Intrexx

The first version of the software was released by the German software vendor, United Planet, under the name "Intrazone" in 1999. In 2000, the software was renamed to "Intrexx Xtreme". With the release of Intrexx 5.0 in March 2010, the product line was divided into two editions: Intrexx Professional and Intrexx Compact. Intrexx Professional is the continuation of the Xtreme series and is still intended for SMEs and public administrations. Intrexx Compact contains a complete company portal with more than 50 ready-made web-applications and templates and is tailor-made for smaller companies with up to 10 PC workstations. According to the manufacturer, there have been implemented more than 5,000 Intrexx portals by now (cited date: 2019).[3] Between 2012–2014, the US IT research and advisory company Gartner Inc. placed United Planet with Intrexx in its renowned market overview "Magic Quadrant for Horizontal Portals".[4] Since then, the product has received multiple awards such as "Social Business Leader" five times (ISG Provider Lens; including 2018) "Digital Workspace Leader" (ISG Provider Lens; 2017) and PC Magazin "SEHR GUT" (01/2019).

Today, Intrexx is a low-code development platform for complete digital workplace solutions and total digitalization of companies.

Milestones:

• Intrexx 2.0 (2004): Enhanced tools to integrate existing data from third-party systems
• Intrexx 3.0 (2006): Integration of a so-called "Process Manager", allowing companies to model business processes graphically, connect these together and automate them
• Intrexx 4.0 (2007): Option to consume and provide web services
• Intrexx 4.5 (2008): Integration of the dynamic programming language "Groovy"
• Intrexx 5.0 (2010):
  • Intrexx is the first software solution that can convert web-based applications during their creation so that they can be accessed from mobile devices
  • Improved accessibility according to the W3C standards
• Intrexx 6.0 (2012):
  • With the new module "Relationship Designer", data from all existing software systems within the company can be connected, irrespective of their manufacturer (until Intrexx Version 18.09)
  • Business Adapters for SAP NetWeaver Gateway and all OData data sources
  • Technological basis for the new social business software, Intrexx Share
• Intrexx Share (2013):
  • Intrexx Share expands Intrexx with a new type of social business solution that harnesses the communication technologies, which are known from social networks (Facebook, Twitter etc.), for use in enterprises
  • Intrexx Share stands out from the other social business solutions because not only are a company's employees included in the knowledge exchange, but also the software solutions (e.g. Intranet, CRM, ERP, BI, Exchange etc.).
  • If somebody writes or edits data in Intrexx Share's user interface, this is written to the corresponding specialized application in realtime. This means that employees are able to react to news feeds, which are created by the specialized applications, directly from Intrexx Share.
  • Exchanging data and documents is more secure with Intrexx Share than with many other social business solutions which often come from the USA. This is because the data is stored on the protected company server and not in the cloud.
• Intrexx 7.0 (2014):
  • Further improvements to Intrexx's ability to integrate thanks to the OData Adapter and M-Files Adapter.
  • The Intrexx Formula Editor enables users to create computational calculations for the first time in the Portal Manager.
  • Introduction of the new Calendar and Resource controls.
  • User-friendlier file handling with multiple file uploads.
• Intrexx 8.0 (2016):
  • It is now possible to create pages and applications with responsive design
  • Instead of the previously used Apache Lucene, Apache Solr is implemented as a search engine in the context of the portal process
  • The search function has been expanded with new filtering options and the ability to search in multiple languages
  • Language constants and a translation aid simplify the creation of multilingual portals and applications
  • Designing applications in the Applications Designer is made easier thanks to templates and helplines – meaning that applications can be created faster than ever before
• Intrexx 18.03 (2018):[5]
  • New version name
  • Connector for Microsoft Office 365; Possible to open and save Office 365 documents directly from Intrexx
  • Intrexx Mobile App: Any number of portals can be added, access to key information - including push notifications
  • Intrexx Share 2.2: Social collaboration tools with chat, groups, filebox (file storage system) and news feed
• Intrexx 18.09 (2018):[6]
  • Connector API: Ready-made connectors for leading software systems such as SAP, Microsoft, IBM and many other systems
  • Intrexx Industrial: Complete Industry 4.0 solution including automated logbook, OEE analysis and much more
• Intrexx 19.03 (2019):[7]
  • New business logic: New logic for reading, writing, validating and filtering data
  • Java 11:Both the Portal Manager and Server are now based on Java Runtime version 11. Users can choose to use existing Java licenses or switch to the open source option OpenJDK.
  • REST API: Communication between the Portal Manager and other servers has been switched to the REST API
  • Multi-tenancy capability: Security when developing portals with multiple tenants/branches/locations
  • Horizontal scaling: Intrexx 19.03 is elastically horizontally scalable on almost all cloud platforms such as Amazon - AWS, Azure and Open Telekom Cloud
  • Versioning: Semantic versioning and versioning with GIT for improved, individual application development
  • Portlet framework: The completely new and responsive portlet framework provides users with more options and greater flexibility when developing applications and designing pages
• Intrexx 19.09 (2019):[8]
  • Portal Manager as a live version: Start the Intrexx Portal Manager with ease from any directory - even without administrator permissions
  • TinyMCE Editor: The new TinyMCE Editor increases usability when it comes to editing texts in Intrexx applications
  • Internationalization: Country-dependent languages and currency formats for an internationally operating company
  • High security: Corresponding script methods now verify whether the applicable password guidelines have been adhered to when a password is entered
  • Support of 'diverse' as a gender: The user manager now allows you to select 'diverse' as a third gender option
  • Intrexx cluster support included in setup: From version 19.09 onwards, Intrexx allows you to add the portal server as an instance of an Intrexx cluster
  • Responsive view image control: With a new option for the view image control, images and photos are scaled according to the current layout and are therefore always displayed at a suitable size for the end device
• Intrexx 20.03 (2020):[9]
  • Subselects/Subqueries in filters: Very straightforward to define a subquery for a filter expression.
  • Global workflow user: Better rights management for users.
  • Improved style options: Significantly improved styles and usability.
  • Filter multiple selection elements via dependencies: Multiple selection elements can be filtered directly via dependencies.
  • Bindings in filters: Different bindings in the filter dialog.
  • New Gallery: The new gallery is responsive, looks more modern than its predecessors and can play videos.
  • WebSockets: Developers can send messages directly from the server to the browser (push).

Intrexx basically consists of two parts:

Intrexx Portal Manager

It is installed on any client or on the server and possesses all the components for developing and managing layout, menu or applications.Furthermore, users can be configured and provided with permissions for the respective portal applications in the Portal Manager.

Intrexx Portal Server

It is installed on a server and controls all transactions of the created web-based applications and portals. It monitors the permissions of the users within the transactions, controls the entire business logic operations and governs access to the data sources.

Intrexx provides companies with the ability to create and manage multilingual web-based applications, intranets, social intranets, enterprise portals and customer portals (extranets) as well as Industry 4.0 solutions as of 2018. In doing so, the software sees itself as an alternative to Microsoft SharePoint.[10] Design and usability of the portal are provided by the integrated portal designer based on CSS and XML, enabling the adoption to the corporate identity of the company via XSL-transformations. Single sign-on guarantees a secure authentication and role-based authorization. The synchronization with existing LDAP-servers is possible.

Intrexx is based 100% on Java and contains the following modules:

Designer

The Designer allows enterprises to create their portal layout according to their individual corporate identity: colors, fonts, symbols, buttons and menu structures can be selected via mouse click from lists as well as a multitude of already premade design templates.

Applications

With the Application Designer, applications and forms can be created without programming knowledge - via drag and drop. With the help of a wizard, users select the desired edit and output controls, as well as the required buttons, and create applications - for the desktop PC, laptop, and smartphone.

Processes

Thanks to the graphical interface of the Process Designer, processes can be transferred into electronic workflows and automated by Drag-and-drop. The user can also define conditions and actions.

Relations

The graphic Relationship Designer can link up the data from all existing software systems within a company, irrespective of their manufacturer. Once a specific piece of information is invoked, the Intrexx Relationship Designer automatically searches the linked systems for thematically connected information and displays it for the employees on the intranet in a concentrated manner.

Users

In the User Manager, administrators can define who may access which applications and functions in the portal. It is possible to make the access permissions dependent on the function of the employee or combine specific employees into one permissions group.

Integration

With Intrexx, users have direct read and write access to almost any database in an enterprise, as well as import or export its data. In the same way, ERP systems like SAP ERP can be connected with read and/or write scenarios.

Tools

Intrexx contains different tools that support the administrator in his/her work. A System Monitor, for example, shows the current system load, the activities in the enterprise portal, the status of memory use, and the connections to the database as well. The Task Planner delivers an overview of all running processes.

Special Business Integration Adapters (Connectors) enable the integration of data from third-party systems such as SAP (SAP Business Suite, SAP Business One, SAP Gateway), JDBC data sources as well all OData data sources. A special Connector for Microsoft Office (Word, Excel etc.) also allows the organization of Microsoft Office Documents within the enterprise portal. The interface with Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange enables companies to integrate data from Microsoft SharePoint lists and document libraries into Intrexx applications and processes, and also access calendars, contacts, tasks and emails from Outlook.

The Connectors for ABACUS business software, M-Files, dg hyparchive and IBM Lotus Notes enables users to save and archive data from the respective system and integrate it into Intrexx processes and applications.

Ready-made portals

Ready-made portals have been created for specific industries and business areas. These include a clinic portal, school portal, quality management portal, a portal for child daycare centers and an Industry 4.0 solution.

Ready-made applications

Similar to Apple the vendor United Planet offers ready-made business applications, forms, processes and layout templates in the so-called Intrexx Application Store.[11]

• • Testsieger im Intranet-Vergleichstest (Internet Professional, 2000)
  • Newcomer des Jahres (Computer Reseller News, 2001)
  • Produkt des Jahres (PC-Magazin, 2000/2001, 2001/2002, 2002/2003)
  • Innovationspreis der Stadt Freiburg (Stadt Freiburg, 2004)
  • Innovationspreis des Landes Baden-Württemberg (Wirtschaftsministerium Baden-Württemberg, Anerkennung 2005)
  • Innovationspreis in der Kategorie SOA (Initiative Mittelstand, 2008)
  • Nominierung für den JAX Innovationsaward (2008)
  • JDK.de Innovationsaward (Jdk.de, 2009)
  • Juryliste "Großer Preis des Mittelstandes" (2009, 2011)
  • Digital Workplace Leader (ISG Provider Lens, 2017)
  • 5maliger Business Leader (ISG Provider Lens, u. a. 2018)
  • PC Magazin "SEHR GUT" (PC Magazin, 01/2019)
  • Business & IT "SEHR GUT" (Business & IT, 01/2019)

• United Planet website
• Intrexx product page