OpenROAD
DeveloperActian Corporation
Stable release
OpenRoad 11.2 / May, 2021
Implementation languageC, C++
PlatformCross-Platform
OSWindows, Linux, Solaris, AIX
LicenseProprietary
Websitehttps://www.actian.com/data-management/openroad-rad-4gl-ide/

OpenROAD, which stands for "Open Rapid Object Application Development", is a fourth-generation programming language (4GL) and development suite from Actian Corporation.

It includes a suite of development tools, with built-in Integrated development environment (IDE) (Written in OpenROAD), and Code Repository.

History

The history of OpenROAD is closely tied to that of the Ingres relational database.

The Ingres Product set, (marketed by ASK Corporation, Computer Associates, Ingres Corporation and then Actian) was popular in the governments of North West Europe, and can be found in many government departments. OpenROAD appeared in beta form on the SUN platform in 1991 as Windows4GL 1.0, and was available to British Universities under a special license agreement. The development environment was known as the Sapphire Editor.

The Sapphire Editor allowed the creation of complex GUI interfaces using an IDE, rather than large volumes of Motif code / resource files. This was one of the first environments to enable rapid prototyping of GUI clients.

Windows4GL 2.0 introduced Microsoft Windows compatibility and the debugger.

Version history

Release General availability End of Enterprise Support End of Extended Support End of Obsolescence Support Notes
Old version, no longer maintained: OpenROAD 3.0 May, 1995 31-Dec-01 31-Dec-06 31-Dec-11 OpenROAD 3.0 was when it became stable on MS Windows.
Old version, no longer maintained: OpenROAD 3.5 (Windows) April, 1996 31-Jan-08 31-Dec-13 31-Dec-18 OpenROAD 3.5(1) was when it became stable.
Old version, no longer maintained: OpenROAD 3.5 (Unix) September, 1997 31-Dec-08 31-Dec-13 31-Dec-18 After 3.51, the UNIX environments used a Commercial PC emulator to give native capability, possibly one of the hurdles on the ROAD to its Open Source status across all platforms.

Variations in the distribution include FAT client (Requires Ingres NET for communication), Thin eClient (can be used without Ingres NET but needs to use the Application Server instead (DCOM)), and finally mClient for Mobile Windows Clients (HTTP services required to interface to the Application server).

It was possible to use images in any environment (Unix, VMS or MS Windows up to version 3.51), however portability issues between GUI environments (mostly related to FONT differences) made this difficult.

Old version, no longer maintained: OpenROAD 4.0) April, 1998 31-Mar-09 31-Mar-14 31-Mar-19
Old version, no longer maintained: OpenROAD 4.1) January, 2001 31-Mar-09 31-Mar-14 31-Mar-19 It is an interpreted language that uses a runtime distributable client to process 'image' files, thus no DLL or .NET dependency issues under MS Windows (ActiveX aside).

There was a Macintosh Beta version produced.

Older version, yet still maintained: OpenROAD 2006 (5.0) December, 2006 31-Dec-13 31-Dec-18 31-Dec-23
Older version, yet still maintained: OpenROAD 5.1 (Windows and HP-UX) April, 2011 31-Dec-15 31-Dec-20 31-Dec-25 The defining feature of the release was general-purpose system classes for XML support, to allow creation and parsing of arbitrary XML documents without the need to create additional user classes or to use external components (3GL Procedures or External Class Libraries). Providing an XML based export file format will that will be documented, human readable, produce clean differences between different revisions of a file, allow changes to be merged, will allow OpenROAD source components to be managed by many different Software Configuration Management (SCM) systems.
Older version, yet still maintained: OpenROAD 5.1 (Unix except HP-UX) August, 2012 31-Dec-16 31-Dec-20 31-Dec-25
Older version, yet still maintained: OpenROAD 6.0 March, 2012 31-Mar-17 31-Mar-22 31-Mar-27 OpenROAD 6.0 included the additional UNICODE support of OpenROAD 2006 5.5, a special limited release.
Older version, yet still maintained: OpenROAD 6.2 (All Platforms) and Ingres 10.2 Client only for support of OpenROAD as a client November, 2014 31-Dec-21 31-Dec-26 31-Dec-31
Older version, yet still maintained: OpenROAD 11.0 (Solaris, Aix) Sep, 2020 31-Dec-22 31-Dec-24 31-Dec-26
Older version, yet still maintained: OpenROAD 11.0 (Linux, Windows) Sep, 2020 31-Dec-22 31-Dec-24 31-Dec-26
Current stable version: OpenROAD 11.2 (Solaris SPARC, IBM AIX) May-21 31-Dec-24 31-May-29 31-May-33
Current stable version: OpenROAD 11.2 (Linux) May-21 31-Dec-24 31-May-29 31-May-33
Current stable version: OpenROAD 11.2 (Windows) Aug, 2021 31-May-25 31-May-29 31-May-33
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

The reason for the varying and shorter Lifecycle dates of latest versions is Actian is working to bring OpenROAD releases current to Actian X. The Lifecycle dates will re-align with the 11.2 release in 2021.[1]

Architecture

OpenRoad Architecture

OpenROAD Server

The OpenROAD Server enables business logic written in the OpenROAD 4GL language to be accessed by client applications. The OpenROAD Server is multi-threaded and allows concurrent access from a number of client interfaces. These client interfaces include the following:[2]

  • Java clients (JSP, Java Servlets, Java applications)
  • .NET clients (VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET)
  • COM clients (VB, C++, ASP)
  • OpenROAD clients

Open Database Access

OpenRoad Server has built-in support for Ingres/X and Vector/Avalanche databases. On IBM z/OS mainframes, EDBC (a separate product) provides the same level of access to native VSAM, DB2, IMS, and Datacom/DB databases to enable you to access data from anywhere.[3]

Features needed (Q2 2008)

  • Intellisense for source, SQL statements and user defined objects.
  • The ability to construct user objects that inherit from the system classes
  • Better configuration management for large development teams
  • Native access to .NET classes
  • In process access to Ingres NET for FAT clients making distribution easier.
  • Extension of the OpenROAD language into the Ingres database engine replacing the Procedure language.
  • Access to the sources of the OpenROAD language

References

  1. ↑ "Lifecycle Dates - Transactional Database - Actian OpenROAD". Actian. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  2. ↑ "OpenROAD Server Overview". Actian. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  3. ↑ "Accessing and Integrating Data with OpenROAD". Actian. Retrieved 2023-04-14.

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