LANSA is an integrated development environment (IDE) for building desktop, web and mobile software applications that can be deployed to Cloud, Windows, Linux and IBM i server platforms. The main feature of the LANSA environment is the 'RDML / RDMLX' language–which is classified as a
4GL
A fourth-generation programming language (4GL) is any computer programming language that belongs to a class of languages envisioned as an advancement upon third-generation programming languages (3GL). Each of the programming language generations ai ...
(4th generation language). RDML closely follows the syntax of
IBM CL, or Control Language. CL is the "scripting language" equivalent of the
OS/400 operating system. In recent years RDML has been extended to become RDMLX. This new version of the language has extra features, commands, types, and functions that are used in component development. RDML, on Microsoft Windows, integrates with
ActiveX
ActiveX is a deprecated software framework created by Microsoft that adapts its earlier Component Object Model (COM) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technologies for content downloaded from a network, particularly from the World Wide Web. ...
.
In its first release in 1987, the product was called lambda. At that time solutions developed with RDML could be deployed to
IBM S/38 and from 1988 onwards to the
IBM AS/400
The IBM AS/400 (Application System/400) is a family of midrange computers from IBM announced in June 1988 and released in August 1988. It was the successor to the System/36 and System/38 platforms, and ran the OS/400 operating system. Lower-c ...
(iSeries, System i, now IBM i). Since 1992 LANSA has been deployed to multiple server platforms, including IBM i, Windows, Linux and also OS/2 and Unix.
Business rules and data definitions repository
The LANSA development environment includes a metadata repository which is an enhanced type of
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". ''Oracle'' defines it ...
.
[Simpson, Charlie.]
Tools for thought: Summitech's Lansa refines everyday thinking
" ''MIDRANGE Systems'', vol. 4, no. 16, 6 Aug. 1991, pp. 47+. via ''Gale General OneFile''. Accessed 12 Mar. 2022. The repository is a database that contains data and file definitions, business rules, application templates, and RDML code.
The repository stores information about fields (or data elements) in the application including descriptions, column headings, edit codes, visualizations, default values, help text, and prompt programs. It holds information about files and application database including physical files, logical files (or views), relationships, file definition attributes, file validation rules, trigger programs, multilingual definitions, virtual fields, and predetermined join fields. Objects and components used for event-driven Windows applications also reside in the repository.
Applications share objects and logic from the repository and the repository is an active participant with the applications as both the custodian of the data and business rule definitions, and the rule enforcer.
Data management services
The data management services provide a data
abstraction
Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An a ...
layer, similar to a
data access layer A data access layer (DAL) in computer software is a layer of a computer program which provides simplified access to data stored in persistent storage of some kind, such as an entity-relational database. This acronym is prevalently used in Microso ...
, that separates the physical data from applications that use the data.
Applications access data using data management programs generated from data definitions and business rules held in the repository. The data management programs know about the structure and relationships of the database and the business rules that control create, read, update and delete actions. When definitions and rules change the data management programs require regeneration but the applications that use the data require no change.
Applications are independent of data structures, formats and locations and access the data by issuing requests to the data management programs.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lansa (Development Environment)
Procedural programming languages