Hi there AppWorks fans,

On every product I worked with there is always this next question.

How to start with it and where can the information around the product be found?

If you also have this question on the ‘AppWorks’ product you are in the right place! We are going to answer that question for the ‘AppWorks’ platform (powered by OpenText).

In this installment of AppWorks tips we are going to give the ultimate overview of where all the information about AppWorks can be found. Most of the information can be found on the internet. Sometimes open for free and sometimes you need to login with credentials or do a registration. We’ll cover it all.

Let’s get right into it…

The first thing I did for a startup is just google ‘OpenText AppWorks’ and see what is available at this moment. You will see that several URL’s will be shown in the overview. Some are valuable, but most URL’s are from partners that use the AppWorks platform for implementation at their customers.

Valuable URL’s available for everyone after a simple google search

  • The landing page for the AppWorks product: OpenText product information page

  • The latest release page

  • The Developers community for the programmers and the API consumers

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    You will see a lot of information on this page, but most of the information has to do with the AppWorks Gateway. Don’t make the same mistake I did by starting with this product. The ‘gateway’ is a service where you deploy mobile apps on. These apps can be created with the AppWorks SDK.

    On this blog we have the focus on the AppWorks low-code development platform what is something different then the ‘gateway’! Also, the software packages for our focus are not available on this developer community site. We’ll see that later in this post.

    You can skip the ‘Get started’ part for now and continue the resources part as something nice is available for us low-code developers on this site. That is the Process Suite API. This ‘Process Suite’ is the old name of the currently known ‘low-code AppWorks platform’ we will start using. The API information is still valid for our purpose.

    The Blogs part has more blogs about the Gateway and the SDK. This might change in the future.

    For the Forums part can be said the same but keep it on your radar as it also might change in the future.

    You can also create an account here, so you are able to ‘Sign in’. This makes it possible to also ask new questions and post new information.

Valuable URL’s you just must know

  • OpenText support site. Make sure you register on this site as it will be your main source of information!

    There is a lot to be found on this site, but the first steps for you to start is in these 3 locations

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    Make sure you look primarily for ‘AppWorks Platform’ to get to the correct information. Looking for ‘AppWorks Gateway’ will bring you to the already mentioned mobile app SDK information. You can also find valuable information when you just look for ‘AppWorks’.

    1. AppWorks Discussion forum is available for getting answers and ask your questions
    2. AppWorks Developers fortum is also for questioning/answering
    3. AppWorks Documentation makes all the nicely crafted PDF documentation available
    4. AppWorks Downloads makes all the ZIP files available for download and installation

    Note that ‘AppWorks’ and ‘AppWorks platform’ are almost the same with a small difference in software packages. The ‘AppWorks platform’ only has the platform included and the software package for ‘AppWorks’ has also that same platform, but also includes the OpenText Directory Service. This OTDS product is the LDAP spider in the OpenText service web which makes ‘Single Sign On’ much easier on all the OpenText products. We’ll see that in another post somewhere in the future!

  • OpenText Test Drive Is the demo environment supported by OpenText where all products can be tried out. Just try out some of the available walkthrough demos. Your mail address should be registered to get the confirmation message to start a demo.

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All documentation is covered in a full set of PDF documents

Not only available on the support site, but also included in the software packages under the ‘documentation’ folder

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If you follow the Documentation link you get access to the same valuable information

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But what is covered in all these PDF’s? We will describe it in this ordered list of reading. We start with the required manuals and then we cover the optional manuals.

  • Supported Environments (required)
    • The ‘AppWorks’ platform required several software packages it depends on. The minimal versions you need for these packages are described in this PDF. Make sure you use the correct versions for these software packages, so you create a supported environment.
  • Installation Guide for Linux (required)
    • The guide where we all waited for. There is also a Windows version, but we use Linux. You’ll see that some information is still told in the ‘Windows’ way, but still it is a good reference for installing the software. Of course, you can also follow the ‘AppWorks installation in 10 great steps’.
  • Low-Code Design Guide (required)
    • When you have an environment available, this is your main guide to learn about entity modeling. The first baby steps are made here, and you can continue growing in the low-guide development parts.
  • Advanced Development Guide (optional)
    • If you think you know it all…Then is the moment to start with this next level ‘Low-Code Design Guide’. It covers more on the BPM and the services…The good stuff!
  • Troubleshooting Guide (optional)
    • Your trouble shooting guide when you get stuck during the installation, but you won’t if you follow the steps.
  • Configuration Guide (optional)
    • It’s a kind of extension on the troubleshooting guide. Use it when needed.
  • Administration Guide (optional)
    • Somewhere in the future always some *&%$# is going to hit the fan. That is your moment of fame to enter this guide. It’s 1100 paged PDF that will help you on using all kind of tools for fixing your fan again.
  • Performance and Tuning Guide (optional)
    • The out of the box installation runs smoothly already, but it can always made better. This guide will help you on your performance journey!
  • API Reference Guide (optional)
    • Nice reference guide when you start consuming the service API layer of the platform. Same information as Process Suite API but extended with the low-code specific API!
  • CARS Installation and Administration Guide (optional)
    • ‘Cordys Administration Repository Server’ is required for the AppWorks platform. It serves as kind of database to store all the information. The installation part is also covered in the normal ‘Installation Guide’. The Administration part is not directly used, but it’s good to know where you can find it. CARS will run nice and steady without any maintenance.
  • Containerization preview ReadMe (optional)
    • Since AppWorks 16.6 there is also a Docker version that can be installed. It’s a containerized version that makes installation in the cloud much easier. We’ll cover also this installation in another post.
  • Upgrade Guide (optional)
    • Needed when upgrading. From our standpoint (where we just develop without any production environment) we’ll probably don’t need it as we can easily create a new environment with the latest software again.
  • High Availability Deployment Guide (optional)
    • Not needed from our standpoint. Only when you have a requirement that matches the header of this document.

All software is downloadable from the support site. Follow the link to AppWorks Downloads to get to the correct section.

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The AppWorks software can be installed in 3 ways:

At the moment you can also use a supported TomEE software package from the Apache TomEE website

  1. Windows

    • Use the apache-tomee-plus-8.0.0-prerelease-for-awp-16.6.zip
    • And the opentext-appworks-platform-16.6-windows.zip

  2. Linux

    • Use the apache-tomee-plus-8.0.0-prerelease-for-awp-16.6.tar.gz
    • And the opentext-appworks-platform-16.6-linux.zip

  3. Docker (containerized)

    • Use the docker.tar.gz

      There is a ‘Containerization preview ReadMe’ PDF available for the Docker installation.

Training courses are available on the AppWorks Training Courses site. They are not for free, but valuable lessons to learn. With these courses you will get an online environment available and a printed book.

  • 2-4912 Low-Code Design is the main course where you will learn about entity modeling and the related building blocks
  • 4-4913 Process Modeling will teach you about creating processes with BPM. It’s the next step when you know your entity modeling
  • 4-4905 Fundamentals sounds like the basics, but it’s also an add-on to the first 2 courses. Here you will learn about webservices and ‘Business Activity Monitoring’
  • 4-4903 Administration is all about installing the platform and using the management tools
  • 3-0300 OTDS is about the LDAP spider in the web of OpenText products

And that gives us a nice ultimate overview and a big ‘DONE’ on the ‘Where to start with AppWorks’ post. It’s a long list of information, but it is good to know where all the information can be found. The next step is to make an image available. So, make sure you check out the post on the ‘AppWorks installation in 10 great steps’. Have a good one for now and I see you in one of the other posts in this blog.

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