Morfik

Morfik Technology was a privately funded company that was founded in 2000 in Hobart, Tasmania by Aram Mirkazemi and Shahram Besharati. The company later (2009) moved to Sydney, New South Wales, before being acquired by Altium Limited in November 2010.

In April 2019, the Morfik project was closed and the project was taken offline.

In September 2005, it demonstrated a pre-beta version of its flagship product, Morfik at the Web 2.0 Conference.

{{cite web

|url= http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2005/10/web_development.html

|title=Web Development made easy: AJAX get an IDE

|publisher=InformationWeek

|date=2005-08-05

}}

Morfik was a major sponsor of this conference.

{{cite web

|url=http://www.web2con.com/pub/w/40/media.html

|title=Web2.0 (2005) Media Center

|publisher=O'Reilly

|date=2005-08-11

}}

Rumours spread just before the conference that Robert Scoble, Microsoft's lead evangelist, thought that Microsoft should buy Morfik,{{cite web|url=http://web2.0central.com/archives/73|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070429030748/http://web2.0central.com/archives/73|archive-date=29 April 2007|title=Microsoft should buy Morfik|work=web2.0central.com|url-status=dead}} however, this was quickly laid to rest by Scoble himself.{{cite web|url=http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/10/02.html#a1132|title=Rumor quelled by Scoble|work=radio.weblogs.com|access-date=4 April 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100113102722/http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/10/02.html#a1132|archive-date=13 January 2010|url-status=dead}} At the conference, Morfik showed how web applications could be designed for both online as well as offline use, via its 'Unplugged' vision, by demonstrating an 'unplugged' version of Google's Gmail that could function offline.

Two months later, the SD Times wrote "Morfik IDE Simplifies AJAX Development"{{Cite web|url=http://www.sdtimes.com/article/story-20051201-10.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930160346/http://www.sdtimes.com/article/story-20051201-10.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 September 2007|title=SD Times – Morfik IDE Simplifies AJAX Development|date=30 September 2007}} and the first version of the Morfik was released for public evaluation and testing.{{Cite web|url=http://www.fyracle.org/showstory.php?id=460|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070417162038/http://www.fyracle.org/showstory.php?id=460|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 April 2007|title=Firebird Database Community News|date=17 April 2007}} This was followed by the opening in February 2006, of a website called Morfik Labs which was designed to showcase Ajax applications that were created using Morfik.

March 2006, marked the first time Morfik was presented at a conference presentation, when Paul Ruizendaal, Managing Director of Janus Software{{Cite web|url=http://www.janus-software.com/|title=Janus Software|website=janus-software.com}} presented a review of Morfik at Software Development GigaCon, Poland.{{Cite web|url=http://konferencje.software.com.pl/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070510012458/http://konferencje.software.com.pl/|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 May 2007|title=Software-Konferencje|date=10 May 2007}}

A month later, Morfik Chess was made available on Morfik Labs. Although a few other browser-based Chess games had already been released (the most notable by Douglas Bagnall{{Cite web|url=http://p4wn.sourceforge.net/|title=Websites wot play chess|website=p4wn.sourceforge.net}}), Morfik's was the first that allowed both single and multi-player modes. Further, the single-player mode utilized one of the first Javascript-powered chess engines that could calculate moves beyond 3-ply.

In May, 2006, Google released Google Web Toolkit.{{Cite web|url=https://webtoolkit.googleblog.com/2006/05/welcome-to-gwt-blog.html|title=Welcome to the GWT blog}} Due to the significant similarity to Morfik's JavaScript Synthesis Technology, significant media and blogsphere discussion commenced as commentators debated the possible relationships and partnerships between Morfik and Google. GWT's manager, Bret Taylor offered a direct response{{Cite web|url=http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit/browse_thread/thread/88c8151833d761a6/e09908b8e5c5f5bf#e09908b8e5c5f5bf|title = GWT not associated with Morfik}} to the technology issue, by saying that GWT did not use any Morfik technology. The debate extended to patent rights and potential lawsuits (for example, Newswire{{cite press release| url = http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-30-2006/0004371076&EDATE=| title = All News Releases and Press Releases from PR Newswire}} and ZDNet{{Cite web|url=http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=196|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070408041332/http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=196|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 April 2007|title=» Morfik defends its IP rights against Google | Web 2.0 Explorer|date=8 April 2007}}). Initially, various critics including PathFinder{{Cite web|url=http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2006/06/morfik_vs_googl.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061019001216/http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2006/06/morfik_vs_googl.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 October 2006|title=Agile Ajax: Morfik vs Google – You and What Patent?|date=19 October 2006}} questioned whether any actual patent applications had been filed, but these criticism were laid to rest when at least one of Morfik's patent applications was made publicly available by the USPTO itself.

{{cite web

|url=https://www.google.ch/patents/US20070055964

|title=System and method for synthesizing object-oriented high-level code into browser-side javascript

|publisher=USPTO

|date=2007-03-08

}}

In August, 2006, a review of Morfik in the context of developing web applications solely in C# appeared in the magazine DEV.{{Cite web|url=http://online.infomedia.it/riviste/dev/dev.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070418181513/http://online.infomedia.it/riviste/dev/dev.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 April 2007|title=Gruppo Editoriale Infomedia, S.r.l. – Riviste – DEV.|date=18 April 2007}}

In September, 2006, Brazilian IT executive Mauricio Longo joined Morfik as Evangelist and Product Manager.

The first Professional License for Morfik was by acquired by Greenpeace International in October, 2006, and two months later, Altium deployed the first commercial application built with Morfik. It was a mashup with Salesforce.com applications which permitted a hierarchical view of all projects managed through Salesforce.com.

In March 2007, v1.0 was officially released

{{cite web

|url= http://www.sys-con.com/read/352519.htm

|title=Morfik 07 Released With Zero-Deployment-Cost Perpetual License

|publisher=Market Wire

|date=2007-03-22

}} and its name was changed to "Morfik 07"). See also here [https://web.archive.org/web/20070428052910/http://ajax.phpmagazine.net/2007/03/morfik_07_officially_available.html AJAX Magazine: Morfik 07 Officially Available and Introduction to Morfik Architecture (Part One)]

In November 2008, v2.0 was officially released with an entirely redesigned interface.

In August 2009, Morfik released AppsBuilder 2.1 which, though numbered as a simple point update, contained a significant number of new features such as the ability to visually create Widgets (user created controls). This was followed in close succession by the release of version 2.2 which established the new Package and Widget features formerly introduced in 2.1 as the basis on which to build controls for independent distribution.

In May 2010, Morfik 3.0 went into beta testing introducing a change in the way application and websites are designed in order to provide direct support for Search Engine Optimization and facilitate the process of designing the navigational organization of the application. Morfik 3 also further extends the Package features introduced in version 2.1, allowing for the creation of more complex widgets.

In September 2010, Altium announced its intention to purchase Morfik.{{cite web

|url=http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4207774/Eeek--Altium-is-going-to-buy-Morfik

|title=Eeek! Altium is going to buy Morfik

|date=2010-09-16

|access-date=16 October 2010

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130609191831/http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4207774/Eeek--Altium-is-going-to-buy-Morfik

|archive-date=9 June 2013

|url-status=dead

}}

In November 2010, Altium completed the acquisition of Morfik Technologies. In the same month, Altium altered the licensing model for all versions of the Morfik Web development tools making them free.

In December 2010, native connectivity to PostgreSQL is made available to Morfik users as a freely downloadable package. This add-on package also provides connectivity to MySQL and MS SQL server databases.

Ongoing development of the freeware version of the tool (Version 3.0.8.1) released in December 2010 has ceased. Official future plans for Morfik have not been provided by Altium.

Morfik is a visual development tool which lets developers create Ajax-based Web application in a true WYSIWYG fashion, including support for visual styles and themes. It combines in an integrated development environment an interface designer, a report designer, a query and table designer and coding facilities. The tool supports three different language syntaxes: C#, Basic and Object Pascal and creates applications for deployment on Windows and Linux systems.

While interface design is done visually in Morfik, Web application developers can write code to handle events and create the interactivity and business logic. Code written in the three supported language syntaxes is compiled directly to JavaScript, HTML, CSS and images for the in-browser portion of the application and to an intermediate Object Pascal form for the server side which is then compiled into binary form through the use of the FreePascal compiler. Regardless of the language syntax of choice, all code is based on the usage of the Morfik Framework which is a large library of classes and functions designed specifically for the creation of Web-based applications.

The tight integration of the development environment and the compilers with the Morfik Framework makes the creation of Web Services a simple task. Web services, in fact, are used throughout the Morfik Framework, for accomplishing several tasks without any developer coding.

The Morfik development environment offers integrated source level debugging for both the in-browser and server-side codes as well as facilities to monitor communications between the browser and the web server, and the web server and the database. It is also possible to inspect the compiler generated JavaScript code while tracing through browser.

Morfik integrates all the components required to build a web-based application into a single package, including a Firebird database and an Apache web server.

File:MorfikVisualDesigner.png

Morfik introduced several innovations into the process of creating Web applications among which the following are most significant:

• JavaScript Synthesis Technology (JST): Morfik's compiler technology that compiles code written in dialects of high-level languages such as Pascal, Basic, Java or C# into HTML and JavaScript, for the purpose of running applications written in those languages natively within a Web Browser. This automatically generated JavaScript can be complemented with custom in-line JavaScript or by linking-in external handwritten JavaScript code libraries. Morfik has applied for a series of patents regarding this technology. Google later employed a similar technology in its Google Web Toolkit (GWT) product.
• Elastic Page Design: (also patent-pending){{cite web

|url=http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=morfik&OS=morfik&RS=morfik

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307211303/http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=morfik&OS=morfik&RS=morfik

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=2017-03-07

|title=System and method for designing web sites that perform like conventional software applications

|publisher=USPTO

|date=2007-04-12

}} enables developers to design complex web interfaces that allow parts of the web page to dynamically adjust their size to suit their content at run-time (fluid layout), whilst maintaining all design-time constraints (fixed layout).

• Unplugged Applications: first showcased at the Web 2.0 Conference in 2005, with an unplugged version of Gmail, Google's AJAX-based mail client. Intended to show that with Morfik AppsBuilder you could create web applications that functioned both online as well as offline.{{cite web |url=http://www.fyracle.org/showstory.php?id=460 |title=Morfik: Delphi for web applications |publisher=Firebird User Newsletter |date=2005-11-07 |access-date=26 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070417162038/http://www.fyracle.org/showstory.php?id=460 |archive-date=17 April 2007 |url-status=dead }}
• High-level source Debugging: Debug errors in browser and server-side code from within IDE. Either debug at the high-level source code level or at the automatically generated JavaScript code-level. Add breakpoint to pause execution, and view current variable values via mouse hovers. Track all SQL, XML(SOAP packages), JSON and HTTP activity.

Morfik has done extensive work in the area of compilers. This includes developing compilers for the purpose of developing web applications, that receive code in one of the following language syntaxes: C#, Basic and Object Pascal, and output either JavaScript or Object Pascal depending on whether the target of each module was for the browser or server side of a Morfik Application, respectively. The server-side code is then compiled again, using the Free Pascal compiler to generate the final binary for the chosen target platform.

The first commercially released version of Morfik also supported an implementation of the Java language syntax called MorfikJ. Support for this language syntax was dropped with the release of Morfik 2.0 and its users moved to the C# syntax due to its close proximity to that of MorfikJ.

In addition to Morfik's own web site www.morfik.com,{{Cite web|url=http://www.morfik.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070325203514/http://www.morfik.com/|url-status=dead|archive-date=25 March 2007|title=MORFIK|date=25 March 2007}} the company has a set of showcase applications, built with Morfik, which are used in conjunction with the web site. These applications include: discussion forums, issue tracker{{Cite web |url=http://issuetracker.morfik.com/ |title=Morfik Issue Tracker |access-date=16 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160620090412/http://issuetracker.morfik.com/ |archive-date=20 June 2016 |url-status=dead }} and online videos{{Cite web |url=http://videos.morfik.com/ |title=Morfik Videos – Learning Made Easy |access-date=16 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100328131400/http://videos.morfik.com/ |archive-date=28 March 2010 |url-status=dead }} web site that closely resembles the YouTube web site.

In addition to these applications, several others have been made available on the Web, such as:

• Morfik Chess: Allows users to play each other online or play against a chess engine. This is the first known instance of a chess engine that resides in the browser that is capable of more than 3-ply. This received notable attention from the blogosphere by ZDNet,{{Cite web|url=https://www.zdnet.com/blog/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703004127/http://www.zdnet.com/blog/|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 July 2012|title=Blogs|website=ZDNet}} Ajaxian,{{Cite web|url=http://ajaxian.com/archives/morfik-chess-application|title = Purchase Intent Data for Enterprise Tech Sales and Marketing|date = 17 November 2015}} and Pathfinder.{{Cite web|url=http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2006/04/march_of_the_ga.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070407162522/http://blogs.pathf.com/agileajax/2006/04/march_of_the_ga.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 April 2007|title=Agile Ajax: March of the Games|date=7 April 2007}}
• Desktop Gmail
• Google Maps Mashup
• Salesforce.com synchronization

Morfik has featured in a diverse range of media including SDTimes,{{cite journal | last = Patrizio | first = Andy | date = December 2005 | title = Morfik IDE Simplifies AJAX Development | journal = SDTimes: Software Design | issue = 139 | page = 11 | url = http://www.sdtimes.com/download/index.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070228150735/http://www.sdtimes.com/download/index.html | archive-date = 28 February 2007 | url-status = dead }}

The Interbase & Firebird Developer Magazine, FYRACLE,{{cite magazine|last=Ruizendal |first=Paul |date=May 2006 |title=Morfik's WebOS, Innovating beyond LAMP |magazine=The Interbase & Firebird Developer Magazine, FYRACLE |issue=#/1/4 |pages=18–22 |url=http://ibdeveloper.com/issues/issue-14-may-29-2006/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061018032427/http://ibdeveloper.com/issues/issue-14-may-29-2006/ |archive-date=18 October 2006 }}

AustralianIT,{{cite journal | last = Hayes| first = Simon|date=August 2006| title = Startup-seeks JavaScript payday | journal = AustralianIT | url =http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,19974621%5E15318%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html }} {{dead link|date=July 2010}}

Dev: La rivista che ti insegna a programmare{{cite journal|last=De Nictolis |first=di Paolo |date=July–August 2006 |title=Morfik WebOS AppsBuilder 0.8.6.6 |journal=Dev: La rivista che ti insegna a programmare |issue=#142 |pages=5–13 |url=http://www.infomedia.it/DEV |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020621210704/http://www.infomedia.it/DEV/ |archive-date=21 June 2002 }} and

Toolbox{{cite journal | last = Van Canneyt| first = von Michaël |date=May 2007| title = Morfik:Webapplikationen ganz anders | journal = ToolBox| pages =6–15

}}

{{Reflist}}

{{JavaScript}}

{{BASIC}}

Category:Software companies of Australia