Base One Foundation Component Library
Encyclopedia
The Base One Foundation Component Library (BFC) is a rapid application development
toolkit for building secure, fault-tolerant
, database
applications on Windows
and ASP.NET
. In conjunction with Microsoft's Visual Studio integrated development environment
, BFC provides a general-purpose web application framework
for working with databases from Microsoft
, Oracle
, IBM
, Sybase
, and MySQL
, running under either Windows or Unix
/Linux
. BFC also includes facilities for distributed computing
, batch processing
, queuing
, and database command scripting.
whose cross-DBMS data dictionary
plays a central role in supporting data security
, validation
, optimization
, and maintainability
features.http://www.boic.com/b1mbatd.htm Base One holds a number of U.S. patents on its core technologies, with additional patents pending.http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6384748.htmlhttp://www.freepatentsonline.com/6738775.htmlhttp://www.freepatentsonline.com/7181474.html Developers can incorporate BFC components into Windows applications written in any of the major Microsoft programming languages (Visual C++
, C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET
) and using a variety of technologies, including COM
/ActiveX
, MFC
, Crystal Reports
, and AJAX
. BFC works with both managed and unmanaged code
, and it can be used to construct either thin client
or rich client
applications, with or without browser
-based interfaces.
that started in the mid-1990s.http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs072704-story01.html The securities custody system built by Deutsche Bank with BFC is one of the earliest successful examples of commercial grid computing. http://whitepapers.zdnet.com/casestudy.aspx?docid=106508 The name "BFC" was a play on Microsoft's MFC, which (starting with Visual C++ 1.5) BFC extended through class libraries to facilitate the development of large-scale, client/server database applications.
With the release of Visual C++ 2.0, BFC provided a way to upgrade from 16-bit Windows 3.1 and NT to true 32-bit Windows MFC applications. Under Visual C++ 4.0, BFC added Base One's Internet Server, enabling transparent
database access across the Internet for distributed rich client and grid computing
applications.http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-56252403.html
Starting with Visual C++ 6.0, BFC added COM support, so that VB
and ASP
programmers could use BFC's database components, including ActiveX grid (table), combo, and edit controls. With the advent of VisualStudio .NET 2002, BFC was extended to support the .NET languages, C#, VB.NET, and ASP.NET.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_May_18/ai_n6032568
Rapid application development
Rapid application development is a software development methodology that uses minimal planning in favor of rapid prototyping. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself...
toolkit for building secure, fault-tolerant
Fault-tolerant system
Fault-tolerance or graceful degradation is the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of some of its components. A newer approach is progressive enhancement...
, database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
applications on Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and ASP.NET
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications and Web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages ...
. In conjunction with Microsoft's Visual Studio integrated development environment
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
, BFC provides a general-purpose web application framework
Web application framework
A web application framework is a software framework that is designed to support the development of dynamic websites, web applications and web services. The framework aims to alleviate the overhead associated with common activities performed in Web development...
for working with databases from Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Oracle
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Sybase
Sybase
Sybase, an SAP company, is an enterprise software and services company offering software to manage, analyze, and mobilize information, using relational databases, analytics and data warehousing solutions and mobile applications development platforms....
, and MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
, running under either Windows or Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
/Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
. BFC also includes facilities for distributed computing
Distributed computing
Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...
, batch processing
Batch processing
Batch processing is execution of a series of programs on a computer without manual intervention.Batch jobs are set up so they can be run to completion without manual intervention, so all input data is preselected through scripts or command-line parameters...
, queuing
Queueing theory
Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. The theory enables mathematical analysis of several related processes, including arriving at the queue, waiting in the queue , and being served at the front of the queue...
, and database command scripting.
Design
BFC is based on a database-centric architectureDatabase-centric architecture
Database-centric architecture or data-centric architecture has several distinct meanings, generally relating to software architectures in which databases play a crucial role. Often this description is meant to contrast the design to an alternative approach...
whose cross-DBMS data dictionary
Data dictionary
A data dictionary, or metadata repository, as defined in the IBM Dictionary of Computing, is a "centralized repository of information about data such as meaning, relationships to other data, origin, usage, and format." The term may have one of several closely related meanings pertaining to...
plays a central role in supporting data security
Data security
Data security is the means of ensuring that data is kept safe from corruption and that access to it is suitably controlled. Thus data security helps to ensure privacy. It also helps in protecting personal data. Data security is part of the larger practice of Information security.- Disk Encryption...
, validation
Data validation
In computer science, data validation is the process of ensuring that a program operates on clean, correct and useful data. It uses routines, often called "validation rules" or "check routines", that check for correctness, meaningfulness, and security of data that are input to the system...
, optimization
Optimization (computer science)
In computer science, program optimization or software optimization is the process of modifying a software system to make some aspect of it work more efficiently or use fewer resources...
, and maintainability
Maintainability
In engineering, maintainability is the ease with which a product can be maintained in order to:* isolate defects or their cause* correct defects or their cause* meet new requirements* make future maintenance easier, or* cope with a changed environment...
features.http://www.boic.com/b1mbatd.htm Base One holds a number of U.S. patents on its core technologies, with additional patents pending.http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6384748.htmlhttp://www.freepatentsonline.com/6738775.htmlhttp://www.freepatentsonline.com/7181474.html Developers can incorporate BFC components into Windows applications written in any of the major Microsoft programming languages (Visual C++
Visual C++
Microsoft Visual C++ is a commercial , integrated development environment product from Microsoft for the C, C++, and C++/CLI programming languages...
, C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications and Web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages ...
) and using a variety of technologies, including COM
Component Object Model
Component Object Model is a binary-interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages...
/ActiveX
ActiveX
ActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components in a programming language-independent way. Software applications can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide their functionality....
, MFC
Microsoft Foundation Class Library
The Microsoft Foundation Class Library is a library that wraps portions of the Windows API in C++ classes, including functionality that enables them to use a default application framework...
, Crystal Reports
Crystal Reports
-External links:*****Reviews:****...
, and AJAX
Ajax
- Mythology :* Ajax , son of Telamon, ruler of Salamis and a hero in the Trojan War, also known as "Ajax the Great"* Ajax the Lesser, son of Oileus, ruler of Locris and the leader of the Locrian contingent during the Trojan War.- People :...
. BFC works with both managed and unmanaged code
Managed code
Managed code is a term coined by Microsoft to identify computer program code that requires and will only execute under the "management" of a Common Language Runtime virtual machine ....
, and it can be used to construct either thin client
Thin client
A thin client is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some other computer to fulfill its traditional computational roles. This stands in contrast to the traditional fat client, a computer designed to take on these roles by itself...
or rich client
Fat client
A fat client is a computer in client–server architecture or networks that typically provides rich functionality independent of the central server...
applications, with or without browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
-based interfaces.
History
The development of BFC originally was funded by projects done for Marsh & McLennan and Deutsche BankDeutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
that started in the mid-1990s.http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs072704-story01.html The securities custody system built by Deutsche Bank with BFC is one of the earliest successful examples of commercial grid computing. http://whitepapers.zdnet.com/casestudy.aspx?docid=106508 The name "BFC" was a play on Microsoft's MFC, which (starting with Visual C++ 1.5) BFC extended through class libraries to facilitate the development of large-scale, client/server database applications.
With the release of Visual C++ 2.0, BFC provided a way to upgrade from 16-bit Windows 3.1 and NT to true 32-bit Windows MFC applications. Under Visual C++ 4.0, BFC added Base One's Internet Server, enabling transparent
Transparency (computing)
Any change in a computing system, such as new feature or new component, is transparent if the system after change adheres to previous external interface as much as possible while changing its internal behaviour. The purpose is to shield from change all systems on the other end of the interface...
database access across the Internet for distributed rich client and grid computing
Grid computing
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
applications.http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-56252403.html
Starting with Visual C++ 6.0, BFC added COM support, so that VB
Visual Basic
Visual Basic is the third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment from Microsoft for its COM programming model...
and ASP
Active Server Pages
Active Server Pages , also known as Classic ASP or ASP Classic, was Microsoft's first server-side script engine for dynamically-generated Web pages. Initially released as an add-on to Internet Information Services via the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack Active Server Pages (ASP), also known as Classic...
programmers could use BFC's database components, including ActiveX grid (table), combo, and edit controls. With the advent of VisualStudio .NET 2002, BFC was extended to support the .NET languages, C#, VB.NET, and ASP.NET.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_May_18/ai_n6032568
Licensing
Base One International Corp. has two levels of BFC product offerings, both of which supply samples and full source code:- BFC Professional: single developer license
- BFC Enterprise: site license
External links
- Base One. Introduction to BFC
- Business Wire. IDC Reviews Base One's Grid Computing as "Pragmatic, Scalable and Extensible"; Base One Granted Additional US Patent for Grid/Cluster Database Technology, September 29, 2004. Accessed March 5, 2008.
- Business Wire. Base One Launches High Performance Information Sharing for Grid Computing; IDC Reports Base One Positioned to Address Data Access and Sharing Across Grids, May 23, 2005. Accessed March 5, 2008.
- ITJungle. Base One Update Brings Grids of Clusters, June 14, 2005. Accessed April 9, 2008.