eDevWebH Common Questions (FAQ)

1) What does the name 'eDevWebH' stands for?

a) eDev Stands for: eDeveloper
b) Web stands for: "Web" as opposed to Desktop C/S.
c) eDeveloper (today UniPaaS) offers 3 approaches for the web:
- Browser Client (BC)
- Rich Client (RC)
- HTML-Merge which is what the 'H' in eDevWebH is for

Therefore, eDevWebH tells what it is:
It is a product that focuses on WEB through the HTML-Merge dimension of eDeveloper.

2) Is it well supported?

For the price, we can not guaranty endless support. More so if you are experiencing problems with your operating system or IIS or Apache web services which we do not position as experts of in any case. However, we understand that our reputation is linked to the satisfaction of those who chose the product. As such, we tend to do our best to answer all issues or questions sent to us and we do what is possible for us to do to make sure the product works in any delivered context.

3) What makes it a framework?

eDevWebH is a "framework" in the sense that it has in place, generic (black box) programs that will help or even save the developer to have to deal with some for all web applications topics such as:

- A Session Manager: Single entry point program of all serious dynamic web application.
- Create and maintains sessions. Calling for a GUID generator.
- Validates sessions. Making sure someone can not make it to some features of the web site without proper authentication.

- Manage different types of sessions:
> a) No sessions at all,
> b) User logged in sessions
> c) Public non-authenticated sessions

- Deals with session expiry as you can not count on the fact that users always Logout.
- Passes valid and non-expired requests to a Request Handler.
- Updates some activity log of every activity that occurred on the site.
- Deal with errors, reporting them and logging them in an error log.

- Login page and Handler:
> The one supplied in the eDevWebH application is perfectly operational.
> One will want to fix the look and feel and maybe add some additional features here and there. However, starting from what is supplied is certainly a big saving in time and effort.

- Password Encryption: No need to deal with this. eDevWebH has the objects already in place for this.

- Pagination: Dealing with long list of data is not a given with HTML-Merge itself. With eDevWebH it is. eDevWebH has the objects in place that enables the developer to deal with paginated request results in a very systematic, optimal and RAD based manner.

- Generic approach to deal with: Header (Banner), Menu and Footer.

- Generic approach to deal with Multi-Tenancy.

- Full operational sample program (People Demo) which is an excellent starting point to develop more complex maintenance (Create, Modify and Delete) or transaction handling programs.

For all of the above, which is demonstrated in action on our live demo, you get the source code of the Magic application associated to this. The idea is that this application is an excellent starting point to proceed with the elaboration of any future web site you wish
to dynamically service from Magic. That is what we mean by eDevWebH is a "framework". It proposes an approach for which a lot of the development is already in place.

That is not all. eDevWebH comes with a 80+ pages pdf that not only covers the internals of the above but takes the reader step by step through what we consider to be the basic and essential things that must be known and understood for someone to be comfortable doing web HTML-Merge with Magic and eDevWebH.
Subjects like:
- Web Architecture
- Threads
- Web Server (IIS or Apache)
- Enterprise Server, Broker, Requester
- Request URL
- Merge tags
- And much more ...
Are covered to some pertinent extent.

Our goal writing the documentation was that one who reads it does not need to take a Magic/Web training to be able to move forward. The eDevWebH framework and the document take him right there.

The application (framework) delivered is very clean (we spent a lot of time cleaning it up) and it supports a simple yet generic and powerful architecture for servicing web requests:

Session Manager -> Request Handler -> Output Merge Handler.

So, to treat a new request, the developer copies the existing handlers that are the closest to what this new request is about and modifies the internal of this program to deal with the new request. The major part of the work is standard batch programming to produce the 'Request Handler'. The 'Output handler' basically needs a new template and the association of the related tags. A call operation is placed in the proper section of a Session Manager dispatching task to call the new 'Request Handler' and that does the trick! It becomes very quick and consistent once one gets the hang of it.

4) Can this framework also be used for RC?

No, though the underlying architecture is shared and some of the documentation found in eDevWebH does apply to RC, HTML-Merge and RC are two distinct approaches.

There are currently 4 ways to do things over the web with Magic.

Non Browser based:
- Thin client: Desktop coupled with TS, Citrix or other.
- RC: Rich Client

Browser based:
- BC: Browser Client
- HTML-Merge

A fair question is therefore: Which one is the right one?

There isn't one straight answer to this question. It depends what one wants to do and in which context.

RC is a justified and promising product. However, for instance, keep in mind two things:

1) RC is not browser based. Some Client (.Net) will need to run on every client of the application be it over the web or not.

2) Client licenses will be required. These are not free.

We are not saying that the above two make RC inappropriate in all cases. In many cases, the RAD and richness of the interface of RC may be a bigger advantage than the implications of the above two.

However, there is and it is likely that there will always be the need for "Pure Public WEB sites" that anyone with an internet connection and a regular browser should be able to access an use. Nothing else on the client, just register, login and go...
For these, HTML-Merge is and will most likely remain as the right way to go.

eDevWebH is an extension of HTML-Merge (that is what the 'H' is for). As such, it does not address RC. Note that it is not excluded to be able to combine both HTML-Merge and RC in a global solution.

5) Is there a difference between the V94 and V10 (UniPaaS) versions of the product?

Nothing practical really. We just want people who are still in V9.4 to be able to use the product. Therefore, we also maintain a V9.4 version of it. It is the same code base and functionalities really.

6) Is there a Discovery version of the product?

No. This would imply re-typing everything every time a new discovery version comes up. As such, it is very unlikely that we will ever produce a discovery based product.

7) Do I have access to the source code? Can I modify or enhance the product for my own purposes?

Yes. You get the complete and documented source code. We believe the code is very clean and as simple as it needs to be. We did devote time and effort to make sure it is so.

8) What Databases does it supports?

Except for a Windows API call to get a GUID for session identification purposes, eDevWebH is "Pure Magic". As such, it can be used with any database Magic can work with. The available demo on the web is currently working on Pervasive navigational under an Xpress 10.1 SP3c Enterprise Server license.

The product basically can use two generic approaches:
- MSSQL: For MSSQL only. However, in this case the paginated data views are derived from MSSQL statements, which calls for best performance under MSSQL.

- Navigational: For non-MSSQL databases. This builds the data views with regular Magic Range from and To specifications and as such works for all contexts (MSSQL included), but is most likely not as optimal as the above for MSSQL.

9) Is the product free?

No. But we sincerely believe it is more than well worth. It is less than a fraction in cost of what it would take any senior eDeveloper to reproduce some meaningful part of it. The product as reached a features and maturity level that can not be reproduced for anything comparable to the amount we are asking for. With the source code included, it is like you sub-contracted us to develop this application up to what it is for you. There are no market hourly rate that would cover the development time that it took to come up to such result for the price we are asking.

10) How does the licensing work? Do I need to buy more than one time for any reason?

No, one purchase is enough to develop and deploy regardless of the number of developers, sites and end users. We just restrict you not to redistribute the product as the tool that it is, but always as a framework under some application that you own and to which it contributed originally.

11) Is the product component based?

No. you do not need to know anything about components to be able to take advantage of eDevWebH. It is a starting point application not just a repository of objects.

12) With built-in Multi-Tenancy, can I still use eDevWebH to develop a single organization application web site?

Yes, absolutely. Setting a 'Single Organization(c)' configuration variable to 'True' in the Main Program is all that is required for eDevWebH to behave as if it is available to the benefit of only one organization.