News Updates

WebSmart ILE Gets Multiplatform Data Access, Visual HTML Editor, Intelliprompting

Business Computer Design Int’l. Inc. has released WebSmart ILE version 6.6, which the company says far surpasses anything previously offered to aid System i shops in Web application development.

Cross-Platform Data Access

In WebSmart ILE version 6.6, new built in-templates have been included that allow users to create programs that connect to either Microsoft SQL server databases or to MySQL databases residing on Windows, Linux or Unix platforms, as well as DB2. This gives the solution cross-platform database capabilities that streamline multiplatform data access. 

Another new template lets you define the JDBC database connection parameters--IP address, user profile, password, etc., so this information can be encapsulated into one program and called by many. This enables you to easily change the connection at any time for an entire suite of programs by simply changing one program.

Visual HTML Editor

WebSmart ILE now lets you create powerful, custom Web applications using a new visual HTML editor with drag-and-drop design aids. The WYSIWYG HTML editor in WebSmart ILE version 6.6 lets developers with little Web application development experience create business-class Web applications with stunning ease, and significantly accelerates Web-page design for those with extensive skills.

WebSmart ILE’s new visual HTML editor offers:

·         Drag-and-drop control of images, fields, and text
·         WYSIWYG instant feedback
·         A "database-aware" editor allowing you to drag-and-drop database fields directly onto the view
·         Button to toggle between the HTML source code view and the visual design panel
·         Program changes instantly reflected in editor panels, further simplifying development
·         Lightweight Generated HTML conforms to latest standards and uses cascading style sheets (CSS) for presentation.

Intelliprompting

A new time-saving feature called Intelliprompting offers real-time prompting for PML names as you work in the code editor. PML is WebSmart’s optimized programming language. For example, if you type the letter "g," all functions starting with that letter appear, along with a descriptive line for each function showing any parameter types and return values. As you continue typing, the list is further subsetted. For example, typing "get" shows a list of all functions starting with "get."

New Templates for creating HTML, JavaScript and CSS files

New templates available in all template families make it easy to create straight HTML Web pages, JavaScript files and CSS. These new templates build upon the powerful editing functionality of WebSmart’s IDE and make it a viable alternative to Web development tools for Windows environments, the company says.

Other new features include:

·         Field r enaming
·         Open m ultiple definitions and files in the IDE
·         Ability to "launch" HTML files 
·         Improved structure and simplification of ILE templates
·         Support for the += operator for both alpha and numeric values 
·         Improved Program Attributes screen design that's sensitive to CSS use

Recently BCD announced a new edition of WebSmart, called WebSmart PHP, for System i shops that want to easily develop in multiplatform, nonproprietary 100-percent PHP code. Interestingly, WebSmart ILE and WebSmart PHP share the same IDE, so  although the PHP edition is relatively new, it's as stable as its close cousin, WebSmart ILE. Users may choose to develop in the WebSmart ILE edition, WebSmart PHP edition or both.