BASIS delivers more choices for application developers than ever before. TechCon2003 was the perfect venue to present an array of exciting new development options. As the World Wide Web continues to revolutionize the way organizations do business, application developers need to respond to constant requests for web-enabled features. The Internet allows customers to access their applications and their data remotely. BASIS provides a variety of choices to deploy applications on the Web.

Previous TechCons demonstrated the use of ODBC and JDBC connections, the Basic Web Utility, and Microsoft Terminal Services coupled with third-party tools to provide Web solutions. This year, TechCon attendees found a blend of old and new technologies very interesting. For example, one session demonstrated how a character application running with a terminal emulator inside a browser is a quick and easy alternative to developing a new application for the Web.

In addition, the Web Application Integration session illustrated the synergy possible between BBj® applications, Web browsers, and SSL communication with other secure commercial applications. The demonstration of BBj applications, both CUI and GUI, consuming Web services was a favorite among attendees.

With the creation of Web services standards, Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) and custom applications can now call programs offered through the Web services interface. BBj version 3.0 and higher supports the Web services interface, which means that COTS and custom applications, written in almost any language, can call BASIS programs like they call libraries written in their own respective languages. This dynamic and exciting technology lets developers integrate their applications with applications written in almost any other popular development language. TechCon2003 demonstrated BASIS applications powering Web services and consuming live Java and .NET-powered Web services.

Since TechCon2003, BASIS released yet another exciting feature to the developer community. The BASIS IDE is now compiler configurable, which means it can compile your programs with any BASIS compiler released in the last decade! This powerful feature allows developers to use one integrated environment for maintaining legacy code and creating new object structured code with BBj.

Once again, BASIS delivers choices and functionality so developers get the best possible results from their applications and the most productivity for their customers.

Greg Grisham Director of Vertical Market Applications