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What is 4D / 4D Server?

In the simplest sense, 4D is a tool that developers use to build data-driven applications and web sites. The name "4D" encompasses a family of products, 4th Dimension and 4D Server being the most notable.

  • The first version of 4D came out in 1985. Its publisher is a privately held French company, 4D SAS, with a large U.S. subsidiary, 4D Inc. The latest version is 4D v11 SQL. The stand-alone version was released in September of 2007. 4D Server v11 SQL is due out mid-2008.
     
  • 4D applications can run on Windows machines and on Macintoshes.
     
  • 4D has an impressive internal database which was greatly enhanced in version 11. 4D can also connect to other databases such as Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and databases that have ODBC access.
     
  • 4D has a built-in web server, so any 4D application can serve web pages with dynamic, real-time information from databases. 4D can act as the web server for an entire site, or serve the pages for just a portion of a larger site served by another web server such as Apache or Microsoft's IIS.
     
  • 4D Server is used when a client-server architecture is desired.
    • 4D Server acts as an applications server to any machine running 4D Client (a thin-client application).
    • 4D Server can act as a data server to other applications, both 4D-based applications, and applications using ODBC.
       
  • 4D has a plug-in architecture that allows developers to implement features not found in 4D natively. These plugins can be written in C or C++, or the 4D language itself. Plugins written in the 4D language are called "components".
     
  • 4D SAS/Inc. sell a number of products that expand the capabilities of 4D. There are items which enhance the user interface tools (such as 4D View), items that enhance user productivity (such as 4D Write - a word processing plugin), and most recently an Ajax framework that greatly extends 4D's web capabilities.
     
  • 4D has a mature language with hundreds of functions and command and a syntax roughly similar to Pascal. (An on-line language reference is available.)
     

"Why 4D?"

For starters it's incredibly flexible...

  • The same application that you can run stand-alone with 4th Dimension, can be run as a multi-user client-server application just by starting it with 4D Server.
  • The same 4D application can run on Macs and Windows machines. 4D Server supports both Mac and Windows clients, and stand-alone applications can be easily transferred between platforms.
  • Built-in web serving capabilities
  • Support for web services (SOAP, WSDL) both as a client and as a server
  • Support for ODBC both as a client and a server
  • Native support for Oracle, Sybase, MySQL and others
  • And much more...

But applications exist to solve business problems and the primary reason to use 4D is because of the ease with which it can solve a wide variety of technical issues. The level of integration in 4D is it's primary asset. Need a stand-alone application? No problem. Ooops, now you need a Client/Server application? No problem. Need the data served up on the web? No problem. Need the web site to use Flex or Ajax? No problem. The list goes on and on...

We rarely say "I can't do that" to our clients - in nearly all cases we can come up with a viable solution to the business problem. That's why 4D is a great tool to use - it helps us solve real-world business problems.

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