Omnis Studio & Omnis 7 Migration
for businesses in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US.
Omnis has changed owner several times, through Blyth Software, Raining Data and TigerLogic, before arriving at Omnis Software. The applications store their code and interface inside .lbs library files, which is why nothing else can read them.
- Independent No licence commission, no reseller agenda
- 18+ yrs Building business software
- Fixed Price scopes, no surprises
- AU NZ UK US Perth-based, working remotely
Obscure, cross-platform, and still running businesses
Omnis was a cross-platform development tool with a long history on both Macintosh and Windows, and it built serious business applications for organisations that needed both. Omnis 7 gave way to Omnis Studio, and plenty of Omnis 7 era applications are still in production.
The obstacle is the .lbs library file, which holds the code and interface together in a proprietary format. Combined with an ownership history that makes searching for help confusing, most businesses running Omnis have concluded they are stuck.
Your Omnis project, end to end
Three stages. Scoped and fixed-price before anything starts, delivered by the founder, and your existing system stays running until cutover.
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Week 0
Read the system as it is
We go through the existing application and record what it actually does, including the parts nobody documented. You get a written inventory and a fixed price before any build starts.
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Weeks 1-N
Rebuild and run in parallel
The replacement runs beside the original until the numbers reconcile. The old system stays untouched and switched on the whole time.
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Cutover
Go live and hand over
Cutover on a date you choose, then thirty days of support. Source code, documentation and credentials are handed to you, in your name.
What the work actually is
Get the data out, then rebuild without the library format
Where the data already sits in an external database this is far simpler than it appears. Where it is in the Omnis data file, extraction comes first and everything else follows from it.
What you have now
- .lbs library files holding code and interface
- An Omnis 7 or early Studio application
- Data in the Omnis data file or an external database
- Client installs on Mac and Windows
Get the data out, then rebuild without the library format
Where the data already sits in an external database this is far simpler than it appears. Where it is in the Omnis data file, extraction comes first and everything else follows from it.
See how a project runsWhat you end up with
- Data extracted and reconciled into a standard database
- Business rules documented from the library
- A web application accessible from any device
The 5 pieces of Omnis work we are asked for
Most engagements are some combination of these, and most start with the first.
Establish where the data actually lives
Some Omnis applications use an external SQL database, which makes this dramatically simpler. Others hold everything internally. This is the first question we answer.
Extract and reconcile
Data pulled out and verified against totals the business already trusts before anything is relied upon.
Read the library
Methods and window definitions inside the .lbs documented, so the business rules survive the migration.
Rebuild as a web application
Which also removes the cross-platform problem Omnis was chosen to solve in the first place.
Retire the client installs
No more maintaining an Omnis runtime on both Mac and Windows desktops.
Where you are now
It works, and nobody will touch it
- Code and interface locked in proprietary .lbs libraries
- An ownership history that makes finding help confusing
- Client runtime to maintain on Mac and Windows
- A hiring market that is effectively empty
After
Supported, documented and yours
- Data in a standard database with normal backups
- Business rules documented in writing
- One web application instead of two desktop clients
- A stack you can actually hire for
Scoped and quoted before you commit. You own the code, the documentation and the credentials at the end of it.
Get a fixed-price scopeOmnis questions
Can Omnis .lbs libraries be read?
The library holds the code and interface in a proprietary format, so the practical route is working within Omnis to document and export rather than parsing the file externally. It is methodical rather than blocked.
Where is our data actually stored?
That is the first thing to establish and it changes the project size significantly. Omnis applications either use an external SQL database, which makes this much simpler, or hold data internally, which means extraction comes first.
Is Omnis still supported?
Omnis Studio is still developed. Omnis 7 era applications are the ones with no path forward, and they are what we are usually asked about.
We run it on both Mac and Windows. Does that matter?
It was probably why Omnis was chosen. Rebuilding as a web application solves that requirement permanently and removes two client installs.
Nobody we have asked has heard of Omnis. Is it hopeless?
No. Unfamiliarity is not the same as impossibility. The work is establishing where the data lives, extracting it verifiably and documenting the rules, and none of that requires the tool to be popular.
Sending your details…
You can stay on this page while we send it.
Tell us what you are running
What the system does, roughly how old it is, and what is forcing the question. We will come back with a straight answer and a fixed-price scope, even if the answer is to leave it alone.
Prefer a quick chat? Call 0425 531 127. We answer the phone in Perth.
