4D Open API's

We have developed a suite of tools to enable a custom-built 4D application to send accounting data into a compiled version of 4th Quarter. This suite of Application Program Interface tools (API) opens a new kind of controlled access to 4th Quarter.

4D Open is a 4D connectivity plug-in that enables users of custom 4D applications to communicate with compiled 4th Quarter® applications and still get many of the benefits that are available to those who license the source code.

This may sound like a minor thing, but it is not! It is a tremendous opportunity that adds a third dimension to how 4th Quarter can be used.

With these API's you can now tie 4th Quarter in to a custom application without touching 4th Quarter at all. This completely avoids the expense, difficulty, and responsibility that accompany working with the source code itself.

The API's enable a 4D Developer with little knowledge of accounting, and no knowledge of the workings of 4th Quarter, to send simple data through a "window" in the 4Q application. 4th Quarter receives this information and performs all the necessary verification, updating, and storing required for the data to be fully and accurately incorporated into the 4Q system.

Benefits:

Custom development is possible at a lower cost since source code does not need to be licensed.

Front-office applications can be custom written that remain separate from accounting, and still have the ability to pass information to, and take information from the 4Q Accounting system.

Custom applications can operate, and even fail, with little jeopardy to accounting data. While a custom system can pass the wrong data, it cannot create "bad" data since the API's filter and test all information passed into the system.

Custom development and installation is safer since the accounting application is never modified.

Limitations:

The API's support services to add, modify and delete records from commonly used tables in the 4Q system. These allow for a subset of the larger number of actions that can be performed when one has direct source code access.

Limited interaction between 4th Quarter and other applications. This means that certain designs cannot be implemented, or become more difficult.

The 4Q user interface cannot be integrated with the other application. Nor can the data of the two applications be stored together. This can also be seen as a benefit in terms of greater control over who gains access to the system, and greater control of how the system data is stored and backed up.

There is a greater need for administration since you now have two separate applications and separate data files. Factors outside the scope of either system can interfere with the coordination of the two systems.

Requirements:

Use of 4D Open to communicate between two 4D applications requires that 4th Quarter be running in a network configuration under 4D Server. A separate computer must be devoted to running the 4Q application. The other application communicating with 4th Quarter can be running in either a multi- or a single-user configuration. In either case, the other application must reside on one or more separate computers.

Using the 4D Open API's requires an additional license from Braided Matrix. Different API licenses provide access to either the 4Q Core or the 4Q Full compiled systems. These have different cost since they provide access to a greater or lesser number of 4th Quarter services. Call Braided Matrix for pricing.

Please contact Braided Matrix for details on how 4th Quarter's API's can be used in your situation.