Ingres announced an open source version of Ingres OpenROAD, the company’s platform for rapid application development. The open source version of Ingres OpenROAD is now available as a free download via the Ingres community website at http://community.ingres.com. By open-sourcing Ingres OpenROAD, more users will be able to try the product and build rapid application prototypes.

“Ingres is committed to the open source business model because it exemplifies the importance of learning from each other,” said Bill Maimone, senior vice president of worldwide engineering at Ingres. “We believe Ingres OpenROAD will foster a strong and collaborative community and we look forward to working with the various contributors. Collaboration is a key component. It is important to learn from each other’s mistakes and successes. Open source allows programmers and developers an opportunity to build upon software, share wisdom, and advance the technology in a way that no other business model possibly can.”

Ingres OpenROAD is a rapid application development and flexible deployment solution, known for its low maintenance cost. With Ingres OpenROAD, developers have the tools to build and deploy sophisticated high performance and high availability business applications on a variety of platforms, accessing a broad range of data sources. Typically, organizations that have decades worth of data and database applications on a legacy system struggle to unlock the information so it can be leveraged in new applications on more modern platforms – such as a handheld device or mobile phone. Ingres OpenROAD addresses this problem. Once written, an Ingres OpenROAD application can be deployed on a variety of platforms without a single change.

Specifically, Ingres has open sourced the 4GL source for the OpenROAD Integrated Development Environment (IDE) component of the Ingres OpenROAD product. Ingres utilizes the GPL open source license for the project, which is live on the Ingres community website at http://community.ingres.com. With this offering, Ingres OpenROAD takes advantage of the open source development model which is designed to deliver innovation to users at a more rapid pace. Users have more influence on product direction, and contributions from users can be integrated into the base product with enterprise support offered from Ingres.

To foster a successful community around Ingres OpenROAD, Ingres has created a number of community tools to aid in the support of the open sourcing initiative, including LXR for source code viewing, bug tool for tracking and entering bugs, a community wiki for sharing information and to gather ideas on new projects.

Partners and Customers Support the Open Sourcing of OpenROAD
Ingres is already working with key partners and customers to gain their contributions to the open sourcing of Ingres OpenROAD.  Luminary Solutions has open sourced its ProxyGen and “THUG” productivity tools, adding Java integration and OpenROAD Server testing capabilities to the base product.

Bording A/D, a Danish supplier of enterprise ERP applications and consulting services, has developed and contributed key enhancements to the OpenROAD core runtime libraries, and has made a commitment to contribute two of its tools that enhance OpenROAD development – IDL2OR and VASE. This enables developers to generate, inspect, and test the interfaces between OpenROAD Server and OpenROAD eClient, based on a simple IDL specification.

Bording Data
“OpenROAD is used extensively in applications that Bording Data deploys across the Nordic countries,” said Kim Ginnerup, technical manager, Bording Data. “Currently we are working with the Ingres engineering team to enhance the OpenROAD Transforge tool to handle complex ABF constructs with sub menus.  Now that OpenROAD is an open source project, we plan to contribute that code back to Ingres Corporation to benefit the entire community.”

Capita Software Services
“We fully endorse the OpenROAD open source initiative and believe it can significantly reduce time to market of innovative new features and functions,” said Nick Breeds, chief architect for public sector software, Capita Software Services. “In particular, we look forward to enjoying dramatic productivity gains from related open source contributions such as ProxyGen. It should significantly reduce the time it takes us to publish web services from OpenROAD functions.”

DS LTD, UK
“I am delighted to contribute these C# ProxyGen templates to the open source community,” said Steve Barker, development director, DS LTD, UK. “ProxyGen enabled DS to build a .NET web application directly on top of our OpenROAD middleware, without the .NET programmers having to worry about the underlying 4GL. Now that we have the templates in place, the C# object layer can be regenerated with a few clicks.  By donating these templates to open source, I believe we can benefit from extensions and improvements made by others.”

EGTS
“By open sourcing OpenROAD, Ingres unleashes a fantastic development tool to the open source community,” said L. Charles Landman III, COO of EGTS. “EGTS uses OpenROAD to develop billing and receipting software for local governments.  We recently engaged Luminary to use their Ingres Alchemy techniques to work with our development team to update our user interface with a more modern look and feel. This was completed in a short period of time on schedule and within budget.  We are very excited with the results and the marketing opportunities the updated interface will present us with.”

Infor
“The open sourcing of Ingres OpenROAD extends this powerful development tool into the hands of a passionate and creative community,” said Chris Brooks, director of product management, Infor.  “This move can expand the development resources available to Infor ERP Adage customers and provide more value for their investment.”

Peerless IT
“We are very excited regarding the decision to open source the Ingres OpenROAD Development environment,” said Paul White, senior consultant, Peerless IT. “This move opens up unlimited possibilities for integrating OpenROAD with other development tools.  While OpenROAD is already a fast, powerful development tool, our developers will be able to create extensions and plug-ins to add whole new dimensions to the application development life cycle. This is a great step by Ingres, and a significant commitment to the open source model.”

For more information on Ingres contact Khobi Brooklyn, Khobi@atomicpr.com at Atomic Public Relations.