VisualData

About project

 

 

 

 

Project

The goal of the project is to bring to the world market a mass and widely available means of production of application programs, which repeatedly increases the productivity of the program developer and the speed of application release through the use of fundamentally new programming technologies.

Know how

None of the existing programming languages is natural for a computer, for a human, or for the target subject area of automation. This simple fact explains both the variety of languages, paradigms, and programming tools, and the complexity of their use. At the same time, nature in various manifestations shows us a universal way to solve similar problems by combining primitive elements. For example, by combining just four amino acids, the entire infinite variety of living forms is programmed. A similar approach applies to the description of any subject area, which from an informational point of view can be considered as an Entity-Relation data model formed by a combination of only four (!) declarative elements: an entity — class, its separate characteristic — attribute, relation of classes, and relationship of attributes. Just six (!) functions belonging to these elements are enough to automatically ensure the consistent state of data after any external influences on the data, which allows you to use the model as a full-fledged program. And by combining just four (!) visual components, you can implement an arbitrarily complex interactive user interface for such a data model.

Notably, the mathematical rationale for such modeling is well-known. It was developed more than forty years ago by E. F. Codd, called the relational data model, and is the theoretical Foundation of all modern databases. But the relational model does not even mention one of the fundamental information elements — the relationship of attributes, which is necessary to describe the mutual dependence of values. Thus, technological superiority is achieved by radically changing the very essence of the programming process.

Instead of a set of difficult-to-understand text, in which the data structure of an application problem and the sequence of actions on it are described in terms of the selected programming language, and then the subsequent cyclic debugging of the resulting code, the developer, reasoning exclusively in terms of an automated subject area, uses visual constructors to assemble its model and interface from the corresponding elements, and almost immediately gets a working program.

Technologies

When using an application program, its data model is used by the Visual Data computing environment for unambiguous interpretation of the entire variety of external events of the application and implementation of subsequent changes in the data at a very high level of algorithmic reliability.

The data model and application interface are created using visual and high-performance WYSIWYG methods. The source of the initial data is the analysis of the target domain to identify its constituent entities, their characteristics and relationships, and the entire process is called programming in terms of the subject area.

All external management of both the model and data is carried out using the universal "entity-representation" technology, which is based on the use of natural interface forms of representations of the basic elements of the model and their events. The totality of all presentation forms forms a multi-user application scenario, which is organized in such a way that it is equally accessible through the client application and through any web browser.

In the Visual Data computing environment, all active subjects — meta data (data model + scenarios forms) and data itself — have a universal data object form, which allows you to use simple and efficient built-in object DBMS tools for storing and managing them.

Product

The software implementation of these technologies is a monolithic platform that is characterized by functional unity, compactness, minimal hardware requirements, and can easily be deployed in the desired configuration in a variety of execution environments.

The Visual Data platform is completely self-sufficient, independent of either the operating system or third-party software products, and includes not only its own database, but also a functionally complete set of software tools for fast creation and reliable operation of applications.

Market

The Visual Data platform is in demand by several related sectors of the global IT market with a overall annual volume of more than 100 billion USD and a growth rate of more than 10% per year. Among them are such large as: database management systems (DBMS); application software development tools; cloud services.

The global market is constantly experiencing a shortage of qualified personnel, and this is despite the fact that the total number of programmers engaged in the development process is more than 5 million people (a quarter of a million of them are in Russia). All these developers, as well as the companies they work for, are our target audience. We want to offer this audience a product with truly unique characteristics and advantages.

Competitive advantage

  • The efficiency of creating application programs, which is many times higher than other modern technologies, has a high algorithmic and functional reliability; and at the same time, it is easy to learn as Excel due to the visual naturalness of the creation process;
  • Multiple reduction of application software production costs and their subsequent maintenance;
  • A unique combination of compactness and functional completeness of the platform;
  • The unity of form and content (the interface of the application and its business logic);
  • Independence of application programs from changes and improvements to the platform code;
  • Independence of the platform and its tools from national language features (does not require localization);
  • Independence of the platform and application programs from the hardware, operating system and method of use - locally, in the cloud or on the local network;
  • Availability of the application program from any desktop or mobile device;
  • Ability to collectively create and improve applications using the Open Source model;

Competitors

Application development platforms are provided by many large corporations, such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, etc. But the technological advantage of the Visual Data platform is so great that it allows you to enter into direct competition with them.

The main factor preventing the mass appearance of new applications and services is the very high cost of their development and implementation. The Visual Data platform removes this barrier.

Marketing

Our target audience is software developers who closely monitor the appearance of technological innovations. Therefore, the best advertising effect will be given by articles and comments written on their own and posted on various Internet resources, such as forums for programmers, freelance exchanges, blogs, profile groups in social networks, numerous reviews of market news. These activities can be carried out constantly, and do not require large expenditures.

Participation in specialized exhibitions, which is necessary to attract potential partners and create a partner network, is more expensive.

In order to promote it as quickly as possible, the Visual Data platform itself and ready-made basic configurations of standard application programs (such as ERP, CRM, etc) are planned to be distributed free of charge. These products will be available for free download from the company's website or the websites of its partners. This allows application developers to freely use the platform for accelerated production and sale of their own software products. Developers need to buy client licenses for the platform after they receive revenue from the end users of their products.

Monetization

An important feature of the platform is the ability to authorize each end-user of the application program. Accordingly, the subject of sales are client licenses for the right to use for each individual authorized connection. As well as technical support services.

Licensing does not prevent the popularization and free distribution of the platform, since in this case, the principle of fairness applies: a copy of the platform is provided for use by anyone absolutely free of charge, exactly as long as it is not used for commercial gain.

The criterion for commercial operation of the platform is a certain threshold in the user load on the application program. The platform automatically determines the fact of commercial use and the required volume of licensing.

Implementation plan

The implementation plan consists of separate stages, most of which are implemented in parallel:

  • forming a team of project;
  • update the platform version 3.0 to the required level of functional completeness and reliability, and publish it for download;
  • complete the process of obtaining patents for previously filed patent applications and prepare new ones;
  • develop basic application configurations for version 3.0, such as ERP, CRM, Work Planning, etc., and publish them;
  • automate online processes for requesting and issuing licenses and accepting payments; automate licensing and payment accounting;
  • prepare and publish technical and operational documentation, as well as demonstration materials on the company's website;
  • conduct promotional events among application developers;
  • open a European or American company and transfer product and intellectual property rights to it;
  • start building a partner network in key regions of the world.

Intellectual property

The following applications have been submitted and registered:

  1. System and method for management of functionally linked data (US,CN,RU);
  2. Method and system for visual data management (US);

History

Visual Data technology has been developed since 2004 to meet your own needs for a simple, efficient and independent technical tool that allows you to quickly create functionally complex software.

Since 2008, there is a stable version 2.0 of the platform (Turbo Delphi for Windows), as a working prototype. The company's website contains a selection of applications created in the version 2.0 environment to confirm the correctness and quality of the selected technological solutions and product characteristics. In order to protect intellectual property before filing patent applications, version 2.0 was not published.

Version 3.0 of the platform is intended for promotion to the world market. A demonstration of how to create a simple app in experimental version 3.0 can be found here..