Yesterday we had our first "semi-serious" release of
Ra-Brix [version 0.6], and I don't know any better ways to describe what this means other than by using words such as revolution, magical, game-changing and so on...
Its most important feature was obviously a *KICK-ASS* skin ... ;)
The whole point about Ra-Brix is that it completely revolutionizes and changes every assumption that a sane human being would under normal circumstances make about building web-applications. Too good to be true you say...? Well read these facts and make up your own mind ... ;)
- Ra-Brix makes it possible to reuse 95% of all your application code in all of your projects
- It also eliminates 95% of Time2Market when building software for your clients
- On top of that it makes your apps several orders of magnitudes easier to maintain
- Which obviously leads to you being more attractive to people of the opposite sex ... ;)
Obviously the last one is not necessarily true, but at least you'll have more spare-time to spend on people belonging to the opposite sex. Now the geeky look in your eyes, which might do damage to your appeal, is entirely up to yourself to fix ...
Most of my readers have by now seen the
O2 Software Process Video and hopefully also read the O2 Software Process Manifesto that can be found at the same link. Ra-Brix perfectly implements every single idea from the O2 Software Process and is a 100% perfect example of an
"O2 Architecture". And that's the secret! Ra-Brix implements:
- Active Modules
- Active Controllers
- Active Types
- Active Events
- ...and the Application Pool and Viewports
This means that instead of creating several monolithic applications, where the smallest building block is the whole application itself, you can build several smaller "components" - which together forms your "application". Then whenever you need a Login Control, Contact Manager, Notes Module, etc - you can use one you've already implemented in a previous system. Ra-Brix makes it possible for even Morte Developers to create reusable building blocks, with no dependencies, zero versioning problems and code which 100% perfectly implements Separation of Concerns - at ALL levels...!
So instead of banging your head against the wall, trying to generalize your code into a range of DLLs, interfaces and APIs, you get all this for *free* when using Ra-Brix...
Pretty bold statement, I know, but don't take my words for it.
Ra-Brix is *OPEN SOURCE* and freely available to use in any type of projects you wish to build yourself. So
download Ra-Brix and test out my claims for yourself.
Here's a small "promo video" we've created in case you still need some more convincing. I guarantee you that if you're not 100% convinced yet, you *will* be after watching this movie...
PS!
Once you've downloaded Ra-Brix, all you need to do is to create a new database [in MS SQL], modify the web.config to point to this database, and double-click the .bat file inside of Ra-Brix to fire up WebDev. You will need Visual Studio installed locally anyway though, since the sample download relies on Cassini. [WebDev]
PS2!
Ra-Brix requires more than medium trust, so if you want to use it with a hosting provider you'll need to make sure they support either full trust, or at least that you can install Virtual File Providers and run Reflection on your code. I found a really *GREAT* hosting provider today, which is the one we're using for the
Ra-Brix website itself, which you can find here;
DiscountASP. They've got a *kick-ass* control panel, tons of options and things to make sure you're configured just as you need to, and they're *WAY* cheap. But the most important feature is that they're running their websites in *full trust*...! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM...!!
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