The Best Development Platform for Rams
Rams is written using the Microsoft Visual FoxPro programming language on a Framework of the same language (Pro Matrix). This being the case the best language for the Rams API is Microsoft Visual FoxPro so as it can tightly integrate Rams and ProMatrix components. This makes it faster than if it were developed in another platform such as C or VB.

Designed using the latest OOP methods
OOP stands for Object Orientated Programming. It is the future of programming and is the core of .NET. What this means to you is that the ITRDS is designed to change as quickly as the IT industry

Easy Installation
The ITRDS (indeed all InfoToday products) are installed via InstallShield. This tool is the industry standard for software installation. Its install and remove wizards make it as simple as possible to install and remove the software and automatically carry out all associated component registration and web server configuration.

High Level Functions
What this means to you is that when you use the ITRDS you can use very simple method calls to carry out the operations you require and let the ITRDS worry about the rest. For example if you want to save a customer record the only line of code you need to use is the following;

oITRDS.oCustomers.Save()

Once you issue this command the ITRDS will worry about the other 500 or so lines of code required to carry out all the other operations associated with this action.

Integrated Rams Data Integrity and Business Rules
This is one of the best and most important features of the ITRDS. What it means is that when you perform a supported operation using the ITRDS, the ITRDS will make sure that all the data integrity built into the data dictionary of Rams, INCLUDING any you have built in yourself, is adhered to. In addition it carries out the Rams business rules associated with the operation being performed. Just to highlight this point, here is a summary of operations carried out by the ITRDS for the above operation;

When you issue the command;

oITRDS.oCustomers.Save()

the ITRDS then;

• Checks to make sure that an access block to the data has not been turned on by the administrator
  
• Checks to make sure that the user id and password are valid
  
• Determines all associated tables with the operation and makes sure they’re available
  
• Assigns a valid account number if it's a new record
  
• Assigns any default values as specified in the Rams Data Dictionary
  
• Applies any string formatting to fields as specified in the Data Dictionary
  
• Adjusts the case of string fields as specified by the “Properise” setting in Rams
  
• Applies data integrity and validation for all fields as determined by the Data dictionary
  
• Begins a transaction so that if errors occur all data changes can be rolled back (Visual Rams versions only)
  
• Checks to see if the area field has changed and if so adjusts the area of all associated charges on the account
  
• Commits the data changes or if errors occur roll back changes
  
• Report errors to the error property of the object
  

Not bad for one line of code on the users behalf!

Hence the full code sequence for the user would be;

oITRDS.oCustomers.Save()
IF oITRDS.oCustomers.lError
cErrorMessage = oITRDS.oCustomers.cErrroMsg
Return False
ENDIF

Error Logging
The ITRDS has both server and client side error logging. Hence if a client is performing an operation and an error occurs on the server, in most cases this error will be returned to the client. Error log files can be in one of the following formats;

Text
XML with formatting XLS document
DBF

Returned Data formats

When carrying out query calls to retrieve data from Rams you can specify that this data is returned in one of four ways;
An internal cursor
An object (Load commands)
Collection object
XML

HTTP communications for global access
A great feature of the ITRDS is that it comes with built in HTTP communication. What this means is that you can communicate with you data either locally on the LAN OR, by simply calling a method, you can carry out operations over HTTP and hence across the globe. This lets you use the ITRDS to access distributed Rams systems. It's as simple as the following

Load a customer account record
oITRDS.oCustomers.Load("2323422")

Now you want to load an account on an HTTP server across the globe. All you need to do is this;

oITRDS.SetConnection("HTTP")
oITRDS.SetSystem("RAMS455")
oITRDS.oCustomers.Load("2323422")

Can it be any simpler?

Protection against code re writes as you change versions of Rams
The ITRDS acts as a layer between yuor code and and Rams. Hence you are in a way removed from the inner workings of Rams and changes to how it works when new verisons are released. For example lets use the above example again;

oITRDS.oCustomers.Save()
IF oITRDS.oCustomers.lError
cErrorMessage = oITRDS.oCustomers.cErrroMsg
Return False
ENDIF

If you were using DOS Rams and then uprgraded to Visual Rams, or in fact any existing version of Rams to any other version, you would not have to change one line of yuor own code. Imagine tha savings in development costs!

Easy to use configuration tool
The ITRDS comes with an easy to use configuration tool which allows you to;

Configure the location of the Rams Pro data

Set the name and location of error logs

Includes a comprehensive Query tool which you can use to search your Rams Pro data for customers and view there details (This is the ITRAS and is not included in the ITRDS license)

Set the server ITRDS to read only so that if anyone tries to write data, they receive an error message telling them the system is read only

Block any access at all so that you can carry out maintenance or backup your system. You can even set a custom message to send back to users who try to access the system during the block so they know what’s going on

Extensive Documentation
InfoToday provides docmuntation with it's products along with on line documetnation on it's web site. Standard COM object layout is used and examples are provided in both FoxPro and C++ code