Is there a visual web application builder or rapid webapp prototyping framework?
- by Jesper Mortensen
Question:
Is there such a thing as a self-hosted framework or CMS especially tailored towards the creation of interactive web applications without -- or with an absolute minimum of -- programming? (Substantially less programming than say a simple Rails app or a plugin for Wordpress, Joomla etc would require.)
As for desired features I'd settle for whatever is available, but some ideas could be:
A User authentication and Permissions system.
A GUI-driven input form builder.
A GUI-driven template / visual site design builder.
A simple scripting language (think AppleScript-like simplicity)
A highly modular architecture, with high-level business objects (users, forms data, etc) exposed for easy re-use.
If something like the above doesn't exist, then what comes near this?
Need: This is for self-hosted rapid prototyping of web applications, and limited user testing of webapp user interface designs in a closed user test.
Notes: I know about Ruby on Rails (Rails), Django, Pyramid etc. I'm looking for something much faster to work in, for making prototypes.
I know about CMS's in general but find that most of them are tailored towards displaying information to the end users. If there is an exceptionally easy-to-master CMS with easy scripting (lets say much more so than for example Wordpress) then I'd be interested.
