Servoy Blurs Line Between Web Apps, Desktop Apps - The Servoy Way: Autodeployment Tops Advantages (
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One of the biggest advantages offered by Servoy is in deployment. Deploying
applications to end users is for the most part automatic. The Server portion of
Servoy contains all of the intelligence needed to allow a user to pull an
application down to the desktop. Scripting can be done that determines if the
end user gets the smart client, browser-based or headless form of the
application, and that can be initiated by something as simple as a hyperlink in
an e-mail or on the company's intranet site.
The ease of deployment does indeed live up to expectations, but developers will
need to be doubly aware of security requirements. When it is so easy to deploy
an application, it becomes very easy for the application to wind up with the
wrong users. Security should be a twofold task: Secure the end point and then
secure the data source. With that accomplished, deployment can be better
controlled, and if an application does wind up where it is not intended to be,
the data will not be accessible.
Most applications need a way to present data beyond the input screen, and here
Servoy offers a report generator, which uses plug-ins to create many optional
output methods, from traditional print to PDF to e-mail. Plug-ins are also
included to perform complex computations, for formatting and many other
functions that make report generation available without any manual coding
whatsoever. Again, a warning to the neophyte—with the ease of report
development offered, it becomes far too easy to build reports that are confusing
and even unrepresentative of the data accessed. Those designing reports with
Servoy should be well versed in how a proper report should look and should
understand the type of data representation an end user needs.
This quick test drive of the product only scratches the surface of what Servoy
can accomplish. Books could be written (and some have already been) on the
features that are available without generating any manual code, and if an
expert wants to embed some manual code, most anything can be accomplished with
Servoy.
Developers will find that Servoy does live up to its promises of code-free
application generation that can be deployed in a number of ways and will find
the product a powerful ally for creating custom applications for both internal
and external use.
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