Build-IT

Tags: build it

Build-IT is PearlChain's own development framework for building web-connected applications.  It supports both server and user centric applications with a smart client or html style user interface.

While building on top of best-of-breed open source frameworks, we have  combined a best of breed set of tools, components and best practices that allow you and your team to create applications that will scale and perform well.

Not only do we use Build-IT as the technical fundament for our own product development, we've also made it available as a standalone starting point for development projects. 

Build-IT offers you a headstart for your application development effort by providing a solution to many generic requirements that today's users require from a modern line-of-business application:

·         Powerful UI

·         Well architected (scaleable, secure)

·         Integrated with other systems

User interfaces

Every line-of-business application has a number of recurring UI requirements for which Build-IT provides a solution.

On top of that, Build-IT has a pluggable architecture that allows extension and modification of the standard solution.

Smart client 

Our smart client solution offers everything a demanding user expects.

Key features (beware, this is not an exhaustive list):

·         Dockable views and forms that can be rearranged to suit the user's need.

·         Standardized forms for selection, tabular data and form data. Also more exotic forms can be created to display e.g. map data, reports, calendar data, design components, ...

·         Standardized set of controls for input: text, number, date, (multiselect) combo, hierarchical data, intelisense data lookup, selection from list, etc

·         Security: users are allowed access to the features they're authorized for (and nothing more).  We use a 4-layer model with users/groups/roles and atomic functions.

·         Configurable: every master form can be configured to look different depending on a user's group: sorting, field sequence, field visibility, column width etc

·         Powerfull searching options : users can store selection criteria as predefined queries for later use. Filters can be shared with other users for optimal reuse and minimal administration.

·         Keyboard control: every command and action can be controlled using the keyboard - this offers speed for repetitive actions to power users. 

·         Export to Excel: every list can be exported to excel for further analysis.  Optionally a custom template can be used to embed e.g. a pivot table.

·         Integration with online help in a wiki or other html format

·         ...

Architecture built-in

When building an application with a large team of developers, not everybody has the same level of technical expertise.  It is therefore key to have a good fundament of standards and best practices that everyone adheres to.  Build-IT provides a solution base with a 3-tier architecture, UI standards, and standardized/open communication solutions.

When your newbie developers create their first 'hello world' feature with Build-IT, they will have taken into account scaleability, availability and security without even thinking of it.