CNX Begins Beta for Valence 4.0

February 4, 2014 Alex Woodie

CNX is beginning beta tests for the next major release of Valence, its suite of products for building compelling new Web and mobile applications that run natively on the IBM i server. The company is eyeing mid-March for a GA launch of the new product.

Valence is a collection of software for developing modern Web 2.0 and mobile applications that run on the IBM i platform and its Apache-powered Web server. The product includes a version of the Ext JS JavaScript library from Sencha, a set of RPG procedures for accessing existing IBM i business logic, and a Web portal framework that provides customers with pre-built navigation and security.

According to a recent CNX newsletter, Valence 4.0 will be the biggest release of the product since Valence 3.2 was released in November 2012. Among the new features we can expect in 4.0:

Support for the latest Ext JS and Sencha Touch releases;
Overhaul of Valence Portal Web application framework;
Support for IBM i Access for Web, for launching green screens within the Portal;
New administration functions;
Integration with Sencha Architect 3;
Faster AJAX calls to DB2/400;
New authentication methods;

As we get closer to the launch date, IT Jungle will get the scoop on the entire release, including the “substantial price increase” that customers will have to pay to make the move from version 3.2 to version 4.0. Pricing for 4.0 will be based on the number of partitions, instead of for the entire server. However, organizations that buy Valence 3.2 prior to the GA of version 4.0 will be able to upgrade to Valence 4.0 Enterprise with unlimited partitions for no charge, provided they are current on maintenance.

CNX also provides Valence as open source software under a Community Developer license, so customers can choose this route if they don’t want to pay for a full Enterprise license–provided that, if they put the application into production, they contribute the source code to the open source community.