Surround Tech Throttles .NET Code Generator

November 13, 2012 Alex Woodie

Developers will be able to generate completed .NET, Web, and mobile interfaces to IBM i apps more quickly using the latest release of Surround Technologies‘ Accelerator for .NET solution. In addition to cutting down on the number of configuration steps in the product’s wizard, Surround Tech has revamped and streamlined the code generation component, leading to a two-pronged productivity boost in Accelerator for .NET version 3.7, which was unveiled last week.

Accelerator for .NET helps developers to create modern Windows, Web, and mobile interfaces for new or existing applications running on IBM i, Windows, or Microsoft‘s Azure cloud. The Visual Studio plug-in features a collection of pre-assembled components and wizard-driven code generators based on the latest user interface technologies, including Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Silverlight, HTML5, JavaScript, and REST-based Web services.

With version 3.7, Surround Tech has delivered a new UX wizard that streamlines much of the user interface configuration process. Instead of going through 17 or more steps to design a new client interface, the new UX wizard requires only eight steps. Surround Tech says developers can create multiple modules simultaneously using the new wizard, and can add modules to multiple applications using the wizard’s drag-and-drop functions.

The actual code generation process has also been overhauled with version 3.7. Previously, when a developer was done with the UX wizard and hit the “generate” button, Accelerator for .NET product would call on the Development Tools Environment (DTE) component of Visual Studio.

With version 3.7, all code generation is handled completely internally. As a result, the time it takes to generate code has been slashed by 70 percent. Files that previously required three minutes or more to generate are now being generated in a minute and a half, says Surround Tech CEO Lee Paul. “We’ve significantly improved the developers’ performance in terms of what they can create,” he says.

Surround Technologies simplified the layout of Accelerator for .NET with version 3.7 to make designing and generating .NET, Web, and mobile user interfaces faster and easier. (Click graphic to enlarge.)

Paul says the improvements will be a big benefit to customers who are working with dozens or hundreds of files. “With the wizard, it’s one of those things where you want it to be faster, even though it’s already saved you months and months of time,” he says. “We’re fine tuning a lot of the things we have, and making the development experience that much better.”

Version 3.7 brings several other enhancements, including better memory management; a new Event Log that captures all client-side events; new default data display options; new filtering functions when displaying data in a grid; and better support for systems in different time zones.

Accelerator for .NET also features better integration with newlook, the 5250 modernization tool from looksoftware. The new Event Log can capture all events occurring in newlook, and make them available to the developer for testing and debugging. Accelerator for .NET and newlook are often deployed together. In fact, looksoftware’s re:new product combines Accelerator for .NET tools with its own screen modernization software.

Surround Tech, which is based in New Jersey, is already working on Accelerator for .NET version 4.0, which is due next year. For more information on the product, see the company’s website at www.surroundtech.com.