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Get started with Omnis Studio

by Sukrit Dhandhania

Omnis Studio is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac and Linux) Rapid Application


Development tool. It allows you to quickly build applications using a combination of
graphical elements as well as a code editor. In this tutorial we look at installation on an
Ubuntu computer and getting familiar with the excellent tools it provides…

Advisor:
Sukrit Dhandhania
Sukrit has spent many years working professionally, implementing several open source tools for
companies. During this time he has evaluated, set up and maintained various virtualisation
projects for these firms

Resources:
Omnis Studio Cross-platform Rapid Application Development tool

Omnis Studio is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac and Linux) Rapid Application Development
tool. It allows you to quickly build applications using a combination of graphical elements as well
as a code editor. It integrates the graphical interface, database and other elements of your
application to make things easy for you. We’ll look at how to get Omnis Studio installed on an
Ubuntu computer and then we’ll get familiar with the tools that it provides us with.

Installation
01 As we are using an Ubuntu-based computer we can not use the RPM binaries provided by
Tiger Logic. Instead, we will use the ‘.tgz’ version of the application installer. So go ahead and
download the latest release of Omnis Studio from the project’s download section here.

02 As many of the steps during the installation require administrator privileges, you could either
use sudo for the commands or switch to the root user. To switch to the root user, use the
command ‘# sudo bash’in a terminal window. You will be requested to enter your user’s
password. Then you should be the root user.

03 Create the directory where you want to install Omnis Studio. We installed it under
‘/usr/local/’. Use the command ‘sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/tigerlogic/’ to create the directory. Once
the download is complete, extract the file using the command ‘# sudo tar -zxf Omnis-Studio-
5.0.i386.tgz -c /usr/local/tigerlogic/’. This command will create a new directory and extract the
Omnis Studio files under ‘/usr/local/tigerlogic/os50’.

04 Kick off the installation by changing into the Omnis directory, ‘# cd /usr/local/tigerlogic/os50’.
Now execute the script ‘omset’ by running ‘./omset’. This script will create a new file, ‘omnisI386’
in the directory. ‘omnisI386’ is the launch script for Omnis Studio. You need to execute this
script every time you want to launch Omnis Studio.

05 Let’s wrap up the installation by setting the user permissions to the Omnis Studio directory.
Execute the command ‘# chmod -R 775 /usr/local/tigerlogic/’ to set the correct permissions to
the Omnis files. Then run ‘# chown -R calvin:calvin /usr/local/tigerlogic/’ to become the owner of
the Omnis files. Replace ‘calvin:calvin’ with your username, followed by the name of the group
your user is in.
06 The installation is now complete. You may log out of the root user in the terminal window. To
launch Omnis Studio, execute the script ‘/usr/local/tigerlogic/os50/omnisI386’. You should be
presented with a window asking you to enter the serial number for the product. You can get a
free serial from here if you haven’t bought a copy. Then you’ll be asked to agree to the
company’s terms and conditions. If you choose to agree, you will see the Omnis Studio main
interface pop up.

y Sukrit Dhandhania

Omnis Studio is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac and Linux) Rapid Application


Development tool. It allows you to quickly build applications using a combination of
graphical elements as well as a code editor. In this tutorial we look at installation on an
Ubuntu computer and getting familiar with the excellent tools it provides…

Using Omnis
07 Once you have launched Omnis Studio you should see a few windows on your screen. You’ll
have a menu bar at the top of the screen, the Studio Browser window and a help window. The
menu bar at the top stays static across all windows and projects, and you can get rid of the help
window if you don’t want it. The Studio Browser is where all the magic happens.

08 The Studio Browser contains four tabs. The Libraries tab contains all the windows, reports
and other classes you create for your projects. The Datafiles tab stores the data files required
by your projects; the SQL browser is where you manage the database connections and
databases used by your projects; and the VCS is a version control system, much like SVN or
CVS, brought to you by Omnis.

09 To begin using Omnis, first start by creating a library. Click on the Libraries tab in the Studio
Browser. Click on the link ‘New Library’ in the right pane of the Browser. Pick a location and a
name for your new project, then hit the Save button. Your new project should appear under the
Libraries tab. Take a peek at the files it has created to familiarise yourself with the workings of
Omnis Studio.
Set up database
10 Next up we need to set up a database connection. Click on the SQL Browser tab. Then click
on the New Session button to create a new database session template. In the window that pops
up, enter the details required to access your database server and database – the hostname,
username and password, database type, and a name for the connection. Hit ‘OK’ once you are
done. This database session will now be saved along with others. In the Session Manager, hit
the Back button and click on the Open Session button. Now click on the name of the database
connection you just set up. You should see the new connection displayed in the main pane of
the window, and also under the SQL Browser tab.

11 Once your connection has been set up, you can browse through the data in the tables by
double-clicking on the active connection. Then double-click on the table you want to browse. A
window will pop up, displaying all the data and indexes which form part of the table.

12 We just viewed the database-level data in a table in the previous step. Omnis allows you to
also actually view the data in a browser. This feature is particularly useful when developing a
web-based data archiving tool. To access this view, select the table you want to browse and
click on the ‘Show Data’ link. An Interactive SQL browser will open, with which you can browse
graphically through your database data.

13 One of the great things about using a Rapid Application Development tool is that it makes
tasks that require several steps pretty much automated. Omnis does the same for generating
table schemas. To create a schema of your database table, drag the table icon and drop it
into Libraries>Project. Make sure that your project folder has been expanded so you can do this
easily. Once you do this you will find a new file created in the project, with the name of your
table. This is the schema for that table. Double-click it to browse through it.

Omnis Studio is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac and Linux) Rapid Application


Development tool. It allows you to quickly build applications using a combination
of graphical elements as well as a code editor. In this tutorial we look at installation
on an Ubuntu computer and getting familiar with the excellent tools it provides…

Using forms
14 Another extremely useful feature in Omnis Studio is the form creator module. Omnis can
guide you through this part using carefully defined steps. To begin, select the project you are
working on in the left pane of the Studio Browser. On the right pane you will see several
options, one of which is ‘Class Wizard’. Click on that option.

15 Now follow the steps and select the options you want to use to create your form. The wizard
allows you to create windows, reports, search modules and other things. Once you run through
the options, you will be taken to a screen like the one in the screenshot below, where you can
edit the appearance of this module.
16 If you want to customise the form a bit more, you can go back to the project library and right-
click on the Class icon. You will see several options here which allow you to customise your
class. You can edit the methods used by it or you can edit its appearance. Just about every part
of your application is available to you, in code as well as to edit graphically.

17 Now that you have a form and a database for your application, it’s time to attach a database
query to connect these two components together. Select the project icon and create a new
class of type Query. Pick a name for it and then double-click on its icon to open it in the Query
Editor. The editor allows you to drag and drop elements from the DB schema into the Query
window to create queries.

18 Although Omnis Studio is a great RAD and has several very useful tools that allow you to
create most of the desired elements in your web application, there are times when you’ll want to
hand-code a part of it, or edit what has been automatically generated by Omnis Studio. That’s
when you open the file containing the element’s code in the Omnis IDE. To do so, right-click on
the file and click on the Methods option. This will open the file in the code editor.

Test your application


19 Once you have got some bits and pieces of your application up and running, you can begin
testing individual modules. For example, once you have the front end and the back end of a
form window sorted out, you can test it out. To do so, click on the Class icon for the form and
then hit the key combination,Ctrl+T. You should now see a functional version of your window
pop up.

Omnis Studio is a great Rapid Application Development platform. It can be particularly useful to
generate quick prototypes of your applications. The interface of the platform is simple, yet it is
packed with all the features needed to build a 21st Century web application.

This article originally appeared in issue 84 of Linux User & Developer magazine.

Linux User & Developer, one of the nation’s favourite Linux and Open Source publications, is
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