UniData and UniVerse MultiValue add-ins for Visual Studio (U2.NET)

UniData and UniVerse Add-ins for Visual Studio (U2.NET) provides an ADO.NET provider and Microsoft™ Visual Studio add-ins for MultiValue-centric programming in a .NET framework.

Features and Benefits

Optimised for U2 Data Servers

U2.NET has been optimised to work seamlessly with U2 data servers, providing high performance access. U2.NET leverages native interfaces and, optionally, allows the use of U2 Connection Pooling to increase scalability of your Web applications.

Supports multi-language, multi-byte character markets

U2.NET supports Unicode and UniVerse NLS, to allow U2 customers around the globe to take advantage of a rapid, drag-and-drop GUI and Web development environment.

Consumability

U2.NET's focus on consumability accelerates your access to business data and thus, your time to value. The product includes a step-by-step installation tutorial and intuitive installation, configuration and deployment wizards to minimise installation time and reduce or eliminate the need to consult documentation. In those cases where documentation is required, expanded instructions and extensive code samples are available through IBM's developerWorks Website. 

Developer Benefits

The U2.NET Data Manager lets you see and leverage your accounts, files and dictionaries—either as a standalone application or integrated into Visual Studio to allow rapid application development from a MultiValue point of view. This powerful combination allows you to leverage the zero code programming concepts inherent in Visual Studio. Leverage drag-and-drop capabilities to quickly develop your application and Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) support to make your Web applications more interactive and dynamic.

Leverage and extend your investment

U2.NET lets skilled MultiValue programmers use their extensive knowledge and experience to take valuable business logic and data structures to the next level. For .NET programmers familiar with U2, U2.NET offers the best integration with Microsoft Visual Studio.

Highlights

• Promotes rapid application development with feature-rich, MultiValued data-structure-aware data objects authored in 100% managed .NET code
• Delivers high-performance connections from client to database server
• Maximises database performance through advanced fetch-on-demand and background data retrieval technology
• Provides systems management and development resource management tools as well as a sophisticated Visual Studio .NET add-in
• Provides effective tools for delivering rich client, web and service based applications
• Opens your potential marketplace up to countries with multibyte languages with nation Language Support

Details

U2.NET

Rocket UniVerse and UniData (U2) have delivered superior MultiValue database capabilities from their inception, and have successfully supported thousands of applications for large and small companies and large enterprises for over two decades. The .NET framework, with its ease of drag and drop style, zero code development is an ideal way to improve the interface to U2 applications.
With the introduction of Rocket UniData and UniVerse MultiValue add-ins for Visual Studio (U2.NET) developers can now leverage the power of the .NET while at the same time preserving and extending server-side business logic.
The benefits are significant .NET applications can be developed and taken to market more quickly, saving time and development costs while at the same time allowing a faster return on investment.

Leverage MultiValue Skills

U2.NET provides native data bindings for MultiValue-centric programming in a .NET framework. U2.NET fully integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio, turning it into a complete MultiValue-aware development environment.

Rapid Application Development

U2.NET has what you need to deliver applications into production quickly. U2.NET lets skilled MultiValue programmers use their extensive knowledge and experience to take valuable business logic and data structures to the next level. Full integration with Microsoft Visual Studio provides you with an integrated development environment that is widely accepted and recognised. Together, U2.NET and Microsoft Visual Studio give you the tools and processes to help you improve productivity and collaboration.

High Performance Connectivity

U2.NET leverages the UniObjects for .NET communication protocol between the application and the data server for optimised connectivity to UniData and UniVerse. U2.NET also allows you to take advantage of the scalability and performance-boosting Connection Pooling capability built into the UniData and UniVerse data servers.

Fast Data Retrieval

When large volumes of data are returned by an application, response times can suffer. U2.NET solves this with “fetch on demand” data retrieval. Developer’s can control background data retrieval via parameters to programmatically maximise performance. U2.NET also provides methods to retrieve only the data columns you need and to leverage the power of U2 indexes.

Native Microsoft.NET Access to the U2 Databases

U2.NET provides Binding Objects, which provides advanced data binding capabilities to the .NET developer. The Binding Objects architecture is designed with both performance and flexibility in mind. It provides seamless integration with the .NET environment, and provides a powerful tool for enabling developers to harness the full power of both their U2 application and the .NET platform. Binding Objects also integrates with Microsoft's Visual Studio.NET (VS.NET).

One-Click Account Preparation and One-Click Deployment

From the start, U2.NET focuses on ease of installation, configuration and authorization to make your initial experience as easy as possible. One-click account preparation speeds access to your business data. U2.NET comes with complete documentation and step-by-step tutorials to ensure you have all the information you need to hit the ground running. Additional information and code examples are available through Rocket’s developerWorks Web site.
After creating a working U2.NET environment on your workstation, use one-click deployment scripting to export a deployment XML file, along with a subset of the configuration database, to a folder. The exported configuration information can be executed on multiple workstations to quickly generate all of the required configuration installations and server setups. You can also customise the XML file to make any changes necessary on the individual workstations.

Management Tools

The U2.NET Data Manager lets you see and leverage your accounts, files and dictionaries—either as a standalone application or integrated into Visual Studio to allow rapid application development from a MultiValue point of view. This powerful combination allows you to leverage the zero code programming concepts inherent in Visual Studio. Leverage drag-and-drop capabilities to quickly develop your application and Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) support to make your Web applications more interactive and dynamic.
Session Management in U2.NET is simply the ability to maintain one or more open database connections across application requests for database access. That is, if an application requests a database session during its execution and then releases it upon termination, the session may be kept open and ready for another application to utilize it later without needing to perform a fresh database connection initialization phase. A monitor program is supplied that allows you to view and control the session pools on a system.

The Profile Creation Wizard simplifies the process of creating and editing server profiles and login profiles, easing the tasks required for administration.

Standards-Compliant ADO.NET driver

The Adapter Objects component of U2.NET provides an implementation of the ADO.NET managed data provider. The ability of Adapter Objects to integrate with Microsoft's Visual Studio enables the U2 developer to use the data provider within the VS.NET Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with 100% implementation of the ADO.NET managed data provider model.
U2.NET dynamically manages the normalisation of data from UniData or UniVerse to ADO.NET. Because of this, MultiValue databases now appear just like another SQL database to developers working with Microsoft’s ADO.NET technology. The resulting object is fully “MultiValue” aware, enabling full update or read down to the sub-value level.

Support for .NET framework

U2.NET provides support for both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008. Examples are included with the product to demonstrate how U2.NET operates within either the .NET 2.0 Framework or the .NET 3.5 Framework. Use these examples to get your .NET pplication running in quickly!

Editions

U2.NET is offered in three different editions:
U2.NET Developer Edition is used to develop and test your .NET application. It comes with two runtime connections to be used only for development purposes.
U2.NET Runtime Edition is used for deployment of an application built with U2.NET. It can be used on its own for connectivity to U2 via database user licenses or can be combined with U2 Connection Pooling to ensure that Web applications can handle unpredictable scalability needs.
U2.NET Runtime Standby is used for a high availability configuration to provide a secondary server that can be used for quick recovery in case of system failure.

System Requirements

The Rocket UniData and UniVerse MultiValue add-ins for Visual Studio runs on hardware platforms running Microsoft Windows.
Please see the Rocket U2 Product Availability Matrix by clicking here.