What’s (Not) New in OutSystems: A Product Timeline

The odyssey began in 2001. Since then, the OutSystems platform evolved with distinct highlights. Looking back, some of them might seem naïve now, but that’s the charm of childhood, right? 

Disclaimer: this blog post may come with a heavy dose of nostalgia.

17 Years Ago: Born in a Garage

It all started with a question:  “What if, instead of trying to get the software right up front, changes were cheap and fast no matter the size of the application?” Almost sounds like a dream.

16 Years Ago: Hub Edition 1.0

In 2002, we got our first customer, and they’re still happy with us today. The platform was then called “Hub Edition” and telcos were the target. The focus was mobile and cloud (ASPs back then), only a bit too early for our own good.

You could create WAP pages and send SMS to pagers!

15 Years Ago: Hub Edition 2.0

By then, we had created the Service Center (with Service Studio). We did a lot of work on the quality of the generated code, and implemented some improvements, such as windows integrated authentication, and assign node usability, as described in New in Hub Edition 2.0.

14 Years Ago: Hub Edition 2.1 and 2.2

Things were starting to happen. We were surprised to see our customers use the platform to create all their internal web applications (not just SMS applications’ back offices), so we started pivoting to that. 

1-Click Publish:

This was when we introduced the famous 1-click publish button. In previous versions, you needed several clicks to upload, compile, and publish in Service Center.

We redesigned the welcome screen and improved Service Center with reports and monitoring. We also launched new web widgets, reminders, JavaScript, scalability warnings in queries, and ListRecord widgets. But we released more in the Hub Edition 2.1 and the Hub Edition 2.2.

13 Years Ago: Hub Edition 3.1

In 2005, we realized that integration with existing systems (through web services or lower level integrations) was starting to prove to be one of the killer features of the platform. 

Hello World! Give me your existing code and I’ll convert it to a visual language.

Find and Replace Usages:

“Applications that are built-to-change” has always been one of our mottos.

The Hub Edition 3.1 was released with the possibility to integrate with external databases, a 1-click publish extension, as well as improved developer navigation. See what else was new in the Hub Edition 3.1.

12 Years Ago: Hub Edition 3.2

By 2006, support for larger development teams became a natural requirement. And so we delivered.

Compare and Merge:

A visual language needs a visual way to diff and merge.

Roles in Service Center:

Enabling IT governance in larger software factories.

The new Service Center, refactoring, SAP integration, plus more in the Hub Edition 3.2.

OutSystems Platform 4.0

We started calling it OutSystems Platform: it was what users were calling it anyway.

Visual Debugger:

The first useful visual debugger in the world?

Solutions in Service Center:

As applications grew larger, we had to provide a way to package multiple modules.

OutSystems Platform 4.0 was made of functions, validations, and much more.

11 Years Ago: OutSystems Platform 4.1

This was a big leap forward in the developer experience, driven by usability tests. We also launched the first free edition for the world to try OutSystems.

OutSystems Express Edition:

“Let’s get physical!” We even made a CD for it.

Improved First User Experience:

The OutSystems community was very orange in 2007.

Deployment Zones:

Independent zones to separate intranet from your extranet applications.

OutSystems Platform 4.1 shipped with: Single Sign-On, Undo, Back and Forward Navigation, and Expression Editor autocomplete.

10 Years Ago: Agile Platform 4.2

Since we had been training our customers and partners on Agile methodologies, which were a perfect fit for the speed of the platform, we decided to give it a new name as well.

Built-in AJAX:

Create “Rich Web 2.0” applications

Style Guide:

Allowing applications to have a consistent look and feel.

Static Entities:

Strong typing even in data, with robust change management and self-healing.

Community Edition:

We revamped the Express Edition—included tutorials and samples—and burned a few more CDs.

The Agile Platform 4.2 included new things such as hot deployment and external databases.

9 Years Ago: Agile Platform 5.0

We completely re-engineered the insides of Service Studio, while bringing major new features to the platform.

Business Process Technology:

Design, deploy, execute, and manage business processes.

TrueChange On The Fly:

Validation is performed while making changes, instead of just before publishing.

Emails:

WYSIWYG design of emails (for example, to a guy named Expression).

Automated rebinding, a new web editor and other features were launched in the Agile Platform 5.0.

8 Years Ago: Agile Platform 5.1

Our goal for the Agile Platform 5.1 was to dramatically speed up the creation of applications.

Scaffolding:

Converting database entities into screens. We used to call this scaffolding “IntelliWarp.”

Embedded Tutorials:

Making the platform easy to learn for new users.

Develop and Deploy on the Cloud:

Amazon EC2 was the first supported cloud provider, and free trials ran on it.

Free trials on the cloud was a great achievement for us, so we made a few R&D mugs to celebrate it.

Other good things in this version were SEO URLs, caching, multiple catalogs, and automated documentation. There was even more in the Agile Platform version 5.1.

7 Years Ago: Agile Platform 6.0

We had a cool internal hackathon on a weekend to create enterprise apps. We learned from the process, and our new users learned from those apps. In fact, that was so cool, that we added that story to our book of rules.

Ready-to-Use Apps:

12 applications ranging from HR to CRM.

Mobile Hybrid Apps:

Simple hybrid apps, our first approach to mobile.

Service Studio Redesign:

A bigger 1-Click Publish button and each application layer in its own tab.

Agile Platform 6.0 was released with new themes, a widget tree, user management, and more.

6 Years Ago: OutSystems Platform 7.0

1-Click Publish was DevOps before DevOps was a thing. Here we took it to the next level and became the OutSystems Platform.

LifeTime:

Simplify managing the lifecycle of enterprise application portfolios.

Collaboration and Security:

Centrally manage users and security.

Simplified Staging:

Deploy across environments with a click.

Multi-tenant and extensibility APIs are examples of things we released in the Agile Platform 7.0.

5 Years Ago: OutSystems Platform 8.0

OutSystems developers are only successful if the apps they build delight their users. In this version, we worked hard so apps would have great UX by default.

Consistent Page Layouts:

A layout grid to size and space elements consistently.

Responsive by Default:

Applications work in multiple devices out-of-the-box.

Rich Data Visualizations:

Interactive charts to provide visual insights.

Personal Environment:

Free cloud environment for learning and experimentation.

OutSystems Platform 8 also had Omni search, jQuery, and more.

4 Years Ago: OutSystems Platform 9.0

A larger community, a lot more data, different integrations, and a multitude of devices meant we had to advance on several fronts.

OutSystems Now:

OutSystems Now shows all your internal mobile apps in iOS and Android. 

Visual Data Composition:

Aggregates (supporting grouping and aggregate functions) were iterated with users’ feedback.

REST API Consumption:

Automagically infer the REST underlying structures from sample JSONs.

Install From the Forge:

Open source components closer to the developer workflow in the OutSystems Forge.

OutSystems Platform 9 was the greatest release until then, and it also included simplified data binding and external database management.

3 Years Ago: OutSystems Platform 9.1

While already working on OutSystems 10, we launched this version to extend the capabilities of the platform further.

Silk UI:

A UI framework with themes, patterns, and templates to create better interfaces.

REST Traceability:

Troubleshooting and monitoring in external integrations.

Support Up to Quintillions of Records:

More actually: 9,223,372,036,854,775,807. Because there is so much data in the world.

Operational Analytics:

Response times are a critical factor for the success of applications.

OutSystems 9 Bali included performance improvements, enhanced extensibility capabilities and more!

2 Years Ago: OutSystems 10

This was a big one: we delivered a completely new runtime to enable mobile experiences and became market leaders in the mobile space.

Crazy Fast Mobile Apps:

Mobile needed a radically different approach.

Native Apps With One Click:

A single click to get a package ready for the app stores.

Apps that Work Offline:

Create apps that work offline, no matter how complex they are.

Performance, security, extensibility, and more in the new OutSystems 10.

This Year and Beyond

We’re now releasing new features much more frequently, so there’s a page just for that.

And in the next few days, we will be taking it to OutSystems 11.

And whether you are a new user, or you’ve been with us for some time now, you need to get ready: we’re just getting started and we’ll keep going faster and faster.