Code On Time

What it is

Code On Time is a web application generator. You point it at a database, press Generate, and it produces a working business web app. The company's comparison page puts it this way: "In minutes you'll have an AJAX integrated web app with sorting, adaptive filtering, searching, charting, reporting, data sheet view, and much more." It is built for developers and technical teams who need internal tools, database front ends and line-of-business applications, and who want to own the code that comes out.

The server side is based on Microsoft.NET, and the generated ASP.NET code comes out in C# or Visual Basic.NET. The databases the company lists are SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, SQLAnywhere, DB2, PostgreSQL and SQL Azure.

What you build and how

The workflow is a loop. According to the home page: "Point, click, and drag to configure your app. Shape your data with the Model Builder. Optionally configure app behavior with the Project Designer. Customize code with Visual Studio if needed. Repeat as necessary." The generator is a desktop tool that works without an internet connection. A developer can use a local database on a laptop, which the page pitches as working "even on a plane."

What comes out is a web app described as "MVC specialized for LOB", with the line "Build applications - not pages." Every list is a grid with sorting and filtering handled by the client framework, a Quick Find box and a search bar. Deep search lets users explore relationships between records. A Data Sheet view offers Excel-style editing in the browser, and the comparison page says it works in major browsers with no plugins. A Chart view is available as well. Users can print a report of any grid or form to Excel, Word, PDF or TIFF, and export to CSV, a spreadsheet or a Word document. They can also create RSS feeds of sorted and filtered data, which the company says may remove the need to write email notifications.

The interface adapts to the screen. The home page describes responsive design for "Desktops. Tablets. Phones", with feature parity across devices. The Touch UI is the modern interface, and a classical interface supports older Internet Explorer versions 7, 8 and 9. Pages can carry icons: the Touch UI shows up to five page icons in a Quick Launch area at the bottom of the sidebar, and the company's tutorials show how to assign them from the Project Designer. Other listed touches include a built-in barcode reader that scans 1-D and 2-D codes with the device camera, a reading pane, virtual keyboards for numbers and telephones, dark and light theme detection, and support for barcodes, QR codes and RFID tags with Kiosk UI. The apps are installable from browsers and the page calls them store-ready.

Behavior comes from business rules. The home page lists SQL, Code, Email and JavaScript business rules: send emails in response to user actions, validate input, log activity and invoke code, with rules executing on the client or on the server. Conditional styling uses a library of glyphicons, with conditional expressions that change icons and backgrounds depending on each row's values. Custom actions are added through the designer, and the blog shows a "Ship Order" action appearing in the grid context menu, the sidebar and the bottom of the form after you configure it.

Security is part of the generated app. Add ASP.NET Membership for a User and Role Manager, Remember Me, Sign Up and Forgot Your Password. If you already designed your own security system, you can define custom membership tables and fields, and Windows and Active Directory security are supported. The home page also lists 2-factor authentication.

Data moves in through bulk import of CSV, XLS or XLSX files, and out through the integrated RESTful API. That API lets external apps and services "perform the same operation your users can," relies on the data model to execute requests, and takes permissions for each user, role, model or request type. The page also advertises RESTful web apps with hypermedia, building a Level 3 REST API without coding.

Integration reaches into portals. You can embed grids, forms and reports with enterprise security and connect to SharePoint or DotNetNuke portals. A DotNetNuke Factory creates DNN modules ready to deploy. A 2017 blog post explains that apps made with Code On Time and Cloud On Time can also run in SaaS mode inside DotNetNuke, SharePoint Online and Google G-Suite, with the host performing authentication.

Deployment is up to you. The home page offers "rapid Azure deployment", or you deploy the code to your local server or a cloud provider you prefer.

Licensing and what the pages say

The site publishes no prices, plans or trial terms; its menu carries Buy, Download and Demo links. What it does state is the ownership model: "No black boxes or closed-source DLLs. The entire generated source code is yours to keep. Licenses are for developer seats only." That is the commercial point of the product. If you build with it, you hold the source for what you generated, and you are not paying for end users of the app. The data access approach supports the same idea. SQL statements are created on the fly, and "there are no stored procedures or custom code added to the database, keeping the app light and portable."

Beyond grids and forms, the home page lists several presentation options that come with every app. Built-in pivoting draws area, bar, column, donut, geo, map, line, pie and scatter charts, and the company says you can design your own dashboards from them, with any grouping, sorting or filtering carried through to the chart. Dates can go on a calendar with day, week, month, year and agenda views and drag-and-drop scheduling. Address data shows on interactive maps with integrated Street View. Offline Sync lets the same app work offline and online, and the apps are Progressive Web Apps. A Content Management System switches on when you install a "Site Content" table in your database, so pages, images and files can be added at runtime, with access control rules and app behavior changed for particular users and roles on a schedule you create. Access control rules can use the user's ID, name or roles and extend to multi-tenant applications. Multiple language support detects the browser's language, lets users switch with a dropdown and offers automatic translation of text. Custom reports can be designed with RDLC.

The home page says "thousands of projects were built by our customers", and the comparison page says several customers have built and maintained web applications with more than 300 tables. On support, a customer quoted on the home page credits help from "the forum from other users and from COT employees" and mentions a paid WebEx service for custom solutions, and the comparison page offers free live presentations conducted by developers. The blog adds tutorials on custom actions, page icons, themes and the Cloud On Time hosted variant.

Who it suits and who it does not

Code On Time suits a developer or small technical team that already has a database and needs an admin or line-of-business front end quickly, especially in a Microsoft shop. Because the output is source code in C# or Visual Basic.NET, an agency can generate a first version, then hand-edit it in Visual Studio when a client asks for something unusual. An IT group that wants to keep control of hosting and avoid per-user fees will like the developer-seat licensing.

It is a weaker fit for a non-technical founder. The tool revolves around a database schema, a designer and an ASP.NET project, so some developer comfort is assumed, and the page itself says to "customize code with Visual Studio if needed." It is also tied to the .NET stack, so a team standardized on another language will not get the same benefit from the generated source. Some of the tutorial posts on the blog date from 2017, so parts of the documentation are older than the current release.