Hello, I am evaulating strataframework and have some questions.



We have been doing a lot with dynamic building of forms and building of field generation based on database and I came across strataframe. But I wanted to know if anyone had experience with doing this in Strataframe and perhaps if they could also provide how they did it.



The areas that we are looking at are these.

1) support automatically generated forms for editing an object. So basically here if we add a field to the table we want the form to automatically pick it up. It appears with strataframe today we have to update the bo and then update the form. We would like to update the bo and then in the form interface we are painting the screen with the fields. it should be no need for the developer to create an edit/new form at all. Basically, it should be all done in the base class. if it's just a couple of clicks to create the edit/new form then it's not a big deal

2) support for dynamic attributes. Meaning creating dynamic fields in forms which will be added to a db table automatically and then these fields will be able to be implemented into the forms.

3) support of our existing datalayer created with mygeneration.



#3 is more of an issue with how will we deal with our existing data structures if we moved to strataframe.

Thanks

I'll jump in on this one too. 

For the last 10 years I've been very involved with the Visual FoxExpress framework and have dealt with these kind of requests and questions about automating the creation of interfaces.  FoxExpress is a terrific rad tool with great wizards and builders, but that is not the most important part of the framework.

We do in fact have a wizard that takes the collection of fields in a particular business object and throws controls and labels on a presentation object (like a form)   It is not re-entrant - that is you do it once when you create the presobj, but afterward if you want to add additional controls you drop them on and bind them yourself (exactly like SF) 

Frankly, while it is convenient, you still have to arrange the controls, decide which ones you want and which you don't want etc.  It really doesn't save a lot of time in the overall scheme of things.  Maybe 5-10 minutes on a form with 30 fields, if that.  You really want human intervention in interface design

I would much rather the framework builders spend their time on designing things like access to the data layer through business object, issues of performance, localization, security and handling issues that I wouldn't even think of ... and I'm continually impressed with what a good job they have done in the really important areas of framework design. 

The more you work with a framework, the more you come to appreciate the important stuff that it facilitates.  I'm very impressed with Microfour's priorities in the evolution of Strataframe.