Real-Time Data Diagnostics - How Encanvas Takes Agile To A New Level

Have you ever created an application only to find it doesn’t work?  

Sounds crass doesn’t it.  The fact is that most manually programmed applications have errors in them.  But modern codeless applications design environments like Encanvas overcome the majority of programming ‘hick-ups’ by auto-generating the code that underpins authored applications through the use of drag-and-drop, point-and-click and wizard based interfaces.   That means almost no testing, tuning or re-working costs for business IT projects.

This is important to the software and data integration industry that has a pretty sour track-record of project delivery.  The article ‘Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think’ by HBR (November 2011), that followed a survey of 1,471 IT projects with an average spend of $167m, found that:

• The average overrun was 27%
• One in six of the projects studied was a black swan, with a cost overrun of 200%.
• Almost 70% of black swan projects also overrun their schedules.

One area that has remained to challenge the software development industry has been how to overcome data integration errors on deployed applications.  No matter HOW a design environment links to data sources, such is the complexity of the task that it becomes almost inevitable that some data integration errors will creep in when developing a complex database-centric application.  For example, a field in a table could be re-named or deleted in the source database resulting in no data appearing on the published site page because the database is unable to find the requested data.  Sometimes it’s quite easy to track down these issues; other times – with complex applications – it takes a pretty neat understanding of the application and how the data hangs together in order to overcome the issue.  When applications designers have spent hours working on a great application, the very last thing they need is to fall at the last hurdle and find ‘the app doesn’t work’.

Thankfully, Encanvas now overcomes this problem area too with its new real-time data diagnostics technology.

Those familiar with Encanvas will know that the design of applications all takes place in ENCANVAS CREATE DESIGN STUDIO in a codeless environment.  It offers design elements, data linking and action linking features to build content and logic into applications using an easy to learn design interface that has the look and feel of a desktop application. What it actually produces are cloud deployed ASP.NET portals that present data in HTML so they can be used on desktop, tablet. Mobile and digital TV platforms.  While it adheres to Microsoft Enterprise Platform standards of security, performance tuning and scalability, it removes the use of programming and means application can be authored in workshops with users and stakeholders.

When applications are published to the cloud, Encanvas’s new visual diagnostic mode allows designers to review the data connections employed in applications using an innovative visual referencing system.

Each field is audited for its data connections and the results are presented on the screen.

Full details of connections are presented when clicking on the associated icon. Using the live data diagnostic features of Encanvas removes the last major hurdle in applications engineering for authors of business applications.

The roll call of applications authoring productivity features in Encanvas now includes:

• Codeless platform and server installation
• Codeless private cloud creation (and replication)
• Codeless data connectors
• Codeless information flow automation
• Codeless data mashup and automated data structure creation
• Codeless design elements
• Codeless logic link creation
• Codeless action layer automation
• Codeless KPI creation
• Codeless map creation
• Codeless upload/ETL automation
• Codeless download (export) with formatted reporting/printing
• Codeless social network creation
• Codeless graphing (and graphing logic) creation
• Codeless email workflow creation
• Codeless publishing
• Codeless UI design 
• Codeless federated user identity management augmentation
• Codeless site structure design
• Codeless and real-time data diagnostics
• Automated design element creation from data structures
• Automated database creation from designed data structures
• Automated lookup table generation
• Automated form creation

If you’ve yet to try Encanvas, it’s easy to arrange. Simply email sayhello@encanvas.com and request a secure private-cloud Remote[Space] to have a go at codeless situational applications authoring for yourself.