Taskbar¶

Taskbar is the left side ribbon/menu that contains a few of the most useful operations you might need during your Application Modelling.

Button	Description	Shortcut
Toggle Taskbar Autohide	Enable/Disable autohide of the taskbar	-
My Applications	Lead to Control Panel	-
Explore	Show/Hide Navigator	-
Search	Open Search box	`CTRL` + `P`
New	Open Add new model window	`CTRL` + `Insert`
Validate	Validate all models	`CTRL` + `Shift` + `E`
Build	Build the application	`CTRL` + `Shift` + `B`
Run	Run the application	`Alt` + `R`
Environments Configuration	Options related to the various deployment environments	-
Git	Commit changes or Update your application	-
Upload or Download	Upload, download models or manage modules	-
App Logs	View application logs	-
Tools	Various developer tools including Rebuild, Deploy, access to database etc.	`CTRL` + `Alt` + `Shift` + `B` for Rebuild
Show Shortcuts	View Shortcuts and other Help options	-

My Applications ¶

This item navigates you to the Control Panel.

Attention

If you visit the Control Panel, your current project will remain open. However, it will be closed as soon as you open a different Project.

To return to your current project use the back-arrow button

Explore ¶

Toggles the visibility of the Navigator - the panel that presents you with a visual and hierarchical representation of your whole Project.

Search ¶

It can become easily obvious that the larger your Application, the harder it is to find symbols, such as objects and members. In order to to help you easily find any needle in your Application's haystack, the Symbol Search offers you features for Search and Navigation throughout your whole Application scope.

As soon as you start typing the term you are searching for, suggestions will pop up rapidly detecting any Operation, Class, Member, Resource, Form, Control, Action etc. even in the darkest corners of your Application that you can then click on to be automatically navigated to their place within the Project.

New ¶

The New button allows you to add any type of Model into your Application. All you have to do after clicking it is:

Select the type of Model you want to add (e.g. Business Objects Model, Form Model, etc.)
Fill in some required (per Model) fields
Click Ok to create your Model

Validate ¶

This item lets you validate all the models of your Application. The results will be presented in the Console, where you can easily check any possible errors and/or warnings.

Build ¶

Build your solution. As with the Validation, the build progress will appear in the Console, where you will be able to see messages, warnings, errors as well as the status of the Building Process.

As soon as the Build Process is finished, you will be informed of its outcome with a notification.

Run ¶

Runs your Application, in a new browser tab.

Attention

Make sure to successfully Build your project, before running your Applicatio, in order for your changes to be applied.

Git ¶

The Git item opens a Version Control menu that you can use to either Update your project or Commit your changes.

Commit¶

The Commit operation can be used to save the changes of your local working copy into the shared Application.

Tip

Using this button you commit all pending models. If you want to commit a particular model you have to do it from Navigator:

Right-click on a model
Hover on Version Control...
Click on Commit...

Update¶

The Update operation updates your local, working copy by capturing all changes made by other users developing the same Application.

This way all users work collaboratively on the same application and stay in sync.

Warning

You must update your working copy first, before committing your changes

You can resolve possible conflicts in Navigator.

Upload or Download ¶

The Upload or Download item opens a menu that you can use to Upload, Download and Manage Modules.

Upload Models¶

Allows you to Upload Models into your open Application, using either a file selector or by dragging and dropping from your workspace.

As soon as you Upload a new Model, it will be yours to use, change and/or extend.

Important

If a Model with the same name as the one you are Uploading already exists in your Project, your Upload process will fail.

In such cases and if you want to overwrite the model(s), check the Overwrite Existing Models option.

Download Models¶

Allows you to Download all or some of your Models, in the form of a zip file.

Hint

Later on you can share your zip or any of its files with another user, that will be able to upload it/them into his/her Application.

Manage Modules¶

Allows you to preview all zAppDev Modules with regards to your Application: view whether a new Module exists or not, update a Module, check their Versions and even add a new one.

App Logs¶

This item opens your Application Logs. Basically, anything that your Application logs either automatically or due to a DebugLib.Logger.WriteInfoLine("Successfully saved the Product"); -type command will be available in the App Logs blade.

Feel free to refresh your log, in order to view any possibly new messages, expand the window or set it in a full-screen mode for better experience.

Tools¶

The Tools menu item includes some of the most useful operations with regards to your Application:

Rebuild All
Deploy
Export Domain Model
Database
Source Code
App Data
Published Versions
Download Solution

Show Shortcuts¶

Opens a blade with some useful shortcuts, documentation and tutorials. A description of the available items can be summarized as follows:

Item	Description	Example
Workspace Shortcuts	A list of useful shortcuts
Live Help	If checked, adds live pop-ups onto your Workspace that provide useful information about the properties, items, panels etc. of the Workspace
Documentation	Opens a new browser window/tab containing the documentation you are now reading
Tutorials	Starts a Live Tutorial that walks you through zAppDev and its features, with regards to the Tutorial you chose.

Environments Configuration¶

Opens a modal that allows you to define options related to the various deployment environments. You may add as many environments as you wish and handle them independently in terms of configuration and deployment.

Read more for the deployment process here.

Adding an Environment¶

To add a new Environment, simply click the button, on the bottom of the list to the left.

Important

By default, there is only one environment: Development. For this environment only Configuration section is available.

Saving changes¶

To save any changes to the Environments Configuration, click the diskette icon , on the top right of the modal.

Configuration¶

In this section you may set properties regarding the Deployment Environment.

Default Options¶

Here is a brief description of the configuration options available by default:

Option	Description
Name	The environment name
Build Mode	Application Build Mode
Deployment Method	The method used to deploy the application (File System or FTP)
DB Connection Datasource	The Datasource part of the Database connection string
DB Connection Initial Catalog	The Initial Catalog part of the Database connection string
DB Connection User Id	The UserId part of the Database connection string
DB Connection Password	The Password part of the Database connection string

FTP Options¶

Here is a brief description of the configuration options available when FTP Deployment Method is selected:

Option	Description
FTP Host Address	The FTP server host address
FTP Connection User Name	Your FTP User name
FTP Connection Password	Your FTP password
FTP Destination Directory	The target directory in the FTP Server
FTP Port Number	The FTP server port number

Environment Settings¶

Main Settings¶

In this section you can set values for the application settings. The available settings depend on the Configuration Model. For more details on these settings, refer to this.

Here is a brief description of the default settings, common to all applications:

Option	Description
Email Host Address	Email Host Address used to send emails
Email Password	Email Account Password
Email Username	Email Account Username
Email From Account	Email Account Address
Email Port	Email Account port

RabbitMQ Connection¶

zAppDev applications support advanced logging through a sophisticated module based on RabbitMQ, a well known message broker. To enable this module, enter your RabbitMQ connection and queue details.

Read more for RabbitMQ message broker here.

Here is a brief description of RabbitMQ connection settings:

Option	Description
Host	The RabbitMQ server host address
Port	The RabbitMQ server port number
VHost	The RabbitMQ Virtual Host name
Username	Your RabbitMQ connection username
Password	Your RabbitMQ connection password
Queue	The Queue name that will be used for logging
Exchange	The name of the Exchange where the logging Queue is bound to
Routing Key	The routing key that the Exchange uses to route the log message to the Queue

Other Settings¶

This section exposes various settings concerning the generated application:

Option	Description
Disable Access Log	If true, access log will be disabled throughout your application
Seed Security Tables	If true, Roles & Permissions data that is persisted to the Database will be updated based on your models
Zip Web Requests	If true, the requests performed by the clients using the application will be zipped before being sent to the server

Redis Server Connection Details¶

zAppDev applications support advanced caching through a sophisticated module based on Redis, a well known in-memory data structure store. To enable this module, check the 'Use Redis' option and enter your Redis connection details.

A complete zAppDev caching reference can be found here.

Deployments¶

In this section you are presented with a list containing the deployments history for the selected environment.

Here is brief description of the list columns:

Item	Description
Version	The Application Version used for the deployment
Date Finished	The exact Date and Time when the deployment process completed
Duration (sec)	The duration of the deployment process in seconds
Status	The result of the deployment process
	Click this to download the deployed application
	Click this to download a solution containing the code of the deployed application

Option	Description
Use Redis	If true, enables Redis caching
Host Address	The Redis server host address
Port Number	The Redis server port number
Allow Admin	If true, Redis connection is established supporting commands that are considered risky
Password	The Redis server password
Use SSL	If true, SSL encryption is used
SSL Host Address	Enforces a particular SSL host identity on the server’s certificate