The development of web applications is an indisputable
need in today's technological and economic context. Clients started out by being
the center of the discussion, and that is how web developments became an issue.
In fact, they were seen as a way to provide clients all kinds of service ? such
as portals and e-commerce sites. However, the foreseeable advantages offered by
the web in terms of installation, maintenance and scalability of applications
have expanded this original need, which has now permeated through traditional
ones.
Many companies have already chosen to take their programs
to the web and maintain them in a centralized way. At the same time, they can
offer access to users by means of a browser, no matter where they are. GeneXus
has offered more and better features for web development since version 6.1. This
means that GeneXus 8.0 has made its appearance with all the strength accumulated
over years of experience and the resulting incorporation of new competitive
advantages.
"Since we have foreseen that the GeneXus community will
use this version in making most of its web migrations, we have made improvements
in two areas in order to contribute to this process: facilities for the
integration of graphic design into the development process, and facilities for
Win-to-Web application migration," explains Nicolás Jodal, ARTech's Vice
President.
Users are used to the look & feel of the Web and they
demand better usability and graphic design in the interfaces proposed to them.
GeneXus 8.0 has introduced a new object -Theme? which enables graphic designers
to work on the application's look, while GeneXus developers can work on its
functionality. Themes keep programming and graphic design independent and enable
customization in run-time. On top of this, since they generate less HTML code,
themes also improve application performance.
Moreover, new features were added, which enable the
construction of a more powerful and more friendly dialog in web interfaces: one
of them is the possibility of collapsing grids in order to display information
according to the needs of web users, and the other is the use of transactions as
web components.
The definition of a transaction as a web component enables
GeneXus developers to display several components in a page: some of these
components may contain transactions for enabling additions, deletions, and data
modifications; others may contain web panels in order to show related
information, menus, etc.
Finally, the possibility of selecting any line in a web
grid and operating with it facilitates Win-to-Web migration, from the moment
that it enables the use of web panels in the same way as work panels are used in
applications with Win interface. ("Work with...").
If you wish to learn more:
Themes- I. II. III
Themes Editor -I. II III
Collapsible Grids
Line Selection in Web Grids
Transactions as Web Component