Creating your app just got easier

In 2023, we are realizing a long-held entrepreneurial vision for our community: We are now making the product TopLogic – the automated application engine – available under an open source license. This opens up more diverse possibilities and opportunities for companies. With more agile, faster, higher quality and more resource-efficient application development, the potential of digital progress is optimally exploited.

BOS, founded in 2001, has pursued the goal of developing a business operating system for industrial business processes. After more than two decades of relentless development, nearly 200 cumulative years of architecture and development, and over 50 successful implementations of TopLogic, we have reached a product stage with version 7 that allows us to enter new distribution channels.

Brief introduction

TopLogic-based business models

75 +

Users

15.000 +

TopLogic, a BOS product, is the platform that enables resource-efficient application development. By choosing the type of license, the developer using TopLogic decides whether the compartment model built on TopLogic remains IP-protected or is published as open source.

As a result, BOS will become an even more innovative product house, with a service portfolio aimed at increasing knowledge around the use of TopLogic. Our mission is to disseminate and apply this specific knowledge.

Arbonia
Audi
BMW
Deutsche Telekom
FC Bayern München
Lufthansa
Lufthansa Technik
Openium
SEZ Holding
Siemens
Skoda
Swisscom
Thomas Cook
Volkswagen

TopLogic

Why are we now also going down an open source path with TopLogic?

Since the company was founded, our goal has been to provide the open source community with a complete development platform, packed with many innovations, and not to develop the platform by means of the community.

We have achieved this goal with version 7 and the all-round completeness of the product. We can now focus on forward development and the TopLogic community can easily and quickly model high quality applications without interfering with the product base.

Proprietary often means black box and vendor dependency for the customer. With dual licensing now available, the tables are turned and the customer decides which license to use.

References
Audit-proof document workflow

Within just ten weeks, a system was developed and seamlessly integrated into the corporate infrastructure. With this system, all relevant documents in the homologation process can be efficiently controlled and displayed.

Comprehensive historization and versioning ensure that all procedures and changes in the development process are fully documented. The final, approval-relevant documents can be made available in a certification application in a legally compliant manner at the push of a button.

Factory 56

For Factory 56, we created a proven and networked app family for digital plant planning in cooperation with a TopLogic partner.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen component uses a TopLogic specialist configuration to uniformly document and report on all customer projects according to the company's own project management standard.

It also provides an immense pool of knowledge that enables the continuous development of templates for standard work breakdown structures.

BMW

BMW uses a specialist model based on TopLogic as a uniform reporting and control system for all vehicle development projects.

This application represents a success story of more than ten years.

References

Dual licensing

"TopLogic - the automated application engine" (TopLogic) is dual licensed as OpenSource software, under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (AGPL-3.0), and proprietary under the Proprietary TopLogic License, version 1.0 (LicenseRef-TopLogic-1.0).

The download of TopLogic – the automated application engine is made via GitHub for intended use according to § 69d Abs. 1 UrhG. The intended use of TopLogic consists of the development of applications. Any use beyond this requires a license.

As long as TopLogic is used as intended in the above sense, “for development use only” will be permanently displayed in the application. This display is deactivated by administration of a license type (AGPL-3.0 or proprietary by acquisition of a license key).

Before productively deploying an application developed with TopLogic or distributing the application developed with TopLogic, the licensee decides whether the application is to be used under the AGPL-3.0 open source license or under the proprietary license with the proprietary variant of TopLogic.

Switching from AGPL-3.0 to a proprietary license is possible as long as the application has not yet been distributed to third parties or made publicly available by way of a SaaS. The change from the proprietary license to AGPL-3.0 is possible at any time.

The AGPL-3.0 open source license chosen by BOS for TopLogic stipulates that any processing of the software that requires copyright permission must be licensed again under AGPL-3.0 if a copy of the software is passed on or a SaaS or comparable use in networks takes place (“copyleft”). By choosing the proprietary license, the licensee can exploit his application in a proprietary manner, so that neither his development contribution nor the components contained in TopLogic need to be disclosed.

Benefits and Features

How do you benefit from TopLogic?

Organizations that develop applications with TopLogic enjoy a much wider range of design options:

Ease of use

Obtaining TopLogic becomes easier for specialized application development because downloading from GitHub does not require any interaction with the vendor. The license type is determined only for the productive use of the application.

Intellectual property protection

Both are possible: intellectual property protection by using the proprietary license or OpenSource licensing for the TopLogic community.

Higher autonomy

TopLogic enables a high degree of autonomy in application development and per se encourages the emergence of ecosystems.

Sustainable implementation

Business concepts can be implemented in a more sustainable and resource-efficient way, as they are directly transferred into operational applications, without coding, build and deployment.

No restrictions

The TopLogic “all in one NoCode platform” knows no functional or technical restrictions for the development of applications. Especially the orchestration of proven business models accelerates time to market.

Efficient application

Application development with TopLogic is efficient because resources are conserved, costs are saved and applications can be deployed more agilely by automatically interpreting the application model into a runnable application.

See for yourself

Development

InApp Development

When TopLogic is installed, a directly executable application is ready. Data, workflow, authorization and GUI modelers are used to create the application model, which is interpreted code-free to create a concrete application. Scripting and full-coding methods can also be used to integrate specialized functionality.

Each TopLogic application knows exactly the application model and its version it is using. Thanks to the in-app functions, requirements for traceability and auditability – even from a legal point of view – are met.

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Convince yourself

Helena Bauer,
Managing Consultant
FRG Technology Consulting
Phone: +49 69 58996 5151

"The company offers outstanding benefits such as flexible working hours, which are crucial for the work-life balance of employees. In addition to remote working, including from abroad, and flat hierarchies, these flexible working hours create an inspiring working environment that fosters creativity and innovation. Working on a complex product also offers significant development opportunities, which is also confirmed by the positive feedback from applicants. Management's openness to employee feedback and ideas underscores the company's remarkable employee orientation."

Ilja Bauer
Managing Director (CTO)
EntwicklerHeld GmbH

@ilja-bauer

"We got to know BOS as an innovative company. Through their Challenge on EntwicklerHeld, they have already left conventional paths and stood out from the crowd of IT service providers and software houses. At the same time, we were allowed to take a look at TopLogic - I was excited from the start.
A NoCode platform that has been maturing on real projects for so many years? Brilliant! Now TopLogic is going OpenSource - another unconventional step for German IT companies - to reach even more developers. I am looking forward to try TopLogic "hands on" and introduce it to our community of 40.000 developers!"

Thomas Bauer,
Business Management
Business Operation Systems

@thomasbauer

"Lengthy, expensive and often ultimately unusable applications are a thing of the past. With TopLogic, we establish applications blazingly fast on a limited budget."

Alexander Braun,
Sales and Marketing
Beraterhaus Halle

"For me, TopLogic is the easiest and fastest way to digitize processes according to our wishes and at the same time bundle specialist information from several applications."

Peter Dilger,
Founder
Business Operation Systems

"The intelligent NoCode digitization platform TopLogic - the automated application engine, enables its users to create and operate a multitude of simple and/or complex business processes economically.
A very special answer to the digitalization and automation of the software production and commissioning process."

Guido Dostert,
General Management
Business Operation Systems

@guidodostert

"TopLogic is a crucial answer to the IT skills shortage: heterogeneous teams develop agile and WYSIWYG arbitrarily complex applications."

Dr. Carsten Emde,
Managing Director
Open Source Automation
Development Lab (OSADL)

"Since the end of August, our member Business Operation Systems has been offering its TopLogic software optionally under an open source license. Such dual licensing comes with a number of legal and technical challenges. All of us in the OSADL team were impressed by the enthusiasm, competence, and determination with which this was realized. We wish Business Operation Systems the greatest possible success in the further development and distribution of TopLogic software, which is now also available under an open source license."

Dr. Dmitry Ivanizki,
TopLogic Engineer
Business Operation Systems

"When you read through the Industry 4.0 specification, you get the impression that it's all about TopLogic."

Stefan Müller,
Graphic Recording
thinkpen.de

"TopLogic is the expertise and many years of experience of a team in software development according to customer requirements poured into a product."

Ralf Schambier
monopage GmbH

@ralfschambier

"TopLogic is a powerful engine for digital transformation: with the automated app engine, companies of all sizes and industries can develop and manage their applications quickly, consistently and resource-efficiently."

"For me, TopLogic is simply a logical development platform that allows applications to be developed independently, intuitively and quickly, together with the business users, without any requirement specifications. That is agility on a new level."

Sebastian Wiegandt,
Managing Director
Demand Hamburg GmbH

TopLogic Day 2023

"TopLogic is powerful, complex and, from the robust knowledge base to model-driven design to services, modular, reusable and extremely flexible."

Statements

Questions and answers

Good to know

Gladly receive further information in a personal exchange

Is TopLogic an expert system?

Yes, the in-app modelers create operational applications, so an expertise in modeling (UML, BPML) is necessary. Software developers will quickly become comfortable with the “batteries included” features and will be able to integrate standard components such as account management, log analysis, theming, data analysis and many more into application models.

Is TopLogic a niche product?

At the moment yes, however we are not afraid of comparison with the big players in the no-code scene. As soon as a neutral technical evaluation of our product is available, we will announce the results here. With dual licensing, we are also opening wide the doors to scaling.

Is TopLogic just a system for creating demonstrators?

We use TopLogic very early in the acquisition process to demonstrate in a matter of days – often just hours – how quickly an application can be built by combining a custom application model with standard modules.

Unlike click dummies, TopLogic applications are operational from the start and can be extended to complex applications (see references) without sacrificing stability and performance.

Can TopLogic know-how only be purchased from BOS?

No. Since we were able to win our first well-founded TopLogic partner (ASCon Systems), it has been easier to recruit other partners.

Is it fun to work with TopLogic?

Yes, if you are serious about developing applications in a well-founded way, TopLogic makes development a lot easier, because you have access to proven components that have been tested over many years.

Is there only the TopLogic way?

No. Application development with TopLogic makes it possible to focus on data and process models, i.e. to implement the required technicality, but it is not mandatory.

Is TopLogic open?

Basically yes, and we are working on opening it up further so that TopLogic (or parts of it) can be used as it is for concrete application development. The next step is to open it up for application visualization (GUI). In the near future, there will be an easily configurable design system.

Alternatively, third-party products can be used to design individual GUIs. TopLogic will ensure that the designs can be implemented.

Are licenses required?

No license is required to develop TopLogic applications and test them. A license is required to run a TopLogic application. Either a license key is purchased from BOS and inserted into the application or the application is published under the AGPL license terms.

Is it possible to change licenses?

Once an application has been put into operation under AGPL, it is no longer possible to switch to a proprietary license for this application. However, if a new version is put into operation, a new license can also be selected.

For applications that are operated with a proprietary license, a license change can be made at any time.

If TopLogic sources published under AGPL (and not a built version) are downloaded for development, a proprietary license can be used for operation as long as the sources have not been modified.

If TopLogic sources are modified in development, the application must be operated under AGPL license rights.

Is TopLlogic platform independent?

TopLogic can be run on any platform. We recommend a UNIX server installation.

Does TopLogic cost anything?

There are no license costs for the development of TopLogic-based applications and their testing. If a TopLogic-based application is to be operated with a proprietary license, a license key with costs must be purchased from BOS as a matter of priority.

What are the minimum requirements to download TopLogic?

This is listed in the administration manual (part of the documentation provided).