Domino Interface

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, the use of spreadsheets is the largest and number one method used to create situational apps.  In part 2 of this blog series, we will do a comparison between using spreadsheets versus no-code/low-code tools to create situational apps. Click on the link below to continue reading about this comparison. https://iphora.io/iphora.nsf/blogentry?open=VQ34NT01

As the name implies, situational apps are on-demand apps that are created in response to a specific business situation (or need) that may arise infrequently. In general, the productivity gains attributed to a situational app are limited to only a few occasions a year and to few individuals. Therefore, most corporations are unlikely to devote significant resources to the development of such apps, and typical develop cycles may be so long that the situation itself will have expired before a professionally-developed app is ready. To continue reading more about how important situational apps are go to our iPhora blog at: https://iphora.io/iphora.nsf/blogentry?open=0F71X90S

We all think of online collaboration and business process automation as a modern concept that is only possible with the power of computers and the internet. My partner Robert Burton whom is somewhat of a history buff has an interesting history of business process collaboration that may surprise you. So, for some light and interesting reading open our latest blog post.  https://iphora.io/iphora.nsf/blogentry?open=ZXLW53VT

Now that you have downloaded and installed iPhora Automate - Basic onto your HCL Domino server,  what's next. It is time to create your first workflow app using iPhora Automate - Basic. To help you create your first app, we have created a library of training videos covering the basics of iPhora Automate and how to create an app. Each video takes you through a step-by-step process in building, assembling and deploying an app in iPhora Automate.  Currently, there are 45 videos in this library with dozens of new videos in production that covers both beginner and advanced topics. In addition to these tutorial, we have more training content coming soon that highlights the different types of apps you can create using iPhora Automate. To access these videos go to: https://iphora.io/iphora.nsf/courses And start accelerating your business through automation.

We are pleased to announce the release of iPhora Automate - Basic, the freemium edition of our Domino-based automation platform.  This limited edition allows you to create and deploy up to 10 workflow apps each can have unlimited flows for up to 10 workflow participants.  Unlike some public cloud-based solutions, your flows never expire. A valid HCL Domino license for the number of users is required.  We recommend that you install it on a HCL Domino server running 12.02 FP4 or higher for Windows, Linux or IBMi. Go to https://iphora.io to download your copy of iPhora Automate - Basic. Instructions for installing iPhora Automate - Basic can be found here: https://iphora.io/iphora.nsf/documents To learn how to create your own workflow apps go to the iPhora Learning content: https://iphora.io/iphora.nsf/courses

Welcome to the final post of "The iPhora Journey". Our goal as we started this journey was to take the HCL Domino platform that we loved for more than 25 years and redefining a web application running on Domino.  iPhora was created originally to allow us to provide a flexible platform for building secure web-based applications for our customers as part of our consulting services. However, it has now evolved into a platform that customers and partners can build their own solutions with the emphasis on user-driven workflow applications and process automation. As an integrated application platform, you can build web applications in a variety of different ways with HCL Domino. In designing iPhora, we looked at the architecture of other platforms, identified their key features and determine how it could be implemented within the capabilities and limitations of HCL Domino and utilized its flexible architecture to the fullest. We went through many iterations and versions always with...

This post was to be the final post of our "The iPhora Journey" series and summarize our entire journey and what we created.  However, as I was preparing the final post I realize there was one item that I hadn't discussed. That is the experience of purchasing a product and installing it onto a Domino server. So, Part 14 will be the final post of this series. Whether you are purchasing a product that you really want or paying bills online, purchasing services or products online has become the norm.  For a new product launch we wanted this easy-to-buy and deploy experience. Depending on the version of our product, different features are enabled. If a customer wants to upgrade the product to a more advanced version, the experience should be as easy as signing up for the upgrade, paying and the new features should available in the customer's installation. This is expected for most public cloud-based solutions. However, not so easy for private cloud/on-premises solutions. N...

Public vs Private In the digital automation market, which includes workflow and business process automation, there are literally dozens of no-code or low-code platforms available as public cloud solutions. They range from products like Zapier to Tray.io. In general, they all provide easy-to-use interfaces for assembling cloud services together in order to automate processes. Some are geared towards individual users and some towards enterprise businesses. However, aside from the ones intended for individuals or very small businesses, they may require some significant setup, configuration, and administration. Public cloud-based solutions have a number of advantages for process automation. You can sign up and get access to these services within minutes and have a new process up and running in a relatively short time. However, the majority of these solutions operate by routing your data (and the subsequent responses) through a series of different cloud services. Not only is your process de...

The world of data processing is far different than it was 10 years ago.  More and more of it is being done externally by highly specialized service providers. This enables companies to utilize the best available services -- without having to reinvent the wheel -- and incorporate those services into their core business processes. The resulting approach is also more agile, enabling companies to respond quickly to ever-changing business needs. You can think of your business users as your subject matter experts. They are the ones who have first hand, daily experience with your data and processes. In a perfect world, they are the people who would be designing your processes, and in today's environment, that means taking full advantage of external services. Your IT administrators are the gatekeepers. They are charged with protecting your business from threats and maintaining the security of your data. The last thing they want to see are your business users exposing the company's data...

In the last post, we discussed the use of flow-based programming for creating user interfaces. In this post, we introduce the ActionStream, which is the the foundational flow-based component in iPhora. A workflow process consists of series of nodes that are connected together. iPhora AppBuilder supports many different types of nodes, including task nodes, notification nodes, and branching nodes, as well as a wide range of action nodes. A sequence of actions that are connected together is referred to as a flow. During our 20+ years of experience in automating processes, we encountered many situations where the same repetitive flow occurred within different processes.  Therefore, it would be beneficial if it were possible to reuse the same flow in multiple processes and applications. This led directly to the development of the ActionStream, which is a reusable sequence of action nodes, in other words a reusable flow. Originally, ActionStreams were just a way to quickly implement cust...

In general, for non-software developers aka business users, an Application is one single object that they download and install onto their device whether a phone or laptop. It may also be a solution that they can access from their web browser. It may contain a series of screens that they navigate between as they use it.  The Application most likely includes many components working in unisons some in the background and some generating the visual interface that they see. The Application may have many screens and visual design elements. For example, you might have a dashboard that shows aggregated data, a grid that list documents, or a form that users will use to fill out data.  Many solutions layout out the different screens using a tree structure that shows the relationships between screens.  Usually, you build the connections between the pages by selecting actions within a screen. For example, in Microsoft Power App. the tree structure looks like: However, we wanted a more...

By trade, I am an Electrical Engineer with a specialty in Microwave Engineering. And as part of my education, I had to take courses in process and industrial engineering which involved process optimization and automation. I hated these two courses and naively thought I would never ever use the information that I learned in these two courses. I only had interest in the technical aspect of engineering and with my first job out of college that is what I did. Never did I ever thought that I would spend the past 20 years focused on stuff that I hated in college. The concepts of iPhora came out of issues that we encountered as we rapidly grew another business many years ago from which spawn our business process automation business which we have been doing for the past 20 years. For the past few years, we have been transforming our consulting service platform into a commercial off-the-shelf product that focuses on the business user as the target audience. We would like to introduce iPhora Aut...

After my last post in this series -- way back in September 2022, several things happened that prevented any further installments. First came CollabSphere 2022 and then CollabSphere 2023, and organizing international conferences can easily consume all of one's spare time. Throughout this same time period, our product development efforts continued at full speed and are just now coming to fruition, which means it is finally time to continue our blog series. So let's get started... As developers, most of us create applications through the conscious act of programming, either procedural, as many of us old-timers grew up with, or object-oriented, which we grudgingly had to admit was better. This is true whether we are using Java, LotusScript, C++ or Rust on Domino. (By the way, does anyone remember Pascal? When I was in school, I remember being told it was the language of the future, but for some reason it didn't seem to survive past the MTV era).  But in the last decade, there a...