mrc Press Release

The Project Exchange gives new capabilities to m-Power

July 2010 Lombard, IL - Today, mrc announces a new way for m-Power users to share projects and ideas with each other: The project exchange! For those unfamiliar with m-Power, it is software that automates web application development and modernizes legacy applications.

The new project exchange is similar to an app store, but with a couple of important differences. First, unlike an app store, the project exchange is completely free. Second, rather than full applications, users download m-Power components.

m-Power’s open architecture allows users to create and use custom components, such as templates, business logic, and user defined functions (UDFs). Users can integrate these custom components into m-Power, giving m-Power the ability to create different application types or add new capabilities to existing applications.

Using the project exchange, users can now download components created by others, upload their creations, and share ideas with each other. Components currently included in the exchange are m-Power templates, external objects, and user defined functions (UDFs). Here’s a look at these three component types:

Templates
Templates are the basis for all applications created with m-Power. mrc has developed (and continues to develop) a wide variety of application templates that ship with m-Power. When building an application, users select the appropriate template, point it at their data, and click “Build.” This template-based build process is a large reason m-Power develops applications so quickly.

The project exchange gives m-Power users access to substantially more templates, which means they can create many new application types. Here are some screenshots of a couple of new templates already placed in the project exchange.

Heat Table Template – This template automatically assigns colors to a row based on the row’s value. It can be used to differentiate between good and bad values.

Fusion Charts Template – This template implements Adobe Flash graphs from Fusion Charts in a report. It lets users pick the chart type before running a report.

User Defined Functions (UDF) A UDF is a programmed routine which when passed 1 or more parameters returns 1 resulting value. These functions are reusable objects designed to perform specific tasks. m-Power currently ships with a few date conversion UDFs, but users can always create their own specific to their needs.

For example, a UDF currently included in the project exchange solves a common problem. It converts a Date/Time field into a Date-only field. The screenshot below illustrates this UDF.

External Objects An external object is a function that can be called from any m-Power application. External objects are most commonly used to call back-end business logic into m-Power applications.

"The new project exchange increases m-Power's capabilities by leaps and bounds," says Brian Crowley, mrc's Director of Development. "The addition of user generated projects gives m-Power users an instant gold mine of new features!"

You can visit the m-Power project exchange here. To learn more, contact mrc via phone at 630.916.0662; via fax at 630.916.0663; via e-mail at mrc@mrc-productivity.com

About mrc

mrc's development tool, m-Power, is used to create business applications and can run on any platform that supports Java (e.g. OS/400, Linux, Unix, and Windows). Applications access DB2/400, Oracle, MySQL and MSSQL, or any combination thereof. Using these development tools, users create an endless variety of Java-based business applications from simple queries to reports, to complex custom enterprise systems and dashboards.

mrc was a recipient of the 2004 Apex Award for application development, is a long-time IBM Business Partner, and has been producing award-winning development software since 1981.

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