Reify OnSite in SmartClient questions and hosted Reify questions

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

answering here I saw that your products page now mentions "Reify Integration" for Reify OnSite.
Does this mean that one can use Reify with SmartClient locally and then hopefully do Drag & Drop for the client side and Java for the server side in 13.0p+? That would be great.

I also saw that Visual Builder is not mentioned any longer. Even though it does not matter to me, as I never used it, does this mean that Reify is replacing and superseding Visual Builder?

Regarding Reify.com:
The Reify offering from here is basically a cloud offering with the advantage that you take care of all infrastructure tasks like Server and DB Setup and Admin and DB Backups?
Other thoughts I had were: Can one do DMIs in Reify.com? What can one do serverside? Are there serverside logs one can see? How does database DDL work?
Perhaps I did not see the docs for this. Is there such a thing as a Reify Quick Start Guide?

Thank you & Best regards
Blama

[Isomorphic]

Does this mean that one can use Reify with SmartClient locally and then hopefully do Drag & Drop for the client side and Java for the server side in 13.0p+? That would be great.

Yes, but it's actually much, much better than this. You can maintain screens visually in Reify while having custom Java/JavaScript logic for that screen in separate files that are maintained outside of Reify (e.g., in your IDE). Here's a simple example:

https://smartclient.com/smartclient-...ngScreensReify

Here's a more complicated example, showing arbitrarily mixing hand-coded screens and Reify-maintained screens:

https://smartclient.com/smartclient-...velopmentReify

I also saw that Visual Builder is not mentioned any longer. Even though it does not matter to me, as I never used it, does this mean that Reify is replacing and superseding Visual Builder?

Yes.

Regarding Reify.com:
The Reify offering from here is basically a cloud offering with the advantage that you take care of all infrastructure tasks like Server and DB Setup and Admin and DB Backups?

Yes, although it's also possible to use Reify.com just to design screens, and load them into a project with your own DataSources, DB, etc.

Other thoughts I had were: Can one do DMIs in Reify.com? What can one do serverside? Are there serverside logs one can see?

You can do this by loading screens from Reify.com that connect to DataSources in your app that have DMI logic. Right now you cannot upload actual server code to your Reify.com account (at least not without our help - we do have a premium service for this).

However, we do plan to offer the ability to visually design custom server operations, similar to the Workflow Editor (which is currently for client-driven logic). When this is present, debugging information will be available, but won't just the raw server-side logs

How does database DDL work?

We generate SQL tables using the same logic you can use in your SDK to generate SQL tables from DataSources, with some nuances around multi-tenancy.

Perhaps I did not see the docs for this. Is there such a thing as a Reify Quick Start Guide?

For the visual tool, there's a range of interactive tutorials built into the tool itself, which you can also watch being completed as narrated videos:

https://www.reify.com/learn-low-code/

For developers working with Reify with custom code (and/or supporting designers working in Reify by adding custom functions), we recommend starting with Reify for Developers:

https://smartclient.com/smartclient-...yForDevelopers

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

pretty cool!
Thanks for all the information. Good that your hybrid approach is possible, as it allows for as much or as little Reify as one wants and a slow migration.
Regarding the videos: I am following your YouTube channel and watch the videos as they appear.
But it's good to know about the Reify for Developers link as "Reify Quick start guide".
Reading it makes me wonder: Even though Reify OnSite seems to be part of the SmartClient Pro or better packages, one would have to get an additional license for it to use it in production, correct? Is it possible to try Reify OnSite in the EE Eval?
Do you think Reify makes sense for small (perhaps even one person only) projects? Or is one with JS + Autocomplete similarly quick, if you know what you need to do?

And for Reify.com: One can just drop .ds.xml there and then use Drag'n'Drop to create screens and then download them as ComponentXML, correct? Is this a sensible workflow if you want to use Reify.com just for design (not running the cloud service) or would you recommend loading them from Reify.com just in time via isc.Reify.loadProject()? If so, as one has to enter login data with the request, is there a "read only the screens"-access to Reify.com?
Also, is there such a thing as the DataSourceLoader servlet for ComponentXML/Reify? Would you suggest to load all screens in advance, so that you can use them synchronously afterwards?

Thank you & Best regards
Blama

[Isomorphic]

Reify OnSite isn't part of the Pro+ package, it's separately licensed. We can set you up with an eval if you like, but compared to just using Reify.com, the main thing is the ability to add custom components, custom Workflow steps and such to Reify itself.

Yes, you can take your existing DataSources to Reify.com, however you don't upload your .ds.xml file: there's a Reify-specific export in the Admin Console in your SDK that can capture a whole set of related DataSources and sample data for use in Reify.

As far as your workflow in general, if you are deploying on your own (so using Reify for building the UI, but not as a managed DB system) we generally recommend that you use live loading (Reify.loadProject()) during development, then export for deployment. In this case your final application doesn't need a live Reify server at all, but you maintain your screens in Reify throughout.

That includes continuing to maintain your UI in Reify after deployment (for your next phase).

As far as one-man teams using Reify, it really depends. Some developers really like the guided nature of visual development. If you want to be able to quickly share a possible UI design with the end users, it's incomparably faster to do that with Reify than with hand-coding.

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

thanks for the explanation. This makes things a lot clearer.

Regarding "Reify Integration" here: This basically means the possibility to use isc.Reify.loadProject() then, correct?

The project idea that is still in my head would be design on Reify.com, run with isc.Reify.loadProject() in development, export for deployment, as you describe.
I just saw that ScreenLoaderServlet in the ServletDetails docs - this would be the way to load them in production all at once, great.

I think I have to try it myself and see how it works.

Thank you & Best regards
Blama

[Isomorphic]

Reify integration refers to loadProject() and a few other things, like the Admin Console export previously mentioned, as well as tools for verifying loaded Reify screens (like checking compatibility against locally loaded DataSources, and reporting any issues).

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

ah, yes, for example this sample, thanks.
Also, I found the "Reify Export" Button in the Developer Console's DataSources tab, thanks.

Best regards
Blama