Alpha Five Version 10 Developer

Alpha Five Version 10 Developer is a rapid application development (RAD) system for creating and deploying database applications for Windows desktops and the Web.

Organizations can define and manage databases and create applications using an interface and modules that assemble and connect most of the common elements of database-driven Web and desktop applications. Even users with little or no programming experience have used the interface to build and deploy applications. Alpha Five's Xbasic language is available for more complex development.

Alpha Five Web applications can be built either using the built-in database engine or against SQL databases.

Version 10 inroduces Codeless AJAX, which allows developers to add asynchronous JavaScript and XML functionality to their database applications using only point-and-click techniques.

Deploying the resulting applications, either to desktops or to the Web, requires additional software and licenses that are available from Alpha Software for an additional cost. Contact Alpha Software for information on substantial discounts for TechSoup donation recipients: Brett Johnston, email brett@alphasoftware.com.

Among the capabilities of Alpha Five are a flexible visual report writer; extensive querying options; data analysis and data processing operations; a visual scripting tool and a full language; built-in development aids, graphics, security, and data encryption; ActiveX support; and connectivity to multiple data sources.

Here are some notable features of this product:

• AJAX-powered components include grids, dialogs, navigation elements, and security elements. See interactive examples on the Alpha Software website.
• All web components can be embedded in desktop forms
• The integrated rapid development environment (IDE) has over 200 reusable controls and components and 175 code genies (similar to wizards).
• The software includes native SQL support for popular databases including Enterprise DB, Postgres, Oracle, Microsoft's SQL Server, Sun's MySQL, and IBM's DB2. The Portable SQL feature translates Alpha Five SQL statements into SQL that is specific to the database being accessed.
• Active-link tables allow users to work with data in remote SQL databases. Alpha Five includes the ability to create forms and reports that join data from multiple remote SQL databases (heterogeneous joins).