What if creating a custom business application didn't require writing an application from scratch—or forcing a business to adapt to an off-the-shelf product?
That's the idea behind Formever, an open-source, no-code platform we've been developing to make customized business software more accessible.
We've just released preview versions of two new applications:
FormeverAssistant — for designing and building custom business systems.
FormeverClient — for running and interacting with the systems created using FormeverAssistant.
Both are available for Windows and macOS.
Download the Formever previews, FormeverAssistant and FormeverClient, now
Why build another application development platform?
There are plenty of ways to build software today. Traditional development frameworks, low-code platforms, no-code builders, and increasingly, AI-generated code.
But we think there's still an important problem worth solving - being context specific. And even if you plan to use an AI-tool to assist in programming, this context-defining step is still critical.
Most businesses don't operate exactly like other businesses.
They have their own processes, relationships, terminology, reporting requirements, and ways of organizing information. This is their specific context. Yet they frequently end up adapting their operations to fit whatever functionality their software vendor happens to provide (i.e. something that lacks their specific context).
Custom development can solve that problem, but it's often expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to maintain.
We wanted to approach the problem from the opposite direction:
What if the software could adapt to the business, rather than the business adapting to the software?
And what if someone who understands the business, but isn't necessarily a programmer, could design and build that system?
A different approach to building business applications
Formever is designed around creating custom business systems without writing conventional application code.
Rather than starting with database schemas, programming frameworks, and UI components, a system designer works with the business concepts and relationships that define the application.
The objective is to make it practical to create systems for things like:
- Customer relationship management
- Inventory and order management
- Project management
- Operational workflows
- Industry-specific business processes
- Integrated reporting and business information systems
And, importantly, to combine these functions into a system designed for a particular business rather than stitching together multiple unrelated applications.
We're especially interested in making this accessible to business consultants, analysts, domain experts, and technically inclined entrepreneurs who understand what software needs to accomplish but don't necessarily have the resources to develop everything themselves.
Under the hood: A contextual database
One of the more interesting parts of Formever is its underlying database technology, which we call Indelibase.
It's a contextual database designed to represent relationships between business information directly.
For example, imagine a system containing:
- Clients
- Projects associated with those clients
- Materials orders associated with projects
- Timesheets associated with projects
In a conventional relational application, a developer might create tables, foreign keys, joins, and application logic to navigate these relationships.
Formever's approach is to make those relationships part of the system's underlying structure, allowing designers to work with connected business information without manually implementing the conventional database and application layers.
This also allows navigation through related business information, a capability we call reach-through.
It's a different way of thinking about how business applications can be constructed, and one we're interested in getting developers' perspectives on.
What's new in these preview releases?
This release represents a major reworking of Formever.
We've rebuilt the application interface around JavaFX, with a substantially redesigned approach to creating and presenting business systems. We've also built it around making it possible for Designers to easily build a business around creating systems and applications for Clients.
Some highlights:
A redesigned system-building environment
FormeverAssistant provides the environment in which system designers define and customize their applications.Customizable application interfaces
The new JavaFX-based interface supports CSS-style formatting, giving designers much greater control over the appearance of the resulting applications.Separate design and client applications
FormeverAssistant is used to build systems, while FormeverClient is used by the people working with those systems.Formatted Excel exports
Applications can export fully formatted Excel files, an important capability for business reporting and workflows.Open-source development
We believe business software should give its users and designers more control, not lock them into a proprietary ecosystem.
Who might find this interesting?
We're particularly interested in hearing from three groups.
Developers and software architects
If you've worked on ERP, CRM, inventory, or other enterprise applications, you'll know how much development effort can go into implementing variations of essentially similar business concepts.
We're interested in your thoughts on whether a more business-oriented, model-driven approach can simplify that process.
Consultants and business analysts
If you understand a client's operations well enough to specify a software solution, what would change if you could also build and deliver that solution yourself?
Aspiring software entrepreneurs
Not everyone with a good software business idea is a programmer.
We're interested in making it possible for people with industry knowledge to build software products and custom client systems without first assembling a conventional development team.
These are preview releases, not finished commercial products, and we'd really like your feedback.
There are still issues to resolve, features to refine, and plenty of opportunities for improvement.
We're particularly interested in feedback about:
- The system-design workflow and learning curve
- The flexibility of the data model
- The JavaFX-based user interface
- The kinds of business applications you think this approach could—or couldn't—handle
Critical feedback is just as valuable as positive feedback. We'd particularly welcome hearing where you think this approach might break down.
Want to try it?
The preview versions are available for Windows and macOS.
Download FormeverAssistant and FormeverClient
You can also learn more at formever.com.
And if you're interested in no-code platforms, application architecture, business systems, or alternative approaches to software development, we'd love to hear your thoughts.
Here's a question for the DEV community:
Do you think the biggest obstacle to creating custom business software is the programming itself—or the challenge of translating business requirements into a working system?
We're interested in exploring whether removing much of the conventional programming work can help more people become software creators.
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