Glossary of terminology used in Jitterbit App Builder

A

• Accelerator: In App Builder, an accelerator is a feature designed to speed up the application development process by creating or altering tables in the data layer, or adding elements to the UI layer.

• Action: A specific task or operation that starts when an event happens. You can use many different types of actions, including Bridge, Event, Export, Import, Plugin, Procedure, RFC, and Rule.

• Action Drawer: App Builder's main menu, found at the top-right of any editable screen. It lets you do basic things like add or design pages, or go to the IDE.

• Alias: A user-defined name assigned to a function for easier reference.

• Allow Nulls: A setting that permits null values to be stored in the designated column.

• API / REST API: An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. A REST API (Representational State Transfer API) is a popular type of API that follows the principles of REST, a set of architectural constraints for creating web services. REST APIs use standard HTTP methods (like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to perform operations on resources.

• App Layers: App Builder organizes development into four distinct layers. The Data layer is for storing or retrieving data. The Business layer contains the logic and rules that drive the app's functionality. The UI (user interface) layer is what the user sees and interacts with. The Security layer controls who can access what pages and data.

• App Builder Connector: This feature connects two different App Builder instances. It lets you treat the connection like a rule, import the table, and start using it.

• App Workbench: A central page offering quick access to common tasks for building and maintaining applications.

• Assembly: An assembly groups plugins, which lets you move them across environments (for example, from development to QA, and from QA to production).

• Audit: App Builder lets you track any changes made to the data source.

• Audit Lite: Audit Lite lets you track a specific set of audit data:

  • AddedBy
  • AddedOn
  • ChangedBy
  • ChangedOn

  You can assign these to columns in the database. The developer sets the usage type to the right fields.

• Authentication: There are various supported authentication methods that you can configure to let your users securely authenticate (log into) your apps.

• Authorization: This controls what a user can do after they have logged in.

B

• Back-end: In a web application, the back-end refers to the server-side components that are not directly accessed by the user. This includes the database, business logic, and other server-side processing. In App Builder, this corresponds to the Data, Business, and Security layers.

• Badge: A badge is a numerical indicator of how many items are associated with a button, icon, or image. It is typically a small rectangular graphic overlayed on the control and is connected to a data source to determine what number to display.

• Binding: This connects the app's display to the data it shows. You often use it with panel settings, where a field from a child panel matches a field in the parent panel. For example, Order Details (Panel) is bound to the Order (Panel) when OrderId = OrderId.

• Bitwise Operators: These are characters that perform actions on single bits. Depending on your database, you can use them on int and byte columns to create a column that holds multiple states of information.

• Block: A column usage type that prevents a row from being edited or deleted. A value of 1 prevents editing, 2 prevents deleting, and 3 prevents both.

• Bridge: This is a way to send a message to a user, with options for how they can reply. Bridges are now called Notifications.

• Bundle: In App Builder, a bundle is a package that contains application assets that can be shared and reused across different applications and data sources. This most commonly includes translations for multi-language support, where keys and their translated values are stored in a bundle.

• Business Layer: This layer lets you show, change, and filter data from the tables in the data layer.

• Business Object: This is a common type of business rule that controls what data a user can access.

• Business Rule: You create business rules in the business layer to give instructions about data that can be saved from the application UI layer. You can also use them to change existing data in the data layer.

• Button: This is a clickable control that takes a user to a specific place (such as another page or an external site) or starts an event.

C

• Category: Charts use this as the control type to show the Y (vertical) axis on a graph.

• Changelog: A changelog is a record of changes made to an object. In App Builder, you can view a changelog for various objects like applications, data sources, and rules. The changelog includes a list of all changes, who made them, and when.

• Chart: You use charts to show data visually. They are linked to a business object through a panel.

• Checkbox: This control type shows a boolean field from the database. It is shown as a square that has a checkmark (representing the value 1) or is empty (for the value 0), depending on the field's value.

• Collection: This is a grouping of app assets, such as themes, images, templates, and widgets. Collections are linked to apps.

• Column: Tables are made of columns, and each column has a logical data type. A column is shown as a vertical set of cells in a table.

• Column Templates: This feature automatically creates and updates column names, sizes, and data types for your apps.

• Control: This is a field (often linked to a table column) that appears on a panel. You can use many control types, depending on your business needs.

• Control Rules: You can use these to enable, disable, or hide controls.

• Control Sets: You use these to arrange columns on a single-row panel. You can put them in a stacked layout or place multiple columns side-by-side horizontally.

• Control Type: This is the type of control that appears on the panel. Examples include text, button, checkbox, date, image, and list.

• Control Wizard: This helps you quickly add a control to a panel on a page.

• Cram: This action type, used with CRUD business rules, inserts new records based on fields marked as primary keys. It only adds records that are distinct (unique).

• Create: This tells the system to add a new record to a table, but only if that record doesn't already exist.

• Cross-Platform List Controls: These let you connect list controls to different data sources for the key field and title field. This means you can set up links between apps or data sources that are not the same.

• Cross-Platform Panel Integration: Panels connect at the presentation layer, which lets you ignore most technical differences between data providers. This lets you see data from different apps or data providers on the same screen at the same time.

• CRUD: This type of business rule stands for create, read, update, and delete. It lets you edit and manage tables in the data layer.

• CSS: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language used to define how web browsers show styles in the UI layer.

D

• Data Area: This is the part of a page where data is shown. For a grid panel, data looks like a spreadsheet. The first row has filenames or labels, and other rows have data from the data object. For a form panel, data from a single row of a business object appears as a list of label/value pairs.

• Data Encryption Keys (DEKs): These keys directly encrypt and decrypt data. In modern security, a DEK is often encrypted by a more secure Key Encryption Key (KEK). This "envelope encryption" adds security because the DEK is never stored as plain text.

• Data Layer: This is where you can see the tables holding your physical data.

• Data Server: This lists all connection information for your configured data providers.

• Data Source: Where your app's data comes from.

• Data Type: A column's logical and physical data types.

• DB2: DB2 is an IBM RDBMS.

• Default: This is a type of business rule that sets a control to a specific value by default.

• Delete: This action type removes data.

• Design Center: This is a shortcut page for developers to quickly build and maintain apps. From here, you can quickly get to all key areas for app development, including data storage, business logic, UI, security layers, and general app settings.

• Dynamic Substitution: This is a type of syntax you can use to dynamically insert the result of an expression into the business layer or UI layer.

E

• Edge Case: In App Builder, Edge Case refers to a menu option that contains additional or advanced settings for a component, such as an application, rule, or table. These settings are typically less frequently used or provide more granular control over the component's behavior.

• Edit Option: This lets you change a field or control on a panel.

• Enclosed Layout: This layout puts a single control into its own box, similar to a group.

• Endpoint: In the context of an API, an endpoint is a specific URL where an API can be accessed. Each endpoint corresponds to a particular function or resource. For example, in a user management API, there might be an endpoint like /users to get a list of users and another like /users/{id} to get a specific user.

• ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a system that manages core business processes in an integrated way, often in real-time, using software and technology.

• Event: You add events to business objects to build processes.

• Event Response: Events can use any of the following ways to respond:

  1. CRUD rules (create, read, update, and delete).
  2. Workflow rules.
  3. Plugin. (You can add your own C# plugins.)

• Event Type: There are two types of runtime events: intrinsic and user defined.

• Event Validation: Validation rules help protect your data. They are built in mvSQL and run whenever a rule is triggered. You can also associate them with user defined events.

F

• File Control: This control type lets you upload or download a file.

• FIPS compliance: This refers to a system following FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards), which are U.S. government security standards from NIST for computer systems. These are required for non-military federal agencies, and are also used in the private sector as a security standard.

• Foreign Key: This is a field (or group of fields) in one table that points to a unique row in another table (or the same table). It's defined in a second table but refers to a primary key or unique key in the first table.

• Format: This lets you apply conditional formatting or states to a control.

• Front-end: In a web application, the front-end is the part of the application that the user interacts with directly. This is also known as the user interface (UI). In App Builder, this corresponds to the UI layer.

• Full Audit: This records changes to your data (inserts, updates, deletes) that happen through the business layer and lets you view those changes.

• Function: This is an SQL-based expression you use to change data within business rules.

G

• Group: You use groups to create more complex page layouts. A group can be the parent of two or more panels, or it can be a container that holds controls on a panel.

• Group By: The GROUP BY statement is often used with functions such as COUNT, MAX, MIN, SUM, or AVG to group results by one or more columns.

H

• Handler (Success / Failure / Rollback): An Action Handler is an action that runs after another action succeeds or fails. They are used to record status, track progress, or reverse the effects of a failed action. The available handlers are as follows:

  • Success Handler: An action that runs when the primary action completes successfully.

  • Failure Handler: An action that runs when the primary action fails.

  • Rollback Handler: An action that reverses the effects of all successful actions that occurred before a failed action in an event sequence.

• HTML: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard language for creating web pages and web applications. Along with cascading style sheets (CSS) and JavaScript, it's one of the main technologies used for web applications.

I

• Icon: This control type displays an image as an icon.

• IDE: The IDE (Integrated Design Environment) is where you create, build, maintain, and launch apps. Your access to certain areas depends on your user role and permissions.

• Image: This control type displays images.

• Inline: This panel setting lets you create and edit records directly on the current page.

• Inner Join: This type of join is used in business logic to combine tables. It returns all columns that have matching data in both tables.

• Interface: This refers to all the elements on a page, such as buttons, navigation, or toolbars.

• Intrinsic Events: These are the default events that exist on all tables. They include Update, Delete, Insert, and Save. You can configure these events at the panel level to add processes and functions to a page.

J

• Joins: You use joins in the business logic layer with data objects to create relationships between tables.

• Join Columns: When you join tables, you must specify which columns they have in common. These are usually ID columns shared by the tables.

• JSON: JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight, text-based data interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate. It is widely used for transmitting data between a server and a web application, as an alternative to XML.

K

L

• Label Visibility: This lets you choose whether labels on controls are visible or hidden.

• Layout: This determines how information is placed and shown on a page. Options include the following:

  • Side by side (left to right).
  • Stacked (top to bottom).
  • Wizard (showing one panel after another).

• Left and Right: These refer to the sides of an equation when you work on logic in the business layer.

• Link To Page: This setting controls whether a panel links to another page or an external resource.

• Linking: You can link panels and pages to each other. Page linking lets a panel link to a different page. Link criteria define how fields are constrained.

• List Control: This control type lets users choose from a list of options.

• Live Designer: This feature provides a quicker way for developers to edit and maintain app pages.

• Localization: This adapts the user experience to a specific locale or market, including language and technical requirements such as date formats or currency.

• Log: A log is a record of events, messages, and errors that occur within an application. App Builder provides several types of logs for debugging, monitoring, and auditing, including Event History, Trace logs for diagnostics, Security logs for password-related events, and general application logs.

• Logical Data Type: This defines the characteristics of data for a column, independent of how it's physically stored in the database.

• Logical Storage Type: These are categories for a logical data type.

M

• Managed Table: A normal table with data managed by App Builder on a user, window, or session basis.

• Menu: These are the visible navigation links in an app. You can set up an application menu, a home page menu (shown on the home page), or a mobile menu (shown on mobile devices). An application menu usually appears in the top right of an app, to the left of the action drawer.

• Menu Designer: This lets you assign pages to a menu and update menu settings.

• Methodology: This refers to the system of methods and approaches used when building apps.

• Microsoft SQL Server: Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) by Microsoft.

• MS CRM: MS CRM is Microsoft Dynamics CRM, a customer relationship management (CRM) software.

• mvSQL: This is App Builder's own version of SQL. You can use it as an intermediate format with the rule builder or to write rules manually.

• MySQL: An open-source relational database management system (RDBMS).

N

• Nested Menu: This is a menu inside another menu. It lets you create a dropdown list of more menu items, which is useful for organizing a menu.

O

• OnInsert Defaults: This lets you add a Default rule that sets a column's value when you add a new record.

• Operator: These are symbols that perform operations on values or variables, such as >, <, >=, <=, or <>.

• Oracle: A company known for developing and marketing database software, cloud systems, and enterprise software, especially its own database management systems.

• Outer Join: This type of join is used in business logic. It selects all records from one table, even if the other table doesn't have matching values.

P

• Page: This is a container shown on the application UI layer, made up of panels.

• Page Designer: This lets you create and manage pages in an app.

• Page Wizard: This helps you quickly add a page to an app.

• Panel: This is a container on a page, considered the basic design unit. It's usually linked to a business object or table. App Builder has several types of panels:

  • Calendar Panel: Populates a calendar with information from a data source. It is used for scheduling and managing events, appointments, or any date-based information.

  • Chart Panel: Displays data in various graphical chart representations such as bar, column, line, and area charts. It uses the Highcharts engine and can be linked to other panels to show detailed data.

  • Custom HTML Panel: A panel that uses HTML/CSS templates to display data and images, allowing for highly customized layouts and designs.

  • File Browser Panel: Connects to a local or network file system to display a file directory, allowing users to upload and download files.

  • Form Panel: Displays data from a single record in a vertical layout with labels and values. It is often used for pop-up windows or detail pages.

  • Frame Panel: Reserves a space on a page where content from other pages is loaded when a link is clicked, allowing for persistent navigation elements like a side menu.

  • Gantt Panel: Displays a Gantt chart for project planning and scheduling, showing tasks, durations, and dependencies.

  • Grid Panel: Displays multiple records from a data source in a spreadsheet-like grid with rows and columns.

  • Lane Panel: Displays grouped information in a format similar to a tile panel, but with the additional ability of being able to display data either vertically or horizontally.

  • Map Panel: Displays a map with data visualized by geographic location, using the Highmaps API.

  • Network Graph Panel: Displays interconnections between a set of entities, where each entity is a node and connections are links.

  • Pivot Panel: Displays a pivot table that summarizes data from a more extensive table.

  • Tile Panel: Displays multiple records in a card-like format, arranged from left to right.

• Panel Size: This panel setting lets you make a panel larger or smaller compared to others around it.

• Panel Wizard: This helps you quickly add a panel to a page.

• Photo: This control type displays an image as a full-sized photo.

• Pivot: A pivot summarizes and rearranges data, for example, by turning rows into columns. In App Builder, a Pivot Rule is used to create a server-side pivot table that can be displayed in a panel. This allows you to transform data to see it from different perspectives, making it easier to analyze and identify trends.

• Plugin: Plugins let you extend App Builder's functionality using C#.

• Popup Form: This Panel Layout type makes the resulting Form page appear as a popup when opened.

• Presentation Layer Agnostic: This means the software's core logic works independently of its user interface. This allows it to support various platforms such as IIS, Apache, iOS, and Android, without needing to change the underlying logic.

• Presentation Server: This provides connection information to the application UI layer.

• Primary Key: Every table must have at least one. It uniquely identifies a record.

• Priority: When screen space is limited, this determines which fields appear.

• Purpose: This defines the type of business rule you want to create in the business logic layer.

Q

R

• RDBMS: An RDBMS (relational database management system) is a database management system (DBMS) that organizes data into one or more tables of columns and rows, based on the relational model.

• Reach: This is row-level security that controls a user's access to specific categories of information.

• Read Only: This describes a column that cannot be edited.

• Realm: A realm allows security administrators to delegate user provisioning and group membership management to developers. A realm contains a set of applications, schedules, security groups, and providers, and allows a realm administrator to manage these resources.

• Reference Table (Master): This table holds the primary key for a relationship.

• Relationship: In the data storage layer, this is where you set up primary and foreign key relationships between tables.

• Responsive Design: This design approach makes apps automatically adjust and look good on different devices and screen sizes.

• Roles: Data sources can define roles. Roles are groups of permissions, which control a role's access to data objects.

• Rules: You create rules in the business layer to give instructions about data that can be saved from the application layer. You can also use them to change existing data in the data layer.

• Rule Builder: This is a visual tool for creating business rule logic. It has drag-and-drop features and shows real-time results. It translates your rules into mvSQL or native SQL.

S

• SaaS: Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud-based model where a third-party hosts applications and makes them available over the internet.

• Salesforce: Salesforce is a leading cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and a suite of cloud applications.

• SAP: SAP is a multinational software company known for its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that helps manage business operations.

• Save Event: This default event runs whenever a record is saved.

• Sealing: This is when you lock an app or data source to stop further changes to it, while still allowing its data to change.

• Security Provider: A security provider is a component or service that handles authentication and authorization for an application. It manages user identities, credentials, and access permissions. App Builder allows configuring different security providers to integrate with various authentication systems, such as OAuth, SAML, or Active Directory.

• Session: All your interactions happen within a session. A session starts when you first visit App Builder, and all later requests from you are linked to that session.

• Set Cascade: When rows in the master table are deleted or updated, the matching rows in the child table (with a foreign key) are also deleted or updated.

• Set Default: When rows in the master table are deleted or updated, the matching rows in the child table (with a foreign key) are set to their default value.

• Set Null: When rows in the master table are deleted or updated, the matching rows in the child table (with a foreign key) are set to null.

• Side by Side Layout: This page layout places panels next to each other.

• Site: This hosts a set of App Builder applications, users, and their rights.

• Site Menu: This gives users a better landing page experience for viewing and accessing applications in an App Builder environment.

• SMS: This lets you send notifications to smartphones.

• SMTP: Standard Mail Transfer Protocol. You must set this up correctly in the IDE for an app to use notifications.

• SMTPS (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Secure): This secures standard email (SMTP) by adding an encryption layer, such as SSL or TLS. This encrypts email content, headers, and login details as they move between an email client and server.

• Sort: This is the process of arranging data into a meaningful order, such as alphabetical or numerical.

• Sort Direction: This sets whether a column sorts in ascending or descending order on a page.

• Sort Order: This determines the order in which fields are sorted.

• SQLite: A C-language library that implements a small, fast, self-contained, and reliable SQL database engine. It is embedded directly into programs rather than being a client-server database.

• Stacked Layout: This page layout places panels on top of each other.

• Styles: These let you apply specific styling or formatting to a page, panel, or control element.

• Subtitle: This can be used to show a value below a title in lists.

• Supported Languages: This is where you set up what other languages your app supports.

• Supports Delete: This is a configuration setting that allows records in a table to be deleted.

• Supports Insert: This is a configuration setting that allows new records to be added to a table.

• Supports Update: This is a configuration setting that allows records in a table to be updated.

• Sync: This updates the physical database with your changes.

T

• Table: These are structures in data sources that hold your data. Tables have one or more rows, and each row has one or more columns.

• Table (Child): When two tables are joined, this table holds the foreign key for the relationship.

• Table Wizard: This automated workflow helps you create a table using one of two ways: using a table builder (to manually define a table) or by uploading an Excel spreadsheet.

• Target: This is the table you want to build your business rule against.

• Template Designer: This is where you create and manage templates for your app. Templates hold custom formatted information and let you fine-tune your app's look and feel.

• Temporary Columns: This feature lets you have editable columns in a rule that are not linked to a physical table.

• Text: This control type lets you type text into a field.

• Text Area: This control type is for larger amounts of text.

• Themes: These control the color scheme and other visual properties of an app. You can build themes with specific designs for branding.

• Title: This is what is shown instead of the primary key for lists.

• Total Expression: This is an equation used to show a total, such as price × quantity.

• Total Function: You can add this to a column with numbers to show the sum, average, count, minimum, or maximum value of that column.

• Translations: This feature lets apps support multiple languages. Keys and their translations are stored in an App Builder bundle, which is linked to applications and data sources.

• Trace: This is a diagnostic feature that lets developers troubleshoot applications.

• Transparent Data Encryption (TDE): This technology encrypts data files on disk. It's "transparent" because encryption and decryption happen automatically when data is read or written, without needing app code changes.

U

• UI Layer: This is where you build the app and customize the user interface that users interact with.

• Unique Key: A unique key is a constraint in a database that ensures all values in a column or a set of columns are unique. Unlike a primary key, a table can have multiple unique keys, and a unique key column can accept one null value. It is used to prevent duplicate records in a table.

• Unstored Procedure: In App Builder, this is like a stored procedure but is never saved in the database. It's a database action that creates, updates, or deletes rows from the data source. You build unstored procedures at runtime based on a CRUD rule and design them using mvSQL.

• Update: This action type changes data.

• Usage: This lets you set a title and subtitle for lists from the data source layer.

• User-Defined Events: These are events you define to create or enhance a business process.

V

• Validation: Validation rules protect data from unwanted or incorrect changes.

• Value: Charts use this as the control type to show the X (horizontal) axis on a graph.

• View: In database terminology, a view is a virtual table based on the result-set of an SQL statement. A view contains rows and columns, just like a real table. The fields in a view are fields from one or more real tables in the database. Views can be used to simplify complex queries, enhance security by restricting access to data, and present data in a different perspective.

W

• Widget: Widgets let developers use third-party or their own code to display a customized control on a page.

• Width: This setting determines how much space a column or element takes up.

• Wizard: This page layout option lets you define a workflow with Previous, Next, and Finish buttons for navigation.

• Workflow: App Builder supports two types of workflows: event driven and condition driven.

X

• XP CRUD: This is a CRUD rule type that you can use between business objects across different platforms (XP stands for cross-platform).

Y

Z

• Zones: (Deprecated and replaced with Groups.) This is a UI feature that gives more flexibility and control over content layout within a panel on a page. more flexibility and control over content layout within a panel on a page.