User:MikeyTheK/Temp2

Morfik Technology Pty Ltd., an Australian company, is the developer of WebOS AppsBuilder, an Integrated development environment (IDE) aimed at developing   Ajax web applications in a high-level language such as Java, C#, Basic or Object Pascal. It offers developers visual designers for not only the presentation layer, but also for the creation of tables and queries. It supports the classic client-server model with all client-side application code being compiled into JavaScript so that it can run natively in the browser without requiring the use of any plug-ins.

Company History

 * 1999: The privately-funded company is founded in Hobart, Tasmania by Aram Mirkazemi and Shahram Besharati.


 * September, 2005: The company demonstrates the first (pre-beta) version of the WebOS AppsBuilder at the Web 2.0 Conference. Morfik is a major sponsor of this conference.


 * December, 2005: The first version of the WebOS AppsBuilder is released for public evaluation and testing.


 * December, 2006: Altium, Ltd. deploys the first commercial application built with WebOS AppsBuilder. It is a mashup with Salesforce.com applications which permits a hierarchial view of all projects managed through Salesforce.com.


 * March, 2007: First official v1.0 release. (Name changes to "Morfik 07")

Features and Innovations

 * JavaScript Synthesis Technology (JST) : Morfik's patent-pending compiler technology that compiles code written in a high-level languanges such as Pascal, Basic, Java or C# into HTML and JavaScript, for the purpose of running applications written in those languages natively within a Web Browser. This allows developers to build Ajax applications without writing any JavaScript or HTML. This automatically generated javaScript can be complemented with custom in-line JavaScript or by linking-in external handwritten JavaScript code libraries.
 * Elastic Page Design: (also patent-pending) enables developers to design complex web interfaces that allow parts of the web page to dynamically adjust their size to suit their content at run-time (fludi layout), whilst maintaining all design-time constraints (fixed layout).
 * Unplugged Applications: first showcased at the Web 2.0 Conference in 2005, with an unplugged version of Gmail, Google's AJAX-based mail client. Intended to show that with Morfik AppsBuilder you could create web applications that functioned both online as well as offline. It later showed how to use 'Service Connectors' to provide advanced, built-in, ready-to-go data synchronization for on-demand services such as Salesforce.com and alluded to infrastructure to create peer-to-peer connectivity.
 * Class-based object-oriented framework: AppsBuilder utilizes a common framework for both the browser and the server side that is written in a igh-level object oriented language
 * Visual Development Environment: create forms, query, tables and table relationships via Visual builder. Utilize visual controls which can be placed on web-based Forms or PDF-based reports. Create mahsups with Yahoo/Google maps, integrate Flash and create custom controls easily.
 * Database connectivity : Support for Amazon S3 storage for the Internet, other on-demand services such as eBay etcintegration with with Mail services using IMAP, SMTP and POP3;
 * High-level source Debugging : Debug errors in browser and server side code from within IDE. Either debug at the h-gh-level source code level or at the automatically generated Javascript code-level. Add breakpoint to pause execution, and view current variable values via mouse hovers. Track all SQL, XML and HTTP actity
 * Multi-platform Support : Deploy on Windows or Linux platforms.

Criticisms

 * Missing critical features: Although Morfik was a major sponsor of the 2005 Web 2.0 conference it is ironicthat both their application as well as their site (which was built with their product) lacks many technological features that have become standard for Web_2.0 sites and companies. these include:
 * CSS: AppsBuilder does not allow developers to base their presentation layer on CSS templates.
 * Syndication and aggregation of data in RSS/Atom: no support for RSS at all
 * Clean and meaningful URLs: A cursory glance at Morfik's web site shows that their implementation of bookmarks is via URLs that typically exceed 700 characters long!
 * Aimed at software developers not web developers:Some say that Morfik's emphasis on coding in an object-oriented language such as Java or C# instead of directly coding in JavaScript significantly under-utilizes the skills and knowledges of exisitng web developers, the vast majority of whom are far more skilled in CSS, HTML and JavaScript then in Java.
 * Unorthodox method of deployment:Further their choice of creating a web application in a manner that is akin to win32 applications, (namely the web application is output as a .exe file) makes it very hard, if not impossible for many businesses to use their exisitng web hosting packages to host a Morfik-created web application. The existence of an .exe file implies the necessity of paying for a dedicated hosting service, which is generally a magnitude more expensive than hosting a conventional web site.
 * Is search-engine unfriendly:

Morfik Applications Gallery
In addition to Morfik's own web site www.morfik.com, being created using AppsBuilder, Morfik Labs showcases many of the other applications that have been written with AppsBuilder: including
 * Morfik Chess
 * Desktop Gmail
 * Google Maps Mashup

Competing Products

 * Google GWT: At this time the closest competitor to Morfik appears to be Google with it's Google Web Toolkit. That is because GWT enables developers to build applications in Java, and then translate the code to XHTML and JavaScript.  While there is no graphical development element at this time, the rest of the product is similar enough that there have been implied threats of lawsuits, but at least one blogger questions whether any patent applications have been filed.
 * Adobe Flex: http://www.annezelenka.com/2006/10/flash-conceptions-and-misconceptions
 * JavaScript frameworks: The primary ones being Dojo_Toolkit, JackBe, Proptype, ,  Yahoo! UI Library , and other  Ajax frameworks;

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