Progressive Information Technologies announced the release of Vasont 8.0, the latest version of its content management system for cross-media publishing. Combining digital asset management and content management functionality, Vasont 8.0 handles the creation, management and publishing of content ranging from basic text and graphics to audio and video files. New and enhanced features of Vasont 8.0 include multi-language translation management, built-in customizations, asynchronous processing, performance enhancements, integration of XSLT, enhanced versioning, security access, and an expanded Application API. Vasont 8.0 solves the challenge of repurposing content across all media — print, Web, CD-ROM and wireless channels — while ensuring enterprise-wide content integrity. Vasont 8.0 stores only one copy of the content in its repository and automatically updates content in all of its uses throughout the system once a user makes a change to the original content. Vasont 8.0 will be available this February as a client/server or Web-based system. www.vasont.com, www.pit-magnus.com
Day: January 19, 2003
Magic Software Enterprises announced it has signed a partnership agreement with Enformia Ltd. As part of this agreement, Magic Software will invest up to $1.5 million in the continued development of the Enformia EIP. Magic was given an option to increase its holdings in Enformia up to 51%. Work has already commenced to integrate the Enformia EIP as the iBOLT Portal Server, in the new iBOLT Integration family of products that Magic Software has recently announced. The iBOLT Portal Server will enable corporations to deliver customized information and applications to customers, employees, partners and suppliers. www.enformia.com, www.magicsoftware.com
RedDot Solutions announced the company’s integration with Plumtree’s Portal Server. Through the “RedDot CMS Task” gadget for Plumtree Portal, integration will enable customers to extend RedDot CMS’ workflow editing capabilities into the Plumtree Portal. Users of the portal can customize their “My Page” to display the content and information that they find most useful. When the user’s “My Page” is opened, the Portal Server retrieves individual content blocks, called “gadgets,” from various locations, or “gadget servers.” The gadgets are then displayed in a multi-column Web page, whose layout and style are customizable by the end user. The RedDot CMS Tasks gadget gives the Plumtree portal user an at-a-glance summary of RedDot CMS Tasks Menu directly from his/her “My Page”, without having to first log in to RedDot. The gadget code resides on the RedDot server, which also acts as the gadget server. When the Portal Server requests gadget content from the RedDot server, RQL (the RedDot Query Language, RedDot CMS’s XML-based API) is used to interface with the RedDot server and retrieve the user’s Tasks. www.reddot.com
Oracle Corp. announced the immediate availability of new portal enhancements for Oracle9i Application Server, designed to capture and integrate data from multiple data sources including Web Services, spreadsheets and Web sites. These features, OmniPortlet and Web Clipping, shift the customization and integration of portal development from IT departments to end-users, allowing non-technical users to customize portal content and integrate data via self-service interfaces. The OmniPortlet functionality allows business users to access Web services, XML, and spreadsheet data sources and publish them in various formats including reports, forms, charts and news, in the form of a portlet. The Web Clipping feature offers a way to capture content and functionality from existing internal Web sites and present them as portlets. The OmniPortlet and Web Clipping features are included in the Oracle9i Application Server Portal Developer Kit, which is available for immediate download free of charge from OTN. The features will also ship with Oracle9i Application Server Release 2, version 9.0.4, scheduled to be released in the first half of 2003. www.oracle.com
Autonomy Corporation plc announced the release of the Autonomy Eduction module. The Autonomy Eduction module automatically analyzes unstructured text and extracts pertinent information in order to form complex metadata. Autonomy’s automatic technology, which underpins the Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) into which the new Eduction module fits, removes the manually intensive process of creating complex metadata and produces it in real time. Autonomy provides the ability to intelligently extract relevant information from unstructured data based on a conceptual understanding of the item rather than relying solely on noun phrase methods. With Autonomy’s technology, a business can channel all manner of information such as phone numbers, URLs, interest rates and serial numbers contained in unstructured file formats into any location or database based on the type of information it is. Autonomy’s Eduction module can be customized to organize new information via user defined rules in the plain tagging process, through concept-value tagging which uses predefined models to train by example or through a combination of both methods. www.autonomy.com