mrc Press Releases

UDFs bring the power of the database to m-Power

November 19, 2008, Lombard, IL - Today, software tool developer mrc announces new User Defined Function (UDF) capabilities for m-Power, a software development tool designed for use by developers and non-developers alike. m-Power modernizes legacy applications and rapidly creates web applications such as report-writing, business intelligence, executive dashboards, e-commerce, customer portals, and wireless applications to name a few.

With this new feature, m-Power users can take advantage of UDFs when building applications. A UDF is a programmed routine which when passed 1 or more parameters returns 1 resulting parameter. These functions are reusable objects assigned to perform specific tasks. The languages you would use to write a UDF vary depending on the database over which you are running.

Once a UDF is created, it can be reused in any m-Power application because it is defined at the database level. Since m-Power treats a UDF as a database field, a user can select, order, group, or sub-set information by the result of a UDF. m-Power is the first application development tool of its kind to employ UDFs in this way.

"This is a very exciting and powerful enhancement," says Brian Crowley, mrc's Director of Development. "Basically, this enhancement puts the power of the database into the hands of the m-Power user. Anything you can do with a database language, you can now do with a UDF in m-Power."

Here are some examples of how you might use UDFs:

• On Hand Quantity: Calculate a product's current on-hand quantity by combining several fields in the database, and returning the value as a selectable field in the application.
• Dates are often formatted in one way in the database, and a different way in an application. A UDF will reformat the date in the database, and display the reformatted date in the application.
• Order Totals: Give an order number to a UDF and use it to calculate the total value of the order from multiple database tables. m-Power will display the result as a selectable field in the application. In other words, the application will treat the UDF as a selectable field, with the ability to sort or group by the result, even though that field does not even exist in the database.

"m-Power is already a powerful tool in and of itself", says Crowley, "but with this additional UDF ability, the possibilities for m-Power users are truly endless."

Additional information can be found at http://mrc-productivity.com. Or, 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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