Blaise NG Progress

The last couple of months, we have made a lot of progress with the Blaise NG project. Time for an update!
Click on the following link to see the components that are needed to complete Phase 1:
Blaise NG Phase 1 Architecture

Blaise NG Control Centre

The Blaise NG Control Centre is an important part of Phase 1. Our primary goal for this program is to be able to create and/or edit Blaise data models, and compile them into Blaise NG meta and layout files.
As mentioned in my previous blog entry about Phase 1, we have three designers for data models: a text editor, a graphical rules designer and a layout designer.

Text Editor:
Click on the following link to see how the Text Editor will look:
Text Editor Preview

Rules Designer:
Our initial thought was to use an existing graphical library (ILOG) to produce the output we wanted. Unfortunately, the ILOG components didn't prove to be the solution to our problem. We have recently decided to drop the ILOG components completely, and build the Rules Designer in WPF. Alas, no preview for the rules designer yet.

Layout Designer:
We have looked at several programs, and we have decided that Microsoft Powerpoint has many similarities to our Layout Designer. We have therefore adopted the layout that Microsoft uses in Powerpoint. Click on the following links to see the progress we are making:
Layout Designer Preview 1
Layout Designer Preview 2
Layout Designer Preview 3

XML2BMI

Phase 1 focuses on compatibility. To ensure compatibility (and to limit the scope of Phase 1), we want to reuse the Blaise 4.8 API service to handle the execution of rules. To accomplish this, the XML2BMI component will transform Blaise NG meta files into Blaise 4.8 meta files, which can then be used by the Blaise 4.8 API service.
Transforming the Blaise NG meta files into Blaise 4.8 meta files is not an easy task. It's going to take a lot of time to complete this task.

Blaise NG API

The Blaise NG API will contain all the logic necessary for the Blaise NG Data Entry Program to function properly. Its main functions will be:

• Provide access to metadata (get information on fields)
• Provide logic to access to databases (read/write records)
• Provide logic to execute the rules of a data model
• Provide access to the layout of pages and questions

For several parts of this logic, we will connect to the Blaise 4.8 API service to cough up the result. For others, we will need the Blaise NG Meta and Layout files.

Blaise NG DEP

The Blaise NG Data Entry Program will be available in two flavors:

• A Windows-based DEP, written in WPF
• A Web-based DEP, which uses Silverlight

The trick is to use the same code base for both alternatives. As Silverlight is a subset of WPF, we cannot make use of the complete functionality of WPF. Luckily, Microsoft is still working on Silverlight, hopefully improving the compatibility with WPF. We found an example, which shows a very neat Silverlight application. Click on this link to see the application. If it works (and I am not sure it does, because it uses some beta stuff), select the New Account option on the left hand side, and choose the 401k of 529 account.