SmartStar provides you with a variety of benefits, including:

• Support for Rapid Application Development (RAD)
  RAD methodology helps dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to develop database applications by allowing you to execute the design, development, testing, and deployment phases all in parallel. And, the working application gives you a concrete context for feedback and analysis, facilitating better communication and allowing you to build better applications faster.
  
• Access to Multiple Databases
  SmartStar uses native connections to access all of your databases directly, ensuring retrieval times up to 2-3 times faster!
  
• RMS, Rdb/VMS, Oracle, Sybase, Ingres, Teradata/ShareBase
  Even though the most popular databases all work on different platforms, you can access them all with ease.
  
• Reduced Coding Requirements
  With SmartStar, you can quickly create working prototypes that can be enhanced to create the finished application without starting over or throwing any work away. You can efficiently maintain and reuse work, as well as automatically perform multi-table inserts, updates, and deletes within a single transaction.
  
• Based on SQL Database Access
  The object methods examine the structure of the window and generate appropriate SQL statements to select, update, insert, and delete records as needed, without requiring you to write your own SQL syntax for windows. Developers can modify the default behavior simply by setting attributes.
  
• Open 3GL Access
  You won't worry about losing older programs--you'll maintain access to any program you've written in the past, whether it's written in third or fourth generation languages.
  
  

In order to provide the wide-range of features, SmartStar is comprised of multiple components that cover the entire process of data integration, from application design, database development and use, and reporting.

NoGL Components

3GL and 4GL

Data Access

Reporting

Database

SmartStar® has the following software components:

NoGL Application Design Components (no coding required)

SmartBuilder™

SmartBuilder builds applications based on information from a data model. You can use SmartBuilder as a bridge between the modeling phase and the prototype building phase of application development.

SmartDesign®

Using SmartDesign, you can create both the form through which users will access a database and the database itself. Novice users see SmartDesign as a "form-painting" tool. Actually, painting forms is just one of SmartDesign's capabilities: painting, importing and exporting.

SmartStation®

SmartStation enables you to use NoGL techniques to create a menu-driven application that integrates tasks users will perform with SmartStar® or with the operating system.

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4GL and 3GL Application Design Components

SmartGL®

SmartGL is a language that integrates the capabilities of a 4GL, a 3GL, SQL, and the operating system language. In addition, SmartGL can extend applications created in SmartStar's NoGL environment.

SmartCall® and RSQL

SmartCall and Run-Time SQL (RSQL) are libraries of routines you can call from 3GL programs. All of these routines can also be called directly from SmartGL. There are over 200 routines in these libraries.

SmartStar® Module Library

A set of reusable 3GL routines the perform commonly required tasks such as: supplying a unique ID number for each new record, e-mailing a copy of the current record, and returning the correct state for any zip code.

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Data Access Components

SmartQuery®

Using SmartQuery, a user can select, update, insert, and delete records. Users see this process as simply using forms; complex features you add with other SmartStar® components are transparent to the user.

SmartMove®

Using SmartMove, you can move data between two databases. You can also do form-based mass deletions and mass modifications.

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Reporting and Decision-Support Components

SmartReport®

Using SmartReport, users can create columnar reports and generate syntax templates for use with SmartStar's Interactive SQL (ISQL) facility.

ReportPainter™

ReportPainter is a menu-based environment for formatting reports on character-cell terminals. ReportPainter has all the capabilities of SmartReport, but with an easy-to-use interface.

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Database Components

SmartRepository™

SmartRepository is the database used by SmartBuilder to store logical database structure information and mappings to physical databases.

SmartDistributor®

SmartDistributor gives you read/write access to multiple, heterogeneous databases from within a single ISQL statement, transaction, or SmartStar® form. Essentially, SmartDistributor allows you to do anything with tables from multiple databases that you normally do with tables in a single database.

Interactive SQL (ISQL)

ISQL is an interactive environment for the ANSI-standard Structured Query Language (SQL) syntax.

Database Connections

SmartStar's database connections provide access to RMS, Rdb/VMS, Oracle, Sybase, Ingres, and Teradata/ShareBase databases either directly or through the Logical Database dictionary.

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If you are already a SmartStar® customer, please see our Technical Support Policies.