AwareIM Basics

We recommend that you follow these steps when configuring your application (the order of steps is essential):

1. Identify the requirements of your system Requirements define the problem(s) that your application will solve for your organization. All other steps are part of a solution to these problems. Without the definition of a problem there can be no solution.
2. Define business objects and relationships between the objects.
   This is the key step when defining the solution. Make sure you do it right – if you do, all other steps will be easier. Ignore any user interface considerations at this stage – let AwareIM create the default user interface and forms for you. You can customize them later if you like. See also “Business Objects as Carriers of Data”].
3. Define business rules
   Business logic of your system must be encapsulated in business rules. Do not use processes for this. Do not worry about presentation rules (rules on how the information will be presented to the user) at this stage. See also “Business Rules as Carriers of Business Logic”.
4. Test the resulting system in the browser.
   Performing steps 2 and 3 should be enough to create the skeleton of your system. AwareIM will create the default user interface that will make it possible for you to test this skeleton in the browser. See also the “Testing Business Space Version” section.
5. Refine your system by customizing the user interface, adding reports and documenttemplates, specifying access restrictions etc
6. Test the final system
   See the “Testing Business Space Version” section.
7. Deploy the final system
   See the “Publishing Business Space Version” section.

See also the “Configuration Guidelines” section.

1. Start the Configuration Tool. If you have just installed AwareIM you will see your business space with two business space versions - one in the CURRENT state and another one in the NEW state – see the “Lifecycle of a Business Space Version” section.
2. Expand the node of the version in the NEW state (its number must be 1.1) and start defining business objects, business rules etc in the newly created version – see the “Working with Configuration Elements” section.
3. To save changes update the version The Configuration Tool displays business space versions in the CURRENT state in black – see the “Updating Business Space Version” section.

See also the “Getting Started with AwareIM” section.

In AwareIM you are not dealing with database tables or database columns. Instead of defining tables and columns you are defining business objects and their attributes (see the “Business Objects as Carriers of Data” section).

AwareIM automatically creates the required database tables and columns when you publish the business space version (see the “Publishing Business Space Version” section) or make it available for testing (see the “Testing Business Space Version” section).

In AwareIM you do not define links between database tables. AwareIM encourages you to think in terms of business objects and relationships between them rather than in terms of linking database tables through a particular column or creating special relationships tables.

To establish a relationship between two business objects, all you have to do is create an attribute in one business object with the type that refers to another business object. AwareIM will automatically link the required tables and/or create relationship tables if necessary.

For example, if we want to establish a relationship between the PurchaseOrder and OrderLineItem business objects, such that the PurchaseOrder ''may refer to multiple ''OrderLineItems, we can create an attribute in the PurchaseOrder object called MyLineItems of the type OrderLineItem and check “Multiple allowed” property of this attribute (see the “Setting Properties of Reference Attributes” section).

In addition if we want the OrderLineItem object to refer to its PurchaseOrder we can create a matching attribute called MyOrder in the OrderLineItem object of the type PurchaseOrder.

See also the “Reference Attributes” section.

To get AwareIM to calculate the value of an attribute of a business object you have to define a business rule that will perform the required calculation. The rule should be attached to the business object that owns the calculated attribute. See the “Adding/Editing Business Rules” section.

In addition you can check the “Calculated” property of the attribute. This will make sure that the attribute is read-only on the forms of the business object. See the “Adding/Editing Attributes” section.

For example, if you want to define an attribute called NumberOfLineItems in the PurchaseOrder object, you can define the business rule as follows:

IF PurchaseOrder.MyLineItems WAS CHANGED THEN 
   PurchaseOrder.NumberOfLineItems = COUNT OrderLineItem WHERE OrderLineItem IN PurchaseOrder.MyLineItems 

Most business rules should be attached to business objects. The rules will be automatically evaluated when this object is created or modified. See the “Business Rules as Carriers of Business Logic” and “Adding/Editing Business Rules” sections.

When you finish configuring your application (or part of it) you can test how the system will work before you deploy it for production use. To test the system you must make the business space version, containing the configuration you want to test, available for testing. To do this:

1. Make the business version available for testing – see the “Testing Business Space Version” section
2. Log into the testing mode – see the “Full User Login, Interactive table entry”.
3. Start creating business objects, reports etc – see the “Testing Mode” section.
4. Make sure that business rules operate as expected – inspect the execution log for details. See the “Execution Log” section.

Any application configured with AwareIM is operated over the web using any web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. Before the final application is deployed the business space version containing the application configuration needs to be published – see the “Publishing Business Space Version” section.

There are several deployment options available:

1. The application can be deployed on a single computer.
   This option may be useful if the application will never be used in the networking environment or over the Internet. In this case the operation users may log into the application on the local machine (see the “Login” section) and start using the application immediately after it has been published.
2. The application can be deployed on a local area network (LAN) within the organization.
   With this deployment option the AwareIM server has to run on a “server” machine and the users should point their browsers to the URL of the machine where the server is running. The Configuration Tool can be started either from a “server” machine or from a remote machine across the LAN. Note that this option may also be combined with option 3. See the “AwareIM Deployment Options” section” for details.
3. The application can be deployed for use across the Internet.

Either your organization should have direct access to the Internet or you have to get a third party organization (“web host”) to provide this access. See Working with AwareIM in the Hosting Environment for more details .

In AwareIM records are created in the operation mode. In AwareIM terminology creating a record is creating an instance of a business object. For users to be able to create instances of business objects the application must be configured to have the menu item of the “Create Object” type (see the “Setting Menu Item Properties” section). When a user selects the menu item of this type in the Operation Mode the default form of the business object is displayed. When the user fills out the form and submits it, the instance of the business object is created in the system.

By default AwareIM includes the menu item of the “Create Object” type in the “Standard” menu folder. If a user selects this menu item in the Operation Mode, AwareIM prompts the user to select the business object to create and then displays a form of the selected object. The default menu item makes it possible to create an instance of any business object without performing any special configuration work. The disadvantage of using the default menu item is that the user has to select the business object to create every time. To avoid this you can configure a menu item of the “Create Object” type that creates a particular business object. If a user selects such a menu item AwareIM will no longer ask to select the business object to create but display the form straight away.

It is also possible to configure a process that will create an instance of a business object (see the “Adding/Editing Processes” section). The process can execute ENTER NEW action of the Rule Language, which will bring up a form of a business object for the user to fill out. The process approach should be used when the creation of an instance should be immediately followed by some other action. For the user to start the process a menu item of the “Start Process” type has to be configured.

In AwareIM records are modified in the operation mode. In AwareIM terminology editing a record is editing an instance of a business object. In order to edit an instance of a business object the user has to find the instance first. This can be achieved by running a query – see AwareIM Basics. If a query displays its results in a standard manner the instance of a business object can be edited by pressing the Edit button (see the “Standard Form of Query Results” section). This will bring up a form of the business object so that the user can change the attribute values on this form and submit it.

It is also possible to configure a process that will find a particular instance of a business object and invoke the editing operation using the EDIT action of the Rule Language (see the “Adding/Editing Processes” section). This process might look something like this:

FIND Account WHERE Account.Name='John Smith'
EDIT Account 

The EDIT action will display a form of the business object and wait for the user to change the values and submit the form. For the user to start the process a menu item of the “Start Process” type has to be configured.

In AwareIM terminology looking for records is looking for instances of a business object. A user can find instances of a business object in the operation mode by running a query. There are several ways of running a query in the operation mode. See the “Running Queries in the Operation Mode” section for details.

In AwareIM terminology deleting records is deleting instances of a business object. To allow the user to delete instances of a business object in the operation mode either a process that finds an instance of a business object and uses the DELETE action to delete it, has to be configured (see the “Adding/Editing Processes” section), or an operation of the Delete Object type has to be defined for the object (see the “Editing Form Menu” section).

Select “Database” from the Settings menu in the AwareIM Control Panel. In the Database Settings dialog choose the database engine you want. Set the properties of the database engine. Click OK and restart AwareIM.