Oracle Media Objects

Oracle Media Objects was a software development environment for creating interactive multi-media applications. Formerly known as Oracle Card, its functionality and appearance were similar to <a href="/facts/Apple_Inc./oTJYta3k">Apple Inc.</a>'s <a href="/facts/HyperCard/v9GQF9K2">HyperCard</a>.
The program originated as Plus, a 1989 clone of HyperCard published by Format Verlag that added several highly-requested features. Plus was purchased by <a href="/facts/Spinnaker_Software/kIF0lWgw">Spinnaker Software</a>, who ported it to <a href="/facts/Windows_NT/EtccWvxQ">Windows NT</a> and <a href="/facts/OS%2f2_Presentation_Manager/YT8RhzKU">OS/2 Presentation Manager</a>, becoming the first cross-platform hypermedia solution. In 1994, Plus was purchased by ObjectPlus, who focussed on the Windows version, renaming it <a href="/facts/WinPlus/fXLfw9Gf">WinPlus</a>. They also licensed the system to Oracle, who used it as the basis for Oracle Card.
First released in 1991, Oracle Card was essentially a redistribution of the Plus runtime engine along with external libraries for establishing connections to RDBMS engines such as <a href="/facts/Oracle_Database/FHv5g732">Oracle</a> and <a href="/facts/IBM_DB2/2cYITuuY">DB2</a>. As such, Oracle Card stacks could execute queries and associate their results with native variables, making Oracle Card one of the first RDBMS application development environments to support cross-platform development.
The initial release was important as it was a stop gap measure to allow Oracle to provide support for Microsoft Windows which was rapidly growing in popularity in business. At this time Oracle's core technologies for creating data entry systems (Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports) only ran in text mode such as MS-DOS and terminals and did not provide a GUI interface for Windows. Oracle Card helped to show that Oracle was supporting Windows until it could release its first Oracle Forms 4.0 with improved GUI support for Windows.
A few years later, Oracle acquired the original Plus source code from Format Verlag and developed it to become Oracle Media Objects or OMO. OMO lasted only briefly, with development ceasing after version 1.1.2. OMO was used by Oracle to position itself in the <a href="/facts/Video_on_demand/jWQq1o80">video on demand</a> market. Commercially, there were very few products built using the tool. Amongst these were the "Our Secret Century" series of <a href="/facts/CD-ROM/JwuaYLJv">CD-ROMs</a> published by The Voyager Company, Inside Independence Day by ACES Entertainment and UCAS University Course Search a CD-ROM by Learning Information Systems trading as StudyLink.

Oracle Media Objects open-in-new

Oracle Media Objects