jdeDirect Architecture

Media Objects | Revision History - World | Revision History - EnterpriseOne | Revision History - Gateway

Imagine having the power to externally communicate with your JD Edwards EnterpriseOne security server, database server and Data Dictionary to access, retrieve and present business critical data held within your JD Edwards EnterpriseOne or World solution.

Unity Enterprise Solutions have developed a standards-based SQL middleware product for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and World data access. Powered by ODBC functionality, jdeDirect enables Windows server and client applications to exchange data held within your JD Edwards database for external web technologies, business intelligence tools, data warehousing, data mining, query and reporting tools and decision support solutions.

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Unity Enterprise Solutions offer a full ODBC driver for JD Edwards supported host platforms.

Industry-leading jdeDirect ODBC drivers are Windows middleware solutions for JD Edwards World and EnterpriseOne databases. They offer database connectivity from all types of applications, to all major databases and across all major platforms. jdeDirect ODBC drivers are easy to install and by connecting directly to your JD Edwards Data Dictionary enhance data retrieval to your applications and software products.

We ensure that our jdeDirect drivers consistently support the latest ODBC specifications. What's more, we keep our technology as up-to-date as possible with the latest JD Edwards database versions to assure you that your applications will support the latest OneWorld database features. Our technology is continually tested under production conditions by using the jdeDirect ODBC validation suite, which is a highly comprehensive ODBC testing facility.

Thin Clients

jdeDirect drivers are designed to communicate directly with your JD Edwards software and not through JD Edwards Application Programming Interfaces (API's) or client software.  Using this architecture takes ODBC technology to a new level by eliminating the need for JD Edwards software and libraries to be running on individual client machines.  As such, this will give your organisation greater flexibility for using external applications as a means of providing remote users with access to information held within your JD Edwards database. Eliminating reliability on JD Edwards API's allows for individual PC's to be structured in thin client mode. In sizeable organisations, the potential savings in license costs is immense.

jdeDirect ODBC drivers provide all of the software that is required to access your JD Edwards data whilst fully maintaining JD Edwards security and user level authentication.

Removing the dependency on the JD Edwards client software is of a huge advantage to organisations looking for data access ONLY without the costs or complexities of installing needless clients.

This also opens the door to many software vendors looking to embed JD Edwards database connectivity into their commercial products. There will be faster implementation for the customer because less time will be needed to continually test numerous versions of JD Edwards client software.

Table and Column Descriptions

With JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and World it is standard for tables and fields to be named using short code-like identifiers, i.e. table F0101 is the Address Book table and field ABAN8 is the Address Number field. Obviously, these identifiers are meaningless to many people and unacceptable for the end-user interface. For this reason, JD Edwards provides corresponding descriptions for all tables and fields in what is called the Data Dictionary. If an external application, such as a reporting tool, is used to retrieve data directly from your JD Edwards database, field and table descriptions are not available. The external application has no knowledge of the Data Dictionary and will present information using table and field names as they actually appear natively within a table, e.g. the "Address Book Master" table will be presented as "F0101".

Using ODBC technology, Unity's jdeDirect drivers can communicate directly with JD Edwards Data Dictionary. Therefore, using jdeDirect as a middleware tool for connecting external applications to your JD Edwards database will enable table and field descriptions to be retrieved from the Data Dictionary and applied within the external application no matter where it is located.

Benefits

  • The need to install JD Edwards clients on large numbers of individual PC's that have no other requirement for access to the JD Edwards database, other than retrieving partial data for the external application, is eliminated.
  • Your overall JD Edwards end-user license costs will be decreased by reducing the number of individual PC's that require JD Edwards clients to be installed. Database security will be increased by reducing the number of PC's requiring JD Edwards software for external data extraction only.
  • Cross-application field descriptors will promote familiarity, user-friendliness and standardisation within your organisation.
  • Your organisation will benefit from increased flexibility by providing users with partial access to information held within your JD Edwards database.

Date Formatting

Within JD Edwards dates are held in a proprietary Julian Date Format. Standard Application Programming Interfaces (API's) within the EnterpriseOne and World applications are used to convert these dates to and from the proprietary date format into standard windows date formation for end-user display and print. As such, end users rarely see information containing dates that are structured within a proprietary date format.

However, external applications connecting to a JD Edwards database will not have access to the API's used to convert the proprietary dates, unless JD Edwards EnterpriseOne is installed on the individual PC from which the application is being executed. Many organisations find this situation undesirable as it often means installing EnterpriseOne on large numbers of individual PC's, thus increases user-license costs. This problem is heightened when the only requirement for installing the EnterpriseOne client software is data retrieval by and external application, i.e. reporting tool.  Users of the Enterprise World software have little choice in this situation as Enterprise World provides no client software to enable this by external applications.

jdeDirect ODBC drivers overcome these problems by providing a middleware solution that will directly communicate with your JD Edwards database and convert the proprietary date fields prior to presenting the data back to the user or external application. jdeDirect drivers use SQL statements to convert date fields to and from JD Edwards in any industry standard format.

Numerical Scaling

Within JD Edwards all number fields are held within the database without any decimal scaling, i.e. 18.9882 would be held as 189882. The JD Edwards software uses Standard Programming Interfaces (API's) to add the decimal point based on each field's destination within the JD Edwards Data Dictionary.

When an external application connects to JD Edwards it will only be able to communicate with the API's if JD Edwards client software has been installed on the machine from which the application is being executed. If this is not done, the correct divisor must be applied to individual numbers to ensure that the correct decimal placing is obtained. However, this process can involve a large amount of hardcoding into the external application. This in turn increases the implementation time of external applications and the overall flexibility that is available to them.

jdeDirect can directly connect to your JD Edwards Data Dictionary and using the driver as a middleware solution will allow the appropriate data scaling to be applied prior to presenting any numerical data back to the user or application.

With jdeDirect there will be no requirement for development work on data scaling. Therefore the implementation and flexibility of your applications will be greatly improved.

Multiple Environments

jdeDirect ODBC drivers can connect to multiple environments at any one time and can support all databases and platforms for JD Edwards. This new architecture allows an external application to access all JD Edwards tables, regardless of where they are located.

Additionally, jdeDirect architecture increases the flexibility of many software vendors looking to promote their commercial software within a multi-tier system environment.  jdeDirect drivers enable external applications to be developed in a way which will support the full range of JD Edwards databases and platforms.

OCM Mappings

JD Edwards software can be supported by a wide variety of hardware solutions. It is a highly configurable system and organisations have the freedom to choose hardware solutions that fit their overall requirements. The inter-dependence of JD Edwards also means that it has the ability to run on different hardware platforms and database engines at the same time. This has often led to the development of complex hardware, network and database configurations, especially within the larger organisation and multi-nationals.

JD Edwards uses Object Configuration Mapping (OCM) to regulate where the different system objects are located within the overall networking environment. This includes all tables at the heart of your JD Edwards solution. Many organisations choose to make changes to their OCM as a result of implementing multiple configurations, as well as the need to maximise efficiency.

However, when an environment that supports multiple systems, multiple platforms or multiple databases does exist, external applications will be unable to connect to the internal OCM and are therefore be unable to retrieve the mappings that will tell them where different business objects are located.

Using Unity's jdeDirect driver as a middleware tool to connect external applications to a multi-tier JD Edwards environment enable access to the OCM table. Subsequently, SQL requests that are generated by a user or application will be automatically routed to the correct database system.

jdeDirect has the technology to support simple or complex joins across multiple databases. jdeDirect drivers do this by having the ability to accept SQL statements and subsequently submit less complex data requests to the relevant machine. Essentially this will present a single database image to the user or application when in reality multiple database engines are in operation.

Vocabulary Overrides

In multi-language environments, JD Edwards stores language translations of field descriptions in the Data Dictionary. These translations, known as Vocabulary Overrides, are applied to the user interface when the user's language preference is something other than English. The jdeDirect driver utilises these overrides when presenting fields to the user. For example, the AN8 field in the Address Book Master table would be presented as follows:

  • English User: Address Number
  • French User: N° Référence
  • German User: Adressnummer
  • Italian User N° Indirizzo

In addition to Language Overrides, the JD Edwards Data Dictionary allows for the same Data Dictionary field to have different descriptions depending upon what System Module or System Code is being used for the field. For example, the AN8 field is generically called 'Address Number', however, when used in tables these specific System Codes, the description is overridden.

  • System 41 (Inventory Management): Supplier Number
  • System 42 (Sales Management): SoldTo Number
  • System Management (Work Order Processing): Customer Number

JD Edwards allows for additional System Code overrides to be applied by an organisation. Organisations can tailor the field descriptions to match the terminology used within their own individual preferences. The jdeDirect driver applies these overrides exposing field names that are familiar to users.

Data Dictionary

JD Edwards delivers a tool called the Data Dictionary containing a set of pre-defined table and field descriptions. It is possible to change make changes to the standard table and field descriptions within the Data Dictionary and they are often tailored by an organisation to suit individual environments.

All JDE applications refer to the Data Dictionary to obtain the table and field descriptions that are to be used for display and print by end-users. This is true whether the descriptions are JD Edwards delivered or have been internally adapted by an organisation.