Milos encompasses 4 areas:

1. User Interface Components


2. Building Block Components


3. Data Components


4. Tools for the Developer

Using a combination of these, a software development team can drastically reduce the time it takes to produce software while simultaneously increasing the quality of the software and incorporating features that otherwise would not be available. The end result is software that looks great, works well and is easy to maintain and build on.

Milos provides User Interface components for Smart Client Windows Forms applications as well as for APS.NET web applications. These controls can give your application a polished look and feel that's not available out of the box with .NET. The Office controls for example, allow you to drag and drop controls with the look and feel of Microsoft Office onto your forms and pages as easily as you work with textboxes and combo boxes today and they virtually eliminate the work normally involved in using data in .NET applications with simplified data binding. Milos grids are incredibly flexible and efficient, making your application stand out and the charts and graphs are truly advanced. Milos even includes touch screen controls, designed to make it easy to build applications that don't use a keyboard.

A sample application using the Office controls

In addition to providing User Interface components to give your custom applications a great look and feel, Milos gives you a large and growing collection of pre-built, pre-tested building blocks that allow you to add well defined pieces of functionality without writing it yourself. With Milos you can add complex processes like Credit Card Processing, Invoicing or Document Management to your application with little effort. While these components are available if you need them, you are not tied into a framework in order to use them. Each building block is designed with minimal dependencies so that they can be added as needed, when needed.

A simple implementation of the Name Management Building Block

The Document Management Building Block

Using data is one of the more mundane and time consuming tasks in developing applications, but it is also one of the most important. Milos provides a solid foundation for your project with three data layers. The Data Access Layer abstracts the details of Sql Server, Oracle, MySql and other back ends so that dependencies on a single technology disappear from your code. Business objects in the second layer do the heavy lifting and enforce business rules. Business Objects make use of one or more Data Access Layer components to move data to and from your app and give you direct access to specialized stored procedures and other low level database interactions. Business Entities, the final layer, turn that data into intelligent, strongly typed objects that can be programmed against at a high level. For instance, a Business Entity representing an Invoice allows the developer to add line items to the Invoice, retrieve the sales tax due for the entire sale and select a shipping method. When a single call is made to Save() the Invoice, the entries are validated, then all of the underlying tables are updated, in the correct order, using transactions to make sure that the Save is rolled back in the event of an error encountered in the middle of the Save. Milos takes care of all of the details.

Milos also comes with a set of tools to automate the creation and maintenance of the data components, pulling all of the necessary information from the database and even creating stored procedures for every interaction with the business components.

Used on their own, or teamed with consulting and development services from EPS, the Milos platform improves the development process by accelerating the development cycle, providing proven blocks of functionality, advanced user interface and solid data interaction.