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Application Design

  • Auditing Database Changes with UniVerse Indexing Subroutines

    UniVerse has file triggers which can be used to call a subroutine whenever a new record is added, changed, or deleted from a file so that the change to the database can be recorded in an audit trail for IT governance and compliance requirements. But full blown triggers come with a certain amount of performance overhead. For simple auditing, using indexing suboutines with a new system variable available at release 11.1 is a lighter weight alternative.

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  • Creating Breakthrough MultiValue Applications

    Breakthrough applications are solutions that dominate markets, destroying the competition by providing unique functionality. Of course, creating these breakthrough applications may require additional skills and technologies. With the MultiValue developer in mind, this article explores the characteristics and requirements to produce a breakthrough application.

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  • Creating MultiValue Data-Aware Web Elements

    Many modern web applications make use of the Model/View/Controller approach. As described in this article, InterSystems Caché's Zen components make use of this approch. Find out more about this method of web development and how Zen can reduce the actual amount of programming required to produce a rich user experience.

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  • jQuery Mobile: Making Mobile with Minimal Misery

    The greenscreen went the way of the dodo bird. Desktop GUIs may be sufficient for in-house employees, but they do not provide ready access for your customers. A well-designed customer-facing website is an absolute requirement in today's business environment (at least according to your customers). But now, even that is considered insufficient. Customers demand access by mobile devices. Perhaps this new tool can help ease your pain.

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  • MultiValue and the Web: Step into the Future

    If the idea that the green screen is dead and has been replaced by GUI is new to you, you must be reading International Spectrum magazine for the first time. Toss into that Ajax, Web 2.0, Cloud Computing, etc. and you have an entirely new set of customer expectations that you must meet in order to remain competitive in today's modern technology world. This article introduces a new series and explains why and how it will explore this topic.

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  • MultiValue Communications: The Persnickety Persistence Problem

    For decades, MultiValue applications have followed the model of having an always active, persistent connection to the server. This worked well when we had control over the connection, primarily by using a dedicated cable to a serial RS-232 port physically located on a board in the machine. Then came networks, where everything is dynamic and out of our control. Yet in 2011, how many of our MultiValue application still stick to trying to emulate the old persistent connection model of the last century?

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  • Rolling Your Own MultiValue Web Connector - Part 2

    Users demand access to their data from a variety of devices, many of which are web-enabled. Continuing from the last issue, part two of this series completes the picture in a simple, low-cost, effective way of providing access to your MultiValue data from web applications.

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  • Sending E-mail from MultiValue Programs - Part 5: Creating and Sending E-mails with HTML and Text Sections

    In the early days of e-mail, text was King. If you dared use that horrible, evil, Microsoft Outlook mailer and sent HTML-based e-mail, you had better be wearing asbestos underwear, because you were going to get flamed. Today, HTML e-mail is the norm for all large businesses (at least in the USA), and the text-only pundits are considered to be somewhat Luddite. Then came mobile devices with small, hard to read screen sizes. What to do? What to do? Enter the realm of multipart html/text e-mail.

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  • Session Management with PHP

    As you begin to develop webbased MultiValue applications using a browser as the preferred user interface, one of the first changes in your thinking process has to be how your application communicates with the user. Unlike a traditional dedicated connection between user and server, web-based applications must deal with an ongoing series of non-persistent connections. How does your application know what you and the user were talking about a minute or two ago? Using the built-in capabilities of PHP, this article explores some of the issues of such session management.

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  • The Model of a Modern MultiValue Environment

    Over the years, MultiValue systems have demonstrated their ability to run sophisticated business applications with lower cost of development and modifications. But information technology continues to advance, and so must MultiValue. So what should the ideal modern MultiValue environment be able to do?

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  • The Rock and the Hard Place: Parallel and Agile Development - Part 2: Agile Practices 2

    In today's world, users demand with new solutions to problems and changes to existing solutions faster than traditional software engineering methodologies can produce them. The old tried and true methods simply do not work anymore. So what are we to do? Just write code for whoever screams the loudest? Agile practices help provide a balance between planning, communication with users, and doing just what needs to be done to get the next piece of functionality accomplished.

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  • The Rock and the Hard Place: Parallel and Agile Development — Part 1: Parallel Development

    In our fast-paced, modern, development environments, the old data processing methodologies are disappearing. Large, up-front design and development techniques can no longer meet the delivery requirements of today's fast-paced, rapidly changing, user demands and competitive pressures. Like it or not, MultiValue shops need to embrace the concepts of both parallel and agile development.

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  • U2 Replication: An Overview of our Scalable and Robust High Availability Solution

    With the introduction of U2 Replication and complimenting features, UniVerse v11.1 now offers a scalable, robust, feature-rich environment for a 24x7x365 operation for any size of business, with the addition of real-time interoperability with other databases.

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