Action Technologies and UWI.Com announced the integration of Action Technologies’ ActionWorks Metro 5 e-process application server and UWI.Com’s InternetForms Commerce System. The integration enables businesses to automate their e-commerce processes while completely eliminating the need for paper in both internal and external transactions. Organizations can deploy, collect, manage, and process verifiable InternetForms in Metro 5’s Web-based work management environment. Everything from a benefits enrollment form to a high-value international purchase order can travel quickly among designated employees and departments in even the largest organizations. In addition, because InternetForms store all the information needed to provide accurate and verifiable records in a secure digital file, organizations can eliminate their dependence on paper in mission-critical applications. www.actiontech.com
Day: June 29, 1999
Crescent Deviceware, Inc. announced that it has licensed DataChannel RIO from DataChannel, Inc. to extend Portals to wireless devices. Crescent’s wireless server, codename Blue Moon, will leverage XML in conjunction with RIO to facilitate access to enterprise data resources. It builds on the company’s first wireless product, SmartFinder, a microsearch engine optimized for searching desktop or corporate data using wireless devices. Crescent will offer advanced wireless communication capabilities through the DataChannel RIO 3.2 platform to address the market for mobile information appliances, including smart phones, pagers and PDAs. The company is developing wireless solutions that are based on the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). Under the OEM agreement, Crescent will integrate RIO with its products to provide publishing, entitlement, notification, organization and personalized delivery of content to wireless devices via a browser-type interface. www.crescentware.com
Rebol Technologies Tuesday announced Rebol 2.1, the latest release of the universal scripting language that runs on 30 widely used operating system platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Palm OS and Windows CE. Rebol 2.1 will be available this week for free download at the company’s Web site. Rebol is for developers and administrators who need efficient solutions for dozens of day-to-day networking tasks, such as CGI serving, e-mail processing, Internet searching, file transfer, newsgroup and automated Web page retrieval. Rebol provides built-in networking support, eliminating the time-wasting task of calling and integrating different classes, modules and libraries into programs. Additional key features of the Rebol language include its compact size (150k on Windows), full platform independence and built-in network support for common Internet protocols, such as CGI, HTTP, FTP, SMTP and more. New features in Rebol2.1 include an XML parser, refined security such as sandbox directories, and new network features, such as direct access to NNTP. www.rebol.com
Interwoven announced its strategic partnership with IBM. As a member of IBM’s Solution Developer Program, Interwoven will work closely with IBM to provide industry-leading solutions for e-business. The first collaborative effort will be integrating IBM Net.Commerce with Interwoven TeamSite to provide a complete Web content management solution for catalog-based e-commerce Web sites. TeamSite enables concurrent development by hundreds or thousands of contributors working with tens of thousands of Web files requiring rapid development and publishing. www.interwoven.com
The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum announced the release of the WAP Version 1.1 specifications, a newly enhanced version of the mobile Internet standard that will enable the rapid commercial deployment of WAP-ready products and services worldwide. Using WAP V1.1, users of digital mobile phones and other wireless devices will be able to securely access and instantly interact with Internet/intranet information and advanced telephony services. Representatives from 120 WAP Forum member companies from across the globe have joined together at the meeting to advance the development of WAP and build relationships with other industry organizations to ensure that future Internet standards address the needs of low power, low memory wireless devices. WAP Version 1.1 provides handset manufacturers with a common global platform and a richer service offering to both consumers and carriers. Network operators can differentiate themselves through new WAP-compliant value-added services and enhancements to existing voicemail and email services. Infrastructure providers and content developers benefit from an expanded market for their products and services. Consumer and business users of WAP-ready mobile devices will have near anytime, anywhere access to information. To ensure interoperability of WAP products, the WAP Forum has contracted The Open Group (www.opengroup.org) to develop a test suite to support a certification program for WAP V1.1 conforming clients and servers. The test suite is focused on the Wireless Markup Language (WML) application layer specifications, but also includes tests for the underlying communication protocols. WAP is collaborating with ARIB, CDG, ECMA, ETSI, TIA, W3C and other industry bodies to ensure that future technical specifications from all organizations meet the needs of this device category. www.wapforum.org.
The W3C released Associating Style Sheets with XML Documents as a W3C Recommendation, representing cross-industry and expert community agreement on the first efforts for allowing style sheets to be associated with an XML document, thus bringing a wider range of design and display options to XML authors. A W3C Recommendation indicates that a specification is stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the W3C membership, who favor its adoption by the industry. Style sheet development and the separation of presentation information from the structure of a document has been a core W3C work area since its inception. Web publishers use style sheets written in the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language to flexibly enhance the display of Web pages written in HTML. Microsoft, Netscape, Opera Software, and SoftQuad have products that support the new recommendation. Other vendors have promised to support the specification in upcoming products. Work is already underway to develop technologies that will allow developers to place the style sheet link outside the XML document itself in ways that are extensible, self-documenting, and that can be validated. www.w3c.org
