Valentina Reports for Revolution and More

Easy Report Generation from the Makers of Valentina Database

Valentina Reports for Cross Platform Applications

Paradigma Software Inc develops the ultra-fast, cross-platform database system Valentina. Valentina Reports is a new client technology that lets you play back rich, formatted reports in your application.

Features for Initial Release

  • Layout Visually Rich Reports in Valentina Studio Pro Beta (free during beta period)
  • Drag Query Objects into Layouts
  • Organize your data into Groups
  • Add layout elements such as labels, lines, vector shapes, pictures
  • Pull and display pictures from databases
  • HTML/Web Object pulls pages from databases or live from URL
  • Support for all major development environments on Windows and Mac OS X (Linux coming)
  • Exports PDF and bitmap graphics of reports
  • Royalty free application deployment

Examples of supported environments include Runtime Revolution, Adobe Director, Apple xCode, .net and more. (more…)

Mirye Runtime Revolution 2.9 Released With Over 500 Improvements

Beaverton, Oregon. Mirye Software, publishers of the cross-platform application development system Runtime Revolution, announces the release of Revolution 2.9 Studio and Enterprise, which includes enhanced support for Linux, Windows Vista, Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 and over 500 improvements. (more…)

Adobe Director 11 Ships; Valentina first DB Xtra to Support New Features

Adobe Inc shipped Adobe Director 11 today, with a street price of $999. This not only marks the first release of Director since Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, but also the first major update since the previous version - Director MX 2004 was released on January 5, 2004.

Four years is a very long time for Director developers to wait and some may grumble that such a mature product - given four years - would be more enriched in terms of features.  Check out the attached list. While the list is short on paradigm shifting technologies - this release provides necessary improvements for creating and deploying modern applications using Adobe Director.

Paradigma Software Valentina 3.5.2 for Director 11 is the first database product with key support for Director 11 on Mac OS X on Intel, Windows Vista and Unicode. Valentina for Director is available in developer kits for building standalone applications and projectors as well as true, royalty free client-server or server-side solutions using Valentina Developer Network. With VDN, you can build shockwave-safe or standard projector interface applications and deploy these with a totally complete database server.

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Valentina for Director 11: First Universal Binary Database for Director

Once again - Valentina is not only the fastest developer database but also the first-to-market to support the new, Universal Binary version of Adobe Director 11 - with Valentina for Director 3.5.2. Adobe Director 11 was recently announced at Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. You can’t buy Director 11 yet, but you can pre-order the upgrade.

For Mac OS X developers, Valentina for Director 3.5.2 offers both a Carbon and Universal Binary version, with the former - and the Windows version - supporting back to Director 8.

I sometimes get asked what the difference is between Adobe Director and Mirye Runtime Revolution. They are different in so many ways - except that they both offer cross-platform solutions for building rich media applications. Director does fall short, in that Revolution also supports Linux and Solaris. But Director has Shockwave on its side, for playback through the Shockwave browser plugin. Good thing that there is a Valentina solution for both platforms.

RB3D Also Missing from REALbasic 2007 R4

I wasn’t entirely surprised to learn that RB3D (REALbasic 3D) was also eliminated from REALbasic 2007 R4. RB3D was a 3D implementation that was effectively a wrapper around Quesa. Quesa is an open source 3D framework (using OpenGL) for MacOS X, Windows and Linux. Except its for the most part a clone of dead Apple technology and never got much traction anywhere except on the Macintosh. (more…)

REALbasic 2007 R4 Drops Official Support of MySQL Native Driver

It is being reported that REALbasic 2007 R4 has dropped official support for MySQL and that the company is directing developers to utilize ODBC drivers to interact with MySQL. The GPL’d driver was turned over to a third party to continue support. It has also been reported that there were too many business issues with licensed connectivity between differing versions of MySQL. However, given the persistence of MySQL in closing deals they are interested in, it simply could be these issues were not surmountable given the level of interest of the parties. Like most companies of size, if the opportunity isn’t large or significant enough to their own business strategy, its easy enough just to point towards company policy and a take-it-or-leave-it position.

Anyway, REAL Software has been strongly promoting their own SQLite based database server and placed significant policy barriers in their forums against discussing competing products - including banning Paradigma staff members after staff members answered questions asked by REALbasic users about Valentina for REALbasic. What would MySQL think about such policies coming from a potential partner?

REAL Software Ships REALbasic 2007 R4; Improves Databases, Support for Ubuntu

REAL Software has released REALbasic 2007 Release 4 with database improvements and support for Ubuntu with their Linux deployment. We applaud REAL Software’s support for Ubuntu. Paradigma announced support for Ubuntu at Ubuntu Live in July 2007, and delivered the free Valentina Community Server. Valentina Office Server and Valentina Embedded Server have been available since April 2007 on Linux, with direct cross platform connectivity from REALbasic applications and connectivity from Valentina Studio.

REAL Software also has a statement of support from Actual Technologies, which provides ODBC drivers that work on MacOS X. It is not clear to me if, deploying applications on MacOS X, that REALbasic developers must utilize Actual Technologies drivers or not. Actual Technologies sells ODBC connectivity on a per seat basis and is well known as a provider of ODBC solutions to the Macintosh developer community. Valentina developers though have a built in solution with Valentina Studio that can be had at no added cost.

Valentina Studio can connect with ODBC sources, allowing fast and easy conversion to the native Valentina database format, as well as any export formats supported by Valentina. Valentina Studio is included with Valentina for REALbasic Professional and VDN Platform Edition (REALbasic version).

Starting a Software Company

A friend and software developer Phil Davis asked me for general advice on how to start a software company. Phil is a long time software consultant who has developed some really innovative software solutions for both public and private sector clients.

Phil uses a broad spectrum of tools and technologies to deliver solutions though he and I often talk about Runtime Revolution, a rapid application development environment for delivering cross-platform applications: develop software under one operating system but deliver on multiple operating systems. Valentina for Revolution is available as an external local database as well as an embedded server solution.

I’m going to begin a series of posts, just like the How to Kill Your Software Company series that will eventually get posted into the semi-permanent pages of this site.