Rapide allows you to design responsive user interfaces that support multiple device screen sizes and provide dynamic feedback to the user during the execution of the transaction.
The Rapide runtime automatically adjusts the position and size of the controls based on the device, browser or window size and orientation, thus catering for varying screen and device sizes.
With the Rapide Designer, the developer can have fine grained control over how controls are re-positioned.
In the example below the same window design is presented on different device size and when the device is rotated from landscape to portrait, the controls are automatically resized or repositioned.
The specification of which controls are repositioned and resized is performed using the Rapide Designer and the information stored in the Gen model.
When a transaction is initiated by the user that takes more than a few seconds to complete, it is good practice to provide status updates to the user to indicate that progress is being made and the transaction is still being processed.
For Windows applications, the developer can easily update a progress bar or status field and use the Gen REFRESH command to update the user interface to provide this feedback. This approach is often difficult to achieve on browser applications because the 'client' logic is executing on the application server.
The Rapide runtime has been architected to allow dynamic feedback during the execution of a transaction with a 'server push' approach where the Rapide runtime is able to send updates to the user interface without requiring user intervention on the browser. The Gen REFRESH command is supported and any updates to export views will be sent to the user interface to allow status updates to the user. There is an example of this is in the demo application.