Advancing the Power of MultiValue Applications

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1 Advancing the Power of MultiValue Applications Introduction Since the early beginnings of database technology, the flexibility and versatility of the Pick data model has allowed business users to create very functional multiuser software applications in a fraction of the time compared to any other technology. Today, business applications built and customized with MultiValue technology, still deliver unparalleled performance and reliability requiring less resources and resulting in the lowest cost of ownership of any technology in the market. However, a vast majority of these business applications have not been able to keep up with the rapid advancements of technology and as a result are becoming isolated from mainstream standard technologies. For organizations to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving business climate, the rapid adoption of rich client interfaces and connectivity middleware to advance existing multivalue core solutions to current technologies is imperative. Most importantly this advancement must be without compromising the solid fundamentals of proven business rules, extensible data model capabilities and unmatched price/performance scalability inherent in multivalue based technology solutions. The mismatch between standards based middleware (specifically designed for relational technology) and MultiValue technology has forced concessions to be made with existing data structures and the creation of custom Application Program Interfaces (APIs) for connectivity. These efforts usually resulted in sacrificing functionality and requiring significant time and resources in development time. At Onsystex, we are very familiar with this challenge. Our mission is to develop and deliver technology solutions for customers relying on multivalue based applications. Our suite of product offerings are incremental and complementary, ranging from high performance connectivity tools, to data extensibility solutions for seamless coexistence with relational applications and productivity tools. The Onsystex solutions combined with years of experience in data integration and database technology provides the catalyst for the successful delivery of web application development, interoperability and integration with third party applications and comprehensive business intelligence solutions. As a result, MultiValue business applications can be modernized quickly and effectively and deployed on the Cloud as Software as a Service (SAAS) solutions. 1

2 Leverage your options by choosing the right solutions The principal technologies dominating software development in the Enterprise are J2EE and.net. Thin client based technology based on web browsers and RIA (Rich Internet Applications) have become the ubiquitous client interface for desktops, portable and mobile devices. The internet has evolved from a communication gateway to an effective network communication delivery platform that businesses can rely on for distributed applications, Cloud Computing and SAAS business applications. Depending on your business requirements, selecting the right solution to leverage any of these technologies will significantly increase the rate of successful delivery of any software application. The OASYS Application Server suite consists of products and services that will help your multivalue application extensibility efforts every step of the way. Each product addresses a technology area with the most effective integration, leveraging the best capabilities of MultiValue technology and extending it to target environments wherever possible. Our premise is to extend the feature rich capabilities of MultiValue functionality and maintain the high level of customization and flexibility which has helped differentiate your business applications from the rest. For Microsoft.NET Framework applications, OASYS.NET a Data Provider for.net serves as a high performance connectivity conduit between.net based applications and multivalue operating environments. It is optimized for scalability of windows, web services and web based applications. The complete support of full ADO.NET syntax with multivalue extensions, allows multivalue and non-multivalue software developers to tackle.net development projects with ease. OASYS SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) connector provides native integration with SQL Server 2008 and extends all your Pick based reports to a comprehensive reporting platform for rich graphical report design and delivery without losing the inherent capabilities of your dictionary definitions. The result is the same MultiValue data model flexibility with a feature rich visual representation of your data. For J2EE development, OASYS JAVA provides fast and reliable connectivity between Java applications and MultiValue operating environments while delivering BASIC style string and MultiValue data handling functionality in its built in Class Libraries, supporting event management and methods to ensure data integrity and reliability. 2

3 For unsurpassed scalability the OASYS Proxy Server maximizes user and device accessibility to MultiValue applications by providing the flexibility to configure multiple pools of connections to accommodate the most demanding web applications with less demand on server resources. This following sections offer a technical overview of the solutions provided by the OASYS Application Server Suite: OASYS.NET, OASYS SQL Server Reporting Services Connector, OASYS Java Connector, OASYS Proxy Server and OASYS SQL Express. All these products offer an incremental technology path which will get you to Relational Technology and enhanced UI and BI functions, without compromising the flexibility, reliability and scalability of mission critical multivalued business applications. The combined powerful features shared by these products can complement the strategic technology direction of any organization. OASYS.NET OASYS.NET is the catalyst between Microsoft.NET Framework and Pick/MultiValue environments. It has been designed from the ground up to fully leverage the programming languages, tools and components of Microsoft.NET Framework in a simple, easy and reliable manner without losing the functionality of the Pick/Multivalue environment including application programs, the Basic programming language and data. The OASYS.NET Data Provider exposes the strength of the Pick data model through ADO.NET. OASYS.NET can simultaneously service Client/Server applications, SOAP Web services, and HTTP Web applications written using Visual Basic.NET, Visual C# or ASP.NET. Broad cross-platform database support is available for most popular multivalue environments including D3, UniVerse and UniData database environments. In addition to fully complying with ADO.NET object architecture, the OASYS.NET Data Provider for is composed of add-in supplementary.net Class Libraries to Visual Studio.NET and shares its own Namespace to avoid conflict with existing core Microsoft.NET class libraries. The seamless integration with Visual Studio.NET and Microsoft.NET Framework s supported programming languages makes application development integrated with Multivalue databases a natural extension of Pick BASIC server based code. Functionality includes string handling capabilities such as extract, insert and 3

4 delete. Plus useful constants @SVM facilitate the creation and natural manipulation of multivalue data. These functions are critical to offload specific business logic which may be less suited for server based processing. OASYS.NET is available for Visual Studio.NET 2010 and can be installed in development or runtime modes. Each mode consists of the OASYS.NET MultiValue account. To communicate between.net Framework applications and Windows based MultiValue database servers, a Windows socket service is included. For UNIX, the OASYS.NET relies on standard UNIX or Linux inetd or xinetd service for communication respectively. OASYS SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) Connector With the introduction of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio.Net 2005, a powerful solution emerged from Microsoft to meet the requirements of business users for report design, implementation and deployment. Most importantly the integration with popular Microsoft Office productivity desktop tools such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel is completely seamless. Since its initial release and the imminent integration of Microsoft.NET Framework in Windows and MS Office products plus the release of SharePoint, the SSRS offering has become more popular and widely accepted and adopted by many organizations. Maintaining multiple application development software methodologies is a very tedious and cumbersome exercise, especially when taking into consideration that software development is never complete. New modules, interfaces and technologies will affect and accelerate user requirements which need to be continually addressed by the development team. To make effective utilization of existing infrastructure, reporting solutions should leverage existing data structures with minimum modifications to their core functions. In other words, the existing functions should work uninterrupted and the new reporting solution should become a snapon module to the current application. Today, the market offers a myriad of alternatives for Business Intelligence and Reporting products ranging from adhoc reporting and query tools to full data warehousing solutions. From the MultiValue perspective any reporting solution to be considered should take into account a short, medium and long term approach as building blocks that can be added as these become available. 4

5 A complete reporting solution that will effectively complement existing multivalue applications should address the following: User Friendly interface for the design, creation and maintainability of rich graphical reports Ad hoc rendering of reports with full drill down and drill through capabilities Ability to render graphic output including pie, line or bar charts as standalone reports or combined with supporting data elements Ability to render reports in multiple formats such as matrix, tabular, lists or columnar with sub totals and data sensitive link options Ability to combine or merge multiple report output into a single document (sub reports) Ability to leverage existing MultiValue dictionary data definitions and normalize on the fly if required Provide output options such as Word, Excel, PDFs and XML Extend delivery options of generated reports to users and/or distribution lists via with attachments, or links to a secure reporting portal Ability to post generated reports to a secure Reporting Portal for viewing or archival Ability to take snapshots of existing reports and archive for later view Ability to render reports using a web browser interface Ability to integrate report rendering to the most popular desktop products (MS Office) Ability to automate the creation of the reports without operation intervention Ability to subscribe to a specific report Provide a secure environment by roles and user groups to prevent unauthorized viewing of reports Ad-hoc reporting option Ease of design and customization to extend reporting presentation or addition of new reports. With the above mentioned features, authorized users will the ability to extract data in a multitude of formats and their own spreadsheets and/or relational database systems for further data analysis. To fully leverage the capabilities of this powerful BI reporting solution you need the following: have update An existing multivalue environment such as D3, UniVerse or UniData OASYS SQL Server Reporting Services Connector 5

6 Identification and creation of additional supporting file structures and/or indexes required to streamline the operation and functionality of existing reporting definitions A bridge account containing local dictionary definitions to be used in reports Windows 2003 or 2008 Server with IIS and SMTP services (optional for delivery) enabled SQL Server 2005 or 2008 RDBMS with Reporting Services enabled SQL Server agent for subscriptions and unattended operations Browser Interface, preferable Internet Explorer. To realize the real potential of any reporting solution, it is important to consider a modular approach which takes into account ease of installation and upgradeability to existing applications. For resellers a reasonable price point of the final product offering is also advisable. Reporting and Business Intelligence solutions provide the means to closely interact with multiple levels of the organization. Onsystex can assist in design, development and implementation of reporting solutions based on SQL Services Reporting Services. OASYS Java Connector The key benefits of any programming language lose its inherent strength when connecting to database environments that do not support a comparable paradigm (ie. RDBMS). This is also true for Java development. One of the challenges at hand is the level of integration required with multivalue to make any Java solution viable. As a result of the experienced gained with OASYS.NET and taking into consideration the diversity of IDE options for Java development, Onsystex has developed OASYS Java connector which is delivered as a comprehensive, yet compact J2EE library that can be added on to any Java IDE, including Eclipse, NetBeans, JBuilder, Symantec and others. Connecting to a multivalue database environment with the OASYS Java is customizable via a high performance socket port connection. OASYS Java can connect directly to Unix or Windows operating systems and access multivalue accounts, call basic subroutines and retrieve data. The same event handling capabilities for record lock contingencies permit seamless coexistence with existing Pick BASIC applications. 6

7 For large deployments, the OASYS Proxy Server can be leveraged by the OASYS Java Connector to scale out web applications to hundreds and thousands of users. One of the main characteristics inherited from our.net product counterpart is programmatic support for Pick BASIC like string handling functionality which can be used to manage raw MultiValue data elements as dynamic arrays or string variables directly from Java code. Calling Basic subroutines from Java with argument passing is straight forward. OASYS SQL Express: Synchronizing Multivalue and SQL Trying to use relational reporting tools on multivalue structures can be very problematic, especially as data volume increases. OASYS SQL Express is an innovative product, specifically built to extend MultiValue data by addressing increased customer demands for information accessibility, data retrieval and interoperability. OASYS SQL Express offers a non-intrusive approach that focuses on multivalue data elements requiring normalization by taking advantage of existing multivalue dictionary definitions and effectively addressing multiple levels of complexity. From simpler export tasks to actively synchronized replication, OASYS SQL Express offers a comprehensive solution to build, design, test and deploy custom normalization processes. All these capabilities have been carefully wrapped with a powerful web front end that is extremely intuitive and easy to use. In addition, software developers and end users with knowledge of multivalue applications can easily create projects very quickly. The built in analyzer provides important insight on existing multivalue data files and corresponding dictionary definitions and establishes SQL relationships amongst all the referenced files in a project. OASYS SQL Express built in preview engine samples the intended normalization process so the users know exactly how the original multivalue data files will be represented on a fully normalized SQL schema. Once the project is complete, OASYS SQL Express can assist in the creation of triggers to establish and enforce data change business rules between multivalue and target relational data sources. The combination of full multivalue database export capabilities to SQL in 3NF (3 rd Normal Form) and powerful change management import methodologies ensure an accurate and reliable representation of up to the minute data refresh of normalized multivalue data. Some of the additional built in features of OASYS SQL Express are as follows: 7

8 VOC and dictionary preview and analysis Data preview, SQL converted Data preview Data typing conversions Data Export Error Notification SQL Relationship Analyzer Query previews Query archival Error detection of invalid dictionary entries Advanced filtering for import / export Automated SQL Relationship creation with overrides Web based interface Relationship previews created during export Data sample preview Deployment to SQL Server 8

9 Summary Multivalue technology has become a reliable and extensible core infrastructure for some of the most functional business applications in the market and will continue to be leveraged in the future. Selecting the right technology to extend the already existing feature rich functionality of the MultiValue business rules takes careful consideration. Regardless of the technology path your organization decides to take, there are proven options in the market that can take existing MultiValue applications to the next level of integration, interoperability and functionality without compromising the benefits delivered today. At Onsystex, we work very hard to help our customers meet their business goals by investing in the development of add on products and services that can extend the value of MultiValue applications. The OASYS Application Server can help software developers tackle J2EE and/or.net projects with ease, allowing native high performance access to MultiValue programs and data without any significant modification to core functionality. OASYS.NET and the OASYS Java Connector extend multivalue business rules and data in a manner that can be leveraged by new applications and front end solutions. For comprehensive reporting, Business Intelligence and seamless interoperability with MS Office products, the OASYS SSRS Connector extends SQL Server Reporting Server to reuse existing Data Dictionary definitions for complex data retrieval without normalization. And finally, for organizations who can benefit from unattended synchronization between MultiValue and relational datastores, OASYS SQL Express offers a powerful solution that helps express MultiMalue data models in relational tables and craft a bullet proof path to normalization. About Onsystex Onsystex is changing the way the world views MultiValue applications by increasing the value of those critical business applications that have provided organizations with a competitive edge for many years. As an alternative to re-engineering or replacing proven, functional and stable applications, Onsystex provides the tools and services to allow these applications to be executed on recognized, standard relational databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL, integrated with standard business intelligence (BI) tools, and interfaced with the latest Internet technologies in languages such as.net and JAVA. Onsystex s experienced professional services team leverages proven best practices guidelines for the transition to the latest technologies without disruption to the daily operation of the organization. 9

10 For more information, visit Contact us to discuss your integration business requirements. Office Address: 2002 Summit Boulevard Suite 300 Atlanta, GA USA Phone: (404) Web: OASYS Application Server, OASYS.NET, OASYS SSRS Connector, OASYS Java Connector. OASYS Proxy Server are copyrighted and wholly owned by Onsystex Corporation. All other Products or Service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. 10