has support for the .NET Framework and a more powerful Class syntax that supports data hiding. Much improved auto-complete in the Xbasic code editor. Major improvements to Xbasic classes.

JavaScript editor – Full color coding and auto-complete when editing JavaScript code in web applications.

jQuery Support - jQuery is now tightly integrated into all Web components and jQuery themes are now supported in Web components.

Alpha 5 v11 Overview AlphaSoftware.com

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A New Tool for a New Worldby Jim Dusoe

As a developer I look for several things when determining what platform I want to use for building applications for my customers

Simple database connectivityConnects to all major RDBMS platforms - SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, MySQL, etc.

Rapid developmentQuickly address the data input and management needs of the end user with tools to create powerful “Grids”. Grids in Alpha Five can be built and modified for virtually any need - Data entry, reporting, searching and filtering records and many other uses. The Dialog component provides a very lightweight and completely customizable mechanism to easily collect data and gives the developer complete control over the back-end processing of the data.

Rapid modificationEqually important is Alpha Five’s ability to quickly modify and deploy components when changes are required. This aspect of development is often overlooked when evaluating the total life-cycle of a development project.

LanguageAt some point in nearly every project, there is that one business rule, process or function that makes it unique. The language you use has the potential to make or break the success of the project. Alpha Five’s mature Xbasic language is a complete, powerful scripting language which enables you to solve virtually any coding challenges a developer may encounter. Heavy support for string manipulation, XML handling, File IO, array management and much more means a minimum of third party tools are required to accomplish all the standard tasks a developer may need. Built in FTP and Email clients, support for JSON, CSS, and JavaScript means a complete development environment for today’s development requirements.

Alpha 5 v11 Overview AlphaSoftware.com

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DeploymentFor the Web and Mobile, a simple “publishing” process means users have immediate access to the latest updates to the software. For those who still need to create a desktop system, traditional compile and deploy options are available.

Technologies addressed:

Alpha Five IDE JavaScriptXbasic SQL/ConnectivityHTML XMLCSS JSON

Alpha Five hides the complexities of development by writing much of the code for you - especially JavaScript, the de facto language of the web. Popup windows, data validation, mouse over text and image manipulation, conditional display and style management are all defined by property sheets and dialogs requiring no coding at all. But when you need to create that custom piece of functionality, Alpha Five allows you to tie into a rich event model for both Client and Server Side development.

Alpha Five sits very well in the middle of a development “universe” that addresses all aspects of today’s development needs

Alpha 5 v11 Overview AlphaSoftware.com

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It is rare to find a product that is both very broad, covering all aspects of development - prototyping, data entry (CRUD), navigation, reporting, etc., and at the same time provides such a depth in the underlying development language(s). Alpha Five strikes the proper balance between ease of use and at the same time provides the developer the tools necessary to build virtually any custom code they may need at any level.

And now with the latest features offered by V11, Alpha Five leads the market in the ease in which a developer can create Web and Mobile applications. Alternate data views, GIS/Mapping, powerful calendar and scheduling tools, and the ability to run on IIS all make for a compelling platform for any developer’s future applications. And because the end result is all industry standard code (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript) Alpha Five works very well with other legacy systems. Alpha Five pages can run inside ASPX or PHP pages in an iframe, or other web sites and services can be accessed by or displayed in Alpha Five web pages. Alpha Five is less of a replacement for current web systems, and more of a “parallel development tool” that can peacefully co-exist in any environment. No need to throw away all the work you’ve done, just replace it as needed and add on with Alpha Five solutions.

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About Alpha 5 v11:With the consumerization of IT and the addition of mobile devices into the market, the requirements of modern business applications has changed forever - you owe it to yourself not to get left behind

This new world demands a new tool for building these apps

A tool where you can build once and have it run both on the web and on mobile devices independent of the brand of mobile device

A tool that embraces standards like SQL, stored procedures, web services, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, .NET and IIS

A tool that views charting, scheduling, mapping, video and images as key factors that can genuinely enhance most business apps

A RAD tool that realistically lets you build and modify apps 5-10 x faster than PHP or Visual Studio, but that is seriously powerful, infinitely extensible and does not get in the way if you want to also code

A tool that is easy, highly productive but also immensely secure and scaleable

A tool that is based on experience of servicing millions of users at 10’s of thousands of customers