The Alpha Anywhere IDE
Description
The Alpha Anywhere integrated development environment (IDE) is used to build web and mobile applications. It includes code editors, automation tools for writing and organizing your applications, preview windows, and a debugging tools. The main parts of the IDE are listed below.
Web Projects Control Panel
The Web Projects Control Panel is the primary interface for working with the files and settings of your application. From this control panel you can launch editors to create or modify your application. You can add resources for your application, including images, fonts, stylesheets, and third-party JavaScript libraries. You can also create Web Services, Reports, and publish your application to Alpha Cloud.
Workspaces can contain multiple projects. Each project is a separate application. Additional projects can be created and managed in your Alpha Anywhere workspace using the Web Projects Control Panel. Each project's files and publishing settings are managed independently of other projects. Some settings, such as connection strings, are shared among all projects. You can change the active project using the Project selector on the left-hand side of the Web Projects Control Panel. New Projects are created using the New Project button.
Component Editors
Alpha Anywhere applications are built with components. The main components used to build web and mobile applications are the Grid, Tabbed UI, and the UX, the most versatile component and the primary building block for mobile applications.
Each component type has its own builder. Builders have several screens where you can add controls, customize server- or client-side events, define component properties, add user-defined functions, or specify a data source that contains the information to show in your application.
Code Editors
Alpha Anywhere includes several code editors, including an HTML editor, an Xbasic editor, a JavaScript Editor. In addition, Alpha Anywhere offers Action Scripting and Action Javascript to automatically generate tested code. The generated code can be used as is, or it can be further refined in the Xbasic and JavaScript editors.
Xbasic Genies, found in the right-click context menu, are available to generate scripts for common tasks, such as calling web services or querying a database.
Alpha Anywhere also has Interactive Windows. An Interactive Window runs code immediately, printing the output on the screen. The Interactive Window is great for exploring the Xbasic Language library or testing scripts.
Previews
While building your app in the component builder, you can Preview your application with the Previews tabs. Previews can include mobile simulators, allowing you to see how your application appears on different mobile devices. The Working Preview can also be detached and displayed alongside the component builder while you create your app.
Debugger
Alpha Anywhere includes a debugger that lets you step through and examine your server-side Xbasic code.
The Chrome Debugger can be accessed directly in the preview window to help diagnose layout and JavaScript issues in your application.
Report Editor
In addition to components, Alpha Anywhere has a built-in report editor for designing reports. The Layout Table Report Editor, which is a robust, multi-banded report builder, can be used to create PDFs, HTML reports, and format Excel files. Reports can be emailed, downloaded, or opened in a mobile device's native app for viewing.
Video Library
The Video Finder can be used from within Alpha Anywhere to search our vast library of videos on a variety of topics ranging from detailed multi-part tutorials to short how-tos.
You can also find recordings of our Alpha Anywhere Webinars on Alpha Software's YouTube Channel.