Veritas PV: The Technical Description 

Veritas comprises various compiled units and supporting files:

  • ¬ Uniface 8.4 / 9 – Underlying Application Framework supporting a variety of Operating Systems including Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server
  • ¬ Uniface Database Drivers – Underlying connectors for Oracle and SQL Server databases including Oracle 11 and SQL Server 200
  • ¬ Veritas Uniface Components – Veritas Business Logic
  • ¬ Assignment Files – Database Connection and application configuration
  • ¬ Compiled Repository Files – Signature and central object repository
  • ¬ .NET Framework 3.5SP1 – .NET framework for Veritas RIA presentation layer
  • ¬ .NET C# Components – Veritas RIA client components
  • ¬ Microsoft Office Interoperability Pack – To facilitate Veritas Excel interoperability 
  • ¬ ASP.NET – Web based Veritas reporting 
  • ¬ Java and Apache Tomcat - Veritas DES (Data Extract Services) and Veritas Web Services
  • ¬ EAS 2 – Query creation tool hosted in Microsoft Excel
  • ¬ Silverlight 3 (and above)  + Internet Explorer 7 – Veritas Vision design and viewing
  • ¬ SQL Server 2005 (and above) – Veritas Vision respository

All Uniface related files are installed onto an application server. The Veritas Perform application is designed to be hosted in a website but will install to and run on the Windows client where .NET 3.5SP1 framework is installed.

EAS can be installed on clients where the ability to define database queries is required. These queries can be used to create reports and/or cubes for other users through the Client Side Reporting and MID3 Veritas modules.

The Microsoft Office interoperability pack will be required on the server and/or clients where Excel access is required to capture KPI actuals from Excel spreadsheets.

A shortcut to the application can be provided either as a link from an existing web page or as a desktop shortcut. When the application is first started the Veritas RIA components will be downloaded to the client using Microsoft ClickOnce technology, a technology which automates the deployment of components to Windows clients as, and when, required. With each subsequent application request a check is performed to ensure the client has the latest components. If the server application has since been updated ClickOnce will download the updated files automatically.

Automatic logon to Veritas is supported, both for the Veritas RIA and web reporting based interfaces, where Microsoft Active Directory is implemented.

All Uniface components run on the application server and provide business functionality and database connectivity through web services. The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is used by Veritas clients to communicate with the web service components, with data being passed between the two in the form of XML. 

Uniface web service technology is based on a Java servlet that communicates with a routing daemon. Any web servers that can run java servlets (and whose OS is supported by Uniface) can be used to host Veritas Web Services e.g. Apache or IIS with Tomcat. The following diagram illustrates a typical configuration:

A server based Veritas email daemon is provided to handle outgoing, SMTP based, email requests.

A Veritas Scheduler application is also provided (scheduled using Windows Task Scheduler) to automatically capture KPI actuals through defined Veritas Import Types. These import types define rules on how to capture details from Excel spreadsheets. Import Types that interact with the database directly using SQL can also be defined and run by the scheduler. 

Where information is being extracted from the database to be incorporated into CSR (Client Side Reporting) or MID3 (Management Information Desktop Cubed) requests are routed to the Veritas DES (Data Extract Services) servlet. This Java servlet uses native JDBC drivers to connect to the database and pass the information back to the client in XML form using HTTP.  

Veritas Vision is an advance cockpit tool. OLTP organises the data sources from ERP, CRM and SCM database, and is then presented by Veritas Vision. Standard OLAP connections are also supported as are XML and Excel data sources. 

A single Veritas Vision page may contain data from multiple data sources.