June 12th, 2007
Zoho launches Creator 2.0
Zoho announced today that a new, improved version of Creator, their database application builder, has been released. If you’ve ever struggled with “simple” tools like FileMaker Pro or Microsoft Access you know that constructing an application that draws on one or more database files can get very complex very quickly.
Creator uses a very nice GUI construction interface and a script builder (Creator’s scripting language is called Deluge) to assist even completely ham-handed people (like me) in developing very powerful and attractive applications with little more than point-and-click and drag-and-drop actions. Despite this accessibility, there’s a lot of power underneath the hood and to date more than 30,000 applications have been built by people using Zoho Creator.
The online help is comprehensive and very approachable. In pursuing some of the introductory material available, I came across this succinct description of the problem Zoho is attempting to provide a solution for:
Though the applications created using zoho creator are database driven, you need not know the relational database principles. The entire database layer is abstracted and you will only speak in terms of forms and fields while scripting in Deluge. A HR manager who wants to create a recruitment application, a home maker who wants to keep track of her monthly expenses, a sales guy who wants to keep track of his leads can all code very easily using Deluge. And a techie who slogs all day creating a web app using conventional tools would be just amazed at how fast it is to do the same using Deluge.
Zoho has posted a good video introduction to what you can quickly accomplish Creator ad a more comprehensive introduction to Deluge scripting.
Marc Orchant has been building, testing, and sometimes breaking hardware and software for 25 years. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
