Kwantu The app generation engine - kwantu/platformconfiguration GitHub Wiki
This page describes a metaphorical conceptual model of the the Kwantu app generation engine of the Kwantu platform
Up until recently, creating applications to manage businesses processes has been a labour intensive and time consuming process
for the web
and for mobile-device programmers
using tools specific to the task at hand.
Imagine a metaphorical machine. The machine has a handle that you turn. The machine takes very specific inputs and transforms them into very specific outputs every time the handle turns. It's a revolution, like the invention of the printing press. In essence, that is the metaphor for the Kwantu app generation engine.
In the picture above we see a girl putting some paper into the machine while the boy turns the handle on the flywheel. The machine has two rollers that are set against each other. When the paper goes through between the rollers, pressure is put on the paper, making the folds into creases. The creased paper is the output on the other side of the rollers.
As time passed, the versions of the machine became more sophisticated and more automated,
so that the machine could be applied to other similar problems and require less people to operate while it was easier and faster to operate, producing better quality and more standardised results.
Now, apply the metaphor to the problem of creating applications that solve business process management problems.
The inputs of the Kwantu app generation engine are a few configuration files containing one of XML or Json hierarchical declarative languages. To create and modify, they still require some skill, like the paper envelopes that the girl in the picture above is feeding into the machine, but their is an order of magnitude efficiency gain.
The Kwantu Application generation engine is the "transformer", or the machine: the mechanism by which configuration files become applications when the metaphorical handle is turned or the button is pressed. The machine does the hard work.
The output of the Kwantu app generation engine is a business (app or application). The app in turn consists of a list of: visible UI (user interface) objects like: Input-screens with Pick-lists, Buttons, View-screens, Reports, Dashboards and various other on-screen features; There are also invisible components like: Data Objects (the data maps that tie the components of the app and the persistence layer together) and interfaces which allow apps to share data with other apps or with outside applications and systems).
Features and benefits.
The benefits of this approach are a reduction in the level of skill and experience required to set up configurations with the corresponding improvement in speed to get it done. It is not just a once off benefit but propagates into the maintenance life-cycle of the app as well.
The reduction of effort translates into new opportunities for solving problems that would have been out of the budget scope of organisations. It also provides opportunities for responding quickly to the needs of the organisation and the customers that the organisation serves. Once Kwantu platform apps are in use, there is the added benefit of being able to change direction and adapt to changes in the environment, like laws, technologies, human and political crises, etc.
The inherent ability to integrate with other systems also further reduces time and costs of fitting the application in to an existing suite of systems. This benefit is further enhanced when the application has to integrate with other Kwantu applications, as the data objects inherently manifest interoperability with each other and consequently the applications are interoperable too.
The data objects themselves have built a in ability to import and export data from various file formats like XLSX and delimited files and this feature improves deployment speed.
Another feature of the apps generated by the engine is that the apps deploy on the web or on mobile technology. When an app is emerges out of a transformation, it is born with screens for data capture and enquiry, reports, database, dashboards. This feature reduces time to market.
The Kwantu platform has a configurable work-flow engine built-in, which is flexible enough to accommodate most business processes. This feature has the benefit of managing and measuring the process.
The Kwantu platform is built on the latest technology standards which are deployed on the world wide web by computing giants like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and the like and though it uses these standards, all of its technology stack is Open source or Libre free software. For this reason, it benefits from the creativity and innovation of thousands of people world wide.
As technology develops at a tremendous pace, most hand written software can not be maintained and when it is, it comes at the great cost and effort. The Kwantu platform does not suffer from this problem. It inherits the new technology through it stack and deploys it through its app generation engine, named "Transformer". For this reason, it is future proof.