Defining your web application with USoft Definer

You can define the data structure and rules of your application with USoft Definer.

In USoft, data structure and rules are considered fundamental for Web Applications, C/S Applications, batch applications, and APIs for interaction with other software. You define data structure and rules on a separate level and your Web Application automatically takes changes to the data-and-rules model into account.

At design time, you need to restart Web Designer after you have made changes to the data model in USoft Definer. You then need to publish web pages that are related to the changes before running the web application again.

At runtime, you  need to restart the Rules Service after you have made changes to the rules in USoft Definer. If the Rules Services runs from Database, it will pick up the rule changes automatically when it is restarted. If the Rules Service runs from files, you first need to re-create these flat files so they contain the changes to the rules, and then you need to restart the Rules Service.

Please refer to the USoft Definer Help for details on how to define a data structure and rules, and how to re-create flat files.

Here are some examples of how work in USoft Definer affects your web pages in Web Designer:

•Fields in web pages become wider or narrower if you change the Length of a domain on which a column is based.

•Page titles, menu options and field prompts change if you change the Object Name for a table or the Prompt for a column.

•Data elements appear either in a grid or in a form with single-record fields depending on whether or not you set a column's In Display Selection attribute.

•Lookup behavior in a web page (the possibility for the user to select a parent value for use in a foreign key field in a child table) depends on the value of the Lookup Method attribute of the Relationship in USoft Definer.

•Domain Constraints and Table Constraints in USoft Definer will determine how data is enriched and how data constraints are enforced when users start interacting with these data through pages developed in Web Designer.

•Defining a new Logical View in USoft Definer automatically gives you a web form for data interaction with that view in Web Designer.