Tools with a Vision
Add Vision Software to the growing list of companies introducing development tools that build Web-based applications.
The company this week released the second version of Vision Builder 2, an update to its rule-based toolset for building client-server and, by year's end, multi-tiered Internet and intranet Web-based applications.
Vision Builder goes beyond simple Web development by allowing developers to design applications and generate presentation code for client systems, business rules for how the application should work, and data rules governing interaction with back-end servers, independently of any particular language.
The tool guides developers through the process of writing rules via templates and gives them the option of actually generating the application through several widely used development tools. Vision Builder supports Microsoft's Visual Basic and Microsoft Access, which customers must obtain separately. Java and ActiveX support will be added by the end of the year. Database server code can be generated by Vision Builder for Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server databases. Sybase SQL Server support will be added this year.
Also this year, Vision will include in the tool the ability to generate middleware applications using Microsoft's forthcoming Microsoft Transaction Server, formerly code-named Viper. That ability will let companies begin building full-fledged transactional applications for order entry, electronic commerce, and other applications.
Vision Builder runs on Windows 95 and Windows NT for development. The tool is priced depending on database support. A version for either Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server databases is priced at $3,995. A version supporting both costs $4,995.