Latest Omnis News
May/June 2010
Omnis solution has them singing in the aisles

We are delighted to publish a brand new Omnis case study regarding an application that uses all aspects of Omnis development including: OO development, SQL database connectivity, complex web communications, full html/web integration, credit card processing, and extensive use of the Omnis external component interface to integrate powerful bespoke functionality. The application is Theatre Manager by Arts Management Systems Ltd, based in Calgary, Alberta in Canada. Theatre Manager was created by Doug Easterbrook and his development team, and is a fully integrated ticketing and CRM solution used in arts, sports and entertainment organizations. It is used by top entertainment venues in North America with over $600m combined annual ticket sales, including Proctors, The Egg (in New York), the Citadel Theatre, and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) which has just finished its 20 year relationship with Ticketmaster in favour of Theatre Manager.

Arts Management Systems Ltd

We're also pleased to report here that in a recent survey conducted by the Centre for Arts Management and Technology at Carnegie Mellon University ('2009 Ticketing Software Satisfaction Survey'), Theatre Manager scored high ratings for customer satisfaction and value for money within all sizes of arts organization. The report showed that within its market segment, Theatre Manager offers many more features for a fraction of the price when compared to its main competitors.

Congratulations to Doug and his team and we hope you find the new case study as interesting and exciting as we did to report this! Click here to read the whole case study and to get a link to the full survey report.

The Citadel Theatre (www.citadeltheatre.com) in Edmonton, Alberta, is the province's marquee venue. It has four theatres under one roof and sells between 250,000 and 300,000 tickets annually using Theatre Manager.
The Citadel Theatre
The Citadel Theatre
"I truly believe I would not have such a successful application in this market segment if I'd chosen
another development tool. I'd still be writing Theatre Manager if I'd chosen any other tool!"
Doug Easterbrook, Founder and President of Arts Management Systems Ltd.
Write your own External Components quickly and easily

We are pleased to announce the availability of a brand new version of the Omnis External Component documentation, now available on the Omnis website alongside the Omnis External Component SDK. The API doc describes the External Component API available in Omnis Studio and details how you can create your own components. Due to the power and extensibility of the component API you can add more or less any functionality you want to Omnis Studio. Click here to see the new doc.

Brainy Data

To coincide with the release of the updated External Component API docs, we'd like to feature a company which has one of the best track records of building great components that you can plug into Omnis. Based on the east coast of England (adjacent to the sandy beaches of Clacton-on-Sea) are Brainy Data, who have produced many Omnis Studio components over the past 7 years. The principal developer and founder of the company is Michael Monschau (pictured), whom many developers will be familiar with having met Michael at recent EurOmnis developer conferences. Michael has built an impressive catalogue of products and components which are used by more than 170 Omnis developers world-wide.(And in fact, Michael has produced several components for the Theatre Manager solution described elsewhere in the news.)

Michael Monshau of Brainy Data

Brainy Data's flagship product is a word processing component called OWrite, available for thick and thin clients. It was designed from the ground up with data integration and total developer control in mind. OWrite provides a number of document objects such as pictures, text and tables for integrating data into your docs from anywhere in your application. These objects can be given standard Omnis calculations, with calls into your own code in Omnis. OWrite is a great example of how the Omnis External Component API can be utilized for building additional and powerful functionality into Omnis.

Other products produced by Brainy Data include OSpell2, a spell checker component which can be used to check the entire window content (inside complex grids), or data in your database. Then there is PDFDevice which is easily added to the print destinations in Omnis and allows developers to create PDF documents from within their Omnis applications. Plus OCal, an enhanced calendar control, capable of displaying events in various display modes, taking its data directly from an Omnis list with all the event details. And OGantt, a fully-fledged project schedule component originally developed by 888 Software Products Italia but now maintained by Brainy Data.

STOP PRESS: we are delighted to report that we have just completed a full case study with Brainy Data which you can read here. And do let us know if you have a great Omnis app and wish to create an Omnis success story.
Brainy Data
OWrite by Brainy Data
(click image to enlarge)
 
 
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