WaveMaker

If you’d like to learn more about building applications with the open source Postgres database and WaveMaker, there’s a free webinar coming up this Thursday at 11am PDT. More details here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/974001737

Earlier this week I received a nice complement from one of the WaveMaker 5.0 beta users.  He said “you have to be proud of your ‘baby’ (WaveMaker).”  He’s right; we are proud of what we’ve created.  We released Beta1 last week and Beta2 today.  As we near the GA release of WaveMaker 5.0, I’ve been thinking about the child rearing metaphor for software development.  Let me alay any fears that I’m not going to compare releasing software to child birth. I am unqualified to make that comparison.

I am qualified to compare delivering a software product to raising a child.  Both require nurturing and direction, overcoming difficult challenges, and adjusting to new situations, demands, and interests.  Both also require input from people beyond those immediately responsible.  I’ve always liked the expression “it takes a village to raise a child.”  This concept applies quite well to software as well.  We at WaveMaker owe a great deal of thanks to our “village” of users.  Just as children are influenced by many people beyond the parents, the WaveMaker software has been molded and changed by our community.  Most recently the Dev Build Club took early builds of WaveMaker 5.0 and helped form it into a solid Beta through their bug reports, improvement suggestions, and general feedback.  I am grateful for their contributions.

WaveMaker 5.0 has a number of improvements, the highlights include:

• Welcome Screen – The first thing you’ll notice is a new Welcome screen.  As before you see your projects but you also have clearer access to documentation, screencasts, demos, and the community.  Although it’s a beautiful screen, you see less of it because WaveMaker automatically opens the last project you edited.
• Menus – New menu organization following standard practices.  Find what you need quickly.
• Palette organization – The palette is more powerful than ever.  Nearly everything you want to do can be initiated from the palette.  More space has been allocated to the palette so you can find what you need more quickly.
• Larger Model Tree – The model tree has more space allocated to it, enabling you to see the components and structure of larger projects and pages.
• Business Data Widgets – List and Detail view of your database created by draging the Business Data Widget from the palette.  Easily extend to display and edit related data.
• Composite widgets – define your own widgets, including behavior and properties exposed by the widget, and publish to your palette.
• Templates – define your own templates and publish to your palette.
• Simplified sizing – adjust height and width.  Manage sizes using pixels or percentages.
• Performance – improved performance for applications that contain many widgets.

As you start to use WaveMaker 5.0 you find many other improvements.  Download the beta and see for yourself. 

More information than ever is available in our community.  In addition to targeted forums, beta documentation, and screencasts, you can see our bug tracking database as well.

Please continue to provide feedback on WaveMaker.  We need your input to enable WaveMaker to grow and reach it’s potential.

Derek