Fdata Framework is a complete development environment to build database applications using Java.

The following is a list of the features that are provided in this release:

Category Feature
Modeling

Provides components to define a business model consisting of:

  • business classes (or entities) – represent people, places, or things
  • business associations – defines the relationships between business classes
  • business services – performs centralized business processes
  • business events – trigger business processes/services
  • Business model fully supports object oriented principals including:
  • encapsulation – inclusion of methods and data within an object
  • inheritance – ability of data to re-use and extend characteristics of its parent
  • polymorphism – ability to process data differently depending on its type

Provides a comprehensive library of base business classes that can be used and extended including persons, places, and things.

Provides a comprehensive library of base simple types can be used and extended including:

  • number – Boolean, byte, short, integer, long, float, double, big-number, flags, etc.
  • string – code, description, memo, email, url, postal-code, etc.
  • time – date, time, and date/time),
  • binary-large-objects – image, sound, etc.
  • others – enumerations, sets, references, etc.

Provides a library of base association types that can be used and extended that support:

  • cardinality – one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many
  • type – relation, aggregation, and composition

Provides a library of base event types that can be used and extended including events to:

  • create, search, retrieve, update, delete, associate, and disassociate business objects
  • signal that a business object has been changed
  • signal that a business object has been selected in a list of business objects
Presentation

Automatically provides a default, customizable/extendable user interface to manage the presentation of business objects.

  • search-panel – used to enter search criteria, view search results, and retrieve details
  • details-panel – used to enter, update, and delete business objects; additionally, related business object can be associated/disassociated

Automatically provides user interface functionality to create, search for, retrieve, update, delete, associate, and disassociate business objects.

Automatically provides a default, customizable/extendable user interface to manage the presentation of views of business objects.

Automatically updates presentation data when changes are made by remote users (known as dynamic update).

Provides a comprehensive library of presentation controls (based on standard Java Swing controls) that can be used and extended including:

  • a desktop and menu bar
  • model-driven dialogs including a maintenance dialog that contains one-or-more search-panels and details-panels
  • model-driven panels:
  • form-panel – presents a business object in a single-record format
  • table-panel – presents multiple business objects in a table format
  • grid-panel – presents a multiple business object in a grid format

Model-driven field controls including:

  • label – presents numbers and strings
  • text-field – presents numbers and strings
  • text-area – presents string and memos
  • check-box – presents Booleans
  • combo-box – presents enumerations
  • reference-box – presents references
  • calendar-box – presents dates/times
  • flags-box – presents sets
  • image-box – presents blob images
  • tree-box – navigates a business object and its associated business objects
Service

Provides components to build centralized business services that can be used and extended including:

  • a server to manage the managers
  • a manager to provide centralized business services
  • an object manager to provide centralize persistence
  • an email manager
  • a session manager to manage user session
  • a security manager to manage role-based-access-control
Persistence

Automatically manages the persistence of business objects using a relational database including:

  • creating business objects
  • searching for business objects that match criteria
  • retrieving business objects
  • updating business objects
  • deleting business objects
  • associating business objects with one-another
  • disassociating a business objects with one-another

Automatically defines the database structure based on the model such that:

  • an object table is created in the database for each business class defined in the model
  • the columns of the object table correspond to the business class’s attributes
  • indexes and constraints are automatically generated
  • an object view is created for each business class which contains all business objects from the business class and all of its subclasses

initialization data cat be loaded from pre-defined data – in a CVS text file or defined in Java code

Support for transactions and nested transactions.

Automatically supports efficient manipulation of data using indexes and keys.

Automatically manages and allocates database connections from a pool.

Automatically supports scrolling windows of data.

Persistence is fully customize-able and enhance-able.

Persistence model supports inheritance.

Supports Oracle 10g

Provides framework to support any ODBC compatible database with.

Support

Provides support to log events of varying severity.

Provides support for efficient network transportation. Data is approximately 1/7 the size compared with standard Java object serialization applications run efficiently in a wireless environment

Provides support to manage code tables of code values. Code values are cached on all clients, administered centrally, and automatically synchronized

Provides support to manage exceptions/errors.

Provides support to manage centralized services (startup, shutdown, failure detection and recovery).

Provides support for scaleable centralized services by allowing multiple service instances to be available.

Allows a multi-tier application to be tested on a single machine without having to deploy!

Security

Supports authentication using a login window that requires that valid user credentials be supplied.

Supports authorization using role based access control (RBAC).

Supports encryption using standard Java technologies including secure socket layer (SSL) and certificates/keystores.

Supports the maintenance of users, roles, and access permissions using corresponding business classes and dialogs.

Deployment

Leverages Java WebStart technology to:

  • supports ‘single-click’ launch of the client application from a web page
  • automatically ensures that the most current version of the application and Java Virtual Machine (JVM) are installed
  • provides a secure environment to run the application in to ensure that malicious code does not cause damage
Documentation

Provides the following documents:

  • an overview – this document
  • a developer’s guide
  • a developer’s reference – over 800 jdoc html files
  • a user’s guide
  • an administrator’s guide