Intranet Journal
The online resource for intranet professionals

Supercharge Your Intranet With CodeCharge Studio

Years from now, you might remember the first time you heard of CodeCharge. The rapid application development (RAD) tool for creating database-driven Web applications is on its second version, and has already transformed the way many intranet professionals work. Now, along comes CodeCharge Studio, which adds a fully-functioning integrated development environment (IDE) to CodeCharge as well as full-integration with Microsoft FrontPage. That means users can now add customized layouts to their apps, using an all-in-one visual environment.

If you're not familiar with CodeCharge's original incarnation, then know that it takes the time and hassle out of building database-driven apps. With a little database knowledge, you can use it build tools that connect to any database, and you can output your code in all the major programming languages, including ASP.NET, ASP, Java, ColdFusion 4.0, PHP, and Perl. Adherents proudly claim that it shaves months off development times.

Figure 1. Use the templates menu to choose from CodeCharge Studio's many templates. Don't feel locked in, though, because you can always alter the design of the one you choose.

What CodeCharge Studio does it take that same code-generating engine and wrap it with a designer's studio, so you can now input your own HTML code and even create reusable templates. CodeCharge Studio supports round-trip HTML, so you don't need to worry that it will change your tagging.

The new design tools include a visual page designer, which lets you layout your pages in WYSIWYG form, and an HTML editor, which uses color coding so that your tags will easily stand out. Use the live data viewer and you can preview your pages with real data pulled from your server.

Perhaps the people who should be singing CodeCharge's praises the loudest are the FrontPage press team. While CodeCharge Studio will work seamlessly with Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive, or any other HTML editor, it only offers full integration with Microsoft FrontPage. That means developers using the CodeCharge FrontPage add-in can access CodeCharge's menus from within FrontPage. In out testing, we thought it was so smooth, that it might as well have been the same program. That's a big boost to FrontPage, which simply doesn't have the backend database power to compete with the new Dreamweaver MX. It doesn't on its own, that is.

Wizards also make CodeCharge Studio a snap to use. You can use the Power Wizard to guide you through a multi-page application, or component wizards to create search, login/logout, and other pages.

Figure 2. CodeCharge Studio comes with sample projects targeted at both intranet and Internet sites. Shown here is a task management system you can adapt to your own intranet's needs.

Other improvements include pre-built applications that let you jump right into the process of customizing with Studio, an integrated multi-level security management system, and over 35 customizable themes.

If you're building database-driven applications for your intranet-or, even worse, if you're outsourcing them to another company-then you can't afford to be without CodeCharge or CodeCharge Studio. With its low license cost, it's an investment you'll make back in no time.

We wanted to give you some advice you could use, as you begin experimenting with CodeCharge, so we went to some pros who are already experts with it and asked for their help. Sure, CodeCharge is a remarkably easy program to use, but these tips will get you up and running even quicker than you would have otherwise. If you're just starting out with the program, or are thinking about purchasing a license, give these tips a read.

Daniel C. Hall works on the corporate intranet for Goodrich Corp., formerly B. F. Goodrich, in the Fuel and Utilities division as an e-commerce Web developer. His experience saving programming time with CodeCharge began when he was simply testing the project. His division needed a helpdesk application, and Hall was going to purchase an off-the-shelf solution, paying from $75,000 to $150,000. One of his fellow programmers turned him on to CodeCharge. Hall was initially against using it, saying that he didn't want to use a generation tool, thinking that it wouldn't be customizable, but eventually gave it a try. He built the helpdesk application, with 25 tables, in one week (not counting the one week it took to learn the tool). Since then, he's been hooked. He and his coworkers have used it to build approximately 15 database-driven applications in the past year.

Tip : If you're just starting out, purchase the basic CodeCharge, not CodeCharge Studio, says Hall. It's much easier to learn. While Studio has much more power for customization, the designer interface adds to the complexity. There's a free, 30-day demo that users can get started with.

While Hall's company's output may be high-tech (producing fuel sensors and probes used in jets, among other things), its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is back in the 1980s. For him, CodeCharge is a valuable tool for bridging that legacy system and the Web. CodeCharge can access the information in the ERP system, create a Web-friendly grid, and even create an HTML page. Hall likes that CodeCharge can output to any platform, including ASP.NET, ASP, PHP, and Java.

Tip : Beginning programmers can use CodeCharge to learn C#, ASP, Java, or PHP. Open up CodeCharge-generated code and study it to learn how that language would hook up to a database. Of course, says Hall, you might have less reason to use those languages once you're using CodeCharge. He says he can already feel his C# skills getting rusty.

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