What is Platform 6?
Welcome to Platform 6!¶
Platform 6 is the easiest way for developers at startups, systems integrators and corporate IT divisions to build enterprise-class decentralized applications related to structured business document exchanges.
One can leverage Platform 6 to create and run any kind of B2B application involving exchange of data between systems, orchestration and workflows… But what makes Platform 6 special is an unrivaled value proposition for anyone willing to build blockchain-based decentralized applications for the enterprise world. If you are about to start developing such an app, all you need to do is:
- pick your preferred blockchain framework,
- develop your smart contracts
- and leverage Platform 6 to build all the off-chain part of your application.
Platform 6 will provide native and easy access to all major blockchain frameworks, alleviating the need to develop specific interfaces. Ethereum is currently supported and Quorum, Hyperledger Fabric and R3 Corda will come next. Down the road, any blockchain framework gaining traction in enterprises will also be added.
Leverage Built-in Services¶
Beyond the blockchain ledger and the smart contracts, a lot of off-chain components and features have to be combined to create a blockchain-based enterprise-class decentralized application: user management, workflows, orchestration, data management, interactions with the blockchain framework, integration with other systems, user interface, API…
Typically, developers have been building such applications by assembling open source and/or commercial components and gluing them together with custom code – making it a complex and time consuming endeavor that requires a lot of development and testing. Thanks to Platform 6’ comprehensive set of tools, services and features, developers are able to build decentralized applications in days or weeks instead of months.
A development platform as well as a runtime¶
Application publishers can now use Platform 6 to develop their apps, package and distribute them. A packaged Platform 6 app can easily be installed and run on any Platform 6 instance.
Typically, each trading partner from an ecosystem or member of a consortium would run its own Platform 6 instance and install on it one or multiple applications enabling B2B transactions and back-office system integration.
P6 Portal provides a responsive-design web user interface to Platform 6 instances, allowing developers to access all P6 features and components. It can also be leveraged as the user interface for application end users, giving them access to transactions, workflow tasks, dashboards, reports, user management, organizations, etc.
In addition, all of Platform 6’ services are exposed through a REST API, therefore any developer can build their own user interface leveraging these capabilities.
Developers can also leverage P6 Sync, a desktop utility that can extract all configuration items from a P6 instance and represent them as files on a local file system for version control purposes.
This documentation covers the information needed by Application Developers, Publishers and Users.