Uniface BV, now a wholly owned division of Compuware Inc, has introduced the latest version of its application development environment for client-server environments, Uniface Six. The product, beta-testing now and shipping in September, updates and extends the firm’s previous three-schema architecture, and features a new modular-based look and feel. Uniface Six comprises five key features: a repository, an application model manager, a rapid application builder, a deployment manager, and developer services. At the heart of the software is a central object-oriented repository, which is able to store definitions of objects types, such as fields, tables, screen objects and trigger procedures. The repository is database independent and can be stored in various databases, including Digital Equipment Corp’s Rdb, Sybase, Oracle, Ingres, Informix, all variants of DB/2, Progress, ISAM and text files. A new graphical editor enables developers to define, modify and update information in the repository, as well as other Uniface Six components. Interfacing the repository is the application model manager, which creates the data model, defines the tools needed for application development, entity relationships and the restraints of the system. The rapid application builder is graphical user interface-based and supports environments including Windows, Mac, OS/2, Motif, character cell and IBM Corp’s Workplace OS. Support for graphical controls, or ‘widgets’, is extended, with a set of open widget interfaces for third party customisation. Uniface and its partners plan to release widget libraries for specific vertical markets, including petrochemical, manufacturing and financial. The deployment manager is a completely new component and it is responsible for communications, distribution of applications between clients and servers, and integration. It includes IBM Distributed Relational Database Architecture and Microsoft Corp’s Open Data Base Connectivity drivers for database access and TCP/IP and LAN Manager network drivers for communication. For distribution, it has a distributed computing manager, which integrates Open Software Foundation Distributed Computing Environment remote procedure calls and transaction processing monitors, such as Tuxedo, Encina and CICS. Other enhancements include developer services, which provides new version control support. This enables users to maintain the history of updates, reserve data, and carry out inventory checks on applications.
