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IDE Toolkit Auto Build Features

Overview

Vinyl features Auto Build options to help automate the process of building out an application and help reduce the time it takes to build out an app. In addition to the App Wizard, some of these features originate in the Data and Business Logic Layer to support developers building out areas of the Data Layer as well as copy information from the Data Layer and Business Logic Layer from one data source to another.

Auto Build Tutorial

To Use the App Wizard

  1. Navigate to the Site Menu
  2. Click the + App button

  3. Enter the Application Name and click Create App

    • Vinyl now runs a background job to generate the app along with the following auto built elements:
    • Home page designed
    • Home and Configuration menu entries available for navigation
    • Parameters page sub-menu off of Configuration, linked to a Parameter single-row popup page
    • Parameter table built to methodology along with a single record created
      • Table contains the following columns: Application, Version, ParameterID, and Audit records
    • Parameter (Business Object) generated in the Business Layer
    • Reports menu item is available and will be displayed once a Chart is added to the application

  4. When the background job is finished running, Vinyl brings you to the new app Home page

  5. Continue building out your app

Table Auto Build Options

When you build a new table in Vinyl, the following auto build options are available:

Note

Using the Table Wizard will automatically add columns to support Audit and User Selectable, as well as create views in the Business Layer.

Enhance Table

Clicking the Enhance Table button (followed by Proceed) will add in columns to support Audit and User Selectable. These columns are:

  • IsActive
  • AddedBy
  • AddedOn
  • ChangedBy
  • ChangedOn

Publish to Business Layer

The Publish to Business Layer button will generate a Business Object rule for the selected Table and List rule if a Title usage column is defined.

Publish to UI Layer

The Publish to UI Layer button starts a wizard to assist in creating pages based off of this table's Business Object. Vinyl generates two pages, a Grid page named with the pluralized table name as well as a Form page named as the table name. The wizard allows you to select where to add a menu navigation option for the new Page, options are Home, Config and None.

Publish to UI Layer also appears on Business Rules. From this location the button creates a page or pages based off of this Rule, and adds the page(s) to the application menu. The type page(s) created is driven off of the Rule type. Note that the Rule needs to be validated for this button to be active.

Copy Table

There are many instances where you may wish to copy an existing table in an app to an external or staging data source. The Copy Table feature allows you to take an existing Data Source table and move it across data sources.

Note

Copying a table across data sources does NOT bring along any associated data or business objects (including Table (Source) objects).

To Copy Table to Another Data Source

  1. Navigate to the application App Workbench > Tables
  2. Locate the Table you wish to copy. For example: Customer
  3. Click the corresponding Open Record icon
  4. Click More > Copy Table
  5. Select the data source to copy the table to from the Copy to Datasource list
  6. If desired, enter a Name in the New Table Name field. Be consistent with your naming convention. For example: you might name the Customer table as 'zCustomer' when copying it to a staging environment.
  7. Click the Copy Table button. Vinyl kicks off a job that runs in the background.

Copy Rules

With the existing Copy Rules feature, Vinyl allows you to define whether you also wish to copy associated Events (all Events including Custom and Intrinsic Events) and/or Roles along with the Rule.

To Copy a Rule

  1. Navigate to the application App Workbench > Rules
  2. Locate the Rule you wish to copy. For example: Customer (Inner Join Orders)
  3. Click the Open Record icon
  4. Click More > Copy Rule
  5. Decide if you want to also copy associated Events and Roles, and place a check mark to indicate Yes, copy this option as appropriate
  6. Click the Copy button
  7. After finished running, Vinyl returns you to the new Business SQL screen for the copied Rule and appends (New) to the end of the Name