Microsoft is discontinuing RoboVM and I am not even trying to figure out the hassle in companies and startups who have invested in this framework.
I see three more JAVA cross platform mobile frameworks sitting out there:
Intel's multi-os-engine https://software.intel.com/en-us/multi-os-engine ,
Oracle's MAF http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/maf/overview/index.html
and https://www.codenameone.com .
Has anybody full knowledges of these frameworks?
What about their project health? Is among them any other candidate that we will see to fall apart the same as it was in the case of ROBOVM?
I'm the co-founder of Codename One so I'm pretty biased. Notice you also missed J2Obj-c which is an important option. Codename One predated RoboVM by a while and unlike it we have a business model/revenue which makes long term support more likely.
I don't want to spread FUD about MAF/MOE so if I got any facts wrong please correct me as I haven't kept up with everything. AFAIK MAF doesn't have much traction, it used to package an interpreted VM and just provide a bridge to Cordova with a few additional plugins. It seems most of Oracles resources are with JET. Back in the day I found a PDF that indicated that MAF has an annual licensing cost of 50K per application, I can't find it now so I don't know if it's applicable but I suggest checking this thoroughly.
MoE isn't a product. It's been a "technology preview" for years and it won't leave that status. Intel stopped all mobile development a few years ago and fired everyone involved, the only reason this wasn't shut down is due to the fact that it isn't a product. It was open sourced but that's just like the open sourcing RoboVM. Both products are over-engineered solutions whose open source code is hard for 3rd party maintenance. It's a full time job to keep up with Apple. Our VM took a far more conservative approach which makes it both easier to maintain/keep up and makes it more efficient. E.g. a hello world in MoE would be over 50mb whereas we support features such as bitcode and can build a release version in under 5mb of size.
Furthermore MOE isn't WORA (Write Once Run Anywhere) which brings me to J2Obj-C which isn't WORA either. If you will sacrifice portability and buy a Mac might as well use J2Obj-C which is more forward compatible than MOE and smaller. It has simpler code and architecture so it won't break if maintenance stops.
If you are a Windows user, using MOE becomes difficult. In fact, you need a Mac available for build reasons or, at least, a cloud hosted mac service.
Moreover, for Windows users, in MOE an iOS simulator is not available (it's only available for OSX users).
Andrea
Related
We've narrowed our selection for an ipaas down to the above 3.
Initially we're looking to pass data from a cloud based HR system to Netsuite, and from Netsuite to Salesforce, and sometimes JIRA.
i've come from a Mulesoft background which I think would be too complex for this. On the other hand it seems that Celigo is VERY drag and drop, and there's not much room for modification/customisation.
Of the three, do you have any experience/recommendations? We aren't looking for any code heavy custom APIs, most will just be simple scheduled data transfers but there may be some complexity within the field mapping, and we want to set ourselves up for the future.
I spent a few years removing Celigo from NetSuite and Salesforce. The best way I can describe Celigo is that it is like the old school anti-virus programs which were often worse than the viruses... lol... It digs itself into the end system, making removing it a nightmare.
Boomi does the job, but is very counter-intuitive, and overly complex. You can't do everything from one screen, you can't easily bounce back and forth between tasks/operations/etc. And, sometimes it is very difficult to find where endpoints are used, as they are not always shown in their "where is this used" feature. Boomi has a ton of endpoint connectors pre-built (the most, I believe), but I have not seen an easy way to just create your own. Boomi also has much more functionality than just the integrations, if that is something that may be needed.
Jitterbit, my favorite, is ridiculously simple to use. You can access everything from one main screen, you can connect to anything (as long as it can reach out to the network, or you can reach it via the network - internal or external). Jitterbit has a lot of pre-built endpoint connectors. It is also extremely easy to just create a connection to anything you want. The win with Jitterbit is that it is super easy to use, super easy to learn, it always works, they have amazing support (if you need it). I have worked with Jitterbit the most (about 6 years), and I have never been unable to complete an integration task in less that a couple of day, max.
I have extensive experience with Dell Boomi platform but none with JitterBit or Celigo. Dell Boomi offers very versatile and well supported iPaaS solution. The technical challenges of Boomi are some UI\usability issues (#W3BGUY mentioned the main ones) and the lack of out-of-the-box support for CI/CD and DevOps processes (code management, versioning, deployments etc.)
One more important component to consider here is the pricing of the platform. Boomi does charge their clients yearly connection prices. Connection is defined as a unique combination of URL, username and password. The yearly license costs vary and can range anywhere between ($1,000 - $12,000) per license per year. The price depends greatly on your integration landscape and the discounts provided so I would advise on engaging with vendor early to understand your costs. Would be great to hear from others on pricing for JitterBit and Celigo.
Boomi is also more than just an iPaaS platform. They offer other modules of their platform to customers: API Management, Boomi Flow (workflow and automation module), Master Data Hub (master data management). Some of these modules are well developed and some are in their infancy (API Management).
From my limited experience with MuleSoft platform, I share the OP's sentiments about it being too complex for simple integrations. They do provide great CI/CD and DevOps functionality though if that is something that is needed.
There is not a simple answer to a question like this. One needs to look at multiple aspects of the platform and make a decision based on multitude of factors. I would advise looking at Gartner and Forrester reports for a general guidelines and working out the pricing (initial and recurring) with the vendor.
I have only used Jitterbit, so can only comment on that. It works fine. It is pretty intuitive and easy to use, but does have some flexibility with writing your own queries, defining and mapping file formats, and choosing different transfer protocols.
I've only used the free version (which you need to host somewhere and also is not supported) and it was good enough for production tasks. If you have the luxury of time, I'd say download it and try it out. If it works for you, throw it on a server or upgrade to the cloud version.
One note: Jitterbit uses background services. If you run it locally and then decide to migrate your account to a server, you need to stop those services on your local. Otherwise, it will try to run jobs from both locations and that doesn't turn out well.
Consider checking out Choreo as well. It has a novel simultaneous code + low-code approach for integration development. And provides rich AI support for performance monitoring, debugging, and data mapping.
Disclaimer: I'm a member of the project.
I want to build a free app to become familiar with what is required, but I was always confused about the steps one needs to take to START a software project.
What are the steps required in order to develop a mobile app?
I will list some of the things I think should be done but I don't necessarily know how to do. Any advice, details and technologies you have to accomplish these steps would be awesome.
Decide which platform you want to develop. What are some of the pros and cons in this area for android vs iOS vs Windows8?
How to test the app - can you get free hardware to test with a well detailed app plan? Emulator?
Detail what you want the app to do and which functionalities you want.
Research if this app already exists. What are some areas of concerns in terms of not breaking the law such as patent infringement etc?
Setup a source repository such as git (google a guide I guess?)
Look at guides to familiarize yourself with APIs and write sample code to learn what you need?
Start the development and keep doing the above as needed.
Starting a software project can be as easy as start writing code. Most programmers will have an intuition as to what needs to be done and how it could be done. The other extreme of starting a software project is to start with talking to a client (or looking at the world) and figuring out what the problem is. I find that a thorough understanding of the problem you are trying to address with a project is already a long way into getting the project done painlessly. It'll give you a good understanding of what is required for you to call your project done.
So I guess point number one becomes: know what the problem is you're solving. Knowing this will also tell you if any existing app solves the same problem to a satisfying standard.
NOTE: I am not that familiar with the Windows 8 platform so my answer mostly talks about iOS and Android. The issues raised however are broad enough to cover large parts of the Windows platform.
Platform
Selecting a deployment platform is an important part of a launching a product, and a lot of other decisions depend on the platform. We are in the unfortunate state that two major mobile OSes exist that are separate in terms of code development and reuse. When considering selecting your deployment platform you'll want to think about the audience, and the (potential) sub set of the audience that is willing to pay for your application. Android might have to most devices out there but iPhone makes the most money (also for developers). However, remember that there are lots of apps out there and most developers don't ever make any (or not enough) money out of their apps.
Getting into app development with the aim of getting rich is going to leave you dissappointed. That's not very likely, then again someone always wins the lottery as well. It is a good way though to get employed and make some money that way.
Then there is the question of programming language (Java, Objective-C or C#). This is largely decided on what you are already familiar with, and if you aren't then refer back to the previous point.
Testing
Testing the product is a tricky thing. You'll have to start off with the emulator (which is usually provided with the development pack). Sooner or later however you'll have to test the app on hardware. I doubt you'll get your hands on free hardware but borrowing from friends and relatives is always an option. There may also be businesses that rent out test hardware to developers, if there isn't then I suppose that's one business idea to work on.
The platform choice will affect this also. Android is running on a much wider range of hardware than iOS.
Patent infringment
I don't know that much about patent issues, other than software patents are nasty. As a single developer I wouldn't be too worried about infringing on patents, the main purpose of them is to keep competitors at bay. What usually ends up happening is that big companies kill off competition with patent lawsuits, or they buy a smaller company that holds a nice collection of patents.
If you want to be on the safe side (meaning you own a company and are really doing this to make money) then talk to patent lawyers.
Code repository
A code hosting service like GitHub is fantastic in that it not only provides a place to have you code, but it also provides issue trackers for keeping notes on the functionality that is still missing or bugs that have crept up in your software.
The best places to start learning about Git are git-scm.com and the GitHub help pages.
Software development plan
Your last point explodes to a thing called software engineering. There has been lots of research into different ways of managing software development projects. The idea being that software development tends to be extended over long periods of time, the requirements of the project change during the project (as you learn more) and the project can involve anything from 1 to 100s of developers. Some way coordinating work between those developers (and all other parties involved like customers) has to be formalised, enter software engineering. The aim is to define a methodology and project structure that guides the development process and makes it more likely that the requirements are met at the end of the project.
Some models worth looking into include (Test Driven Development and other agile methods).
Finally I would add to the list of things that need to be done
Research libraries, note that this comes before familiarising yourself with the APIs of those libraries.
What software already exists that does a part of what you want to achieve. This goes partly back to the question of what platform to use. Apple has put a lot of attention in developing easy to use frameworks to support iOS app development. I am not that familiar with Andoird's or Windows 8 but the less code you have to write the faster the product will be done.
1 http://mobiledevices.about.com/od/kindattentiondevelopers/tp/Android-Os-Vs-Apple-Ios-Which-Is-Better-For-Developers.htm
There is only one step needed: Just start that project!
You are going to develop a free application, so it should be fun to do that. Choose whatever you like and keep going:
Make sure you are productive enough -- 10 Laws of Productivity
Avoid complexity -- Occam's razor, KISS principle
Let CI system do the boring stuff -- Machines should work; people should think.
Read books and improve yourself.
Please also avoid blind decisions. If you simply try several available options you'll eventually find the best way to achieve your goals. Do some PoC and decide. Nowadays 1-2 hours should be enough to start with any technology. This is the rule of maturity. You have your own goals, so it is better to avoid immature solutions.
Happy coding.
CPlayer I came to this forum with the same question since I am new to mobile app design and want to make my own app. I realize it is important to take certain steps in the correct order so that wasted time is minimized or eliminated. I did some research and came across two online sources I believe, if they are put together as one, will make one better source. The links are:
http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/2311-a-mobile-app-development-checklist/
http://mobiledevices.about.com/od/kindattentiondevelopers/ht/How-To-Create-An-App-For-The-Iphone.htm
Good Luck,
laroice
I am looking for a Sybase PowerBuilder 8.0 setup. I found http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1013232, but the all dowload links are broken.
Where can I download PowerBuilder 8?
You might ask Sybase, but I doubt they'd sell it to you. AFAIK, they haven't sold PB8 in about 8 years, and it hasn't been supported in 6 years. The current eval (11.5 at the time of this writing) is available off their main product page, if free is what you're after.
If it's PB8 you need, then you may be out of luck. Occasionally, you see an old copy sold on eBay, but I've had someone suggest to me that the license terms don't allow resale, so I'm not sure how legal this option is. (I'm no lawyer; maybe you'd want to ask that on "Litigation Overflow".) I'm sure I can leave the even less legal options up to your imagination.
Availability might be another reason to argue for an upgrade, beyond the technical reasons and new features, like operating system support. The PHBs won't like it, but then again, some live to aggravate PHBs; not you I'm sure.
Sorry, and good luck,
Terry
PB8? Sounds like you have to work on an existing system. The company that owns the code and is sponsoring the project surely has a legal license for you to use. It would need to provide you access to its copy if you don't have your own to work with.
Barring that, if you have access to the original code, it should be possible to migrate the application to a newer version of PB, although as Terry notes, PB8 is out of support and I'm not sure if there would be difficulties migrating. There would most certainly be some if the code features any special customizations or usage of now obsolete objects. In that case I can see how you would probably be best served by having PB8 to make adjustments noted by the migration assistant before completing the code conversion.
I'm not a Silverlight developer (yet) and what is putting me off - and many others, I think - is the relative lack of browser installations of it compared to Flash.
But I'm not clear on why website visitors have to explicitly install Silverlight themselves - which appears to be the major stumbling block.
Since the vast majority of computer users use Windows, is there a reason that Microsoft are not forcing Silverlight onto Windows machines through a Windows update?
They do this (and continue to do so) with the .NET framework runtimes, so why not with Silverlight? Legal issue, perhaps?
Getting sued by all its competitors is what stops this
There are several reasons why not to do it.
Users should have choice over what gets installed. I realize from a developer standpoint we know some users who are clueless about what this software does, so why put the choice in their hands? Fine, MS should make it easy for users to install it if they don't have it when they visit a site that uses it. Then they can make an informed decision. Do I want to use this site or not?
Corporate Approvals. Companies go through software validation procedures and that is why some will still be on XP for some time. If they were forced to validate these pieces because microsoft was forcing them down the pipe, they'd be pissed off. So thus MS gives corporations control over the windows updates that get approved/installed. And corporations are where MS makes their money.
PC Manufactures choosing what software to preinstall. Here the manufacturers have the ability to push silverlight or not.
Competitor's software isn't automatically installed. You actually have to install flash. Some PC manufacturers might bundle it with the PC but if you install yourself or for a corporate deployment, it isn't there by default.
The monopoly power abuse concerns mentioned. But I think this is actually the least important reason.
Silverlight won't hit mainstream adoption till there is that one app that everyone must have that uses it. Like the office online example above.
I think that would be the wrong way to go about trying to gain adoption. The product should merit installation on it's own, not lean on the Windows installation base for support. Writing the free version of Office online (EDIT: I meant the Office Web Applications) in Silverlight, however, is a great way to gain adoption (even with the non-SL version available too http://blogs.msdn.com/officewebapps/archive/2009/08/05/9858563.aspx).
Also, since this is a browser plugin, how would that work? Can a Windows update install plugins for firefox, opera, or whatever browser the user prefers? Doesn't seem feasible to me but I'm really not sure.
They actually suggest it in Windows Update. I politely refuse it.
There may be an anti-trust reason for this also, remember what happened with Java, even when it was from Sun they still had a problem with it.
If you keep waiting for Silverlight to catch on, it never will be enough, start developing now and when there are many great web-apps that support Silverlight then maybe it will get more popular, plus it is very easy to install and you can target Mac and Windows, and some extent Moonlight too as it reaches support for Silverlight 2.0 and some 3.0 there may be Mac-Windows-Linux apps you can write.
I recommend Silverlight to anyone who develops in .NET, I am a little biased as I'm writing an application at the moment in Silverlight.
I suspect that they are waiting for the technology to mature and/or gain more acceptance. Once a critical mass of sites and/or users have it installed they might do.
The other alternative is that they might be waiting until they've completed the "merger" of WPF and Silverlight. I can't see them continuing to keep these two very similar technologies separate.
After all Adobe don't force Flash on everybody.
Can't speak for Microsoft, but I am dismayed by the question. I don't want extra crap pushed to my machine (or into my life in general). I only want extra stuff if I pull it. Stuff like that should always be "opt in" instead of "opt out" or "no option at all."
The european union has filed anti-trust suits against Microsoft which is probably why they don't put it in their updates.
I however don't install it because i don't like unnecessary processor cycles being used up for advertising much in the way that flash is used. Flash I've uninstalled on many of my computers in protest, though i admit it's on my media center in the living room because people use it for you tube.
For all the hype, Silverlight is not all that great to develop in and doesn't bring anything to the user experience that couldn't be better achieved through dhtml/ajax.
Our company has a point of sale system with many extras, such as ordering and receiving functionality, sales and order history etc. Our main issue is that the system was not designed properly from the ground up, so it takes too long to make fixes and handle requests from our customers. Also, the current technology we are using (Progress database, Progress 4GL for the language) incurs quite a bit of licensing expenses on our customers due to mutli-user license fees for database connections etc.
After a lot of discussion it is looking like we will probably start over from scratch (while maintaining the current product at least for the time being). We are looking for a couple of things:
Create the system with a nice GUI front end (it is currently CHUI and the application was not built in a way that allows us to redesign the front end... no layering or separation of business logic and gui...shudder).
Create the system with the ability to modularize different functionality so the product doesn't have to include all features. This would keep the cost down for our current customers that want basic functionality and a lower price tag. The bells and whistles would be available for those that would want them.
Use proper design patterns to make the product easy to add or change any part at any time (i.e. change the database or change the front end without needing to rewrite the application or most of it). This is a problem today because the Progress 4GL code is directly compiled against the database. Small changes in the database requires lots of code recompiling.
Our new system will be Linux based, with a possibility of a client application providing functionality from one or more windows boxes.
So what I'm looking for is any suggestions on which database and/or framework or programming language(s) someone might recommend for this sort of product. Anyone that has experience in this field might be able to point us in the right direction or even have some ideas of what to avoid. We have considered .NET and SQL Express (we don't need an enterprise level DB), but that would limit us to windows (as far as I know anyway). I have heard of Mono for writing .NET code in a Linux environment, but I don't know much about it yet. We've also considered a Java and MySql based implementation.
To summarize we are looking to do the following:
Keep licensing costs down on the technology we will use to develop the product (Oracle, yikes! MySQL, nice.)
Deliver a solution that is easily maintainable and supportable.
A solution that has a component capable of running on "old" hardware through a CHUI front end. (some of our customers have 40+ terminals which would be a ton of cash in order to convert over to a PC).
Suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
[UPDATE]
I should note that we are currently performing a total cost analysis. This question is intended to give us a couple of "educated" options to look into to include in or analysis. Anyone who could share experiences/suggestions about client/server setups would be appreciated (not just those who have experience with point of sale systems... that would just be a bonus).
[UPDATE]
For anyone who is interested, we ended up going with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, LS Retail (a plugin for the point of sale and various other things) and then did some (and are currently working on) customization work on top of that. This setup gave us the added benefit of having a fully integrated g/l system, which our current system lacked.
Java for language (or Scala if you want to be "bleeding edge", depending on how you plan to support it and what your developers are like it might be better, but also worse)
H2 for database
Swing for GUI
Reason: Free, portable and pretty standard.
Update: Missed the part where the system should be a client-server setup. My assumption was that the database and client should run on the same machine.
I suggest you first research your constraints a bit more - you made a passing reference to a client using a particular type of terminal - this may limit your options, unless the client agrees to upgrade.
You need to do a lot more legwork on this. It's great to get opinions from web forums, but we can't possibly know your environment as well as you do.
My broad strokes advice would be to aim for technology that is widely used. This way, expertise on the platform is cheaper than "niche" technologies, and it will be easier to get help if you hit a brick wall. Of course, following this advice may not be possible if you have non-negotiable technology already in place at customers.
My second suggestion would be to complete a full project plan, with detailed specs and proper cost estimates, before going with the "rewrite from scratch" option. Right now, you're saying that it would be cheaper to rewrite the system than maintain it, and you don't really know how much it would cost to re-write.
I suggest you use browser for the UI.
Organize your application as a web application.
There are tons of options for the back-end. You can use Java + MySQL. Java backend will save you from windows/linux debate as it will run on both platforms. You won't have any licensing cost for both Java and MySQL. (Edit: Definitely there are a lot of others languages that have run-times for both linux & windows including PHP, Ruby, Python etc)
If you go this route, you may also want to consider Google Web Toolkit (GWT) for creating the browser based front-end in a modular fashion.
One word of caution though. Browsers can be pesky when it comes to memory management. In our experience, this was the most significant challenge in doing browser based POS You may want to checkout Adobe Flex that runs in browser but might be more civil in its memory management.
What is CHUI? Character-UI, as in VT terminals? Or even 3270 style?
It sounds like you need a 3-tier system - the database backend, a middle-layer that runs the bulk of the back-end business processes, and a front-end layer for the CHUI / GUI / data-gateway.
All three layers can reside on one machine; or you can distribute the tiers out to various servers. The front-end layer would control the actual terminals, whether they are VT-terminals, or a web-browser, or a custom-written 'client' application.
Make sure you have considered the hardware needs here -- are you going to have barcode scanners, cash drawers, POS debit/credit terminals, et cetra? If you are using a standard browser, it might be hard to reliably integrate those items. (At the very least, you're likely going to have to write special applets to handle them.)
Finally, consider the possibility of a thin-client technology on Windows. It greatly simplifies system management, since you only have to upgrade the software centrally. Thin-client PC's are cheap -- sub $200.
Golden Code Development (see www.goldencode.com) has a technology that does automated conversion of Progress 4GL (the schema and code... the entire application) to a Java application with a relational database backend (e.g. PostgreSQL). They currently support a very complete CHUI environment and they do refactor the code. For example, the conversion separates the UI, the data model and the business logic into separate Java classes. The entire result is a drop-in replacement that is compatible with the original (users don't need retraining, processes don't need to be modified, the data is migrated too). This is possible because they provide an application server and a set of runtime classes that provide that compatibility. The result of the automated conversion is not something that needs further editing before you can compile and run it. True terminal support is included so hardware terminals still work (it requires a small JNI library to access NCURSES from Java). All the rest of the code in the runtime is pure Java. No Progress Software Corp technology is used in the resulting system and it runs on Linux.
At least one converted system is already in production, running a 24 by 7 mission critical environment. It is a converted ERP system that their mid-sized pilot customer uses to run their entire business.