Mediasurface Limited announced Mediasurface 3.5, the next generation of its content management application software. The product includes new functionality to enable open integration of the Mediasurface content management platform into enterprise e-business architectures. Today, more organizations than ever before are basing their e-business offerings around an open application server platform. The challenge for these organizations is rapidly integrating best of breed e-business applications such as content management, personalization and e-commerce without complex, proprietary interfaces. New features in Mediasurface 3.5 directly address this issue. New functionality includes: Java API to enable seamless integration with application server providers such as ATG; Enterprise directory integration, allowing centralized management of users, groups and access rights; Support for Microsoft Windows NT Server and Hewlett Packard HP-UX operating systems; And support for Oracle 8i. Mediasurface 3.5 will be available to customers beginning in November 2000. www.mediasurface.com
Month: November 2000 (Page 3 of 5)
Arbortext, Inc. announced the availability of Epic Intermarket, a solution that enables suppliers and net marketplaces to deploy catalog applications that offer more extensive, more personalized and more usable content. Epic Intermarket is built upon Arbortext’s Epic E-Content Engine (E3), a Web-based system for aggregating, storing, assembling and distributing enriched content. Epic Intermarket leverages the power of E3 to gather content from multiple sources including Word, FrameMaker and Interleaf, and convert that content into reusable XML components. E3 also works with Arbortext’s Epic Editor and Epic Editor LE, both of which enable direct creation of XML content. Epic Intermarket integrates with repositories from Oracle, Documentum and others to enable seamless creation and management of reusable and intelligent XML information components. Through E3, Epic Intermarket extracts content from the repository, assembles it according to individual requirements, and automatically transforms it for any purpose – not only for publishing to the Web, but also for traditional catalog formats such as print and CD-ROM as well as newer devices such as PDAs, e-Books and cellular phones. In addition, Intermarket can syndicate catalog content to multiple marketplaces. Epic Intermarket supports the e-commerce schema standards from Open Applications Group, Inc., so Intermarket can exchange catalog content with business-to-business online marketplace providers such as Ariba, CommerceOne and Oracle. Epic Intermarket will ship in January 2001. Epic Editor and the Epic E-Content Engine are included in a minimum Intermarket installation. Epic Intermarket runs on the Microsoft IIS Web server running on NT Server 4.0/SP5 or later or Netscape’s iPlanet Web server running on Sun Solaris 7. Epic Intermarket works with Oracle 8iFS and Java Runtime Engine 1.1.8 or later. www.arbortext.com
Reciprocal Inc. unveiled Version 3.0 of Reciprocal Commerce Access Protocol. This enhanced XML-based communications technology enables the secure transfer of permit order information between Reciprocal and its customers. Reciprocal Commerce Access Protocol allows content companies, retailers or distributors to better control and manage digital content by communicating order information back to Reciprocal’s clearinghouse. This communication allows clients to easily integrate their content business with Reciprocal’s DRM services. Information and a series of instructions are communicated via the Reciprocal Commerce Access Protocol from a retail site to the Reciprocal Digital Clearing Service, which then fulfills the retailer’s instructions and issues the permits that allow the end-user to have access to secure content files. Once packaged, the digital content can then be securely distributed with predefined business rules that consumers must satisfy before accessing the content. Business rules can range from payment, collection of consumer information, or other exchanges of value defined by the content owner. Retailers looking to take advantage of Reciprocal Commerce Access Protocol do not need to install any new hardware or software. Rather, they can simply send a secure XML message to integrate with Reciprocal’s services. www.reciprocal.com
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) released the Document Object Model Level 2 specification as a W3C Recommendation. The specification reflects cross-industry agreement on a standard API for manipulating documents and data through a programming language (such as Java or ECMAScript). Created and developed by the W3C Document Object Model (DOM) Working Group, this specification extends the platform- and language-neutral interface to access and update dynamically a document’s content, structure, and style first described by the DOM Level 1 Recommendation. The DOM Level 2 provides a standard set of objects for representing XML documents and data, including namespace support, a style sheet platform which adds support for CSS 1 and 2, a standard model of how these objects may be combined, and a standard interface for accessing and manipulating them. DOM Level 1 was designed for HTML 4.0 and XML 1.0. With DOM Level 2, authors can take further advantage of the extensibility of XML. Simply put, anywhere you use XML you can now use the DOM to manipulate it. The standard DOM interface makes it possible to write software for processing customized tag-sets in a language- and platform-independent way. DOM Level 2 provides support for XML namespaces, extending and improving the XML platform. The DOM provides a uniform way to produce programs that work across a variety of different devices, so all may benefit from dynamically generated content. The DOM Level 2 Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) API makes it possible for a script author to access and manipulate style information associated with contents, while preserving accessibility. DOM Level 2 also includes an Events API to provide interactivity anywhere someone uses XML – in documents, in data, or in B2B applications. Other W3C Working Groups are currently at work in extending further the DOM Level 2 platform for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and Mathematical Markup Language (MathML). The DOM Working Group is currently at work developing DOM Level 3, the next layer of functionality for DOM. www.w3c.org
Vitria Technology announced the availability of a new integration solution for EDI. Companies can now use Vitria’s leading ebusiness platform, BusinessWare, to transparently access information and transactions managed by EDI-enabled business systems. BusinessWare’s EDI solution enables customers to automate core business processes — such as order management or inventory replenishment — that integrate EDI systems with other internal enterprise applications, and with external EDI and XML-enabled trading partner systems, with equal ease. BusinessWare converts EDI transactions to and from standard EDI formats, enabling those transactions to be shared with any other system inside or outside the firewall. As companies place greater emphasis on supply and demand chain automation, there is a need to manage key business processes across trading partners regardless of enabling technology. With comprehensive support for EDI and XML-based ebusiness, EDI Solution provides a graceful migration path for companies augmenting or replacing EDI with newer, XML-based B2B integration technologies over time, such as ebXML, BizTalk, and cXML. Vitria’s new EDI solution is available immediately. www.vitria.com
Aether Systems, Inc. announced the general availability of ScoutWeb v.1.1, a key software component of the company’s ScoutWare product suite. ScoutWeb allows content providers (enterprise businesses, web portals, publishers) and wireless carriers to deliver intranet and Internet content to mobile workers via handheld devices, whenever and wherever they need it. ScoutWeb v.1.1 now supports a range of encryption levels, including the highest level of SSL encryption available (128-bit SSL v3). This enables users to access web content and applications through Internet standard SSL connections that were previously unavailable to mobile devices. ScoutWeb follows a create once, deliver everywhere philosophy. ScoutWeb software dynamically transcodes HTML content for display on HTML-based or WML-based handheld devices using any handheld device browser including the Palm Web Clipping Browser, Pocket Internet Explorer, and WAP enabled smart phones. This create-once, deliver-everywhere approach eliminates the need to build and maintain separate web pages for different devices and browsers, or the need to install proprietary browser software on the hand- held device. Additionally, ScoutWeb lowers production and editorial costs, and eliminates the need to install and upgrade software on the handheld device. Other features of ScoutWeb include: Support for HTML, WML, XML, and XHTML; Support for all mobile devices and mobile operating systems including PalmOS, Windows CE and the new generation of smart phones; Mark-up language conversion for content tuning to suit device capability; And an interpolation feature which allows for varying degrees of image conversion. ScoutWeb is available from Aether starting at $30,000 (U.S.) for a single CPU server. www.aethersystems.com
IntraNet Solutions, Inc. and Nextenso announced an agreement allowing users of Internet portals powered by Nextenso to access virtually any office document from their mobile phone, wireless information device, computer and/or fixed-line Internet telephone using IntraNet Solutions’ Outside In technology for transforming information to HTML and WML. For example, users of Nextenso-powered portals can display email attachments as an HTML or WML file, or deliver them as faxes. Nextenso integrates into existing network environments, leveraging the value of portals by taking advantage of existing Internet content. Nextenso will initially distribute the Outside In technology as an optional feature to customers who request it. This agreement forms the basis of a strategic relationship that can be extended in the future to general distribution for all Nextenso customers. www.nextenso.com
LINQ is extending the functionality of LinqPortal with the launch of version 3.0. LinqPortal has been developed on a vision to be a corporate portal product for international deployment together with collaborative and borderless working. LinqPortal contains all of the broad range of built-in functionality to support the scenario detailed above, including: borderless working, personal alerts, integration of groupware, personalization, role based information, application integration/single sign-on, competency & content searching, active content, case management, project workspaces/collaboration, multi-lingual (14 languages today), ERP connectors, and 100% XML architecture. Additionally LINQ is a Microsoft Dashboard software partner — any web-part developed to the MS Digital Dashboard standard can immediately be run inside of the LinqPortal. www.linq.com
