Nor-Pim is a Product Information Management System written for enterprise cloud environments with user interfaces tailored for PC, Web and Mobile. It is centered around Microsoft products like SQL Server, Azure, Visual Studio, C# and TypeScript.

A major part of the code is produced by a Code Generator sql2x. The general idea is to use as few frameworks and dependencies as possible in order to make a product that will stand the test of time without having to be rewritten when technology shifts happens and frameworks and dependencies become incompatible.

The remaining part of code mainly consists of user interface tweaks to support new user interface trends and fads, business layer code to interact with other systems, import/export, etc.

The example catalog and product data is all Latin "Lorem ipsum" Gibberish, this to take focus away from the data as any product related data can be handled by Nor-Pim.

The goal of Open Sourcing Nor-Pim is to attract organizations/developers to make user interfaces tailored towards more specialized businesses while keeping the core sturdy enough to handle both small and large sets of products as effective as possible on the infrastructure it runs on.

Currently Nor-Pim runs on SQL Server using only Tables, Columns and Relations, no Stored Procedures or Functions. This makes Nor-Pim easily adaptable to other databases. Same with the business layer where dotNetCore under Linux is in the pipeline. The business logic in the tailored code of Nor-Pim is not expected to change at all during this transition from WCF/SOAP to REST. And the tailored user interface code should stay the same as SQL2X provides the same client side proxy for REST interfaces as SOAP did.

Live Nor-Pim running under Azure. In this configuration all 3 FrontEnds runs under one Azure App, the WCF/SOAP layer in another one and finally Azure SQL Database on a third server.

Nor-Pim Product Information Management - Structured product specific attributes for Windows / Web and Mobile platform.

Nor-Pim is a Product Information Management System written for enterprise cloud environments with user interfaces tailored for PC, Web and Mobile.

Nor-Pim is used for managing structured product specific attributes which is either maintained manually or automatically through interfaces to other systems.

Nor-Pim provides full access to a product and it's structure with a fixed or customized API through WCF/SOAP interfaces.

Nor-Pim also acts as a proof of concept for a three tiered cloud based "Line-of-Business" system that features:

• SQL Server database
• Business layer through WCF/SOAP / ASP
• FrontEnd's consuming the WCF/SOAP layer :
  • Windows application ( Full Maintenance Capabilities )
  • Web Site ( Browsing and editing products / product bucket )
  • Mobile Hybrid App ( Browsing and editing products / product bucket )

Nor-Pim uses no special frameworks outside of the dotNetFramework ecosystem in an effort to make it as scalable and maintainable as possible, this is made possible by using a tool to generate boiler plate code for efficient communication between layers ( SQL2X ). Since the code is bare bone C# and TypeScript it is easier to find developers to maintain / enhance the code.

Nor-Pim requires Visual Studio 2017 which can be downloaded here

You will need the following WorkLoad:

• Azure
• ManagedDesktop
• NetWeb

Nor-Pim uses PowerShell to switch environment between local development and publishing to Azure, download here

Download Git here

Download GitHub Command Line interface for Windows here

• GitHub
  • GitHub CLI: gh repo clone aunebakk/nor-pim
  • Git: git clone https://github.com/aunebakk/nor-pim.git
  • Compressed zip file ( to unblock: Get-ChildItem -Path nor-pim -Recurse | Unblock-File )

Use PowerShell to rename the sql server connection string for the various projects:

• De-Sanitize Connection

From PowerShell

# this will insert ADO connection strings to a local trusted sql server, typical for a development environment

& '.\Operational\De-Sanitize Connection.ps1' `
   -toSQLServerLocalTrusted:$true

& '.\Operational\Environment Switch.ps1' `
   -toRemote:$false

From Visual Studio 2017

• Clean build
• Run DatabaseManager to create the Database and populate it's tables
• Select Business and Web as startup
• Run

Prerequisites:

Use PowerShell to rename the sql server connection string and login information for the various projects:

From PowerShell

# this will insert ADO connection strings to an Azure sql server and Azure Web Apps

& '.\Operational\De-Sanitize Connection.ps1' `
  -toAzure:$true `
  -azureActiveDirectoryLogin:'**email**' `
  -azureActiveDirectoryPassword:'**password**' `
  -sqlServerName:'**name**' `
  -sqlServerUserName:'''username' `
  -sqlServerPassword:'**password**'

& '.\Operational\Environment Switch.ps1' `
   -toRemote:$true

The Web and Window FrontEnd's

NuGet.exe restore .\SolutionNorSolutionPim.sln ( Download NuGet here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/release-notes/nuget-4.9-rtm )
& '.\Operational\Restore packages.bat'
& '.\WinForm\Operational\Publish WinForm layer to ASP site install directory.bat'
& '.\Web\Operational\Get-Web-App-PublishingProfile.ps1' 
& '.\Web\Operational\Build package to disk.bat'
& '.\Web\Operational\Publish To Azure.bat'

At this point the FrontEnd can only be used to bring up the start page and the about box.

The Business Layer

& '.\Business\Operational\Get-Web-App-PublishingProfile.ps1'
& '.\Business\Operational\Build package to disk.bat'
& '.\Business\Operational\Publish To Azure.bat'

The Database

The web FrontEnd is responsible for creating and updating the database, so the FrontEnd needs to be published before the database can be created.

• https://XXX.azurewebsites.net/database
  • Database Management Create Database
  • Database Management Set Version Zero Database
  • Database Management Increase Version To Latest step by step
  • Database Management Version Object ( Should be 0.14.0 )

Open URL to the published Hybrid/Web FrontEnd, you will find the starting point for the Windows version under Applications Tile.

Is an top-down view of Nor-Pim, starting with all user visible aspects, going through the architecture from client proxies to business layer and the database.

This repository ("Nor-Pim") is where we ( NorGate ) develop the Nor-Pim product. This source code is available to everyone under the standard MIT license.

This is the starting page for the Hybrid Mobile/Web side of Nor-Pim. It supports portrait and landscape mode, so rotating a mobile device will change layout of tiles.

This view is used for navigating the index of your products. It supports portrait and landscape mode, so rotating a mobile device will change layout of tiles. This view is the first level, clicking a tile will bring the user to level 2, then level 3 and finally to the product view.

This is the product selection view, it allows for "Selecting" a product into a "bucket", get Details about a product or Edit a product.

The detail page allows the user to see all essential information about a product in a Web page.

The edit page allows the user to edit all essential information about a product in a Web page.

The user will have to Login in order to save any changes

The windows version features it's own installation and has access to everything Nor-Pim has to offer in terms of functionality.

For editing all product data, including an all inclusive history of all changes done to the product. Support for Excel Copy and Paste.

• C#
• TypeScript / JavaScript ( minimal usage of HTML5 / CSS )
• Ansi SQL
• PowerShell for DevOps tasks

• Schematic Overview
• sql2x.org Code Generator
• dotNetFramework
• WinForm
• Active Server Pages
• Windows Communication Foundation

• Azure
• SQL Server
• Internet Information Server
• Windows Server

• On FrontEnd and SQL Server level. WCF/SOAP services level is in the pipeline.

Following is parts of Nor-Pim's Database schema, there are more tables dealing with import and export, catalog structure, security and users.

Nor-Pim uses a database handler that takes care of upgrading the database schema from one version to another, making having multiple databases at different versions manageable.

• WCF/SOAP Security / Winter 2020
• Replace jQuery and Bootstrap / Winter 2021
• dotNetCore / Spring 2021
• Visual Studio 2019 / Spring 2021

• Follow @sql2x and let us know what you think!
• Follow reddit and let us know what you think!
• File an issue ( GitHub issue tracker )
• File an issue ( Nor-Pim's own issue tracker )
• Ask a question on Stack Overflow

Nor-Pim is in large part made by an Visual Studio Extension named SQL2X. Metadata and Code from this tool is found around the codebase, indications are:

• SchemaTemplates folders, these are .json files that directly corresponds to database tables and have no influence on how Nor-Pim runs but are used by the SQL2XLite extension for further development.
• CRUDE ( Create Read Update Delete & Extras ) folders are the direct result of SchemaTemplates .json files, i.e. automatic code generated by SQL2x, feel free to modify this code as you see fit, there are no other dependencies on this code except other layers that interact with it's methods.
• Durian folders comes from Ansi SQL Select statements in the Data tier.
• Operational folders contain PowerShell and Batch scripts used to recompile and republish that part of the product, our approach to CI/CD.

Copyright (c) NorGate. All rights reserved.

Licensed under the MIT license.