The GNU Enterprise team is proud to announce a new release of it's enterprise application development suite. This major release includes:
- GNUe Forms 0.5.0
- GNUe Reports 0.1.1
- GNUe Designer 0.5.0
- GNUe Navigator 0.0.4
- GNUe AppServer 0.0.3
- GNUe Common 0.5.0
GNUe-Forms is a platform and UI-independent forms system. It reads an XML-based forms definition and creates GUIs for Win32, GTK, and, soon, Curses (text), QT 3.0, and HTML. It has a fully data-aware widget set and can be used in both 2-tier and n-tier environments.
GNUe-Reports is a platform and output-independent reporting system. It reads an XML-based report definition and generates arbitrary XML output that can further be translated into any format for which there is an adapter. GNUe Reports currently has outputs for Text, HTML, and CSV -- with PDF, Postscript, and Gnumeric/Excel formats in the works. Reports can output directly to a file, as an email attachment, to a printer, or to a HylaFax server. This version introduces native "Label" support.
GNUe-Designer is the IDE for the GNUe tools. It allows you to visually layout your forms in a RAD-style environment. Designer has a builtin forms client, so you can quickly test your forms while still in Designer. Designer also has support for form creation wizards... answer a few questions, attach your form to one or more database tables, select the fields to include, and, voila, a basic form is created. Basic support for schema creation is also included.
GNUe Application Server is the data and business rules server for the GNU Enterprise project. It will provide an object- oriented backend to forms and reports. In an n-tier environment, GEAS holds all business rules/logic and provides object-to- relational access to various database backends. This release is primarily a proof-of-concept release that illustrates the use of GNUe-Common's database backends, triggers, and RPC abstraction tools.
GNUe Navigator is a menuing system for GNUe Forms and Reports. It presents a consistent menuing interface (in GUI or Text) based on an XML "process definition." GNUe Navigator uses the GNUe Forms or GNUe Reports clients to run the actual forms and reports, so these corresponding tools must be installed.
GNUe-Common is the basis for the GNUe tools, such as Forms, Reports, Application Server, and Designer. It implements a database-abstraction layer that provides support for most major databases. A builtin XML-to-Object parser and Object-to-XML marshaller are used by Forms, Reports, and Designer to save and read Forms/Report definitions to and from an XML file. It also defines and implements an RPC abstraction layer that will allow server processes to define their public methods once and have them available to CORBA, XML-RPC, SOAP, and DCOM clients.
All of these releases are targeted at developers. The five products are available in source form from our website at
http://www.gnuenterprise.org/downloads/current.php/
We also have an all-in-one Windows installer for the GNUe tools that include all the basic dependencies -- you only have to download a single setup.exe! The Installers include support for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and ODBC. These installers are available at the same location referenced above.
Debian packages for "unstable" have also been created. Expect them to appear in the apt repository in the weeks to come. We are looking for packagers for other platforms.
The tools have been tested and are known to run on:
- GNU/Linux (RedHat 6.x/7.x/8.x, Debian 2.x/3.x/sid, Slackware 8.x, Gentoo)
- Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP/NT
- MacOS X (via the available X interface)
- Solaris 8/9
- FreeBSD 4.x/5.x
The tools require [Python 2.0] or better to run (Python 2.1+ recommended.)
Changes to GNUe-Forms 0.5.0:
Separated logic from layout in the Forms Definition file.
Introduced a <logic> section containing <block>s and <field>s.
tag (logic)
Separated layout management from the main XML specification and implemented with namespaces.
Introduced dialog support
Startup errors are now displayed in a popup dialog instead of dumped to the console
Introduced basic data-bound image support (requires Python Imaging Library)
State-based (disabled/enabled) toolbar icons and menus
Expanded and clarified the various triggers (some were renamed to be consistent, others were newly added)
Started on native QT3 and Win32-based drivers
Wrote a converter script for old-style GFD files
Changes to GNUe-Designer 0.5.0:
Changes to GNUe-Common 0.5.0:
Changes to GNUe-Reports 0.1.1:
Changes to GNUe Navigator 0.0.4:
Changes to GNUe AppServer 0.0.3:
In other news, work on GNUe Integrator is under way in CVS. Also, work on a new subproject, GNUe Small Business, is progressing rapidly. This is a set of business applications (inventory, financials, etc) targeted at Small Businesses (commonly called SME's -- Small to Medium Enterprises.) We are actively looking for volunteers to assist in this subproject.