Alpha tool aids MySQL development

02.06.2005
Von Ed Scannell

Hoping to take out much of the typical toil associated with building and deploying browser-based database applications for the MySQL database, Alpha Software on Thursday unwrapped a tool that allows developers and nonprogrammers alike to do so significantly faster.

Called Data-2-The-Web the new tool allows programmers to tie Web sites to databases for a range of different applications including order entry, contact management, and tracking sales leads, according to company officials.

"To build these database-driven applications for the Web right now is incredibly messy, time consuming and expensive, because you have to buy a back-end database engine [and] a Web server, and then learn the appropriate language for that database. We think this product can help produce a sophisticated system without having to write code at all," said Richard Rabins, Alpha Software"s co-chairman.

Rabins contends the new tool allows users to sidestep the need to delve deeply into a variety of languages such as PHP, Perl, and JavaScript that many companies can"t afford either in terms of time or money for training.

Based on Alpha Five Version 7, the product has a point-and-click Web component builder that makes it possible for nonprogrammers to create a Web-based database, and for experienced developers and business partners to do so faster and less expensively for their clients, company officials contend.

Alpha plans to deliver versions of the technology for IBM"s DB2, Microsoft"s SQL Server, and Oracle"s flagship database later this year, according to Rabins.

The product comes in two components with the first being the Data-to-The-Web MYSQL Builder, free of charge and useful for designing and testing applications locally. The second piece is the Data-To-The-Web for MySQL Server, which costs US$699, although it is available currently for the introductory price of $199 for an unlimited amount of users per server, according to the company.

More information about the product is available at Alpha Software or http://data2theweb.com.