On 6/9/2015 7:15 PM, Nathan Andelin wrote:
A browser-based Profound UI "applet" interprets the JSON, uses it to update
the browser's DOM, which "renders" the UI. "Applet" seems like an
appropriate name for the component that handles the JSON; I don't know that
the folks at Profound might call it.
We call it a JavaScript (client-side) framework.
The term "applet" implies an outdated Java technology that runs in a
plugin rather than the main browser page. Applets are not a modern
technique. They are not used, here.
Our framework that receives the JSON data stream you refer to is
JavaScript based (not Java) and natively understood by all major
browsers. It is based on HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript standards that are
core in all browsers.
I occasionally activate the TN5250J applet in a browser page to handle 5250
emulation. The Profound UI component which is running in the browser
performs a similar service; generating a "screen" from a data stream, and
forwarding "UI events" back to the OA handler and "applications" which
implement it.
I'm familiar with TN5250J from ages ago. The original author (I want to
say his name was Kenneth? It was a long time ago) learned some of the
5250 data stream stuff from the C-based open source TN5250 emulator that
I was a part of.
TN5250J is indeed an applet. But that is not the technology we use for
Profound UI.
The following random snippet from the generated data stream appears to tell
the Applet precisely how to render an output field, which includes absolute
positioning (top, left), width, and other attributes defined in the
"display file". That type of sizing and positioning is essentially the
opposite of "responsive UI design".
We do support responsive UI design, but it was not used in that
particular application that you are citing.
There are trade offs between responsive design and absolute positioning.
If you want a screen designer where you can drag/drop and have
WYSIWYG, making it very easy and simple to build screens, you really
need to use absolute positioning. In cases where responsive design is
not needed, this saves our customers a great deal of time and money
because they can build screens very quickly and simply by dragging and
dropping.
We also have a set of "layout" tools for responsive design that allow
things to be positioned based on the type of layout,
percentage/proportional areas of the screen, and other things like that.
I don't want my observations to be taken as critical of Profound UI; just
to clarify some differences between it and applications where the UI might
be designed, run, and tested independently of back-end services;
implementing a single interface which adapts to cell phones and desktop
screens via fluid positioning, sizing, etc.
Again, there's a tradeoff here. If your goal is to have a public-facing
web site where you bring in a professional web designer and make things
perfect for the end-user, then the example you are citing is not a good
example. (We do have ways of doing those things, however.)
But the vast majority of business applications used within organizations
don't need that kind of time and money and effort to be spent on them.
For most applications, we just want to put together a reasonably nice
screen and display it and be done. So we offer multiple alternatives,
and you use the one that suits you best for each application.
We have lots of mobile customers who are successfully resizing screens
to fit on all different mobile devices. Heck, just the other day I
wrote one for my son to keep track of the chores he does. (I know, this
is a bit off topic... but it's fresh in my mind right now.) This
application runs on my iPhone, iPad, iPad mini, PC, and my son's Wii U.
All have radically different screen sizes, and the mobile devices can
be rotated, which also dramatically changes the screen dimensions. This
application adjusts and works properly on all of those displays, showing
an optimal layout for each one. (And we never designed this to be used
from the Wii U -- but since we're following HTML5 and CSS3 standards, it
"just works.")
midrange.com
