• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Remain Breaks New Ground With ALM Suite

    July 15, 2019 Alex Woodie

    Coding season just ended for Remain Software, the Dutch application lifecycle management (ALM) vendor with a growing US presence. That means customers are sorting through a torrent of new functionality in its flagship TD/OMS product, including improved hooks to DevOps tools like Git and Jenkins, a new cross-platform cross-reference module, and a nifty API generator too.

    New stuff started emerging from Remain Software around the POWERUp conference in May, when IT Jungle sat down with company representatives to talk about development trends, current and upcoming releases of Remain’s software, and what customers are looking to get next.

    Arguably the biggest trend among development shops is the ongoing shift to agile and DevOps methodologies. Organizations that employ development teams – which is still a lot of you out there in IBM i land – are eager to take advantage of new technologies and techniques for rapidly improving their software investments.

    Git, Jenkins, and Jira, which emerged from the open source development community, are front and center in those efforts, said Wim Jongman, Remain’s co-managing partner and chief technology officer.

    “IBM i people look at it and say, hey everybody is using it. How can we also integrate in those flows?” Jongman said via phone at COMMON‘s annual conference. “We love that kind of stuff, because we are open source guys and in love with new technology.”

    Remain’s new Jenkins Builds View keeps developers notified of build failures.

    But IBM i shops face real challenges integrating those open source tools into their current toolsets and workflows, Jongman said. That’s the role that Remain is filling with TD/OMS.

    “If I want to manage my IBM i sources through Git, okay, then it’s probably hosted on GitHub,” he said. “But I still want to see that in my integrated change management. I still want to see that in one user interface in which I control everything.”

    With the May delivery of TD/OMS V 11 Milestone 3, Remain delivered a new view that lets developers create and switch branches and analyze changes they have made to a particular Git branch. It also added a Jenkins Builds view to the Jenkins interface that lets developers define which builds they choose to trace in the GUI, according to the company.

    Another feature delivered with that release was the new OpenAPI Studio, which essentially enables IBM i shops to package and deliver their software enhancements as REST APIs that adhere to OAS3 standards. The software is currently in incubation and available for download; Remain plans to charge for it when it’s fully baked.

    OpenAPI Studio will simplify API creation for IBM i developers, Jongman said. “It’s all form based and it will help people to really quickly define REST APIs,” he said. “We’re also able to define REST APIs from an IBM i database. For example, if I have a customer file, and I want to expose my customer to a REST service, you right click on a table and we ask you which fields do you want to expose to this REST service? The user selects the fields and then we generate the serviced and the service definition automatically.”

    Many programmers use cross-reference tools to untangle the web of causes and effects in RPG applications, and there are many good cross-reference tools already available in the market. But with last week’s delivery of TD/OMS V11.1 – the final release of the coding season for Remain – the company has delivered something more: a cross-platform cross-reference tool.

    TD/OMS’s new cross-reference feature software enables customers to track changes to Db2 for i database made using multiple languages, including native IBM i languages in addition to Java, C#, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Bash, and XML. The software can peer into code developed in Visual Studio or residing in Git repositories, or sitting in IFS directories or native IBM i libraries.

    “As you start moving part of your code into these Node.js and PHP systems, what’s really important then is you don’t lose your ability to determine the impact of a specific change,” Jongman said. “Let’s say that IBM i is just one of the guys and no longer the big machine anymore. It is very important that you can do an impact analysis across your complete enterprise.”

    TD/OMS V11.1 also introduced native branching to IBM i development. The company says that, by creating branches, developers can isolate development and testing efforts to only the task at hand. This allows them to push changes into production without impacting what other developers are working on.

    “You’ll no longer be blocked by whatever is stuck in test or acceptance environments,” the company said. “We have also simplified some core concepts (e.g. no more follow/lead and required locking).”

    This release also brings better integration with WebFOCUS, the BI tool from Information Builders, that will simplify deployments of WebFOCUS software. It also gets improved support for GeneXus, the popular low-code development environment from the Uruguayan company of the same name (formerly Artech). Finally, this release also brings support for floating licenses, which allow customers to avoid using named licenses.

    Business has been swift for Remain Software over the past year, according to Laura Hamway, who joined the company last year and oversees its Virginia Beach, Virginia office. Hamway says sales are up 50 percent over the past year, which can largely be attributed to the U.S. expansion.

    “We’ve been doing really well,” she said. “It’s been great having more presence over here.”

    For more information, see the company’s website at remainsoftware.com.

    RELATED STORIES

    Remain Puts Itself Back On The Map In The United States

    Programmer Productivity Underscores Remain’s App Management Upgrades

    New LUG Spreads ‘MAGIC’ In The Mid-Atlantic

    Remain Software Pursues 2E Users, Expands Asian Partnerships

    IBM i Shops Behind The Customized ERP Eight Ball

    Remain Taps JIRA to Heighten Change Management Collaboration

    Change Management Plays Major Role In IBM i Modernization

    Remain Software ALM Tool Gets CA Plex Interface

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: ALM, API, application lifecycle management, BASH, C, DB2 for i, DevOps, Git, IBM i, IFS, Java, JavaScript, Jenkins, Jira, Node.js, PHP, POWERUp 2019, Python, REST API, RPG, XML

    Sponsored by
    ARCAD Software

    Embrace VS Code for IBM i Development

    The IBM i development landscape is evolving with modern tools that enhance efficiency and collaboration. Ready to make the move to VS Code for IBM i?

    Join us for this webinar where we’ll showcase how VS Code can serve as a powerful editor for native IBM i code and explore the essential extensions that make it possible.

    In this session, you’ll discover:

    • How ARCAD’s integration with VS Code provides deep metadata insights, allowing developers to assess the impact of their changes upfront.
    • The role of Git in enabling seamless collaboration between developers using tools like SEU, RDi, and VS Code.
    • Powerful extensions for code quality, security, impact analysis, smart build, and automated RPG conversion to Free Form.
    • How non-IBM i developers can now contribute to IBM i projects without prior knowledge of its specifics, while ensuring full control over their changes.

    The future of IBM i development is here. Let ARCAD be your guide!

    Watch Now

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Guru: Finding Large Files With Python IBM Takes A Hands Off Approach With Red Hat

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 29 Issue: 41

This Issue Sponsored By

  • T.L. Ashford
  • OCEAN User Group
  • Profound Logic Software
  • Manta Technologies
  • WorksRight Software

Table of Contents

  • IBM Takes A Hands Off Approach With Red Hat
  • Remain Breaks New Ground With ALM Suite
  • Guru: Finding Large Files With Python
  • Four Hundred Monitor, July 15
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 28

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • Liam Allan Shares What’s Coming Next With Code For IBM i
  • From Stable To Scalable: Visual LANSA 16 Powers IBM i Growth – Launching July 8
  • VS Code Will Be The Heart Of The Modern IBM i Platform
  • The AS/400: A 37-Year-Old Dog That Loves To Learn New Tricks
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 25
  • Meet The Next Gen Of IBMers Helping To Build IBM i
  • Looks Like IBM Is Building A Linux-Like PASE For IBM i After All
  • Will Independent IBM i Clouds Survive PowerVS?
  • Now, IBM Is Jacking Up Hardware Maintenance Prices
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 24

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle