Ferris

The Cloud Sherpas company, the broker of cloud services, announced in March, 2013 the Ferris system based based on open codes intended for application development in the Python language and supplementing the building tools Google App Engine.

Ferris was created by engineers of Cloud Sherpas in 2012, and millions of developers around the world use it already. It allows to reduce time (on average by 80%) and the cost of development of cloud and mobile applications for the Google Apps platform.

Google Apps is quickly extending cloud platform for solving of tasks on transmission of messages and joint work. It is applied by more than 50 million certain users and over 5 million clients from business. The system of development Google App Engine is used for creation of high-scalable applications for execution within the Google Apps environment that, in turn, increases value of this cloud platform. By some estimates, in five years which passed since system launch with its help more than 1 million applications were created. The company Cloud Sherpas created hundreds of applications using Google App Engine for the clients among whom is such large as Quality Distribution Inc., Printpack and Lamar Media Corporation.

'The QDI company needed improvement of a system of tracking cargo transport and cargo delivery and also service of sale of tickets. Using the Ferris system it was succeeded to develop mobile application for tablets based on Android and to start it within a week, − Cliff Dixon, the vice president of IT service of QDI company told. — Using Ferris, we avoided duplication in development of several subsystems that allowed us to be focused on development of business logic of the application. Now our clients can monitor cargo delivery in real time, and all technology of maintenance of loads became paperless'.

Ferris is the facilitated customized system of software development based on open codes, it is available free of charge according to the license Apache Licence, Version 2 and gives to developers the chance to create applications in the Python language within the Google App Engine system.

Key features of the Ferris system are use of architecture of MVC (Model-View-Controller) and also flexible routing in applications in style of the Ruby on Rails development environment. Ferris also includes means of automatic creation, reading, modification and removal of schemes of actions and representations, the mechanism of templates and subjects constructed based on Jinja2, means of the description and processing of forms using WTForms library and also an integration tool with Google Accounts subsystem.

Other features of the Ferris system:

• architecture based on plug-ins for expansion of functionality and its distribution between applications;
• integration into the program interfaces Auth2 and Google Client API;
• identification of type of the device for the choice of the corresponding subjects, layouts and representations for this mobile or tablet device;
• use of the program interfaces REST and JSON API for models;
• use of basic libraries of the Google App Engine system for data modeling;
• integration into the program interface Google App Engine Search API.

'Ferris is important addition to Google App Engine. Millions of developers for the Google Apps platform will be able to use it for creation of cloud and mobile applications, − Douglas Shepard, the president of division of developments based on products of Google of Cloud Sherpas company said. — This system provides faster promotion of applications on the market and more intuitive development environment. Ferris means significant savings of expenses on application development, full accounting of user requirements to their creation for heads of the companies and IT departments and increase in profit. Starting the Ferris system, we hope for feedback coupling and support from the community which is engaged in projects based on open codes'.