4D Launches Wakanda JavaScript Stack for Web and Mobile Application Development

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - Jun 28, 2012) - 4D, a leading provider of open source integrated application development solutions, today announced the immediate availability of the both Open Source and commercial version of Wakanda, the popular JavaScript development platform.

Coming off a successful beta program, Wakanda is providing developers today with a first-ever full stack JavaScript development platform for Web and mobile business applications. The new Wakanda foundation relies on best-of-breed technology: Web and mobile applications, a development studio, client framework, NoSQL database, server and model-driven architecture; Web applications developed with Wakanda are easily deployed on the Cloud. The company is offering Open Source community and commercial versions of Wakanda.

With Wakanda, developers now have an entire application stack with JavaScript, and its Model Driven Architecture (MDA) assures high levels of re-use, helping to decrease maintenance costs. Both the user interface (UI) and the application data model are built with a powerful WYSIWYG designer from Wakanda Studio, and the Wakanda client framework and GUI designer leverage the full power of HTML5 and CSS3. The NoSQL object datastore natively speaks REST/HTTP and server-side JavaScript (SSJS). Unlike with SQL databases, there is no need to use an ORM layer, and there is no hidden SQL generation -- Wakanda natively understands business logic.

"Wakanda is a tremendous all-in-one Web client/database solution providing the user with a toolbox of incredibly functional widgets for truly elegant Web interfaces," said Philip Keth, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, at Footprints, Inc., developer of custom information management solutions for clients such as Boeing and Nordstrom. "The seamless client/server database layer is impressive with regard to client-side data access and speed on very large data sets. The best part of Wakanda is that it is all JavaScript-driven, so as a Web developer, augmenting the Wakanda system is as easy as writing JavaScript."

Built on 25 years of business application experience and with the support of an active developer community, Wakanda's new development environment can be extended with third-party widgets, libraries and server modules. In addition, Wakanda's Open Source environment supports developers by adding connectors to their preferred databases. Wakanda is fully industry standard compliant, including JSON, REST/HTTP, W3C, and CommonJS.

"Now that the new Wakanda is available for download, Web and mobile business app developers are programming entire applications with JavaScript, end-to-end," said Luc Hollande, 4D CEO. "Developers no longer need to learn, integrate and maintain different technologies in different languages. Already, Wakanda early adopters such as Footprints, Inc. and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are taking advantage of its cohesive JavaScript stack."

Wakanda: Powerful JavaScript, Powerful Features -- Ready for the Cloud

In addition to providing end-to-end JavaScript programming, Wakanda applications are easily deployed in the cloud. The Wakanda platform can be installed on major cloud IaaS platforms such as Amazon EC2, and MS Azure.

A complete list of features of Wakanda Studio, Wakanda Server and Wakanda Framework, grouped by functional areas of the platform, can be found at http://www.wakanda.org/features/. Powerful new features include touch for mobile development, pure multi-threaded JavaScript, NoSQL, Object Datastore and more.

In an IDC White Paper, Al Hilwa, Program Director, Application Development Software for IDC found, "Wakanda is a well-designed end-to-end application platform that comes complete with a graphical development environment catering to modern developer requirements... The application development approach supported by Wakanda abstracts much of the complexity in developing enterprise applications rapidly and productively." ("IDC White Paper, sponsored by 4D Inc., Wakanda: Blending Traditional Developer Productivity with Modern Web Architecture and Standards, October 2011.")

Availability and Pricing

Wakanda production release is available immediately, and is offered in two editions: the open source community edition (Scout), and a commercial edition (Warrior).

The community version of Wakanda is available free of charge and can be downloaded at www.wakanda.org/downloads. A monthly subscription for the commercial license and developer support starts at $35 per month for one developer, and includes free royalty, unlimited deployment rights, plus premium forum access. Developers and businesses can purchase Wakanda subscriptions at http://store.4d.com/wakanda/

About 4D, Inc.
A global leader in business software development solutions for over 25 years, 4D provides integrated platforms that simplify and speed up the development and deployment of Web, Mobile, Desktop, and Client-Server Business Applications. 4D solutions and development tools are used in more than 70 countries, count millions of end users and over 10,000 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). 4D is located in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit www.4D.com or call 1-408-557-4600.