Originally a product of Ashton-Tate (who purchased Wayne Ratliff's Vulcan and marketed it as dBASE II) and then later further developed by Borland (dBASE III, dBASE III+, dBASE IV), dBASE Plus is the current incarnation of the popular database and is offered by dataBased Intelligence, who purchased the product from Borland in 1999 (then as dBASE, Inc). dBASE Plus is a rapid application development environment for DB application developers, allowing them to create applications that access and utilize the well-known .dbf format. dBASE Plus is a 32-bit platform that includes administration tools, an object-oriented programming environment, and an included Borland Database Engine (BDE) that facilitates connectivity to the dBASE tables, as well as native connections to Paradox, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft FoxPro formats, and any 32-bit ODBC-supported data source.

The dBASE Plus toolset includes Windows and Web design tools and table, form, menu, and report designers. An included component, dQuery/Web, provides ad-hoc data retrieval, entering, and editing capabilities regardless of the data source (dQuery is now also available from the vendor as an independent product).

In addition to the BDE's native connectivity capabilities desribed above, BDE can extend support to other enterprise DBs--including Oracle, Sybase, InterBase, MS SQL Server, IBM DB2, and Informix--via an included set of SQL Links drivers. Custom data objects can be created facilitating links to other data sources.

The object oriented nature of the dBASE Plus IDE allows for the flexible use of data from multiple sources. Examples provided by the vendor include working with SQL Server data and saving it as Informix; working in DB2 and saving as dBASE Plus, importing data from other apps, and generating apps that work with multiple data sources simultaneously.

The dBL programming language features full object inheritance, a drag and drop distributed object model, and built-in Report Classes.

New features in the latest dBASE Plus release include support for Windows XP Visual Themes and Styles, including an updated Project Explorer to enable custom applications for XP Themes and Styles; native support for the Mouse Wheel; new grid properties including firstColumn, colorRowLines, and colorColumnLines; and enhanced control over painting individual grid cells.

dBASE Plus is available now; pricing is set at $879 (upgrade pricing is available).

Contact dataBased Intelligence for further information.