Sentences is a multi-user, web-enabled transactional database management system based on the Associative Model of Data and written in Java. It comes complete with a full set of development tools, interfaces and applications. Using the integrated Sentences Deployment Environment, users can design and deploy sophisticated database applications more quickly and with less technical know-how than has previously been possible.

Since its launch in 2000, Sentences has won many customers in Europe and the US, including industry leaders such as Alcan, Argos, Johnson Matthey, Lloyds TSB, Sterling Commerce and Sun Microsystems.

Sentences is available in three editions:

• Sentences Enterprise Edition is a multi-user, web server based environment.
  
  
• Sentences Workgroup Edition is functionally identical to the Enterprise Edition, but includes only the core options that most customers will need.
  
  
• Sentences Personal Edition is a single-user edition with most of the functionality of the Enterprise and Workgroup Editions, available free of charge for evaluation purposes.

"[Sentences] should be viewed as a new and powerful tool for key upcoming projects, with strong long-term potential as a solid base for mass-deployment applications." - Aberdeen Group

download a free copy of Sentences Personal Edition.

As well as rapid development and deployment, and the security and scalability required by modern database management systems, Sentences and the associative model provide these unique capabilities:

• Omnicompetent Programming, which allows a single set of programs to implement many different applications, affording substantial development cost savings.
• Application Feature Partitioning, which allows application features to be visible or invisible to individual users or groups of users, ideally suited to the needs of ASPs.
• Instance Schema, which enables schema and rules to apply to a single instance in the database with no overhead, for example to record the unique needs of key customers, or unique features of product variants.
• Schema Aggregation, which allows disparate databases to be viewed together or amalgamated at any time without special tools, for data correlation and analysis.
• Language Independence, which allows an application to be accessed in many human languages simultaneously.
• XML Transaction Capability, which allows Sentences to accept and originate database transactions in XML.

Sentences Version 3.5 comprises the following components:

• Sentences DB, the Sentences database engine, which supports data update and retrieval, transaction processing and query execution. It includes full APIs for Java and for XML transaction processing. Sentences DB is written in Java and runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris and IBM iSeries platforms.
  
  
• Sentences DE, the Sentences Deployment Environment, provides development and deployment tools for database schemas, business rules and queries, and tools to create and maintain database profiles. Sentences DE includes a Java user interface that allow users to maintain, access and query data in Sentences DB via the web. Once developed, Sentences applications may also be deployed to browsers independently of Sentences DE, using HTML. Sentences DE runs as a Java applet in any browser with a Java 2 plug-in.

Sentences integrates well with other databases, application servers and desktop tools, exchanging data via XML and other protocols.

Sentences is scalable for informational and transactional database applications, and for casual browsing and information serving to web communities. It allows you to:

• Derive more value from your investment in Intranet infrastructure by rapidly deploying group productivity applications such as CRM, sales force automation, incident tracking, technology management, campaign management and human resources.
• Enhance your operations with targeted business intelligence applications: analysing buying patterns, tracking asset utilisation; auditing HR assets such as staff skills, qualifications and languages; analysing marketing campaign responses.
• Develop sophisticated databases for your customers and audiences to browse via the web: eg. airline timetables; sporting fixtures and results; large product ranges and cataloguing.
• Enhance and extend your enterprise applications with additional features and functions that could not be cost-effectively deployed using relational capabilities.