CNX Delivers Mobile Tooling as Valence 3.0 Goes GA

Published: August 23, 2011

by Alex Woodie

CNX last week announced the general availability of Valence 3.0, a new Web application development tool that introduces native support for smartphones and tablet devices running Apple iOS and Google Android operating systems. The tool, which is targeted at RPG programmers looking to create Web 2.0 apps to run on the IBM i server, includes several other promising new features as well.

Valence is a unique tool designed for creating modern-looking Web applications that run under the IBM i server's Apache Web server and access existing RPG business logic. The product has several components, including an OEM version of the Ext JS JavaScript library from Sencha; a set of RPG procedures for integrating the JavaScript-based front-end with existing RPG business logic; and a Web portal framework that provides customers with pre-built navigation and security.

While Valence has excelled at creating Web applications for display in standard-sized Web browsers since it launched in 2008, the recent frenzy of interest in mobile apps among businesses of all sizes has caught the attention of CNX. The Chicago-based company decided to give its Valence more powerful mobile capabilities with Valence 3.0, which it released in beta form at the COMMON conference in Minneapolis this past May.

With Valence 3.0, CNX enhanced its Web portal framework to support the delivery of applications to mobile devices. According to Valence, the framework automatically detects what kind of device the customer is using, and adapts the interface accordingly.

Other enhancements delivered with Valence 3.0 include support for version 4.0.1 of the Ext JS JavaScript library. Ext JS 4 delivers faster component rendering, updated grids, new APIs and classes, and advanced charting and graphing options. CNX has also updated its example applications to show how developers can utilize Ext JS 4's touch-screen capabilities.

Valence 3.0 applications should run faster as the result of enhancements that CNX made to its RPG procedures, new caching mechanisms, and optimization of functions that translate SQL to JSON, JavaScript's native formatting language.

The Valence portal framework was also updated to provide desktop users with a choice between a drop-down menu or the standard navigation tree. Administrators also gain clearer views into which applications their users are authorized to use. New configuration settings should make it easier to add new applications to groups and navigation trees.

CNX has also added a new Enterprise version of Valence that includes a couple of capabilities that aren't available with the Community or Professional editions. These include the Nitro Source Editor, which CNX says "makes opening and editing JavaScript files of any size a breeze, and the Instance Manager, which "automates the formerly tedious process of cloning Valence server instances," the company says.

This latest version of Valence is more than just an incremental release, says CNX CTO Richard Milone. "For starters, the portal has undergone a beautiful redesign with some great new features to make it easier to use than ever," he says in a press release. "And with native support for mobile devices now included, this release will be of particular interest to developers who want to address the rapidly growing community of smartphone and tablet users."

The community edition of Valence is free for prospective customers to use to create applications. Customers that want to deploy their Valence applications have two options. They can either agree to share the source code of their apps written in the Community Editionor, if they want to keep their source code private, they can purchase the Valence Professional edition or the new Valence Enterprise edition.

Licenses for Valence Professional cost $1,195, up from $595 with version 2. Licenses for Valence Enterprise (which includes the new Nitro Source Editor and Instance Manager components) cost $3,995. Both licenses also include one year of support. Licenses for OEM distribution are also available.

For more information and trial downloads, see www.cnxcorp.com.

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