2000
During 2000, IFS significantly increased its R&D efforts to produce IFS Applications 2001. Foundation1 was no exception and a number of major improvements were made. The Windows client was modernized to Office 2000 look-n-feel. IFS Connect got new adaptors for OPC (OLE for Process Control), WAP phones, barcode readers, IBM Mobile Connect (Handheld solutions), and more.
The average size of IFS customers had grown significantly making multi-site installations more the rule than the exception. To make such installations easier, new functionality for configurable replication of any business object was added.
The Web Kit continued to be developed. For a while, the Web Kit team had been looking at different types of web portals that were becoming so frequent on the web. Ideas of a user interface based on a portal metaphor rather than Windows applications had been growing. The serious work began early in the year, leading to IFS' 3rd generation web interfaces with the IFS Personal Portal as a unifying personalized view into IFS Applications and other information sources alike. The look-n-feel and behavior of the web interface had changed completely. The difference was amazing, and the new interface was so much easier to use.
The Web Kit was also separated from the IFS Foundation1 component and released on its own. Similarly, IFS Connect was split into two components with a separate component containing the adapters. The Foundation1 platform now consisted of IFS Foundation1 3.0, IFS Web Kit 3.0, IFS Connect, and IFS Connect Adapters.
IFS Applications 2001, launched at the end of the year, included over 200 portlets for the personal portal, B2B and B2E web solutions for nearly all components of IFS Applications.
The Ti22 project, started at the end of 1999, continued.
A CORBA middleware had now been chosen and frameworks for server and web development were being built. The implementation architecture chosen was completely service oriented, with native support for XML in all areas. Because of the death of dot coms, the focus of the project shifted from B2C web sites towards B2B web, business process and application integration.
At the end of the year the decision was made to move IFS Connect and IFS Web Kit onto the new middleware. Since almost all the code in IFS Connect and IFS Web Kit is Java, this was not an overwhelming task.
