Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
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With Morfik 3 beta being available, what happens if I purchase Morfik 2, do I get a free upgrade to Morfik 3 final release?
Yes, you will receive a free upgrade to Morfik 3 if you purchase Morfik 2 while Morfik 3 is in beta.
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Is Morfik license per developer?
Yes, it is. Each Morfik license is a royalty-free perpetual development license with no additional deployment costs.
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How do I know which Morfik product is the right one for me?
In order to give the developers the advantage of using their familiar programing language of choice, Morfik offers three products, namely Morfik BX, Morfik CX and Morfik FX that have the specific framework and sample code for Visual Basic, C# and Object Pascal respectively. The objective is to free the programmer from the need for mastering a new syntax.
If your preferred programming language is Basic then "Morfik BX" is the right product for you. Coming from C++ programming background go for "Morfik CX" and finally "Morfik FX" is the right tool for developers who are familar with Object Pascal language.
It is important to highlight that a project from Morfik BX, FX or CX can be opened, compiled and run in all three Morfik products.
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What’s the difference between the evaluation version and the purchased version of Morfik?
The only difference between the evaluation version and the full version is the limitation on the number of forms, reports and webmethods that can be used within a project. The evaluation version allows you to explore the features of Morfik by creating applications that can use up to 3 forms, 1 report and 1 web method.
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Do I need to buy any third party tools to use Morfik?
No, there is no need for buying or downloading any additional tool when you use Morfik. Everything you need is built into the software and installed on your machine when you install Morfik.
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What is the database server used in Morfik?
Morfik's built-in database server is Firebird relational database server. Firebird is a high performance open source relational database with significantly low memory usage and low maintenance requirements making it ideal for web-based applications. Morfik makes use of many advanced features of Firebird transparently, allowing developers to benefit from them without having to learn how to use them directly. This allows developers to quickly go from being a novice to creating sophisticated data driven applications.
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How do I get started? Is there a “Hello World” example for Morfik?
Morfik’s equivalent of “Hello World” is built into its default project templates.
To see this, please follow the steps below:
1) - Run Morfik
2) - Create a new project by clicking on the “New Project” button on the ribbon (the first button from left).
3) - Choose from the list of available project templates and click OK.
4) - Once the new project is created, hit the run button (the green button on the top left corner)
You should see a Morfik application running in the browser shortly after pressing the run button.
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When does the evaluation version expire?
The evaluation version will run indefinitely, allowing you to fully evaluate Morfik at your convenience.
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Is there a limit in the number of applications that can be developed in Morfik? And are there any additional costs?
No, there is no limit to the size or the number of applications that you can build with Morfik when you purchase a Morfik license.
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Do I need to pay Morfik for the deployment of the applications I create with Morfik?
No, there is no deployment cost when you purchase a development license for Morfik.
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How is it possible to build AJAX applications with Morfik without writing JavaScript?
Being present in all browsers JavaScript has become the native language for programming inside the browser. Created to add some interactivity to HTML pages JavaScript has far exceeded its origins. Due to its origins, JavaScript is not ideally suited for creating applications that are more complex, but it has ended up in that role, being the only alternative in the landscape.
Morfik recognized, several years ago, that the evolution of the Web and the requirements for creating the sophisticated applications of the future would grow in complexity beyond what is reasonable to expect from developers hand coding JavaScript.
Morfik's solution to this growth in complexity is our revolutionary JavaScript Synthesis Technology (JST). Using Morfik, you implement the business logic of your application using a high-level object oriented language and Morfik compiles your code into JavaScript.
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Does Morfik come with a built-in database server?
Morfik offers out-of-the-box support for database programming by including a high performance fully-featured relational database server. Morfik was conceived right from the start with databases in mind. Every Morfik web application has an associated database as part of the project’s structure. You can create new tables and define visual queries in Morfik without having to resort to an external tool.
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Can I deploy my applications to a standard shared hosting environment?
There are two types of applications that you can create with Morfik:
- Standard web applications with built-in database and web server capabilities.
- Browser-only applications
Morfik standard web applications require the Firebird database server to be present on the hosting machine and can be compiled either as stand-alone executable or binary plug-ins. If compiled as a stand-alone executable then you need to acquire a dedicated or virtual server for hosting. If compiled as a binary plug-in the host environment must provide a web server that is capable of hosting ISAPI DLLs or Apache plugins.
Browser applications can be deployed to any standard hosting environment with no special requirement.
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How do I deploy my Morfik web applications?
Morfik provides a number different options for deploying your web solutions. For a complete instruction on how to deploy Morfik web applications please refer to Application Deployment Overview article in Morfik Wiki.
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What is uniquely different about Morfik?
At the heart of Morfik there is a compiler that takes the source code written in a high level object oriented language such as Visual Basic, Pascal and C# and, after enforcing the referential integrity of the entire underlying business logic and code, compiles it into cross browser compatible, highly optimised and efficient JavaScript code. This approach is fundamental to developing large and complex business application because finding and fixing logic bugs at design time are very difficult in interpreted environments such as JavaScript.
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How is Morfik different to other web application design tools?
Morfik integrates all the tools for developing and deploying Rich Internet Applications on the Web 2.0 platform in a uniquely unified environment. No longer are developers forced to use multiple tools from multiple vendors to develop graphics for interface elements, scripts for the browser side code, scripts for the server side business logic, frameworks for interface components, databases for data storage, query engines/designers for data retrieval, report writers for data analysis, code obfuscators for protecting intellectual property, servers for hosting the application as well as utilities such as compilers and debuggers. You will find that all these tools are built into Morfik.
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How does Morfik do page layout differently?
With the exception of Morfik, all current tools for developing Rich Internet Applications focus on the aesthetics of individual graphic elements at run-time and pay little or no attention to the process of layout of the page at design time. The result is inflexible layouts that do not respond well to AJAX techniques where content is dynamically changed without refreshing the page.
Morfik offers a unique way for developers to layout controls on web pages. It allows developers to design pages using a fixed/absolute positioning, which is standard practice amongst software developers, and yet allows for a content-flow layout, which is standard amongst web designers at run-time. The level of plasticity (that is, how fixed or how fluid) can be specified both at design-time as well as run-time.
This unique approach makes page layout infinitely easier for building Rich Internet Applications when compared to the use of conventional HTML editors, and at the same time, all the advantages of the fluid HTML layout are preserved at run time.
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Is the code generated by Morfik cross-browser compatible?
Yes. The generated code by Morfik has cross-browser compatibility. Applications that are created by Morfik (for example this Site) can be accessed by Firefox, IE6, IE7,IE8, Safari, Opera and Chrome browsers. There have been some issues with IE8 beta which we will fix as soon as the final version is released.
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What are the advantages of using Morfik versus hand-coded JavaScript?
1) - By allowing developers to program in an object oriented language, with a syntax similar to one that they have already mastered, Morfik promotes code reuse and offers a base on which to build. This improves the quality of the output, but also significantly reduces the development cost of AJAX applications.
2) – Morfik’s strongly-typed compiled languages follow a rigorous programming model that has made compilers the preferred tool for building large and complex applications.
3) - Compiled code is, by definition, more reliable and scalable than interpreted code. Although the client-side code generated by Morfik is JavaScript, rigorous type-checking and enforcement of referential integrity by the compiler produces more reliable and scalable AJAX.
4) - Programming at a higher level of abstraction than JavaScript/HTML allows the incorporation of new technologies including innovations in HTML/XHTML/DHTML, CSS and JavaScript as they become available. In this way, we can develop these advances without the developer having to do anything to leverage them.
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What is Morfik’s approach to the graphical design aspect of a web application?
For the past decade the web has continuously moved towards visually striking content. The ever-increasing sophistication of web graphics has been primarily driven by the sales and marketing needs of businesses. While eye-catching graphics add beauty to a web page, business applications on the web platform need both beauty and brains! To this end Morfik has strived to strike the correct balance between graphics and business logic.
Morfik provides a wide range of easy-to-use advanced graphical tools without resorting to an external image editing tool or requiring advanced graphics skills on the part of the developer. Based on the developer’s design specification, Morfik automatically generates images at compile time and efficiently incorporates them into HTML and JavaScript at runtime through the highly effective image-bundling technique performed by the compiler. Unlike other tools for building Rich Internet Applications, Morfik achieves this without the need for proprietary extensions for the browser.
Beyond compare for speed and development ease
"I was delighted to discover I could develop an elegant and themed user interface without having to use a graphics program or hire a graphic artist - essentially saving me time and money for a much better result!"
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Michael Duncan (Cyraenian Software and Computer Services)
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