• Omnis multiple solutions •
Company provides powerful, feature rich components
for Omnis developers world-wide
Essex
UK
www.brainydata.com
The Challenge: Omnis Studio provides a powerful, open, and highly functional application programming interface (API) which is easy to plug into, allowing you to add all kinds of functionality to Omnis. The Omnis Studio SDK itself includes many external components, such as the built-in Data Access Modules (DAMs), the Web Services plug-in, and the XML component, but you can create your own using C++ and add them into Omnis Studio. Some Omnis developers have created their own external components to enhance their own applications, while many others purchase the components they need from one of the many third party component developers working in the Omnis community.
The Solution
One such third-party component developer is Brainy Data, based on the east coast of England adjacent to the sandy beaches of Clacton-on-Sea, who have produced an extensive list of Omnis Studio components. The principal developer and founder of the company is Michael Monschau, whom many developers will be familiar with having met Michael at recent EurOmnis developer conferences. Michael has built an impressive catalogue of components and plug-ins which are used by hundreds of Omnis developers worldwide.
Brainy Data’s flagship product is a word processing component called OWrite, available for desktop and web clients. It was designed from the ground up with data integration and total developer control in mind. OWrite provides a number of document objects such as pictures, text and tables for integrating data into your docs from anywhere in your application. These objects can be given standard Omnis calculations, with calls into your own code in Omnis. OWrite is a great example of how the Omnis External Component API can be utilized for building additional and powerful functionality into Omnis.
Other products produced by Brainy Data include OSpell2, a spell checker component which can be used to check the spelling in all window content and data in your database. Then there is PDFDevice which is easily added to the print destinations in Omnis and allows developers to create PDF documents from within their Omnis applications. Plus OCal, an enhanced calendar control, capable of displaying events in various display modes, taking its data directly from an Omnis list with all the event details. And OGantt, a fully-fledged project schedule component originally developed by 888 Software Products Italia but now maintained by Brainy Data.
The Company
Michael grew up in Germany and after training as a plumber moved to England where he first worked with computers creating a staff rota system using Borland Pascal. He joined Omnis (then Blyth Software and later Omnis Software), where he played a key role in the creation of Omnis Studio including the design and implementation of the cross-platform graphics, windows and printing modules, the window and report design modes, printing devices, and the revolutionary web-client technology. He started Brainy Data in 2003 and continues to create components for Omnis developers world-wide.
Why Omnis
“No other RAD development tool provides an external plug-in SDK that is so comprehensive and integrated. With the SDK you can build entire C++ libraries that contain: controls for editing and inputting data which can be cross compiled for use in desktop and web forms; non-visual external objects that can be inherited by Omnis 4GL object classes; static functions and constants that can be used anywhere in an Omnis application; report objects for printing special data; external devices for converting output from printing to whatever format is required; and data access modules (DAMs) that bring together any database backend with Omnis as the application front end,” said Michael Monschau, principal developer and founder of Brainy Data.
Michael Monschau,
Principal Developer and Founder of Brainy Data