We won't cover everything here, just give you a flavour, and highlight some of the benefits.
Field / Column Definitions
A Field definition contains data type, length and description as well as:
•Label and Column Headings
•Default Value
•Edit Mask
•Input and Output Attributes
•Multilingual Details
•Business Rules and Triggers
•Visualizations
See What Goes in the LANSA Repository.
Table Definitions
The Table definition provides a full set of features for building and maintaining SQL tables, including:
•Column Definitions
•Indexes
•Business Rules and Triggers
•Derived Columns (aka Virtual Columns)
•Join Fields looked up from another table (1:1) or calculated from another table (1:m)
•A Preview of table data
See How to Create Tables in LANSA.
What are Business Rules?
Fields and Table columns can have validation rules defined, which can be applied when adding, updating or deleting a table record.
A range of rules are available such as List Check, Range Check, Date Check and Simple Logic Check. These rules are implemented by the table's OAM. They mean that much of the essential data validation can be automated, rather than built into each component. An error message and error status are produced when data fails a business rule. Multiple rules for a column can be defined to create more complex logic.
See Table Rules and Triggers Development.
Derived Columns
These are also known as Virtual Columns because they are not stored in the table. They are derived at run time by the OAM. A Virtual Column is derived from one or more real columns in the table. Their derivation may be After Read or Before Write. Their advantage is that they automatically implement common logic. Applications simply retrieve the derived column for a table.
See Virtual Field Development.
Field Visualizations
Field Visualizations are component definitions which are part of a Field definition.
All fields, except Date and DateTime fields (which have a date prompt visualization) have an entry field as their default visualization. Additional Visualizations may be defined, depending on field type. For example, a dropdown, radio buttons, or a multi-line entry box are supported. Dropdown entries may be defined by a static picklist or be populated dynamically by an additional component. The visualization could also be an entry field with autocomplete capability which is implemented by another special component.
Once again, the Repository allows a common, shared field visualization to be defined, without needing to implement this logic in individual components.
See Field Visualization Development.
Components
Visual LANSA supports a wide range of application components for web, web mobile and desktop applications. All are written using the same high level OO language, which provides all the power and flexibility needed to build modern applications with rich interfaces. Additionally, the Repository supports a range of lower level components such as Themes, Visual Styles, Bitmaps, Icons and Cursors.
See Visual LANSA's Components.
Internationalization
From its earliest days, LANSA has supported applications with a single code base, which may be executed in a number of languages (English, French, German and so on).
Repository objects such as Fields and Tables and Components allow their text attributes such as Description, Label and Columns Heading, to be defined in each supported language. A special repository object - the Multilingual Text Variable, enables all other text values needed on the application interface, to be defined in each language. Together, these features support an application which can be executed in a number of languages.
See What is an OAM?.