Topincs is a software for rapid development of web databases and web applications. It is based on
LAMP
Lamp, Lamps or LAMP may refer to:
Lighting
* Oil lamp, using an oil-based fuel source
* Kerosene lamp, using kerosene as a fuel
* Electric lamp, or light bulb, a replaceable component that produces light from electricity
* Light fixture, or li ...
and the semantic technology
Topic Maps
A topic map is a standard for the representation and interchange of knowledge, with an emphasis on the findability of information. Topic maps were originally developed in the late 1990s as a way to represent back-of-the-book index structures ...
. A Topincs web database makes information accessible through browsing very much like a Wiki. Editing a page on a subject is done through forms rather than markup editing. A web database can be tailored into a web application to provide specific user groups a contextualized approach to the data.
All modeling and development tasks are performed in the
web browser
A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...
. No other development tools are necessary. The server requires
Apache,
MySQL
MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database ...
and
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. ...
. The client works on any standards-compliant web browser on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. The layout is automatically adjusted to smaller screens.
The programmatic access to data is done via a virtual
object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of ...
interface which is set up over the schema in a few minutes. It is interpreted rather than generated. Portions of the database can be pulled into memory to accelerate bulk access.
Features
* Browseable data
* High-quality web forms
* Little to no programming
* Development done in the browser, no other tools required
* Client runs in any standard-compliant web browser
* Virtual object-oriented programming interface
* User interface adjusts to screen size
* Supports desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones
* Flexible data modeling
Challenges
* Requires rethinking the development process and dropping many hard learned habits
* Requires a familiarity with two ISO standards ISO 13259 and 19756
* Forms cannot be easily adjusted in layout and behavior
* Server installation difficult and prone to error
License
Topincs can be used in a private network for any purpose for free. The use in a public network is restricted to non-commercial applications.
See also
*
Topic Maps
A topic map is a standard for the representation and interchange of knowledge, with an emphasis on the findability of information. Topic maps were originally developed in the late 1990s as a way to represent back-of-the-book index structures ...
*
Rapid application development
Rapid application development (RAD), also called rapid application building (RAB), is both a general term for adaptive software development approaches, and the name for James Martin's method of rapid development. In general, RAD approaches to ...
*
Metamodeling
A metamodel or surrogate model is a model of a model, and metamodeling is the process of generating such metamodels. Thus metamodeling or meta-modeling is the analysis, construction and development of the frames, rules, constraints, models and ...
References
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External links
Official websiteTopincs: A software for rapid development of web databases
{{GUI builders
Web frameworks
Cross-platform mobile software
Development toolkits and libraries
Computer libraries
Web development software
Integrated development environments
User interface builders