FAQs

  1. What is appGenerator?

    appGenerator is a web-based software application that creates online database applications, forms, and reports. When you create an application using appGenerator, the resulting "app" consists of approximately 80 files, each of which can be modified by a developer (or anyone comfortable with PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, HTML and CSS).

    Reports created by appGenerator are dynamic, which means that they cannot be individually modified (in the same way that apps can), but there are ways to disable the default formatting and use your own style sheet when embedding a report into your website.

    appGenerator also contains a built-in CMS, or Content Management System, for editing static files. This component allows non-technical users to edit website content via FTP, without having to know HTML or CSS.

    The system also has webmail and spreadsheets (data-grid), which are in the early stages of development.

  2. Where does appGenerator live? Where do the generated apps live?

    appGenerator is available as software that can be installed onto your web server, as a hosted service (dokuments.com), and as an Amazon EC2 machine image (AMI).

    Apps created by appGenerator live on the machine they were created by, but can be exported and run independently, on almost any Linux server (having Apache + MySQL + PHP). Exported applications (ie., "children") lose some of their functionality when they are apart from their parent (the generator), but they can still function.

  3. What are the technical requirements for me to run it on my own server?

    • Linux (root access)
    • PHP 5+
    • MySQL 5+ (root access)
    • Apache 2+
    • rsync
  4. What are the requirements for the OnDemand edition (dokuments.com)?

    A modern web browser and an internet connection.

  5. Can appGenerator create relational database applications?

    Yes. In fact, the system has 3 types of lookups:
    - static (a static list, created at build time)
    - lookup (a dynamically generated list populated by another app/table, which stores the actual value of the foreign field)
    - rlookup (same as "lookup", but this stores the record_id instead of the actual value)

  6. Who created appGenerator?

    The vast majority of the code was written by David Bass, founder of Cascade Data Systems. It's been in development since late 2002, and consists of almost 150,000 lines of code.

    The system also uses the following open source plugins:
    - Icons: famfamfam
    - Mouseover enhancements: OverLib
    - Date-picker: jonathanleighton.com
    - Tabs: Dynamic Drive
    - WYSIWYG Editor: NicEdit
    - PHP Calendar: Keith Devens

  7. What types of systems can be created using appGenerator?

    Please see the Use Cases page.

  8. What license does appGenerator use?

    Please see this page