11.29.08
QuickConnectiPhone 1.0 RC3 available
The latest release candidate, 3, is now available for QuickConnectiPhone a framework that allows you to build your installable iPhone applications in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If you want to create an iPhone application but don’t have time to or maybe don’t want to learn Objective-C you can use QuickConnect instead.
This release, like RC 2, includes an installer.
It also includes support for embedding Google maps in your installable JavaScript application. This new functionallity, in addition to the previously added capabilities of GPS location, acceleration, JavaScript debugging in Xcode, device vibration and sound, etc., adds new power to your applications easily. All you need to do is make one JavaScript method call that includes the locations where you want a pin dropped and a description. The framework does the rest and your custom map is displayed.
Database access is just as easy. A wrapper for the SQLite database used natively on the iPhone is included in the framework. It supplies you with two methods, getData and setData, that are easily used to access and modify your data.
AJAX is also supported by a wrapper with getData and setData methods.
In addition, this installer will install QuickConnectMac. You can now quickly port your JavaScript application from your iPhone to a Mac. Most of this porting will consist of changing your HTML and CSS to fit the larger screen.
Also, QuickConnectPHP is included. This is an implementation of the QuickConnect framework in PHP. It allows you to create web applications quickly and easily using the same engineered approach that you use for your iPhone and Mac applications. It includes a MySQL wrapper that supplies both of the getData and setData methods as well.
11.28.08
Why QuickConnect?
Recently in a response to a previous blog posting I was asked about what I see as the reason behind and the future of QuickConnect. I am posting my response here to make it easier for all to find.
Brad,
I have as yet not created a web page describing the intent of the QuickConnect platform. It basically comes down to this:
For the last 4 years I have been working on a framework implemented in multiple languages to speed up development of different types of applications. This is why you see QuickConnectPHP and QuickConnectYaws and will soon see QuickConnectJava and QuickConnectJ2EE. You don’t need them to write for the phone or the Mac but you may want to use them if you need to create a web application.
Why should an engineer/developer need to learn one framework for installed applications and another for web applications?
And why should an engineer/developer need to learn one framework to use in a web client and another for the server side of their web application?
And why again should this engineer/developer have to learn a different framework when moving from one language to another?
What I have attempted to do is to boil down all the engineering work I have been doing in the last 4 years to a lean, easy to use framework for multiple platforms, multiple situations, and multiple languages.
I can only hope that it will be of use to someone. I decided to make this work public since it has dramatically increased my productivity when writing apps.
Also, after years in the industry I came to teach in the Computer Information Technology department at BYU-Idaho. We teach the basics of the engineering behind QuickConnect to our undergraduates. This knowledge has given them a distinct advantage in the workplace when it comes to jobs so I felt it should be shared with a wider audience.
I hope this explains why I created QuickConnect.
05.16.08
PHP modular framework
QuickConnectPHP is a modular framework for the server side of PHP applications. It can be downloaded from QuickConnectPHP on sourceforge. The idea behind it, as with most frameworks, is to make it easy for developers to create applications that are scalable, flexible, and secure.
Currently I am working on a database access object to include in the frame work that interacts with Oracle. The existing database access object works with MySQL. Both of these classes have a straight forward API that hides much of the complexity of interacting with a database. The main methods are getData for doing queries and setData for all other calls. Prepared statements are handled as well as BLOBs, CLOBS, transactions, and stored procedures.
When the DAO is used to interact with a database it stores and makes available such information as error codes and messages, the id of any new records inserted into tables that use auto-incrementing keys, the field names retrieved in select statemets, etc. If the getData method is used the result of the query is returned to the programmer making the call as a standard PHP 2D array.
The Oracle version is now moving into the testing phase. The getData and setData methods allow the programmer to follow a prepared statement pattern that uses a ? as the place holder in the SQL. They then replace these question marks with bindings to variables. This frees the programmer from needing to know how to interact with OCI8 and doing variable bindings.
I hope to have this Oracle version in a beta state soon so a working version can replace the place holder in the QuickConnectPHP package available from sourceForge.
