Manually comparing versions of a long XML Schema or document to find any differences would be a tedious and error-prone task. XMLSpy has long featured file comparison with highlighted differences in side-by-side windows with merging in either direction. And of course, DiffDog is the go-to comparison utility for text, source code, XML, JSON, and Word […]
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) standards allow participants with different roles in an industry to communicate clearly and rapidly, and date back to the earliest implementations of electronic communication in the 1950s, long before modern business technologies such as ERP, CRM, and many others. Yet even today, EDI standards continue to evolve to support new requirements […]
Altova MobileTogether supports text-to-speech functionality for cross-platform mobile apps, empowering developers to add speech and build a rich multi-media user experience. Speech can be fully integrated with text anywhere it appears in an app. For instance, an app like the Parcel Delivery MobileTogether example can be enhanced by speaking the next delivery address aloud – […]
Software developers working on a new app, data professionals in a variety of enterprises, and even database administrators often encounter unfamiliar databases and need a database tool to quickly explore tables and relationships. Altova DatabaseSpy is a unique multi-database query, design, and comparison tool with a graphical database design editor that empowers users exploring an […]
Altova products have supported JSON for several years. Now, Version 2017 Release 3 of MissionKit and Server products, and MobileTogether Version 3.2 all include support for JSON5 across the product line. The JSON data format was originally designed to be machine-written and consumed, promoting efficient communication between servers. Usage has expanded and JSON5 is a […]
Combining rapid mobile app development (RMAD) with a single development environment for building cross-platform apps makes Altova MobileTogether an ideal tool to create specialized mobile apps for enterprise operations management at all levels. The development schedule using MobileTogether can be as short as a few days vs. weeks or months for traditional native platform coding. […]
MapForce Server automates recurring execution of data mappings and transformations designed and tested using Altova MapForce. Every day, MapForce Server is employed in business communication, financial reporting, database ETL, and many other applications to transform critical data between any of XML, JSON, database, EDI, XBRL, flat file, CSV, Excel, and/or Web service formats. Now, MapForce […]
DatabaseSpy is the unique database tool that supports all major databases and facilitates database query, design, structure comparison, table content editing and comparison, and even generates elegant charts from query results. The recent update of DatabaseSpy to version 2017 Release 3 adds several new features, including the ability to automatically generate a complete DDL script […]
Join is a powerful SQL operation implemented across most database types and familiar to database users. Join is typically used to select and combine information from multiple database tables. Altova MapForce includes a join component for data mapping that works like a SQL join for database tables and extends data integration functionality by empowering users […]
In an earlier post on Creating Elegant Mobile Apps, we showed examples of a simple app and a complete mobile dashboard running on multiple mobile devices. Mobile developers can also delight end users by empowering them to customize the app experience. MobileTogether lets developers tailor cross-platform apps to each mobile platform and empower users through […]
Envision a manufacturing company that controls costs by exploiting a just-in-time assembly process with a very low supply of parts inventory on hand. New customer orders are logged in a sales database and at the end of every day the components needed to assemble that day’s sales are tabulated. The IT department runs a SQL […]
JSON is a popular format for transferring data between systems thanks to its simple markup, small footprint, and heritage based on the JavaScript programming language. MapForce supports JSON as both an input and output format for JSON data mapping and transformation. For instance, MapForce can extract information from any popular database and produce a JSON […]
Smartphones and tablets are everywhere, and superior apps have created a population of demanding users with high standards for mobile performance. This can be challenge for enterprises that want to build mobile apps to support internal business goals. Complicating development tasks, many companies have adopted BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies that give users choice […]
MobileTogether apps for enterprises can connect to existing backend databases and generate richly-formatted documents and forms. MobileTogether can also create gateways to existing resources by opening URLs and documents within a mobile app. The Open URL/File action lets MobileTogether developers give end users the ability to open Web pages or files such as PDFs, image […]
Need to empower mobile users to capture information and generate a document or report from any remote location? MobileTogether lets you build a cross-platform mobile app to do that. You can tailor the app with all the device-specific mobile controls users expect, like check boxes, date pickers, switches and buttons, yet generate output files identical […]
We have written previously about database features like SQL Merge for data integration, and summarized database features in the latest release. But if you’ve only used one or two Altova products, you may not be aware of the powerful support for working with relational databases is provided throughout Altova’s tightly-integrated tools. The Altova MissionKit and […]
Robust and repeatable testing improves any software development project. If you’re creating a mobile app, testing is especially critical given the unpredictable range of end user devices and location variables. Altova MobileTogether includes sophisticated Automated Testing features that let developers: Record a series of user actions as a test case Replay the test case in the […]
Any computer industry standard that promotes reliability and clear communication between independent enterprises will have a long life. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) originated in the 1960s to enable automated transactions between corporate computer systems. EDI remains in widespread use today and continues to evolve to meet modern requirements, under the administration of the UN/EDIFACT and […]
Large database tables can easily contain a million, even hundreds of millions of rows of data. Database administrators and others charged with maintaining such large datasets are always concerned about execution time for ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) operations, updates, and other SQL queries. To make these operations more efficient, some — but not all […]
There are situations, especially when encountering loosely structured data, where you may want to map and transform structural components of a data stream along with content. MapForce can dynamically access node names of XML elements, attributes, or text file columns such as the contents of CSV files, to target components. Dynamic access to node names […]
Altova MobileTogether combines UI design by visual drag and drop with functional programming using Actions and Action Trees to let developers quickly build mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows devices. MobileTogether 2.2 recently added support for multimedia features that will delight end users with sound effects, video, and audio recording functionality.
Testing by real-world users is a critical step in successful development of intuitive mobile apps for all platforms. A recent in-house experience demonstrated this axiom, and the MobileTogether Instant Deployment proved to be an effective tool to accelerate testing in mobile app development, deliver a new version of an app into the hands of Android, […]
Developers are always looking for simpler and more efficient ways to create mobile apps and launch them into the world even faster. The recently-introduced Altova XQuery 3.1 Online Training covers XQuery constructors that developers can use like power tools for quicker mobile app development.
MobileTogether 2.1 includes new Try/Throw and Catch error handling actions for mobile apps, allowing developers to build sophisticated error-handling routines that improve end-user experience. For instance, if an app wants to connect to a third-party Web service but the server is not available, error-handling actions permit graceful recovery. MobileTogether error handling actions for mobile apps work […]
XQuery is an XML-based query language for extracting information from structured and unstructured data, typically – but not limited to – XML format. XQuery is supported by dozens of applications and software tools, and is commonly used wherever XML data is exchanged, consumed, or otherwise processed. Now Altova is proud to announce launch of the […]
Mobile device users always demand maximum information in the most convenient package, but small screen sizes can force a trade-off. Mobile app developers are challenged to fit data, navigation controls, and helper information all into a pleasing layout or risk frustrating end users who could be customers, colleagues, or c-level executives. MobileTogether 2.1 introduces scrolling […]
UModel is Altova’s tool for software modeling with support for all 14 UML diagrams, additional UML-style diagrams for databases and XML Schemas, plus Business Process Modeling (BPM), and SysML. UModel 2016 Release 2 adds code engineering support for C# 6.0, complementing support for Java, Visual Basic, and earlier versions of C#. Creating a UML model […]
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards accelerate commerce worldwide by allowing companies and other organizations – even those in different regions, using different languages and currencies – to send and receive unambiguous information. Some EDI communication protocols and message formats still in wide use today were developed over 30 years ago, when telecommunication systems were slower […]
MapForce 2016 Release 2 includes expanded functionality for Web Services data mapping, providing robust support for REST Web services. MapForce accepts XML or JSON as the Web service response, allows definition of parameters, and supports custom HTTP headers. Users may define the Web service interface manually or by importing settings from a WADL file or […]
An incredible variety of mobile phones and tablets exist in the world today and new models are announced continuously. All these mobile devices have different specifications and capabilities, which can be a problem for developers creating mobile apps. Tablets have large screen sizes, but don’t necessarily include cellular data, default color sets vary by phone […]
MobileTogether empowers developers to populate mobile apps with information retrieved from external sources via REST and SOAP Web services, and consume the data received whether it is XML, JSON, or HTML. MobileTogether support for both REST and SOAP provides mobile app developers with access to vast online data resources for a wide range of applications.
Altova MapForce includes powerful mapping components that correspond to design patterns for data transformation requirements. Analyzing a data mapping challenge up front and following a few straightforward guidelines can uncover data mapping patterns that help simplify creation of the mapping design and lead to an optimal solution. The MapForce Examples project provides sample mapping files and data […]
You’ve probably signed an electronic display recently to make a credit card purchase or accept a package delivery. Now Altova MobileTogether 2.0 lets you incorporate signatures into your own mobile apps for all platforms.
MapForce 2016 introduces a revolutionary data mapping debugger that lets developers working on data integration projects examine data mapping output step by step to diagnose and perfect projects of any complexity. The MapForce data mapping debugger gives users deep insight into the exact inner workings of data integration and ETL projects in a way that […]
As more specialized data is adapted for delivery on demand to mobile devices with smaller screens, documents with complex structures can be a challenge. Fortunately, MapForce, Altova’s graphical data mapping, conversion, and integration tool, has special features to accelerate data integration projects of all sizes. For example, richly-formatted documents may include XML mixed content, a […]
Altova MobileTogether empowers enterprises of any size to design and deploy custom mobile solutions that run on all mobile platforms. This post is part 2 of a discussion of the MobileTogether Actions Dialog that lets developers quickly create sophisticated event handlers, control flow, and operations that work the same on iOS®, Android™, Windows® Phone 8, […]
Altova MobileTogether empowers companies of any size to quickly design and deploy custom enterprise mobile solutions that run on all mobile platforms. The Actions dialog in the MobileTogether Designer is one key feature that makes it possible to develop robust mobile solutions in days, not months. The Actions dialog lets developers create sophisticated event handlers, […]
We are pleased announce version 1.4 of MobileTogether, Altova’s multi-platform mobile development framework that empowers organizations of any size to quickly design and deploy custom enterprise mobile solutions that are accessible on any mobile device.
In the past it was difficult and time consuming to synchronize development of cross-platform mobile enterprise applications because each mobile operating system required a different tool set or unique steps to build a compiled result. Altova MobileTogether simplifies and accelerates cross-platform mobile development with the MobileTogether Designer. Using MobileTogether, developers create a single Solution file […]
The data engulfing enterprises today comes from many seemingly unrelated sources. Collecting, refining, and assimilating all this information, and being flexible enough to accept new data formats and resources, is critical to success in the 24/7 connected world. We are proud to announce a new whitepaper titled Data Challenges and the MapForce Platform for Data […]
One challenge in development of mobile business solutions is formatting for all the different devices end users will bring. Each mobile OS supports a family of display sizes from the smallest smartphones to the largest tablets. And when you switch to a competing OS, all the screen sizes all change again. The need to support […]
When an offsite manager can read and reply to company email on a mobile phone, it’s only a short step to wanting access to all up-to-the-minute company data from the most convenient device. Previously we’ve written about using FlowForce Server to generate HTML output that communicates data integration results. And yes, HTML results can be […]
We are pleased to announce commercial availability of MobileTogether. Altova’s brand new, cross-platform mobile development framework lets you design mobile solutions in record time and deploy them to all device platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8 smartphones and tablets, as well as Windows 8 tablets and computers, or any other browser-based […]
Software engineers have long wanted to create an application once and run it on multiple platforms. With today’s rapidly evolving mobile devices, the problem is even more urgent, as iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Surface tablets all compete for developer resources. If you’re working on apps to communicate with enterprise users, you risk disenfranchising and […]
We’ve published an e-book titled Automating Data Integration Workflows with Altova FlowForce Server that is now available for free download from the Altova Web site. Here is a brief description: FlowForce Server is a highly-customizable platform to automate data transformations defined by MapForce data mappings, report and document generation, and other tasks on dedicated servers, virtual […]
Cloud-first is becoming the new normal. At recent events we have frequently been asked about using Altova Server tools in the cloud. The answer is definitely, go for it. The installation is easy. In fact, we use Altova Server Software products ourselves for an internal reporting application, installed on local virtualized servers and on an […]
FlowForce Server has new enhancements that add functionality to job caching. Job caching allows administrators to schedule execution of time consuming jobs, store the results, and deliver output instantaneously in response to HTTP requests from end users. Our earlier post titled Result Caching Accelerates Application Response Time described how to configure a job to take advantage […]
Deploying data mappings created in MapForce and report designs created in StyleVision for automated processing by Altova server products is straightforward and quick. The File menu in MapForce includes two options to optimize, preprocess, and deploy data mappings for MapForce Server and FlowForce Server. Preprocessing enables faster performance and reduced memory footprint for most data […]
We’ve published an e-book in multiple formats for your favorite tablet or other e-reader. DiffDog Field Trials is a collection of information from the Altova blog, Tech Notes from the Library section of the Altova Web site, and DiffDog product feature pages. The e-book describes a wide range of real-world applications for DiffDog, Altova’s XML-aware […]
MapForce 2014 now supports mapping of XML wildcards that create a designed-in extension mechanism for XML Schemas, implemented as <xs:any> or <xs:anyAttribute>. Consider this XML fragment viewed in XMLSpy: This small portion of a very long file shows two track points recorded during a road trip by a Garmin GPS device. The XML data follows […]