Zero code application development platform

Abstract

The invention belongs to the technical field of application program development, and particularly relates to a zero-code platform. And the application management is used for applying website applications of administrator custom components, and comprises route management, page management and database management. The route management is used for setting a side menu bar of a website application by an application administrator, and the side menu bar is an entry of a page in the application. The page management is an interactive interface of a website application and is used for displaying and modifying data customized by an application administrator. And the database management is used for managing a table structure stored by data needing to be stored or queried in the application. After the application is generated in the control background, the application can automatically run on an application platform to be used by a foreground user. The method is simple and clear, a non-technical person can also serve as a user to perform platform page development, system popularization is facilitated, the system development cost can be greatly reduced, and therefore the system development efficiency is greatly improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of application development, and particularly to a zero-code platform. Background Art

[0002] The software development process refers to the software development life cycle. Currently, the mainstream development mode is iterative development, which is generally divided into five stages: requirements analysis, system design, software programming, software testing, and software maintenance. Once the requirements change, a complete software process needs to be executed for delivery. Specifically, the product manager gives an analysis report based on user requirements, the software architect gives a software architecture design based on the analysis report, the UI designer and programmer complete software development according to the software architecture design, then build an executable software package through compilation and hand it over to the testers for testing and verification in the test environment, and finally the operation and maintenance personnel build the production environment and complete the deployment of the relevant software package to finally complete the delivery of the requirements.

[0003] This traditional software development process is feasible in large projects or large enterprises because such software can generate documents at each stage, facilitating communication among staff in large companies and the retention of documents. At the same time, the incremental iteration method can also improve the software delivery time. Solve the biggest problems in Iteration 1, and generate a runnable version each time, while adding more functions, and finally complete the new requirements of users through continuous maintenance work. Moreover, large companies or large projects can also support such long-cycle development work. However, due to the gradual transformation of software requirements from large and comprehensive to small and refined, the defects of this development method in application software are gradually emerging:

[0004] First: Too many people are involved. Since the complete process of "requirements analysis - system design - software programming - software testing - software maintenance" needs to be executed, personnel must be involved in each position, and the personnel involved in the previous process may be idle when entering the next process, which will result in excessive demand for human resources and increase the cost of software development.

[0005] Second: The degree of code reuse is low. For software developed through traditional coding, the business logic is hard-coded in the code, and there is a relatively strong coupling between objects, classes, and methods. Although different architectural styles can be used to optimize the code structure, this requires relatively high requirements for programmers. Therefore, code redundancy is often chosen between high-level programmers and code redundancy to reduce recruitment costs.

[0006] Third: The maintenance cost is too high. Since incremental iterative development is required, the technical team needs to continuously develop the software, which increases the maintenance cost of the software. And when the technical team changes, the new programmers who take over the project need to be familiar with the code written by others, which itself requires a high learning cost. At the same time, the realization of business needs depends on the selection of technology. When the system has to adjust the architecture, a large number of code changes are required. The difficulty and cost of updating and maintenance are no less than re-encoding and developing with new technical solutions. Summary of the invention

[0007] Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a zero-code platform, which uses the zero-code approach to solve the technical problems raised in the above-mentioned background technology, such as excessive manpower participation, low code reuse, and high maintenance costs.

[0008] The technical solution provided by the present invention is as follows:

[0009] It includes two platforms, control background and application foreground.

[0010] The control background is responsible for the creation and management of applications, including routing management, page management, and database management.

[0011] The application frontend is responsible for running the built application, including the page renderer and the logic operation layer.

[0012] The routing management is used by the application administrator to set the side menu bar of the website application, which is the entrance to the page in the application.

[0013] The page management is used by application administrators to customize the page display of applications, giving users the ability to freely build pages in the form of drag and drop. A set of component libraries is built in, including list components, form components, button components, etc.

[0014] The database management is used to manage the table structure of the data that needs to be stored or queried in the application, which includes the setting of the database fields and simplifies the options that need to be configured.

[0015] The page renderer is a module running in the foreground of the application, responsible for rendering the page built by the administrator into an interface that the user can interact with, and the display format is consistent with the result of the administrator's drag and drop.

[0016] The logic operation layer is an application based on the DotNet platform of the MVC architecture, including the Controller layer, the Dao layer, and the Model layer. Among them, the Controller layer is a RESTful API interface based on HTTP, serving as the entry point of the application layer, which assembles multiple business logics; the Dao layer is used to implement business logics and operations on the database; the Model layer is used to represent the database structure established by application administrators. The system establishes a mapping of database data through the Model for the Dao to operate on the database.

[0017] The page management also includes a user interface (UI) builder, a workflow designer, a form designer, a data modeler, and interconnectivity:

[0018] The user interface (UI) builder: is the central component for designing and building the user interface of the application. It has a visual drag-and-drop interface that allows users to select and arrange interface elements. It includes data binding to bind components to data.

[0019] The workflow designer: allows users to design and configure business processes and logics. It includes connections to data tables to achieve the collaborative work of processes and data. It represents the workflow in a visual form, which is easy to understand and modify.

[0020] The form designer: is used to create and manage user forms and data input interfaces. It includes various form elements (such as text boxes, drop-down menus, buttons, etc.). It is closely integrated with the data modeler to ensure the effective collection and management of data.

[0021] The data modeler: manages the data structure and relationships of the application. It allows users to define and modify data models, such as entities, relationships, and attributes. It provides the ability to integrate data with external databases and systems.

[0022] The interconnectivity: means that each component in the architecture is interconnected through data and control flows. Data flows and control flows between components are represented by arrows.

[0023] A layout module is also set in the page management. The layout module is used to adjust the display methods such as the layout and sorting of various elements in the user interface (UI) builder.

[0024] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are:

[0025] 1. The present invention is simple and clear. Even non-technical personnel can be users. Without using any code, a business system can be developed through simple dragging and dropping. Therefore, even with only one person, the required business system can be built, which greatly reduces the cost of developing the system and also significantly improves the efficiency of developing the system.

[0026] 2. The present invention has higher reusability. Since the software developed based on the system of the present invention all runs in the application foreground, in fact, a set of framework codes are shared, and different information is displayed and various business functions are completed through different page configurations and database configurations. Therefore, the reuse of the business system can be achieved by exporting the configuration of the business system, thereby greatly improving the software reusability.

[0027] 3. The present invention has a lower learning cost and can be mastered through simple training. Therefore, the difficulty for subsequent personnel to take over the maintenance of the company's business system is greatly reduced, which reduces the cost of maintaining the system. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] FIG. 1 shows the process of application generation. First, create an application in the console, create a page and a database respectively, bind the database in the page elements, then bind the page to the route, and finally package it into an application to be used on the application side.

[0029] FIG. 2 shows the architecture of the application side. The page renderer first obtains the page configuration through the interface of the DotNet platform, then renders the application page, and then interacts with the application data in the way of RestApi. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0030] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, the specific embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those of ordinary skill in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without creative efforts, and other embodiments can also be obtained.

[0031] As Figure 1 shown is the management background of the present invention, which is responsible for the creation and management of applications, including route management, page management, and database management:

[0032] The administrator creates a new application or selects an existing application in the management background and enters the application management. In the application management, the routes, pages, and databases of this application can be managed to achieve the effect of previous programmers writing application codes. Then the application is packaged and released. The first release is the generation of the application, and subsequent releases are all application version updates. After the release is completed, the application will be displayed in the application foreground, and at this time, the user can use the application.

[0033] Route management is the management of the left-side navigation menu bar of the application, including the first-level menu and the second-level menu. The second-level menu is defaultly collapsed and will expand only when the affiliated first-level menu is selected. If the route is associated with the page, selecting the route will display the page made by the administrator, otherwise a blank page will be displayed.

[0034] The page manager is a management set for specific pages, which can group and filter pages, and determine whether to open the pages within a single application for use by other applications. The specific pages are built by individual components in the page editor. Currently, the component library includes components such as buttons, calendars, statistical charts, data, queries, forms, pictures, announcements, schedules, tab pages, lists, texts, trees, and card columns. In the page editor, the layout of the page can be processed, and then the components can be dragged into the layout. Specific attribute settings can be made within the components to achieve the best display effect.

[0035] Database management is the management of the table structure in the physical database, which is simplified to the editing of several attributes of the table name, field name, field type, associated foreign key, and whether it is the primary key of the table. This greatly reduces the understanding threshold of the database concept for non-technical personnel. When the application is released, the system will automatically create corresponding Mysql data tables according to the set table structure, and any subsequent changes to the table structure will generate a corresponding Sql statement, which will be run during the version release to ensure that the actual table structure used is consistent with what is set by the administrator in the database management.

[0036] As Figure 2 shown is the application front-end of the present invention, which is responsible for running the built application, including a page renderer and a logic operation layer.

[0037] The page renderer is used on the application side to display specific pages. After the user selects an application and enters, the routing information of the application is obtained to render the left navigation bar. Then, after selecting a specific page through the navigation bar, the page information is obtained to render the layout within the page and then fill in each component. Each component has different data bindings, and a data request within the component is sent to the background for data filling and rendering.

[0038] The logic operation layer is a DotNet platform application based on the MVC architecture, which can be deployed on both linux and windows systems. The application release actually compiles and publishes the application made in the management background as a plugin to the DotNet platform. In this way, the database management in the management background is compiled into the code as an entity class. Compared with reading configurations or other ways of customizing the database structure, it improves performance while ensuring flexibility. Moreover, the code is compiled, which can also improve security and avoid code changes caused by accidents.

[0039] Take the personnel management application as an example of the usage mode of the application front end: First, the user enters the website of the application front end. At this time, the login page will be displayed by default. After the user logs in, the user's home page will be displayed. In the application list on the home page, the applications that the current user can enter can be seen. Select to enter the personnel management application. At this time, the front end will request the routing settings of this application from the server, and the left menu bar will be displayed. Click to enter the roster management. At this time, the front end will request the page settings corresponding to this route from the server, and the page renderer will then display this page according to the page settings. Data queries, edits, and additions included in the page will all send requests to the server for the table corresponding to this operation setting to achieve data usage.

[0040] The foregoing has shown and described the basic principles, main features and advantages of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, it is obvious that the present invention is not limited to the details of the above exemplary embodiments, and without departing from the spirit or basic features of the present invention, the present invention can be implemented in other specific forms; therefore, from any point of view, the embodiments should be regarded as exemplary and non-limiting. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the above description. Therefore, it is intended to embrace all changes within the meaning and scope of the equivalent elements of the claims in the present invention, and any reference signs in the claims should not be regarded as limiting the claims involved.

[0041] Although the embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes, modifications, substitutions and variations can be made to these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the present invention. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A zero-code application development platform, characterized in that: It includes two platforms, a control background and an application foreground. The control background is responsible for the creation and management of applications, including routing management, page management, and database management; the application foreground is responsible for running the built applications, including a page renderer and a logic operation layer.

2. A zero-code platform according to claim 1, characterized in that: The routing management is used for the application administrator to set the side menu bar of the website application, which is the entry of the pages in the application; the page management is used for the application administrator to customize the page display of the application, giving the user the ability to freely build pages in a drag-and-drop form, and a set of component libraries are built in, including list components, form components, button components, etc.; the database management is used for managing the table structures in which the data to be stored or queried in the application is stored, including the setting of database fields and simplifying the options that need to be configured.

3. A zero-code platform according to claim 1, characterized in that: The page renderer is a module running in the application foreground, responsible for rendering the page built by the administrator into an interface that can be interacted with by users, and the display form is the same as the result of the administrator's drag-and-drop; The logic operation layer is a DotNet platform application based on the MVC architecture, including the Controller layer, the Dao layer, and the Model layer. Among them, the Controller layer is a RESTful API interface based on HTTP, which is the entry of the application layer and assembles multiple business logics; the Dao layer is used to implement business logics and operations on the database; the Model layer is used to represent the database structure established by the application administrator, and the system establishes a mapping of database data through the Model for the Dao to operate on the database.

4. A zero-code platform according to claim 1, characterized in that: The page management further includes a user interface (UI) builder, a workflow designer, a form designer, a data modeler, and interconnectivity: The user interface (UI) builder: is the central component, used to design and build the user interface of the application. It has a visual drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to select and arrange interface elements. It includes data binding to bind components to data. The workflow designer: allows users to design and configure business processes and logics. It includes a connection to the data table to achieve the coordinated work of processes and data. It represents the workflow in a visual form, which is easy to understand and modify. The form designer: is used to create and manage user forms and data input interfaces. It includes various form elements (such as text boxes, drop-down menus, buttons, etc.). It is closely integrated with the data modeler to ensure the effective collection and management of data. The data modeler: manages the data structure and relationships of the application. It allows users to define and modify data models, such as entities, relationships, and attributes. It provides the ability to integrate data with external databases and systems. The interconnectivity: refers to that each component in the architecture is interconnected through data and control fluidity. The data flow and control flow between components are represented by arrows.

5. A zero-code platform according to claim 4, characterized in that: a layout module is further provided in the page management, and the layout module is used to adjust the display modes such as the layout and sorting of each element in the user interface (UI) builder.

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