Hello, my name is Vic Patterson and I've been using a Rich Internet Application (RIA) framework sponsored by TIBCO called General Interface (GI) since 2004.
That opening sentence sounds a lot like what someone might say at an addiction meeting while standing up for the very first time and maybe it's appropriate, because I just may be addicted to GI. You see, prior to General Interface, I had been building web-based applications with all sorts of tools and techniques but I never really liked using them very much. It was always the end result that I was hoping to achieve and I just suffered through all the hidden input fields and session variables and the constant battle of remembering what was on the current page and what came next. What came next was a great new way of delivering quality applications and it got me hooked.
There is a software toolkit for web designers and developers that can reduce the time it takes to create rich and robust applications that runs inside an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The GI Builder, (that's what it's called), has palettes for you to "drag and drop" pre-built components into an awaiting work area that will allow you to develop the "look and feel" of your application really fast.
You can drag in menus and tabs and layout the page a bunch of ways until you get it like you want it. Just drag a component from one of the libraries and go to a property panel to set the details like you want them. Builder, (it's nickname), saves the view and all the settings in a simple format, so that when you open or run your project, all the parts are just like you left them.
Another thing I like is that the components that come with Builder already do all the things you would expect them to do. For instance, if you use the Tree component, which looks like the left side of a file system explorer window, the tree elements will expand and fold back when you click on them. And you didn't do anything but drag in the Tree component. Likewise the menus and combo select boxes and all the other components that come with it do the things they need to do with only a few adjustments from the properties palette.
If you've built things like this before, you're probably thinking, "So what's the big deal?" Well the hard part is usually hooking them up to live data. Builder has a way to connect to services out there on your network, get the details about what goes into the component, and then updates them on the screen without repainting the entire page. Just the parts that need updating get repainted so your entire application just sits on one page. You don't need to think about page sequences or what data is now in view, you just repaint the parts of the screen that need updating.
If you are just getting into GI and don't know too much about it, I hope this series of posts will help you understand it better. My plan is to start off with the absolute beginner in mind and fill in as much of the background as possible before going on to the next subject.
