Applang (APPlication LANGuage) is a domain specific language (DSL) for specification and rapid development of applications for mobile devices.
Currently it generates source code for Android applications, which are runnable upon generation. iOS and Windows Phone applications are planned for the future.
Run setup.py install in the root folder of the repository using Python (tested with Python 2.7). For example, the terminal command is
python setup.py installThe installation will also installed the required package textX.
To generate the android source code of an application written in applang, use the gen_apps_from_textx_file function defined in the generator module. The function requires two parameters, the file that contains the application written in applang, and the output directory.
The following example generates an application from the example_textx.alang file to the folder gen relative to the current folder.
from generator import gen_apps_from_textx_file
gen_apps_from_textx_file("example_textx.alang", "gen")The following example shows the applang model written for an application that handles the following entities:
Country, Town and Company.
Countries can have multiple towns, Towns can have multiple companies, and Companies can have multiple subcompanies.
The model also contains the config, which states information about the application, such as the name, namespace and platforms on which to generate.
config {
app_name = ApplangGenApp
app_label = "Applang Generated App"
namespace = applang
db_version = 3
start_screen = Country
platforms = android, ios
android_specs
{
sdk_path = "/home/kosan/software/android-sdk-linux"
}
}
entity Country {
operations(listall, create, edit, delete)
attributes
{
code:
string(required, unique, searchable, readonly)
name:
string(required, unique, searchable, toString)
flag:
image
}
}
entity Town ("Town") {
operations(edit, delete, listall, create)
attributes
{
name:
string(required, searchable, toString)
postCode ("Post code"):
numeric_string(required)
country:
Country(required, searchable, viewFromContainer)
population:
int
}
unique(name, country)
}
entity Company {
operations(listall, create, edit, delete)
attributes
{
name:
string (required, searchable, toString ,readonly)
vatNumber ("VAT number"):
numeric_string (required, unique)
domestic:
bool (readonly, excludeFromList)
town:
Town (required, searchable, viewFromContainer)
descr ("Description"):
textarea_string (excludeFromList, readonly)
parentCompany ("Parent company"):
Company (viewFromContainer)
telephone:
telephone_type (excludeFromList)
foundingDate("Founding date"):
date (excludeFromList)
address:
address_type (excludeFromList)
}The following images show screenshots from the application that was generated using the above example model.
Window that shows the list of countries (unaltered to the left, and altered using hand-written code to the right)
Window for listing and searching towns
Windows for list of companies (left) and details of a specific company (right)
