CNX has released a new development tool that’s aimed at making it easy for RPG developers to create Web 2.0 style interfaces. The new toolset, called Valence, is based on the collection of JavaScript classes called EXTJS, and uses JavaScript’s native data-formatting language, JSON. According to CNX executives, Valence delivers a native and extremely fast connections between Web browsers and back-end RPG applications running on the i-based Power Systems server.

The Valence story starts in 2001, when the folks at Chicago-based CNX started looking for a tool to Web-enable their add-on planning system for BPCS called ATOMIC, according to Richard

The IBM Power System i users tend to be a volatile mix of old and new. Examples are many, but on this occasion the spotlight is on creating, populating, and manipulating databases. Dating back to the System 38, databases on this platform were created using DDS (data description specification). Outside this universe, other relational database management systems (RDMS) use structured query language (SQL) to define the database. Some System i shops have been converting to SQL, but there have been obstacles.

Those obstacles exist despite IBM’s efforts to enhance DB2 UDB for iSeries and convince users that SQL offers more

IBM recently delivered a new product called Tivoli Federated Identity Manager, or FIM, that acts as an identity and authentication hub for the multitude of platforms and authentication methods used in the field, including WS-Trust, SAML, Kerberos, and RAC-F. What’s more, because Tivoli FIM can be called as a Web service, the software is ideal for use in new service oriented architectures (SOAs) and Web 2.0 applications, including those running on i.

While SOAs bring many benefits to developers, such as re-use of code and simplified application integration, user access security is not an area that necessarily benefits from SOA.

Now that the dust has settled following Micro Focus International‘s sudden acquisition of NetManage this spring, teams with the two software companies have had a chance to evaluate their respective products and develop a roadmap for how the products will evolve in the midterm. Meanwhile, the acquisition has reshaped the former NetManage company, with some developers getting re-assigned, other workers being let go, and the closing of NetManage’s former headquarters in Silicon Valley.

In early May, Micro Focus surprised the midrange when it announced plans to buy NetManage for $73.3 million. In rationalizing the acquisition, Micro Focus CEO

ARCAD Software, aka “The Kilt People,” last week announced the opening of a new office in Singapore to serve the growing demand for its software in the Asia Pacific region. The new office is the latest indication of how the French company, which sells application lifecycle management tools (ALM), has been moving to expand the company and its sales.

ARCAD develops a collection of ALM tools and assorted programmer utilities aimed at making life easier for System i application developers. Recently, the company has moved aggressively to fill the void for change management tools left when one of that

Agilysys may be looking to sell its entire company, but that’s not stopping it from selling its suite of popular i OS-based hospitality solutions, which are used by much of the Vegas Strip and many of the largest hotels in the world. The latest company to license the collection is Savan Vegas Hotel & Casino, a new 180-room luxury property in Savannakhet, Laos.

When the Savan Vegas opens in September, it will be the first five-star hotel and entertainment complex in Savannakhet Province, a region in southern Laos that borders Vietnam and Thailand, and which is perhaps best known for

For the folks at Speedy Products, the U.K.-based manufacturer of advanced “window furnishings technology” (i.e. decorative poles, curtain tracks, tiebacks, and holdbacks), extending their i-based IBS ERP software implementation to their newly acquired Chinese factory and distribution center was as easy as opening a curtain.

Last week, Sweden-based IBS announced that Speedy Products will expand its U.K. implementation of the IBS ERP system, called Enterprise, to support its newly acquired Paloma Decorative Products division in China. Paloma operates a factory and a warehouse in Suzhou and Shanghai, and both locations will be hooked in, via VPN, to the new i-based

When Bob Vormittag founded VAI (formerly Vormittag & Associates) as a small software development company for the IBM System 3 line in 1978, he didn’t envision what it would become. Now, as VAI celebrates its 30th birthday this month, the company took a minute to ponder its past, and consider what the future will bring.

VAI is one of the remaining independent, middle-tier ERP developers serving the System i community. The company, which is based in Ronkonkoma, New York (on Long Island), develops a suite of RPG-based applications called S2K Enterprise that are used by more than 750 companies. VAI’s

Relativity Technologies, a developer of tools to allow programmers to gain a better understanding of applications, has teamed up with ILOG, a developer of business rules management systems, to help customers modernize their legacy systems, the two vendors announced last week.

With its Modernization Workbench, Relativity is in the business of “knowledge mining.” The software enables owners of so-called “legacy” applications running on System i, System z, Unix, and Windows systems, to dig deep into the code to see how the various components of the application work and where the business logic is buried. After unearthing this crucial

Interested in learning some new techniques for improving your System i data processing? Curious about how different products can make your job easier? If so then you should check out some of the free Webcasts that System i ISVs are hosting this week, as tracked by our sister publication, Four Hundred Monitor.

This week features a bountiful crop of Webcasts, Webinars, and assorted online get-togethers from independent software vendors. It kicks off today with a Webinar at noon EDT from Quadrant Software on the topic of paperless purchase-to-pay processes. Go to www.quadrantsoftware.com/tracking/2008_03/tech_tools_q308/index.html to register.

Developers interested in learning how