Low-code application development can be described as a visual orchestration of application components with the underlying code generated in the background. Sometimes the developers might want to extend and maintain this code. They might want to work on a local machine text editor, make changes and import these changes back into the application. Or they might also want to work on an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) of their choice and comfort and take advantage of its Java code editing, testing and debugging features. Professional developers will need to build apps fast, but that doesn’t mean they should compromise on the code control. WaveMaker has addressed this need with its new IDE synchronization feature.

WaveMaker 10’s IDE sync feature offers a unique development experience where programmers can mix and match custom code written in their favorite IDEs, like Eclipse or IntelliJ, with low-code platform components. The Studio WorkSpace Sync Plugin is basically a Maven plugin, which provides seamless syncing of project changes between WaveMaker and the developer’s IDE. Rather than having to export and re-import projects between platforms, the plugin provides a direct communication channel where changes can be instantly pushed between WaveMaker and an IDE. This also eliminates the need to copy and paste code, a time-intensive, tedious, and error-prone method that can slow down the whole development process and hamper productivity.

After a one-time setup configuration, developers can leverage the Studio WorkSpace Sync Plugin in the following ways:

1. Pull the latest project changes from WaveMaker: This command can be used to ensure that the latest changes made to a project on the WaveMaker platform are applied to IDE code. This includes both committed and uncommitted changes to the project.
2. Push IDE changes to WaveMaker: All IDE changes are instantly pushed to the WaveMaker platform.
3. Synchronize a project: This command works in two steps: first, the latest changes made to the project on the WaveMaker platform are applied to IDE code. After both the IDE and WaveMaker versions of the project are in the same state, the Studio WorkSpace Sync Plugin pushes any IDE changes back to WaveMaker.

Enhanced IDE support ensures that what you build with WaveMaker is ‘debug-edit-extend’ ready with your choice of IDE. This way, WaveMaker 10 provides sophisticated, granular customization capabilities to enterprise application development teams without sacrificing the speed of low-code development. The new capability further streamlines the app coding process for developers, allowing them to easily synchronize WaveMaker’s open-standards platform with various integrated development environments (IDEs).

Introducing WaveMaker 10
Studio WorkSpace Sync Plugin is a new feature in WaveMaker 10. Learn more.

Low-code platforms have made it possible to build applications by visually orchestrating the required building blocks without the need for reinventing the wheel for every project. Enterprises expect low-code platforms to standardize those building blocks so that it can be used across the enterprise by different teams and different projects. This is essentially a shot in the arm for the developers by significantly accelerating their productivity through the reusability of their code. WaveMaker has found a way to do exactly this, by creating an Enterprise Artifact Repository as part of its Enterprise Developer Network (EDN) setup. EDN is an online environment that allows collaboration over projects, version control, and sharing of resources.

WaveMaker’s artifact repository is essentially a resource repository that standardizes on a collection of prefabs, project shells, templates, and themes. It lets the enterprise developers create, test, and publish useful app components to the repository for enterprise-wide access by other development and business teams alike. It also allows for easy exploration and discovery of resources to be made available to the developers. The EAR provides a range of artifacts starting from simple templates, themes, feature- specific prefabs to even project shells.

Reusable Artifacts in WaveMaker

• Themes: Style elements that work at the widget or UI component level. Themes help provide a consistent look and feel to the applications.
• Template Bundles: A collection of templates – a reusable arrangement of one or more widgets in the page content that together capture the purpose of the page.
• Prefabs: A collection of one or more widgets that are bound to APIs or services. They usually pertain to a specific feature or solution like map/QR code integration, etc.
• Project Shell: An app with functionality that is common to multiple apps across the enterprise. This can be used as a starting point in app development.

Artifact Features

All artifacts have a standard set of information either auto-generated or provided by the developer like tag, category, version no, and changelog.

• Tag: This will be useful for searching; each artifact can have multiple tags.
• Category: This will be used for grouping purposes. The category is defined or approved by the EDN Admin and assigned by the developer at the time of publishing.
• Version Number: Each artifact is associated with an auto-generated version number.
• Change Log: These include the comments that the developer needs to add before publishing the artifact.

Creating and Publishing Artifacts

Artifacts are created by developers using the project dashboard by invoking the create function of the respective artifact. The artifacts developed are published either:

• To a specific project- to allow the artifact developer to send it to a specific project
• To the individual workspace for a non-enterprise version- can be used for any project under development in the specific developer’s workspace
• To Enterprise Developer Network for the enterprise version- make the artifact available for the entire enterprise for all applications to use

Artifact developers create the artifacts which are pushed to the EDN- pending approval of the EDN Admin. Each of the artifacts will go through the four stages: In Development, Unpublished, Rejected, and Approved which are self-explanatory.

The standard process remaining the same, each of the artifacts has a slightly different publishing flow as described here: Prefab, Project Shell, Template Bundle, and Themes. Once published, the artifacts can be viewed from the Artifacts Dialog and are available for use for the entire enterprise. The admins can manage the artifacts through the EDN dashboard itself. WaveMaker also allows EDN admins to import and export the enterprise artifacts using zip files.

Introducing WaveMaker 10

Enterprise Developer Network/Artifact Repository is a new feature in WaveMaker 10. Learn more.

Today, enterprises rely on a global team of developers with varied roles & skills to develop applications. When many developers collaborate on large projects, clear access control policies are required for effective collaboration. But traditional development tools have failed to address the need for developer roles and access control. As organizations feel the pressure to create applications faster and more frequently, the lack of governance can result in coding defects, deployment issues, and delayed projects.

WaveMaker provides comprehensive role-based access control (RBAC) features for enterprise application development teams. The RBAC features center on the principle of minimal privilege i.e. to provide the least level of access to perform tasks to the full extent.

Permissions

Permissions manage access control for the various roles in the development process. WaveMaker provides a predefined list of permissions at three levels - platform, project, and resources. Refer to the developer RBAC documentation for more on permissions and access control.

Roles

Roles represent a set of permissions that can be assigned to a user. WaveMaker offers different roles for platform and project administration.

Platform administration through product roles
Product roles are for platform administration and are generally assigned to IT users. Product roles offer three predefined access control levels - Super Admin, Enterprise Admin, and Studio User.  You cannot create new product roles. In this way, the platform demarcates itself into compartments accessible only to authorized users.

Define custom roles for projects
Project roles are for developers and project leaders involved in application development. These roles combine flexibility and control by offering predefined and custom roles. Besides the predefined roles of Project Admin and Default, admins can create new project roles. Most enterprises have several projects with shared project resources. So, the same user can assume different roles in different projects.

Configure and assign roles

Admins can assign product roles to users in the onboarding section of Launchpad, the administrator portal. They can also create custom project roles such as UI Developer or DevOps by configuring appropriate permissions.

Project administrators can then invite users to projects and assign one of the configured project roles. Roles can also be updated via a project's User Management settings.

With WaveMaker's role-based access control, developers can collaborate better and create applications faster without the risk of project governance issues. Refer to the project user management documentation for more details.

Introducing WaveMaker 10
Role-based access control at the platform and project level is a new feature in WaveMaker 10. Learn more