By Morwenna Marshall
August's Products:
Omnis Software's Studio, Studio Production Manager, and Studio Data Access Manager
Formida Software's Formida Universal Development Environment (UDE).
InfoModelers Inc's InfoModeler 3.0
Sagent Technology's Data Mart Solution 2.0
MapInfo's SpatialWare2.0 and MapX2.0
Omnis leads the news with its "crossware" solution to applications development
Omnis Software (formerly Blyth Software) released three new development tools: Studio, Studio Production Manager, and Studio Data Access Manager.
Omnis is marketing Studio as a "cross-platform, cross-database, cross-object, and cross-architecture" development system. Studio's scripting language, Omnis Script, is a combination of two languages: a 4GL for manipulating coarse-grained objects and components, and dot notation, a self-articulating language that describes itself or any other object or class down to individual events, methods, and properties. Studio ships with a personal copy of the Studio Cache relational database, which provides 4GB of local data caching in a 200K footprint. Other features include a Notation Inspector, which provides design and runtime interrogation of objects; a Report Writer with wizards and built-in report objects; multiple debugging modes; a Component Integrator that enables integration of various object types in one application, including Java Beans and ActiveX; and a built-in Web Integrator that Web-enables all applications.
Omnis Studio Data Access Manager enables direct connectivity to leading DBMSs, including Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Microsoft SQL Server. ODBC and Information Builders' SQL provide access to further data sources. Data Access Manager's SQL Browser component provides visual access to all databases and gives DBAs the ability to manage and customize all aspects of databases, including tables, views, triggers, rules, stored procedures, synonyms, and storage allocations. Transparent crossdata type access lets you move items among databases by drag-and-drop.
Omnis Studio Production Manager provides version tracking and control, build management, and librarian services. Tracking and version control allow development team members to recall any revision of a development object. Detailed version histories document changes object by object and build by build, allowing developers to rollback individual changes or split development efforts into separate tracks.
Omnis Studio can be deployed on Windows 95, NT, and 3.1, MacOS, and OS/2, with HP/UX and Sun Solaris to follow.
Pricing runs at $1,599 for Studio, $1,299 for Studio Data Access Manager,
and $799 for Studio Production Manager, with multiseat discounts available.
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If you've decided to go object/relational with universal server technology from Informix, IBM, or Oracle, the next thing you'll need is a development environment that can handle your complex data types. Formida Software recently went to market with one of the first of such products: the Formida Universal Development Environment (UDE).
The UDE consists of a Developer's Workbench, the Formida Kernel, and a C Application Programming Interface. Developers can create enterprise applications that incorporate simple and complex data types (including spatial, images, time series, and 3D objects) and deploy them across a variety of platforms, operating systems, and networks, including the Internet. UDE lets you integrate heterogeneous databases (RDBMS, Imaging, GIS, and CAD) and migrate them to object/relational DBMSs.
Formida's hybrid object-oriented language lets you interact with spatial and other types of complex data and can be used to extend existing development environments, such as PowerBuilder and Delphi, to handle spatial data. The product also lets developers embed Formida spatial objects into their existing applications with OLE technology.
Pricing begins at $5,000 per developer license, with runtime fees ranging in the mid-hundreds per seat. Contact the vendor for pricing information for enterprise packages and site licenses.
Formida Software, 2105 Hamilton Ave., Ste. 100, San Jose, CA 95125, (408) 558-3204, Fax (408) 879-7521, www.formida.com.
With the 3.0 release of its data modeling tool, InfoModelers Inc. addresses the object/relational market. InfoModeler incorporates object role modeling (ORM) and entity relationship modeling (ER), allowing developers to use both conceptual and logical modeling approaches to database design and reengineering. The product also enables cross-model translation between the various model types.
In addition to supporting the major RDBMSs, including Sybase, Informix, DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle, the latest release provides native support for object/relational databases, including Informix's Universal Server and IBM's DB2 Universal Database. The product's object/relational capabilities include support for named and unnamed row types, distinct types, domains, collection types, and type inheritance.
Reengineering features include the ability to import schemas from existing databases into new models, track changes to models and database schemas, synchronize databases and models, and alter existing database structures from models. The Enterprise Edition contains extra "team support" and report options. The team support options include the ability to work in multiple source models, sharable source models, a common repository for model definitions, and multimodel merging. Report capabilities include object, fact, constraint, and subtype reports, as well as logical, physical, project, and statistical report options.
According to InfoModelers Inc., InfoModeler 3.0 performs build and migrate operations up to 10 times faster than its 2.0 predecessor. Other improvements include an enhanced user interface and support for SQL3 constructs and object/relational data types.
The InfoModeler 3.0 Enterprise Edition, available for Windows 95 and NT, is priced at $3,195.
InfoModelers Inc., 110 110th Ave., Ste. 409, Bellevue, WA 98004, (425) 637-2499, Fax (425) 454-7696, www.infomodelers.com.
Sagent Technology released Data Mart Solution 2.0, adding interactive multidimensional analysis capabilities to the system's data mart population capabilities. Data Mart Solution 2.0 lets workgroup users display, drill, pivot, and filter multidimensional datasets in crosstab or chart format while giving browser users analytical capabilities over the Internet.
The 2.0 version integrates Visual Basic for Applications 5.0 as the scripting language and features a new Sagent Analysis desktop module that brings OLAP to Sagent's end-user desktop component, Information Studio. Sagent Analysis lets users perform intuitive multidimensional data analysis in a familiar environment that seamlessly integrates with Information Studio's workgroup features, including publish-and-subscribe distribution.
Sagent Analysis lets users view their data as crosstabs or charts of multiple dimensions and stages the results of queries as aggregate totals on the desktop. Data can be presented as crosstabs or displayed in business charts and graphs. Multiple analysis displays give users several views of the same data. A new exception-highlighting feature makes it easier for users to find data that meets specified business criteria.
Data Mart Solution 2.0 also features WebLink, which gives Web browser users the same data analysis options as client/server users. WebLink's ActiveX controls let users display, drill, pivot, and filter crosstabs and charts within their browser on any operating system.
Data Mart Solution 2.0 is available in five packages: a Data Mart Population package, priced at $25,000; a Client/Server OLAP package, priced at $50,000 for 20 users; a Web OLAP package, priced at $90,000 for 20 client/server users and unlimited Web users; an Integrated Client/Server package, which combines the Data Mart Population and the Client/Server OLAP packages and is priced at $65,000 for 20 users; and an Integrated Web package, which combines the Data Mart Population and the Web OLAP packages and is priced at $105,000 for 20 client/server users and unlimited Web users.
Sagent Technology Inc., 2225 E. Bayshore Rd., Ste. 100, Palo Alto, CA 94303, (415) 493-7100, Fax (415) 493-1290, www.sagenttech.com.
MapInfo released 2.0 upgrades of its SpatialWare and MapX products. SpatialWare works with DBMSs to store geographic data in relational databases. It lets you integrate spatial data into enterprise data repositories, making it available through client/server database deployment or data warehouses. The 2.0 upgrades include enhanced SQL capabilities, faster data loading, new data integrity tools, and full ODBC support.
MapX is an ActiveX mapping component that lets developers embed mapping into common business applications. (Decision-support vendors such as Andyne Computing, Information Advantage, and Pilot Software are embedding MapX into their software, and Microsoft has adopted MapX for Microsoft Office). The latest release of this 32-bit program provides Lotus Notes compatibility, object editing, animation layer, map rotation, and stock dialogues. It is integrated using Visual Basic, Visual C++, Delphi, Lotus Script, or PowerBuilder.
SpatialWare 2.0 is available on Sun Solaris, SCO UNIXware, HP/UX, and DEC Unix operating systems. Pricing begins at $20,000 for a workgroup configuration.
MapX 2.0 runs on Windows NT and 95 and is available at a minimum purchase of $4,960, which includes a $1,000 developer's license and 40 runtime seats. Additional runtime seats are priced at $99 each.
MapInfo Corp., 1 Global View, Troy, NY 12180, (518) 285-6000, Fax (518) 285-6060, www.mapinfo.com.
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