appsFreedom v4.0 – Model driven architecture
Freedom Database
Freedom Database is a new module that is introduced in v4.0. Every tenant will have access to their own/independent database space, where they can create their own set of database tables and view and use this database space to store any business data or any application specific data.
Database Designer
The Database Designer is a new graphical tool to enable creating / editing tables, views and other database elements in the Freedom Database.
BaaS (Backend as a Service)
The purpose of BaaS is to enable apps built in other platforms (such as iOS SDK, Android SDK, appcelerator, Xamarin, etc.) to consume business and integration logic from the appsFreedom Platform. The idea is to give the developers, the choice to bring their own tools (BYOT) and expose some of the appsFreedom Business Object Services (BOS) as Backend-‐as-‐a-‐Service (BaaS) to be consumed by 3rd party apps.
The apps consuming BaaS may or may not be mobile apps. It’s essentially any application, which can consume services, should be able to consume BaaS.
The consumption of BaaS is secure and follow all authorization policies of the tenant deployment.
Freedom Studio (SDK)
The purpose of the Freedom Studio is to enable other partners and customers to build their own integrations / adapters or write custom action blocks for their unique business needs in appsFreedom Platform. Adapters built in the Freedom Studio, should be imported as action blocks (consisting of actions) into the Integration builder.
Sandbox Cloud Instance
To support the capability of customers and partners to build custom actions / action blocks using the Freedom Studio, a 4th cloud instance – The Sandbox cloud instance is added in v4.0. This is in addition to the 3 cloud instances of Dev, QA & Production already available. The sandbox cloud instance should have the following features
Process Modeler
Process Modeler is a MS-‐Visio like module introduced in v4.0, which lets the analyst define a mobile-‐centric business process definition in the appsFreedom Platform and use that definition to generate an app, and get a kick start in the app development process. The features introduced in this version are:
- Flowchart components specific to designing business processes like Task, Assignment, Start process, End Process, etc.
- Flowchart components specific to Mobile devices like
- Take picture
- Scan barcode
- Tilt device to Landscape (or portrait)
- capture Geo-‐location
- Call services (like maps, directions, etc.)
- Make phone call
- open phone contacts
- Ability to give app names and page names to flowchart components
- Ability to define simple input or output fields at the appropriate flowchart component
- Generate apps and pages in Freedom Designer with the basic information, such as
- Pages and their links (like submit buttons, etc.)
- Basic view with header, footer, home button, back button, settings/logout,
- Pages with input or output fields
- All the pages and apps generated in Designer should be color coded in Process Modeler.