I tested AlphaBlox Enlighten on a Pentium II 300MHz system running Windows NT 4.0 and Internet Information Server 4.0. I connected to a database running in SQL Server 6.5 and used Internet Explorer 4.01 as the client. The installation procedure was fairly seamless but rough around the edges. The pages let you set the various parameters required to work with your Web server and database. One confusing aspect of the setup was the different forms you use for entering the information for the first time and editing thereafter.
Database applications are picky about configuration details.
When I initially tried to run the provided sample applications, I got a generic error message indicating that AlphaBlox Enlighten couldn't connect to SQL Server. Diagnosing the problem required a call to AlphaBlox and a manual edit to the JavaScript source of the application. This was easily fixed, but the lack of robust error reporting meant lots of lost time. AlphaBlox introduces a new term to describe how Enlighten applications are built. Dynamic Application Assembly means that you put your application together using a set of predefined components.