The objective of the Productivity Tools Module is to
facilitate daily tasks, which take much time and work when done manually, for
the developer or project manager.
Through a full Web GxTend interface it permits to navigate
through the Knowledge Base (KB) knowledge in a friendly and simple way,
providing a comprehensive view of the project. This comprehensive view is
provided by search, display and comparison operations, both at KB and at object
level. It enables quick and intuitive access to the application knowledge, and
through a powerful selection criteria, it allows to obtain reports, metrics
graphics and to compare different knowledge basis.
The search engine provides easy access to knowledge. For
example, it permits to use regular expressions to screen by name, or to use
information such as date range, type of object, etc. in a combined way. It is
also possible to search by text contents of the object.
These features have been designed taking into
consideration the day to day difficulties faced by developers when locating an
object or a set of objects, and when trying to identify differences between the
KBs, when errors are detected, "... but, it was OK on Friday". It also takes
into account those who want higher control on their KB, to visualize clearly how
objects have been modified through metrics and reports.
With this set of tools it is now possible to optimize work
time and to obtain a higher quality product.
In addition to permitting intuitive navigation of the KB,
users are enabled to select any object and open a full view of the same.
Using the abovementioned criteria, GxTend permits to
obtain a list of objects with differences in two GeneXus KBs. It is possible to
compare the whole KB or just a subset of objects. Additionally, it is possible
to compare revisions (a concept we will develop in coming articles), that is,
snapshots of the application knowledge.
This figure shows two selected objects that will be
compared using GxComparer, recently launched by ARTech.
It is also possible to compare domain attributes and the
structure of the database itself.
This is just a brief summary of the productivity tools
module. In our next issue we will look at the Version and Traceability module of
GxTend and show the comprehensive view of the project over time.
GxTend: http://gxtend.accendo-it.com