The Novulo Application Server is the platform on which each Novulo application runs. It is built on top of C# / .Net. It consists of several parts.
First there is the Runtime. This is the Novulo implementation of the elements present in the Architect. It contains the implementation of the Pages, Panels, FormElements and so on. The Runtime is also responsible for the implementation of the standard Processes (such as loading a Page, reloading a Grid etc). Each Process consists of a set of Actions with conditional transitions between them. After a Process is executed a list of Tasks (supplied by each executed Action) is passed on to the third part; the Presentation Layer.
Secondly there is the Data Layer. This is an abstract layer which enables one to use the Novulo Expression Language to make queries to backend storage systems. Generally these queries will be made to SQL databases but it’s also possible to query, for example, web services. However, the Data Layer and the Expression Language hide all the underlying implementation details from the developer. This makes sure that a developer does not have to worry about which type of SQL database is being used or in which way a web service has to be queried. Developers only have to write Novulo Expressions to perform queries on the data or use the Novulo Type system to insert data in the backend storage.
The third part is the Presentation Layer. This is the part that is responsible for transforming a list of Tasks to code or actions the client can understand. In the case of the web browser Tasks will be converted to JavaScript and executed at the client side to dynamically update the screen with the new data.