WebEdge: Fast development of rich Web-based applications

The graphical user interfaces revolution is occurring today after many years of staggered evolution.  New tools, such as smartphones, tablets, and other Internet-connected devices, provide new ways of working that are more intuitive and more user-friendly.

Large companies are pressured by their employees who wish to compare these new tools with the ones provided by their IT department. However, business application development is more difficult today than it used to be, making it nearly impossible to accommodate these users’ requests.

• The existing information system correctly functions but  is not integrated enough and reflects an obsolete image of the company
• Technical frameworks are often developed by people more interested in “building software” than “developing software”
• Web-based development interfaces tend to be complicated, especially when their productivity is compared with off-the-shelf tools such as Visual Basic

To quote a large company’s IT Director: “My teams are asked to use frameworks that are so complex that they become obsolete even before they are completely mastered, with a productivity that is 50% inferior to what it used to be 10 years ago”.

eFront created WebEdge for development focused on designing extensible and data-oriented applications associated with a high productivity level

• Extremely lightweight client
• Intuitive and efficient user experience
• Easy programming of clients GUIs, easy-to-maintain display rules definition
• SOA in accordance with .NET or J2EE standards
• Ability to quickly reuse existing application legacy including its framework

WebEdge: Ready-to-use components

Simplicity, productivity and robustness can be achieved while providing a wide range of features.  In addition to these qualities, WebEdge provides a large library of technical and functional components that facilitate the development of robust and customized applications. WebEdge’s ready-to-use and reusable components also accelerate development and facilitate the use and maintenance of your applications in .NET or J2EE environments. This platform of software components includes:

	Sophisticated reporting tools in the form of reports, dashboards, Excel, Word and HTML graphs
	A complete CRM, including an interactive "calendar" module that can be synchronized with Microsoft Outlook
	An integrated workflow engine
	A sophisticated module dedicated to user management, profiles and integrated access authorizations with your existing Single Sign On (SSO) systems
	An "offline mode" component to allow the users to access the applications while they are offline, including a two-way synchronization
	Ability to interface with, import from and export to numerous external systems
	Embedded online help technology
	Integrated auditing capabilities
	Embedded mail engine, enabling mass mailings, alerts, and response management

WebEdge: Adopt simplicity and productivity for your customized development

The AGILE development

The business user is considered as the central player of software development. WebEdge was designed to significantly increase the development productivity and guarantee a better understanding of business problematic and more reactivity regarding their evolution

The WebEdge environment implements the AGILE method principles, by notably involving the business representatives throughout the development cycle:

• Incremental iterative development: fast prototyping and continuous switching from the model to the production application
• Declarative development by rules, based on business principles
• Functional / technical separation: reduced dependency on .NET or J2EE

The Client development

The client development environment is entirely online and identical to the user’s environment. Sharing a common environment not only avoids the local installation of development workstations, but also makes interactions easier between the business representatives and the functional developers, therefore accelerating the development iterations.

This element is essential in the cohesiveness of WebEdge to the AGILE method, which requires milestone development and prototyping via fast iterative increments.

Server development

For processing that requires a server development, WebEdge comes with a set of Visual Studio and Eclipse environment add-ins.

Such familiar environments associated to the exclusive use of standard languages (VB.NET / C page.asp?pageid=51# or Java) enable seamless integration for development teams into the existing information system applications.

WebEdge: A Rich interface easy to implement and maintain

The WebEdge mashup portal combines applications and information within a real Web 2.0 interactive workstation that has all the ergonomic benefits of a “heavy client”.

The goal is to increase the users’ productivity, and make it easier for them to adopt the tools thanks to a unified and coherent presentation of information.

Tabs, labels, widgets and drag & drop features enable users to assemble and configure their environment so as to suit their mission.

Defining user profiles enables the pre-configuration of different types of workstations and, when necessary, the limitation of access to the application catalogue.