Builder FAQ

General Questions

1. What is AppliBuilder?
   AppliBuilder is a drag-and-drop visual web application builder to create integrated applications using Ajax widgets, web services, SQL data and other components. AppliBuilder is designed to allow developers to quickly create useful web applications from a wide variety of visual components and data sources. This brings together the power of data integration and web components, and gives developers easy ways to create enterprise mashups.
   
   
2. What is DataMashups.com?
   The DataMashups.com service is offered by Applibase to provide developers a site to use online development with AppliBuilder. Application developers can sign up and use the free service at datamashups.com.  A paid premium service is also planned.  Please see the Data Mashups service FAQ for more on the service.
   
   
3. Who is the target user for AppliBuilder?
   While knowledge of Javascript, SQL, CSS and related web technologies is needed to use all aspects of the builder tool, most developers should be able get a lot done with very limited knowledge of  these technologies.  The builder tools are targeted at "casual" web developers who need to quickly assemble a web application.  Experienced web developers, might feel constrained by some aspects of the tools, but they wil still save time by using the platform to build web service based apps.  For the non-developers, other tools like Zoho Creator from AdventNet would be more suitable for creating applications.  Such external applications could then be added to your portal page on datamashups.com.
   
   
4. What can I do with AppliBuilder?
   AppliBuilder lets you create simple web applications that mashup (integrate) data and widgets from a diverse set of sources, including web services, databases, files, RSS feeds, etc.  The product is designed to shift development complexity into widgets, which are visual components you use to build your applications.  The widgets available will grow with time enabling more sophisticated applications with less effort from the web application developer.  This is an early product and we're still adding functionality, and steadily moving to where this product needs to go to make it a snap to assemble useful mashup applications. 
   
   
5. What are the types of applications that can be built with AppliBuilder?
   Some examples of the type of applications you can build are listed below.  New widgets and library functions will be added continuously, allowing more powerful apps to be built.  The focus is certainly on web/Ajax applications, though AppliBuilder would not be suitable for all such applications.  (At this early stage of the tool, the likelihood of running into issues and limitations should be taken into account.)
• Dashboards combining internal inventory or other data with salesforce.com sales data
  
• Procurement application integrated with Amazon web services
  
• Issue Tracker application integrated with Google search
• Project Management integrated with SMS web services
  
• Wiki integrated with Google spelling suggestions
  
• Portfolio Manager integrated with Stock Quote & Mutual Fund web services
• Order entry integrated with address verification web service
• and many more ..
  
  
6. How is AppliBuilder licensed?
   AppliBuilder is available under an Apache 2.0 open source license.  AppliBuilder can be freely used and redistributed for commercial and other purposes.
   
   
7. Where can I download AppliBuilder?
   The standalone version of AppliBuilder can be downloaded from applibuilder.org, a separate site for open source users of AppliBuilder.  An integrated version of  AppliBuilder and an embedded database from Applibase, is available at applibase.com.  For the standalone version of AppliBuilder, you will need to setup a database (currently MySQL) for use with AppliBuilder.
   
   

Getting Started

1. Where and how can I use AppliBuilder?
   You can either: 1) Download and use AppliBuilder on your network, or 2)  Use DataMashups.com where AppliBuilder is available as an online service.
   
   
2. What operating systems does AppliBuilder support?
   AppliBuilder is a Java-based product, and supports multiple systems. However, we have tested the product with Linux and Widows so far.
   
   
3. What databases does AppliBuilder support?
   AppliBuilder works with the Applibase DataCaster loose-coupled distributed database, and with MySQL.  Additional databases will be supported going forward, and you should be able to add support for additional databases with minimal changes.
   
   
4. Can I download and run AppliBuilder on my own site?
   Yes, AppliBuilder is free to host on your own site with either Applibase DataCaster or any other database of your choice.  So far  AppliBuilder supports only two databases, our own DataCaster database and MySQL.
   

AppliBuilder Features and Issues

1. What are the Widgets available with AppliBuilder?
   We currently have a hastily assembled set of widgets that we are still tinkering with.  Please see the Widget Documentation page for more information.  Our goal is to constantly add to the widget library and enhance the types, functionality and ease of use of these widgets over time.
   
   
2. What kind of Widgets can I add to AppliBuilder?
   Any widget you can wrap in a HTML or Javascript snippet can be used with AppliBuilder.  We lack the imagination to say what is and is not possible beyond that.  We fully expect AppliBuilder has a number of gaps that will surface as developers use it in different ways. and will move quickly to fill those needs.
   
   
3. How does AppliBuilder handle differences across browsers?
   For the builder and widgets, differences across browsers are handled on a case-by-case basis.  Any widget or application you create may not work across browsers without some effort and testing.
   
   
4. How does AppliBuilder handle Javascript namespace conflicts?
   It doesn't.  Such issues need to be avoided and tested for in any deployment.
   
   
5. Can AppliBuilder support two versions of a Javascript library?
   Not really.  This can create problems with widgets on the same page that require two versions of a library.  The results would be quite unpredictable.
   
   
6. Why do my builder page and generated (preview) pagelook different?
   The main differences will be due to styles, which are applied only in the generated (preview or runtime) page.  Similarly, your page functions are not active in the buiilder, only at runtime.  And some widgets do now work at build time.
   
   

How Do I ... ?

1. How do I run a function when my page is loaded?
   To run a function before the widgets are rendered, simply create a body block function.  To run a function after the widgets are rendered, create a header function using the Function menu, e.g. myfunc, and add a body block function where you have the following line:
   onloadFunctions.push(myfunc);
   
   
2. How do I center content on my generated page?
   The following will work for IE and Firefox.  Create two styles with names of your choice, and enter in the Create Style form fields as shown for each:
   
   CSS Selector:
        body
   Style Source:
        margin:0; text-align:center;
   
   CSS Selector:
       .appliBuilder_container
   Style Source:
       position:relative; width:800px; text-align:center; margin:0 auto 0; background-color:#CCCCCC;
   
   The width and background color can be what you decide and color  is optional.
   
   
3. How do I add a new widget to the Widget Library?
   The Widget Library is an extensible library of components, that can be extended with new components. Users can add widget library components, of two broad types, directly in the builder. One of the types of components is a component generated by custom Javascript code, what we refer to as a Javascript component.  The other type of components is a component generated by a block of custom HTML code, what we refer to as a HTML Block component, or simply HTML component.