Software AG recently unveiled Natural for Ajax-- an enhanced version of the Natural programming language for creating Ajax-based, Rich Internet Applications (RIA).
Natural 2006 is Software AG’s widely adopted business application development and deployment.
The enahced version is said to enable faster application development while improving the end-user experience through codeless, drag & drop development of rich, Ajax-based applications and user interfaces.
Key benefits of these Rich Internet Applications include the streamlined ability to create composite views of applications and data, as well as the availability of more dynamic, high-performance and interactive reporting.
“What Natural for Ajax offers is a comparatively simple means for allowing users to fully engage with an extremely powerful transactional processing environment,” said Joe Gentry, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for the Enterprise Transaction System (ETS) business division of Software AG.
“Rather than relying on unfamiliar commands to leverage these systems, users can now take advantage of Web 2.0 capabilities to access critical data and manage core systems. The introduction of Natural for Ajax also demonstrates our long-term commitment to accelerating development as a means for lowering IT costs while improving the adaptability of the business.”
According to Gartner, Inc. [Toolkit: Ajax and Rich Internet Applications (April 20, 2007) by Ray Valdes], “Ajax is a collection of techniques that Web developers use to deliver an enhanced, more-responsive user experience using just a browser, without plug-ins or runtime extensions.
Even in narrow use of Ajax, users will appreciate the incremental improvements in the applications.”
"At development-time, Natural for Ajax delivers high productivity, a low learning curve – even for Natural mainframe developers – and the opportunity to reunite front-end development and back-end development with a single user,” said Bert Malliet, Manager of Mainframe Development Competence Center at Belgian Railways.
"At run-time, Natural for Ajax is a valid solution for integrating new Natural applications with our portal of web applications as well as with all of our 3270 applications."
Natural for Ajax can be used to create browser-based, rich user interfaces for enterprise applications and mainframe systems that rival the look, feel and performance of the latest Web 2.0 applications. Natural developers can implement rich-client functionality using a library of more than 50 pre-defined Web graphical user interface (GUI) controls. Other interactive features - such as “drag and drop,” context menus and advanced grid processing – can be used within a standard Web browser to streamline development and boost productivity.
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