Developer | Actian Corporation |
---|---|
Stable release | OpenRoad 11.2 / May, 2021 |
Implementation language | C, C++ |
Platform | Cross-Platform |
OS | Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX |
License | Proprietary |
Website | https://www.actian.com/data-management/openroad-rad-4gl-ide/ |
OpenROAD, which stands for "Open Rapid Object Application Development", is a fourth-generation programming language (4GL) and development suite from Actian Corporation.
It includes a suite of development tools, with built-in Integrated development environment (IDE) (Written in OpenROAD), and Code Repository.
The history of OpenROAD is closely tied to that of the Ingres relational database.
The Ingres Product set, (marketed by ASK Corporation, Computer Associates, Ingres Corporation and then Actian) was popular in the governments of North West Europe, and can be found in many government departments. OpenROAD appeared in beta form on the SUN platform in 1991 as Windows4GL 1.0, and was available to British Universities under a special license agreement. The development environment was known as the Sapphire Editor.
The Sapphire Editor allowed the creation of complex GUI interfaces using an IDE, rather than large volumes of Motif code / resource files. This was one of the first environments to enable rapid prototyping of GUI clients.
Windows4GL 2.0 introduced Microsoft Windows compatibility and the debugger.
Release | General availability | End of Enterprise Support | End of Extended Support | End of Obsolescence Support | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
OpenROAD 3.0 | May, 1995 | 31-Dec-01 | 31-Dec-06 | 31-Dec-11 | OpenROAD 3.0 was when it became stable on MS Windows. |
OpenROAD 3.5 (Windows) | April, 1996 | 31-Jan-08 | 31-Dec-13 | 31-Dec-18 | OpenROAD 3.5(1) was when it became stable. |
OpenROAD 3.5 (Unix) | September, 1997 | 31-Dec-08 | 31-Dec-13 | 31-Dec-18 | After 3.51, the UNIX environments used a Commercial PC emulator to give native capability, possibly one of the hurdles on the ROAD to its Open Source status across all platforms. Variations in the distribution include FAT client (Requires Ingres NET for communication), Thin eClient (can be used without Ingres NET but needs to use the Application Server instead (DCOM)), and finally mClient for Mobile Windows Clients (HTTP services required to interface to the Application server). It was possible to use images in any environment (Unix, VMS or MS Windows up to version 3.51), however portability issues between GUI environments (mostly related to FONT differences) made this difficult. |
OpenROAD 4.0) | April, 1998 | 31-Mar-09 | 31-Mar-14 | 31-Mar-19 | |
OpenROAD 4.1) | January, 2001 | 31-Mar-09 | 31-Mar-14 | 31-Mar-19 | It is an interpreted language that uses a runtime distributable client to process 'image' files, thus no DLL or .NET dependency issues under MS Windows (ActiveX aside). There was a Macintosh Beta version produced. |
OpenROAD 2006 (5.0) | December, 2006 | 31-Dec-13 | 31-Dec-18 | 31-Dec-23 | |
OpenROAD 5.1 (Windows and HP-UX) | April, 2011 | 31-Dec-15 | 31-Dec-20 | 31-Dec-25 | The defining feature of the release was general-purpose system classes for XML support, to allow creation and parsing of arbitrary XML documents without the need to create additional user classes or to use external components (3GL Procedures or External Class Libraries). Providing an XML based export file format will that will be documented, human readable, produce clean differences between different revisions of a file, allow changes to be merged, will allow OpenROAD source components to be managed by many different Software Configuration Management (SCM) systems. |
OpenROAD 5.1 (Unix except HP-UX) | August, 2012 | 31-Dec-16 | 31-Dec-20 | 31-Dec-25 | |
OpenROAD 6.0 | March, 2012 | 31-Mar-17 | 31-Mar-22 | 31-Mar-27 | OpenROAD 6.0 included the additional UNICODE support of OpenROAD 2006 5.5, a special limited release. |
OpenROAD 6.2 (All Platforms) and Ingres 10.2 Client only for support of OpenROAD as a client | November, 2014 | 31-Dec-21 | 31-Dec-26 | 31-Dec-31 | |
OpenROAD 11.0 (Solaris, Aix) | Sep, 2020 31-Dec-22 | 31-Dec-24 | 31-Dec-26 | ||
OpenROAD 11.0 (Linux, Windows) | Sep, 2020 | 31-Dec-22 | 31-Dec-24 | 31-Dec-26 | |
OpenROAD 11.2 (Solaris SPARC, IBM AIX) | May-21 | 31-Dec-24 | 31-May-29 | 31-May-33 | |
OpenROAD 11.2 (Linux) | May-21 | 31-Dec-24 | 31-May-29 | 31-May-33 | |
OpenROAD 11.2 (Windows) | Aug, 2021 | 31-May-25 | 31-May-29 | 31-May-33 |
The reason for the varying and shorter Lifecycle dates of latest versions is Actian is working to bring OpenROAD releases current to Actian X. The Lifecycle dates will re-align with the 11.2 release in 2021. [1]
The OpenROAD Server enables business logic written in the OpenROAD 4GL language to be accessed by client applications. The OpenROAD Server is multi-threaded and allows concurrent access from a number of client interfaces. These client interfaces include the following: [2]
OpenRoad Server has built-in support for Ingres/X and Vector/Avalanche databases. On IBM z/OS mainframes, EDBC (a separate product) provides the same level of access to native VSAM, DB2, IMS, and Datacom/DB databases to enable you to access data from anywhere. [3]
VBScript is an Active Scripting language developed by Microsoft that is modeled on Visual Basic. It allows Microsoft Windows system administrators to generate powerful tools for managing computers without error handling and with subroutines and other advanced programming constructs. It can give the user complete control over many aspects of their computing environment.
In computing, cross-platform software is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software requires a separate build for each platform, but some can be directly run on any platform without special preparation, being written in an interpreted language or compiled to portable bytecode for which the interpreters or run-time packages are common or standard components of all supported platforms.
Ingres Database is a proprietary SQL relational database management system intended to support large commercial and government applications.
Delphi is a general-purpose programming language and a software product that uses the Delphi dialect of the Object Pascal programming language and provides an integrated development environment (IDE) for rapid application development of desktop, mobile, web, and console software, currently developed and maintained by Embarcadero Technologies.
Btrieve is a transactional database software product. It is based on Indexed Sequential Access Method (ISAM), which is a way of storing data for fast retrieval. There have been several versions of the product for DOS, Linux, older versions of Microsoft Windows, 32-bit IBM OS/2 and for Novell NetWare.
Oracle Forms is a software product for creating screens that interact with an Oracle database. It has an IDE that includes an object navigator, property sheet, and code editor that uses PL/SQL. It was originally developed to run server-side in character-mode terminal sessions. It was ported to other platforms, including Windows, to function in a client–server environment. Later versions were ported to Java where it runs in a Java EE container and can integrate with Java, and web services that can be launched from a URL. Recent versions provide a means to run the forms from a desktop computer without requiring a browser.
Uniface is a low-code development and deployment platform for enterprise applications that can run in a large range of runtime environments, including mobile, mainframe, web, Service-oriented architecture (SOA), Windows, Java EE, and .NET. Uniface is used to create mission-critical applications.
Forté 4GL was a proprietary application server that was developed by Forté Software and used for developing scalable, highly available, enterprise applications.
LINC is a fourth-generation programming language, used mostly on Unisys computer systems.
JADE is a proprietary object-oriented software development and deployment platform product from the New Zealand-based Jade Software Corporation, first released in 1996. It consists of the JADE programming language, Integrated development environment and debugger, integrated application server and object database management system.
Servoy is a development and deployment platform for enterprise applications, written itself in Java, and which uses JavaScript as its scripting language. It can adopt the native look and feel of any platform or the web, using HTML5 and CSS code. Servoy was created from the start to make enterprise business application development easy. It has introduced many innovations for that purpose: the use of JavaScript instead of Java, a comprehensive development framework with building blocks that are added through drag and drop, a web client, etc.
Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such as Windows API, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Store and Microsoft Silverlight. It can produce both native code and managed code.
Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing (UFT), formerly known as QuickTest Professional (QTP), is software that provides functional and regression test automation for software applications and environments.
The Softwell Maker is an environment development. Designer uses visual forms and reports (WYSIWYG), business rules, and visually representing other actions using flowcharts.
db4o was an embeddable open-source object database for Java and .NET developers. It was developed, commercially licensed and supported by Actian. In October 2014, Actian declined to continue to actively pursue and promote the commercial db4o product offering for new customers.
ZK is an open-source Ajax Web application framework, written in Java, that enables creation of graphical user interfaces for Web applications with little required programming knowledge.
Versant Object Database (VOD) is an object database software product developed by Versant Corporation.
Actian Zen is an ACID-compliant, Zero-DBA, Embedded, Nano-footprint, Multi-Model, Multi-Platform database management system (DBMS) developed originally by Pervasive Software, which was acquired by Actian Corporation in 2013.
RStudio is an integrated development environment for R, a programming language for statistical computing and graphics. It is available in two formats: RStudio Desktop is a regular desktop application while RStudio Server runs on a remote server and allows accessing RStudio using a web browser.
Product links:
Community links:
Mailing Lists:
Webcasts: