Revelation Software is currently working on OpenInsight for TigerLogic D3. "Just as we have OpenInsight for U2, we will have OpenInsight for D3. Eventually, we hope that OpenInsight becomes a front-end graphical development to the D3 environnment," explains Robert Catalano, director of sales for Revelation.
The new product came about after Mike Ruane, Revelation's president and CEO, attended TigerLogic's first user conference in many years in early November. "Many of their users are still using green screen technology or if they are doing it with a graphical front end, it is something like Java, where the skill set just isn't what they have. With the addition of OpenInsight as a front end to D3, they gain the ability to use the same skill set that they have right now, and they get to create a graphical front end to the database that they already have."
Ruane has recently done a series of road shows to demonstrate and explain new features in OpenInsight release 9.1, as well as to offer a preview of what is ahead with release 9.2. Ruane has hosted road shows in Houston, San Francisco, London, and Boston; and David Goddard of Revelation Australia, recently hosted a road show in Sydney. "Because of the recession, many people are stuck with the version that they were on 18 months ago, and now they are getting ready to move forward again."
A key feature that Revelation is showcasing is the new SQL Connector. The SQL Connector is a base filing system, not a modified filing system, so the capabilities of this SQL Connector are better than Revelation has ever had before. With the SQL Connector, SQL tables are now seen as native tables to all components of OpenInsight including forms, reports, popups and stored procedures. So, within each of these components, opens, reads, writes, locks, unlocks and selects all work the same. The developer doesn't need to know SQL to use it as a data source.
The SQL Connector works with the SQL statement that is placed in a dataset, so users can bind to tables, use views and multi-table SQL selects. The SQL Connector will point at a dataset and it will create OpenInsight F-type fields for each column in the dataset. Developers can add symbolics, including Xlates to other SQL based tables. The SQL Connector also utilizes ADO record sets, which eliminates the need for developers to deploy ODBC connections to client workstations.
"It will let an OpenInsight developer, instead of using our MV dataset, use a SQL database. They can use Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, MySQL, PostgreSQL. It lets them use that back end data source without changing any of their code." Revelation is also planning to provide similar support for IBM DB2 and Oracle Database, says Ruane, who notes that this SQL Connector is an important feature for Revelation partners when they are going on a commercial bid.
Dovetailing with the SQL Connector as well as the D3and U2 Connectors, Catalano says, Revelation also plans to release OpenInsight for Web (O4W). The O4W toolkit will provide the ability to create browser-based data entry and retrieval forms, create browser-based reports and graphs, and create dashboards. "This web development toolkit can not only report against OpenInsight data but it can report and interface against UniVerse, UniData, D3, SQL Server-anything that we connect to," explains Catalano. The OpenInsight for Web (O4W) Development Toolkit is scheduled to be included in OpenInsight Release 9.2.
Revelation has also announced the Thomas J. Wilson, president and CEO of Unisphere Media, publisher of Database Trends and Applications magazine and the 5 Minute Briefing series of newsletters, will be its keynote speaker for the 2010 Users' Conference. The conference will be held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., on Tuesday, April 27- Friday, April 30. Contact Nancy Ruane (mailto:nancy@revelation.com) for more information.