Polymath Business Systems President Drawing on his diverse background in the physical and social sciences, the business world, and the visual and performing arts, David has become well known as a trainer in computer software since he began Polymath Business Systems in 1982. He has specialized in training people to more effectively use Omnis database products since 1984, having written two books on Omnis 3 Plus, various contributed articles and the technical journal OmniScience for Omnis 5 and Omnis 7 in addition to presenting classes on Omnis Studio around the world. He has also written the main article for the monthly technical publication Omnis Tech News from Raining Data since it began publication in early 2001. He continues to expand the Omnis Reference Library book series and the Advanced Technique Monograph white paper series written for those interested in exploring the full range of programming possibilities offered by Omnis Studio. More information about these offerings, as well as free demonstration libraries, a listing of available Omnis Studio courses and other useful Omnis information is available on his Omnis Training web site at OmnisTraining.com. Arrangements can still be made for on-site Omnis Studio training from David anywhere around the world. After three and a half years as a full-time Senior Technical Instructor for MySQL / Sun Microsystems / Oracle, creators and stewards of MySQL, the world's most popular open source database, David is now reviving Polymath Business Systems by offering online Omnis Studio and MySQL classes as well as on-site Omnis Studio and MySQL training and consulting. What is covered at the conference here is just a sample of the knowledge he has to pass on to students. Session Info: The purpose of the Omnis Studio Insight sessions is to help you understand how Omnis Studio works in a practical way so that you can solve problems from a general knowledge. Understanding the Omnis Studio environment is the key! Studio Training 1 The primary audience for this course is a person new to Omnis Studio. Omnis 7 programmers are welcome and even experienced Omnis Studio programmers will learn useful things in many of these sessions. The Omnis Studio Development Playing Board - Tools and Terms Synopsis: A brief look at the Omnis Studio library structure, object oriented framework and features of the Integrated Development Environment. This lays the conversational foundation for the rest of the sessions in this series. Description: You can't effectively play the game if you don't understand the playing board, the way the pieces work and the rules of play. The more you understand - and the deeper that understanding - the better you can lay strategies for your Omnis Studio development work. In these two hours, we will quickly cover:
An understanding of these concepts is essential to participation in the rest of this session series. These explanations will not be repeated. Studio Training 2 Facing Down the Interface: Windows, Menus, Toolbars and Their Components Synopsis: Database applications present and manipulate data and allow the user to navigate from one place to another. These are the tools we use that allow the end user to perform these tasks. There is a lot to know about them - we begin here... Description: The interface features of our applications are what our users see and work with. Omnis Studio offers us a large selection of interface components, but it up to us to use these features wisely and well. In this two hour session, we will examine:
We will deal with list display fields in a separate session on lists. Studio Training 3 Talk to the Handler: Methods, Messages and Events Synopsis: Not much happens in an Omnis Studio application without the execution of some code. The successful Omnis Studio developer needs to know how and where this code is built and stored, how it can be invoked and how user actions can trigger it. Description: Here we have yet another subject worthy of several full-day sessions. In these two hours, we will touch on:
Omnis 7 developers finally considering moving on to Omnis Studio are emphatically advised to attend this session. Studio Training 4 Deconstructing the Structured Variable: List, Row and Object Data Types Synopsis: Our ability to manipulate lists built from data has always been a competitive strength of Omnis. Omnis Studio takes the use of structured variables to a whole new level! This is just the beginning of the basics - with some more interesting tidbits tossed in... Description: Some of the deeper wonders of Omnis Studio lie in the intimate depths of structured variables. These are variables that are, in fact, containers of other variables. Some operations we perform on them rely on their nature as variables, while other operations rely on their nature as containers. In this two hour session, you will gain an appreciation for, if not a mastery of, such things as:
Omnis 7 developers finally considering moving on to Omnis Studio are highly advised to attend this session as well. Studio Training 5 Browser-Based Omnis Studio Applications: Remote Tasks and Remote Forms Synopsis: Omnis Studio was among the first database application development systems that could deploy live windows from a database application directly into a window in a remote user's browser. This requires very little knowledge beyond what we already use to create "thick" applictions - and the Omnis Studio Web ThinClient technology opens up some new and interesting possibilities. Description: The Omnis Studio ThinClient technology has matured rapidly from its beginnings just a few years ago. While a Remote Form may never have the same capabilities as a Thick Client window (we explain why this is so in this session), we can still perform some remarkable and very useful things using one. There are also many times when we can handle a given job using only an HTML form and a Remote Task from an application running on an Omnis Web Server. This session will briefly look into both ThinClient and "UltraThin" applications - how they work and how we approach building them. Studio Training 6 Studio Reporting Prerequisites: Basic Omnis Studio Knowledge, including Basic Reports, Notation, List Manipulation Audience: Omnis Studio programmers who wish to go beyond basic reporting techniques So Now You're Ready to Add Reports to Your Application... Synopsis: This fundamental feature of an application is often left until last by many developers. Please don't feel that you are being singled out! Description: The ultimate use of most business database applications is the generation of reports that help decision-makers make better decisions based on accumulated data. Reports are not simply dumps of select tables. The organization and presentation of data in a report are as important to the analysis of that data as is the data itself. Omnis Studio gives us better tools than most other database application development programs for creating sophisticated report layouts and intelligent reporting processes. This session offers some interesting and practical techniques for acquiring and presenting report content. Studio Training 7 Studio Graphing Prerequisites: Basic Omnis Studio knowledge, including lists Audience: Omnis Studio programmers who wish to enhance their applications by providing graphing facilities. So Many Graphing Components - So Little Time... Synopsis: Omnis Studio version 4.1 introduced the new Graph2 component and simultaneously retired the original Graph component. Omnis Studio version 4.2 significantly fixes and enhances Graph2, requiring a number of alterations to Studio 4.1 solutions already deployed using its earlier incarnation. While Graph still ships with new versions of Omnis Studio on most platforms (but specifically not on Mac OS X Universal Binary), it will no longer be updated or enhanced - but still offering functionality not available with Graph2. This session can help you deal with the resulting dilemmas awaiting you... Description: Sometimes the best and most easily understood representation of data is a graph. Graphing has come a long way in Omnis, but the Studio graph components still require some explanation for many people to take full advantage of the features they offer - especially since there are now two of them and they each use a very different approach to the charting problem. This session should help you:
This session conveys a bit of bad news (about the lack of continuing support for the original Graph component), but a LOT of good news (about the range of things we can actually accomplish with the new Graph2 component). While there is not enough time in these two hours to go into a great deal of depth or detail about either component, we can point you to resources that are replete with such information.
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