{{Infobox company , name = Helmi Technologies, Inc. , logo = helmi logo new graybk w250.png , logo_size = 250px , type =

Private company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...

, foundation =

Oulu, Finland Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the sub-region has a popul ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

(2004) , location = Cupertino, California, United States of America , key_people = Juho Risku, Founder in 2004, CEO between 2004 - 2006 , industry =

Software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

, products = Helmi Open Source

RIA A ria (; , feminine noun derived from ''río'', river) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Definitions Typically rias have a dendriti ...

Platform Helmi Technologies and its predecessor, Visualway Design, evolved from the desire of Finnish user interface (UI) designers and software engineers to build high-impact web-based applications and sites on an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

platform. Visualway Design was founded in 1996 and developed its first

AJAX Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

-type e-commerce application in 1997. This software featured layer-based windowing support, client-side payment systems, multiple browser support, and the ability to share information with other applications. During 2001 Visualway started development of its Virtual Browser, an application independent of browsers and UI components to be used across many platforms and devices. The

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

applications for Virtual Browser were filed in 2003 and patent was granted in 2006. In 2004, Helmi Technologies separated from Visualway Design, with Helmi receiving its first round of venture capital and opening an office in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, in 2005. Helmi Technologies announced the release its product as open source at AJAX world Conference and Expo in October 2006, and joined the

Eclipse Foundation The Eclipse Foundation AISBL is an independent, Europe-based not-for-profit organization that acts as a steward of the Eclipse open source software development community, with legal jurisdiction in the European Union. It is an organization supp ...

as an Add-In Provider.

History

Founded by Juho Risku in 1996 as Visualway Design, a digital media design agency. Visualway developed its first AJAX-type e-commerce application in 1997. The software featured layer-based windowing, client-side payment systems, multiple browser support and the ability to share information with other applications. Between 1998 and 2001 Visualway developed an advanced version of DynAPI for its own internal use. During 2001 Visualway started to develop its Virtual Browser. Visualway also developed plug-ins for Macromedia Dreamweaver. Helmi technologies received Macromedia Approved Certification in 2003 for the plug-ins developed by Visualway. In 2004 Helmi Technologies became an independent company. Helmi technologies soon filed a patent application for Virtual Browser and released its first version. The first version of the UI component library was released in 2005. With global demand for RIA solutions Helmi Technologies opened its Silicon Valley branch in 2005, after receiving it first round of venture capital. Helmi Technologies commenced work on version 2.0 of User Interface Framework. Helmi Technologies' Virtual Browser patent was granted 2006. In October 2006 Helmi released the 2.0 version to the open source community and joined the

. In December 2006, Helmi closed its Silicon Valley branch and by May 2007, the company had been closed down.

Products

Helmi Technologies offered Helmi Open Source

Development Platform – open source,

-based platform for creating Rich Internet Applications. The Helmi Open Source RIA Platform supported rapid creation of interactive web-based applications by leveraging developers' existing skills and the development environments they were familiar with. The Helmi platform enabled UI component reusage across applications. It also allowed client- and server-side developers to work on independent parts of the application simultaneously.

Platform sub-components

* User Interface Framework – a browser-based server-independent user interface kit for RIA application development coupled with a minimalistic, speed-oriented server framework. The user interface framework incorporated patented Virtual Browser technology in its 1.0 version. It was removed from the 2.0 version, because of the serious performance hit, caused by its usage as well as the difficulty of maintaining and using an almost DOM-like set of Javascript objects written in a very obfuscated way. Virtual Browser was replaced with a caching DOM-abstraction engine called Element Manager in the 2.0 version. * Server Integration Framework – A set of reference server implementations and integration components. Reference implementations were available for

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...

Ruby Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapph ...

and

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (prog ...

. There were also some prototypes of

Java EE Jakarta EE, formerly Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE), is a set of specifications, extending Java SE with specifications for enterprise features such as distributed computing and web serv ...

and

.NET The .NET platform (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a free and open-source, managed code, managed computer software framework for Microsoft Windows, Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems. The project is mainly developed by Microsoft emplo ...

integration, but the

version was the only fully implemented server framework. * Programmers Integrated Development Environment ( IDE) - The Helmi IDE was a full customized distribution of Eclipse with a few defunct wizards based on a very early alpha version of the client framework. Right now the User Interface Framework portion of Helmi Open Source

Development Platform is outdated and defunct. Helmi's GPL:ed software has been branched off as a new open source project called Himle in early 2008, which was later rename
RSence
It is now licensed under the MIT license.

References

Analysts reports

Java meets Ajax as Helmi Technologies releases Open Source RIA Platform. The 451 Group (2006-10-12)

News links in English

Some Say Open Source is their Ace in the Hole. ZDNet (2006-09-22).

News links in Finnish

Tähdenlentoja odotettavissa pohjoisella yritystaivaalla
-Columin in news paper Kaleva about startups in Oulu, Finland.
Ohjelmistoalan kasvu vahvistunut
- An article where Juhani Saukkonen, one of the long term software influences in Oulu, refers Helmi as one of the most important software companies in the region.
Oulu-ilmiön imu haihtumassa
- An article which covers the lost jobs in telecommunications industry in Oulu, but states that software has a chance to save the region, Helmi is mentioned as one of the promising software companies.

External links

RSence
Ajax (programming) Software companies established in 2004 Software companies of Finland