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Graphical Application Designer

NOMADS Graphical Toolkit

The PxPlus Non-procedural Object Module Application Development System (NOMADS) is an integrated programming environment for the development of complex GUI-based applications. NOMADS is bundled with the PxPlus Development System and is fully integrated with the PxPlus graphical program editor.*

This set of highly advanced Rapid Application Development (RAD) tools makes it easy to develop user-friendly interfaces, controls, and dialogues in harmony with existing character-based applications. In addition, you can move your NOMADS GUI applications to UNIX seamlessly using PxPlus thin-client technologies (WindX).

NOMADS employs a top-down approach that streamlines and simplifies development tasks, optimizes system resources, and saves time. It enables you to:

  • Separate your data, logic, presentation text, and images into reusable segments.
  • Localize and simplify changes to your applications.
  • Integrate NOMADS-built applications with other types of applications.
  • Design event-driven applications.

The system features a common data manager for consistent access to a variety of data files. It also facilitates the conversion from character-based to GUI functionality by allowing you to run graphical and character-based application components concurrently.

NOMADS Engine

The powerful run-time engine, *winproc, works behind the scenes to process the components you built in NOMADS, and effectively ties them together into an attractive, user-friendly, GUI application.

NOMADS Toolset at a Glance

  • NOMADS Panel Designer
    Build event-driven graphical screens quickly and easily.
  • Data Dictionary
    Create standard data definitions for your application.
  • File Maintenance
    Generate maintenance screens and programs for your data.
  • Query Manager
    Build a collection of custom relational queries.
  • Message Manager
    Maintain message libraries for your prompts, warnings, and errors.
  • Security Manager
    Control access to screens and objects to prevent unauthorized access.

Product Licensing

The NOMADS toolset is a part of the PxPlus Base System license.

Build GUI control objects quickly and easily with the NOMADS Panel Designer

Use the NOMADS Panel Designer to create portable, reusable common control objects, including:

  • Buttons
  • Check Boxes
  • Radio Buttons
  • Drop Boxes
  • List Boxes
  • Multi Lines
  • Scroll Bars
  • Dialogue Boxes
  • COM Controls
  • Menu Bars
  • Popup Menus
  • Message Bars
  • Tree Views
  • List Views
  • Grids
  • Frames
  • Charting Controls
  • Lines and Shapes

The Panel Designer allows you to produce graphical control objects and panels, set up event processing and field validation, and create application menus. You can assign your objects’ properties (such as position, size, font, alignment, and status signals) as well as:

  • Define Drag & Drop events for input controls.
  • Set up Dependency Tables to hide/show/enable/disable specified controls under different circumstances.
  • Define how controls will behave (in terms of size and location) when panels are resized.
  • Set up simple internal help on an individual control basis.

Protect your system using the NOMADS Security Manager. Use the Security Manager component to protect your applications from unauthorized viewing. The Security Manager allows you to control access to a specific screen or individual components on the screen.

Achieve consistent file structures with the NOMADS Data Dictionary

Define and maintain data definitions on a file-by-file basis. The data definition can be embedded right in the physical file, which allows you to separate the IOLISTs from your code and ensure standardized definitions for the entire application. Also, program references can be embedded for event-triggered I/O instructions.

Generate master file maintenance panels using the NOMADS File Maintenance system

The NOMADS File Maintenance system automatically creates a file maintenance panel for any file defined in the Data Dictionary. These panels can be used to invoke either a generic or custom file maintenance program that allows you to insert, update, and delete records, as well as browse the file.

Set up online queries with the NOMADS Query Manager

With NOMADS, you can set up query objects, including relational queries. The Query Manager uses the data dictionaries built with the NOMADS Data Dictionary component, as well as manual file definitions and references to ODBC tables.

Separate your message text from your applications using the NOMADS Message Manager

The NOMADS Message Manager maintains message libraries outside the programs that call them. This component allows you to set up a library for standard prompts, warnings, and error messages that can be easily updated, or translated for multilingual applications.