Frequently asked questions

Each process has to be adapted to the particular organization. We discuss processes and adapt them within implementation because they are not a goal by itselve but only means for achieving organization goals.

ObjectGears also leaves on users consideration, into what measure they need to structure the agenda in particular cases. Project manager can e.g. record within project various phases or change requests. These can be broken down to detailed requests and test manager can be asked to prepare test scenarios and organize test rounds, from which defects are reported. This enables project manager to keep grasp in a large project where lack of structuring would result in chaos in what shall be done when by whom and made an effective control of work progress impossible.

In case of an easy project everything can be solved by particular tasks issued on project level. Project managers can also choose a compromise between these two cases and solve some issues in a simple way whereas they appreciate more detailed work structuring for another issues.

An example of a simple task system is Easy task, that can be used very effectively in many cases.

ObjectGears solves IT processes. An overview of them together with other processes is shown in menu Solutions.

ObjectGears is unique in separation of platform, that enables to create solution, from the actual solutions. The point is, that ObjectGears platform properties are not limited in any way by a particular purpose for which applications or solutions are determined. ObjectGears platform is deliberately developed separately from solutions. Developers of ObjectGears platform reflect motions from solution designers no matter if they are ObjectGears solution designers, implementation partners or customers. Solutions are also completely open and customers can display them and freely modify. Customers can also create own quite new solutions that cover their requirements which is not possible or is always associated with compromises for usual applications developed for a particular purpose.

ObjectGears provides number of well thought-out solutions from operations to projects and strategic planning. Big advantage of ObjectGears is the full scale of IT processes that the customer gets and what they bring together (synergy benefits). 

However, uniqueness consists above all in the platform enabling to develop great solutions. Let`s demonstrate it on an example.

Some systems also enable to create own tables by users, though in a limited way (do not support e.g. inheritance, multiple references or various operations in the class - rules, time operations, scripting, schemes, calendar display etc.). Nevertheless, try to ask what are the possibilities of other systems in creation of queries (views) over the given classes.

Can the user easily filtrate the query results, freely combine various conditions AND and OR and use operations depending on data type?

Can the filter be also specified in URL in order that the user receives correctly filtered query results just by clicking on a link in an email?

Can the filter be modified also in a script that adapts the query results before displaying list of query records e.g. according to who is accessing, from where or what are his/her roles?

Can the query data be accessed also via web services? Is it possible to specify also filter within the web service, that will return only required data?

Can the access rights on query be managed and are these access rights respected also when accessing via web services?

Can both the list of query records and a form with a single record be displayed with different set of columns?

Can the query results be easily formatted?

Can the values in query work as links to particular records in various classes?

Can more links to various records be included in a single query field?

Can a regular automated check of query results and execution of various actions be set up (e.g. email notificatons, workflow etc.)?

You will often here this answer: "This is not possibile from nature. Query is a set of records only for reading...another functionality is out of its possibilities." That`s an technocratic answer. In ObjectGears we try to enable the users simply get what they need. Therefore, below stated list of records user gets from several tables by means of a simple SQL syntax including links working like the user expects.

ObjectGears provides number of other features for an effective development with the objective to increase productivity of solution designers and bring it closer to users who are not programmers but want to/need to participate on creation of systems. Take a look on the overview of another extra benefits, that you get with ObjectGears.

Choice of open source / close source license is a strategic decision in case of every software. Advantages and disadvantages of open source were analysed in many studies and articles. Generally, some first plan advantages of open source may not be often realized (e.g. total cost may not be lower due to increased operational cost and system maintenance). In ObjectGears we tried to utilize open source advantages (e.g. broad base of developers and therefore a lot of motions and clever ideas) and eliminate disadvantages (vulnerability due to bug announcement, uncertain vendor support, uncertain future development, no actual liability for the software).

ObjectGears solutions are open source. Customer or partner can freely modify them and further distribute. This is why the solutions are so flexible in adapting to customer requirements. Good example is Knowledge Base that utilizes some functionalities of ObjectGears platform (classes, queries, webparts), but whose own source codes are freely available (configurations of queries and webparts, scripts). Documentation of Knowledge Base is publicly available and everybody can create it themselves from scratch and freely modify.

ObjectGears platform is a closed source mainly due to security, liability for the software and guarantee of its further development.

Customer can turn to ObjectGears support portal and report a problem he faces. Support response time corresponds to problem importance (impact on customer) and service contract. On top of that ObjectGears can ensure support also for solutions developed by other developers.

Scripting languages are designed for a comfortable development. They are interpreted languages. Therefore, they produce slower code and have a higher demands on server memory. Big advantage is an easy code maintenance, development and administration - user does not need to compile and deploy the code after each change. This predetermines these languages for extension of large systems, when a tiny change does not need to result in a complete recompilation of the whole system. In relation with decreasing price of the server computing performance increased computing requirements of scripting do not represent a principal problem any more and lower code processing efficiency is counterweighted with programming efficiency (increased developer productivity).

ObjectGears utilizes advantages of both approaches. ObjectGears platform is a classic compiled software developed in .Net. That ensures system performance and security.

We enable using scripting within solutions developed on ObjectGears platform. These scripts are based on JavaScript, that provides solution designers with large possibilities of adaption and utilization of ObjectGears platform.

Scripts can be generally executed both on server side (before downloading the page) and on client side (after downloading the page).

ObjectGears offers possibility of scripting on many places in the application. Scripts modify or extend environment properties, perform various validations or add business logic. All the scripts are performed on server side.

Next version of ObjectGears will bring possibilities of using local scripts. This enables besides other things to offload some server computing performance to workstation e.g. during initial validations when sending data to server (so called client-side and server-side user input validation).