Comparison of IEG Interface Builder

IEG performed an evaluation of ASP generators that we could find available for LINC specifications. It is very possible that we may not have knowledge of other products so we share this comparison as a means of helping in the process of determining and selecting which product is the best for your requirements. If after reviewing this material, you question if IB is the right product for you, give it a try. IEG offers a 30-day period to evaluate the IB product. Details of the terms and conditions are included in the installation package

IEG has been fortunate to develop IB while working with our alpha site, SCI, Inc who is a leader in e-Government Solutions with NT LINC applications. During the process of generating thousands of ASP forms, IB evolved, fixing “showstoppers” and cosmetic issues in a quick and timely manner. During the QA process, SCI could not wait days, weeks, or months for problems to be resolved. In almost every case, problems were solved in a few hours and a new cut was available the same day. This process helped make IB a higher quality product, which in turn has contributed to SCI producing an even higher quality web application.

The comparison list of “features” (or maybe we should call this our log) represents issues and problems that, without resolution, could prevent a successful web implementation. These features are not a list of “look and see what we can do”, but a list of issues that, if encountered, could cause the deployment of LINC applications on the web to fail. Our overall goal is to help in the successful implementation of LINC based web applications.

There may be features that you have an interest in that are not listed. IEG welcomes your requests and feedback. Whether regarding a feature or an interest in contacting our references, contact us at: www.ieg-inc.com/mail.htm or email us at ieg@ieg-inc.com.

This comparison was using the SAMPLE.MDL included in the EAD/LDA release.

Start with the EAD/LDA Painter:

What are the differences?

· Keisen Lines and boxes

· IB generated a drop down combo box (the kind you can type in) instead of a drop down list box that cannot be typed in.

· Alpha display spacing:

o Postal Address,

o Delivery Address

o The spacing of C U S T O M E R in the title

· Credit Limit field is numeric, alignment should be right aligned

· IB uses hover text to inform the user of special instructions

· IB reflects the Status Line as does LINC

Generated by IEG’s Interface Builder:

· Radio button alignment and spacing

· IB identifies the image by name: CUSTIMAGE

Product comparison

Description IB Other

Keisen Lines	Yes	No
Keisen Boxes	Yes	No
Multiple spaces in text	Yes	No
Drop Down Combo	Yes	Drop down list is generated which changes functionality
Right alignment of numeric data	Yes	Left aligned

Output from another generator:

Product comparison continued

Description IB Other

Status Line similar to LINC	Yes	No
Hover text used to inform special instructions	Yes	No
Works with IE 4+	Yes	Yes
Netscape 4-	No	Unable to confirm
Being qualified for Netscape 6	Yes	Unable to confirm

Some of the differences illustrated are cosmetic; however, IB produces an ASP form based on what is painted in EAD/LDA. Control over how the form appears is given to the EAD/LDA painter. How you design the EAD/LDA form is what IB generates. With IB, what you paint is what you get (WYPIWYG), documentation from the other generator suggests the generated ASP form will be “close”.

Product Comparison Form

Use this form to help your own evaluation. It is important to understand how the following points may impact your implementation of generated ASP forms from LINC specifications and to also understand that this list is just a representation of the flexibility of IB. IB can do even more than this list reflects.

List of features IB

1. Keisen Lines and Boxes	Yes
2. Drop Down Combo (allows the user the enter values not in the list)	Yes
3. Right alignment of numeric data	Yes
4. Status Line similar to LINC	Yes
5. Hover text used to inform the user of special instructions	Yes
6. Generate browser Java scripts based on LINC’s REQUIRED attribute	Yes
7. Generate browser Java scripts based on numeric editing	Yes
8. Generate browser Java scripts based on sign editing	Yes
9. Generate browser Java scripts to test on valid numeric proceeding and following the decimal.	Yes
10. Field background color changes to indicate field has an invalid value	Yes
11. Can automatically convert 2D painted fields into 3D browser fields and also allows flexibility for minor width and height adjustments.	Yes
12. Error messages locally generated or from the host appear in a pop up window as well as dynamically changing the field’s hover text to the error message. Hover text is changed back to its original value after the error is corrected.	Yes
13. User can specify a Function Key (F2, F12, .etc) to display or “recall” the last pop up error window	Yes
14. Positions into ISPEC cursor field unless LINC logic performed a CU; in which case the browser is positioned into the field targeted by the CU; command.	Yes
15. Generates cursor control based on Hot Keys painted in LDA	Yes
16. Can assigned the painted height and width attributes to Display fields or make the Displays a “soft” width and height allowing Displays to “wrap” based on browser sizing.	Yes
17. Optionally generate a HEADER at the Top, Bottom or as a Hidden object.	Yes
18. Radio buttons and check boxes can be selected by clicking on their respective labels.	Yes
19. Tab order can be determined by either the order of fields painted in the character mode painter or by the tab numbers assigned in the Graphics mode painter.	Yes
20. Auto tab into next field when the current field’s maximum field length is encountered.	Yes
21. Generate hover text based on users choice of: the data name, the LINC DAD, the data item description, or the data item field level help	Yes
22. Changes field background color to inform users which fields have errors	Yes
23. Prevents collapsing of data by using non-breaking spaces. If displays or usage inquiry fields are used to represent column headings on Inquiry or Copy From Ispecs, compressing of spaces will misalign the information.	Yes
24. Generate windows Text Area by specifying a grouping of data items. Instead of multiple “NOTE” or “COMMENT” lines individually painted, a single text area is generated. Data is still sent and received from the host as individual fields.	Yes
25. Keisen boxes painted in EAD can be converted to inset, outset, ridged, grooved and dotted along with a user determine pixel line thickness.	Yes
26. More than one text area can be specified on any given form.	Yes
27. Can generate “cookies” to save off data in the browser. This can function in a similar manner as GLB.WORK.	Yes
28. Generates local JAVA scripts to “reset” button values. When using the browser BACK button or encountering a host error message the form cached in the Browser or ActiveLinc is displayed. Forms with multiple push or command buttons may not function properly due to each button retaining values when last submitted.	Yes
29. Resets MAINT value to ADD or CHG, when a navigation field is selected to proceed to another form.	Yes
30. User can declare navigation fields which will bypass local editing scripts and immediately proceed to the request form	Yes
31. User can generate and maintain custom java scripts for browser side processing.	Yes
32. User can generate and maintain custom visual basic client side scripts.	Yes
33. Can be installed separately from EAD/LDA	Yes
34. Generates a form for each language declared for the ISPEC.	Yes
35. Reads the EAD/LDA (LCIF) model file instead of reading the LDA repository	Yes
36. Optionally, generate an ASP form from the ISPEC Teach screen	Yes
37. Works with IE 4+	Yes
38. Works with Netscape 4-	No
39. Works with Netscape 6+	Yes
40. Works with MAC OS IE, Netscape and Safari	Yes

Some of the features deal with generating local Java scripts to handle field editing. If, after processing these scripts, local errors are encountered, the IB generated form informs the user through a pop-up message window, changes the background color (based on the users choice of color), and dynamically modifies the hover text. Using local scripts to detect data errors before the form is submitted dramatically reduces the transaction volume over the network and reduces the processing demand on the host.

Cascading Style Sheets:

Both generated ASP forms used cascading style sheets, however, the CSS Style Sheets can be used in a variety of ways and have different impacts. IB’s implementation of Cascading Style Sheets provides even greater flexibility. IB categorizes selected attributes found for each presentation type (DISPLAY, Radio Buttons, Fields, List boxes, Keisen Lines, etc) into CLASSES. The attributes are Face Name, Point Size, Foreground Color, and Background Color. An IEGCSS.htm file is generated to contain these CLASS definitions and attributes associated with each CLASS/Presentation Type.

How is this a benefit?

The IEGCSS.htm file works in a similar manner as LINC Global Logics. Changing the attributes of any CLASS will be immediately applied to all items associated with that CLASS. After copying this new IEGCSS.HTM file to the web server, changes are immediately applied to all forms. NO GENERATION was performed to make these changes.

The other ASP generator uses Cascading Style Sheets in a different manner and does not function in a global manner as described with the IB approach.

Same form after making changes to the IEGCSS style sheet file:

What changes were made to the IEGCSS.HTM?

· MAINT push button background color changed to GREEN

· MAINT font name changed

· Background color added to the keisen boxes.

· Normal displays foreground color changed to red

Interface Builder has more features:

Generation Templates:

The IB generation process is based on templates. These templates contain information on how each presentation type (combo box, push buttons, check boxes, etc) will be generated. IB also provides the facility for the client to declare and maintain a totally separate “user” template. In the “user” template, the client can develop their own JAVA functions and associate these special routines with specific ISPECs or fields. This enables special data manipulation to be performed at on the client-side (the browser) level or at the server-side (the web server). An example of this type of data manipulation could be for the validation of date fields. Prior to the generation process, these templates are merged and then used to produce the ASP generated form for each ISPEC.

How is this a benefit?

· The templates are accessible to the user. Therefore, if the user is knowledgeable of JAVA or DHTML and would like to further customize the look and feel of the generated ASP forms, they can accomplish this by modifying the IEG standard template or developing scripts and functions in their own template.

· Once the change is incorporated in the IEG or user template, it is automatically included in the generation process.

· Support: if problems are encountered, IEG is confident that problems can be resolved in a quick and timely manner. With accessibility to the templates, if something did get generated in error, changing the template is easy to do and the fix is immediately available.

Using the other generator, there was no means to change or maintain how the form was generated. There was no means to add to what is generated with your own scripts or routines. Changes to the generated ASP form can be done, but then when the form is generated again, these user changes will be lost.

What else can Interface Builder do:

LDA GUI generation:

Included in the IB license is the GUI generator. The GUI generator is for those sites, which do not have any or very few GUI painted LDA forms. The IB GUI generator enables the user to define standards and generate against an LDA character-based model. The GUI generator generates the GUI LDA records and produces a new LDA model that now contains forms with GUI attributes. For more information about setting GUI standards and generating a screen only model to be loaded into EAD/LDA, visit: Setting Up GUI Standards at www.ieg-ib.com.

How is this a benefit?

· GUI forms will be built to your standards.

· If your standards change, forms can be built in a quick and consistent manner.

Both generators require that EAD/LDA GUI painted forms exist for the deployed application. The Interface Builder (IB) product has the ability to create an EAD/LDA model with generated GUI attributes.

PRICING:

Pricing of IB is a site license with an annual support fee. The IB license, from IEG, entitles the client to install IB on any PC owned by the client and used by any client-employed personnel. IB can be used to generate GUI forms or ASP forms on all LINC software owned or licensed by the client. Installation of IB does not require EAD/LDA to be installed. While IB is an LDA runtime production product, it can be installed just like any other stand-alone product.

IEG’s IB might initially be viewed as more expensive; however, depending on the number of developers involved in the design, testing and deployment of web forms, the unlimited site license of IB could have significant advantages.

In addition, the IB product offers nearly an unlimited capability in generating and integrating LINC forms with web processes.

The true worth of a product should be based on the features and support of that product.

ü Generation of GUI LDA attributes,

ü ASP form generation based on the painted LDA form

ü Browser generated Java functions to edit data.

ü Flexibility to include user developed scripts to do what ever you need to do.

ü Support to resolve problems in hours and days, not when the next update is issued.

There is a new task to be completed and it is the building of web-enabled applications.

Getting the right tool that can do the job is critical.

Using a tool that does not do the job is …..

Don’t IMAGINE what it would be like when you can have the solution today!

Interface Builder (IB) and IE-WEBS are products of Information Exchange Group, Inc.

EAD/LDA III is a product of Unisys Corporation.