MetaWareJ™ FAQ

1. FAQ

 

 

1.1. Who we are

We are KE Methodos IT Ltd, based in Cyprus, the south-eastern most EU country. We are IT specialists, providing development and maintenance services for businesses and government departments.

 

1.2. I'm a company's manager. What does MetaWareJ mean to me?

MetaWareJ™ is a powerful application framework that makes it easy for your programmers to quickly and efficiently build powerful applications such as:

• Accounting systems

• Inventory control systems

• Data reporting tools

• Application bridges

• Complex business systems

It can save your programmers a lot of time. They only need to focus on the business side of the application, everything else is handled by MetaWareJ™. It is a tool which allows your programmers to be more productive, your users to be more efficient and your maintenance cost is kept to a minimum.

 

1.3. I'm a programmer. What does MetaWareJ™ mean to me?

MetaWareJ™ is a framework and a tool for creating web-based business applications. "Business applications" means applications that deal with data input, validation, and processing based on a set of business requirements and rules. Examples of these are any type of inventory, invoicing, customer database, sales, government work (customs, ports, civil registry, internal revenue), etc. Examples of what it is not a business application are a game, a music player, your company's website, and an online store for general internet users. On the other hand, an online store for partners or customers is well within the scope of MetaWareJ™. Applications built with MetaWareJ™ can produce a variety of outputs such as charts and PDF reports. They can also run unmodified as traditional GUI applications (using Swing) or be installed on an Android device and use the native user interface.

You define the retrieval of rows, the updating of tables, the validations and the screen content in a very simple MetaWareJ™ XML language. You add some before and after updating rules in a pre-structured Java file. Your application is ready and is running bug-free.

The application is at the same time a web application (HTML/JavaScript), a Windows GUI (Swing), and an Android native application. The same screen definition can be an interactive form, a PDF report, CSV export or a chart.

 

1.4. Why another Java framework?

Most frameworks are designed for User Interface flexibility. They allow the programmer to build a variety of user interface layouts and user interactions. MetaWareJ™ was built for people who do not want to create the User Interface. It is built for people who want to create a consistent and efficient layout and at the same time save time and focus on the business site of the application.

 

1.5. Can I create a user interface with little ducks walking across the screen?

Please use another tool for this kind of interface.

 

1.6. What's the licence?

MetaWareJ™is an open source product licensed under the Affero General Public License (AGPL). We allow you to download, use, modify, redistribute MetaWareJ™ free of charge as long as you use it for non commercial purposes. For more information on this, and how to apply and follow the GNU AGPL, see .

 

1.7. MetaWareJ™ seems the right solution for me. How do I get started?

MetaWareJ™ is free, open, and available to anyone under the GPL license. Read Getting Started with MetaWareJ™ to find out the basics then try out our online demo and you'll quickly discover how simple MetaWareJ™ is. If you're ready to install MetaWareJ™, download the latest version here you'll be up and running in no time.

 

1.8. I want to use MetaWareJ™ for a commercial product. What do I do?

Contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . We would like to hear about your project. We also would like to offer our services and help you develop it. Building partnerships, rather than selling licences, is our preferred modus operandi. On the other hand if you would like to have a solo attempt we could provide you with a licence to do so.

 

1.9. How much does it cost?

Licence cost depends on the type of services you want to buy. If you just want a server licence, with no distribution rights, the price is 150 Euro. This allows you to use MetaWareJ™ on any number of development machines and test servers and a single production server. Please note that we use 3rd party products that carry their own licences/cost. The price is set so low because we are not really in the business of selling licences. But we feel it is right that you get to pay a symbolic amount of money if you are building a commercial product.

 

1.10. Can I contribute?

We are just releasing the AGPL version of MetaWareJ™ so we don't yet have the process of accepting contributions. If you want to contribute, however, contact us and we surely will accommodate your desire to give.

 

1.11. Where can I get more information from?

You can download the full manual from our website. It includes a tutorial section to get you started on using MetaWareJ™. If you want to play with the source itself, there is a brief technical manual on our website, as well, to get you going.

 

1.12. Why did you use/not-use this feature?

We have an answer for all your questions. Contact us and we will be happy to explain the rational behind everything we did.

 

1.13. What is missing? What are you working on right now?

Android and Swing clients are currently in beta. We are working to improve them but more testing is needed. We have a text user interface (curses) in place currently in alpha.

MetaWareJ™ is using JDBC connection for back-end storage. Other back end stores can be used but have to be written by the programmer.

We are always working to improve the end user experience focusing always on the efficiency of the interface.