Make Your First Application

When beginning a new application, mrc recommends that you plan out all of the screens before even creating your first screen. This provides a general overview for the entire project.

When it comes to making the application, it is important to consider just one screen at a time. It might be necessary to create several smaller applications and combine them into one screen using the m-Power Import feature or other techniques. If so, then it is better to consider each one of those pieces as an individual application at first. Then, build those pieces separately and combine them at the end. For the beginner m-Power user, let's assume that one application equals one screen.

New m-Power users find it helpful to fill out an m-Power Application Design Sheet before actually jumping into the m-Power interface. Please print that page from the next section before continuing.

m-Power Programming Steps:

1. Design
   1. With m-Power, design is the most important aspect of the project, not coding.
   2. Design your application, preferably by drawing it on paper using sample data. Please see the following section m-Power Application Design Sheet.
   3. Plan to use a specific m-Power application type and template. Please see a following section Selecting an Application Type and Template for more information.
   4. Plan the Application Specifications:
      1. Create an application title.
      2. List the needed tables, noting how they are joined and choosing the primary table.
      3. List the needed fields.
      4. List the fields that will determine the order of listed application data.
      5. List any record selections.
      6. List any work fields to derive from data, system values, or logic.
      7. List any needed calls to external business logic.
      8. List any links to separate screens.
2. Enter Application Specifications
   1. A strong design usually equates to building your application quickly.
   2. Use the m-Power interface to enter the application details, using the notes you crafted in the Design step.
   3. Log onto m-Power at the URL provided in the installation. Point your browser to (where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the server running m-Power and Tomcat.)
   4. Begin by selecting the application type and template from your Design step.
   5. Next, select the primary table and choose the needed fields. Join to secondary tables and select fields as needed.
   6. Use the m-Power navigation bar to move within the application specification. Continue to the Application Options screen to view all of the available options for an application.
   7. Add the required Sequence Key Fields.
   8. Lastly, define any optional specifications like Record Selection, Calculations, External Object calls, and SmartLinks.
3. Compile
   1. m-Power makes this step really simple!
   2. Use the Build operation from the Application Options menu to compile the application.
   3. In a conventional programming approach, this is where you would need to write many lines of code and spend a lot of time dealing with compile errors. m-Power reduces all of this effort to the click of a button, virtually eliminating all compile and run-time errors.
4. Paint
   1. Included WYSIWYG editor m-Painter makes this step easy and fun!
   2. The application is generated with a default layout and functionality based on the template, but the layout and features are fully customizable.
   3. m-Power includes m-Painter allowing modification of the HTML presentation layer without needing to touch the code.
   4. Also use m-Painter to edit the set of default Application Properties that control much of the functionality per application.
   5. The header, footer, and style sheet control the overall look and feel of m-Power-generated applications. Consider replacing the default colors and images with your own to match other Web applications already in use or your organization's Website. Those options are available in the Data Dictionary tab named Edit Data Dictionary Files.
5. Test
   1. m-Power dramatically reduces testing efforts.
   2. M-Power testing is different than conventional testing because there are virtually no compile errors or run-time errors.
   3. Instead, your testing should verify that the generated application match your original design in terms of data results and features.

Click here to access an m-Power application design sheet.