User Guide

Understanding the Benefits of the Sage Accpac ERP Architecture
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Sage Accpac ERP
Technology
Browser-Based User Interfaces. It is impossible to talk about the promise of hosting without
discussing whether an application can be “run from a browser.” It seems as though the entire software
world wants to run its applications from a browser, without going through a terminal services interface:
Everyone has announced an intention to do so. So why have so few delivered? The answer is that
the task of rewriting hundreds of user interface screens with complex user interactions takes a lot
of effort. If user interface code is intermixed with business logic and database services, the effort is
exponentially greater.
An application like Sage Accpac has an architecture with the user interface code in a separate
program that talks to the business logic by sending and receiving messages. The effort to implement
Sage Accpac in a browser is further reduced by taking advantage of the business logic’s object
orientation. Sage Accpac has leveraged its objects by developing common ActiveX “controls”
(buttons, fields, and forms on a screen) whose behavior is controlled to a large degree by the business
logic objects. These controls can be run from a “desktop” environment or a “browser” environment.
Figures 12 and 13 show the same Bank Services maintenance screen running in both Windows GUI
and Internet browser environments.
Figure 12—Sage Accpac Bank Services screens in a Windows desktop environment.