Clay Tablet Technologies introduced a new approach for updating and translating web content. With the Clay Tablet Web Content Management System (WCMS) marketing, HR, customer service and others can manage their own content changes in real time using their web browsers. Updated content is automatically forwarded to designated translators or to Clay Tablet’s translation partners, such as ACCU Translation Services Limited. Translated content is then routed back into the site where it goes live instantly or awaits final approval. http://www.Clay-Tablet.com
Month: September 2005 (Page 5 of 8)
FrameMaker 7.2 was announced this week (see our news here and Adobe’s home page for the product here). Our news story touches on many of the new product features, but a few things are worth highlighting. Overall, the release is a significant step forward for FrameMaker, and should be seen as very welcome news for organizations that rely on the product for technical publishing.
- The new release adds XML schema support. While Karl Matthews, Adobe’s Group Product Manager for FrameMaker, was careful to point out to me that the schema support does not extend to data typing, I think this is sufficient for the kinds of publishing applications FrameMaker users would develop.
- The product now includes XSLT support. XSLT transformations can be invoked at the time a structured FrameMaker document is opened or saved. This will enable, for example, a “save as” function that could invoke an XSLT transformation on an XML document to create other content sets, metadata extractions, and so on. This is a clever addition to the product, and gets FrameMaker developers away from being reliant on the FrameMaker SDK.
- The product comes with a starter application for DITA. This is also welcome news, as there is a groundswell of support for DITA, and an independent group had been working on a separate FrameMaker application for DITA. This gives FrameMaker users a DITA application supported by Adobe. Moreover, the FrameMaker DITA application reflects a great deal of work Adobe had done in-house using FrameMaker to produce the documentation set for Adobe Creative Suite 2. (For Adobe’s own case study of how they used FrameMaker for this project, you can download this pdf. A related case study at Idiom’s web site describes how FrameMaker was used with Idiom’s WorldServer technology to manage the localization of the documentation into many languages.)
- The new version also adds some additional features and functionality for migrating unstructured FrameMaker content to XML. They have a pretty useful Migration Guide here (pdf).
On the whole, I was impressed with what I learned about the new release. It has some important new structural features (schema, XSLT), and the DITA application is timely and useful to a growing number of potential users. The strength of this release should quiet some of the feelings among users that Adobe is not fully committed to FrameMaker. Moreover, at a list price of $699, FrameMaker continues to provide a great deal of value for its user community by combining XML editing, high-quality print publishing, well integrated support for Adobe PDF, and support for multichannel publishing.
Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) and The Legitiname Group, a developer of brand management solutions announced an OEM partnership through which FAST InStream will enhance the search capabilities of LegitiNames’s brand and trademark protection solutions. LegitiName offers brand protection and e-market intelligence services. The LegitiName “Brand & Market” approach provides the essential backbone of a company’s e-marketing strategy by protecting intellectual property and securing a company’s Internet market presence. LegitiName will integrate FAST’s OEM enterprise search capabilities into its entire suite of brand management solutions, which will provide superior brand monitoring services to the company’s customers. http://www.legitiname.com, http://www.fastsearch.com
Alfresco, Inc. announced that JBoss, Inc. has certified the Alfresco content management system on the JBoss Enterprise Middleware System. The certification, which follows testing of the Alfresco system by JBoss, assures customers using Alfresco to develop portals of tight interoperability with JBoss Portal 2.0, a component of the JBoss Enterprise Middleware System. Developers can use the Alfresco and JBoss open source products together to develop, at zero licensing cost, enterprise-class portals. Alfresco’s open source system is a content repository with meta-data and dictionary support, full-text indexing and retrieval, rules-based processing and collaboration capabilities. Its user interface includes a portal framework based on JSR-168 portlets and JSR-127 JavaServer Faces. The Alfresco system’s architecture uses aspect-oriented programming to allow developers to use only the functionality they require and scale the content management system as needed. http://www.alfresco.org
Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) and FatWire Software announced an agreement to offer unlimited use licenses of FatWire Spark Portal Content Management (pCM) to new and existing Sun Java System Portal Server customers, including Sun Java Enterprise System (Java ES) and Sun Java Application Platform Suite subscribers, at no additional charge. Customers can download FatWire Spark pCM immediately and access the range of functions executed from within the Java System Portal Server portlets, including: Content Creation & Management, for allowing business users to create and manage content from within the portal interface; Content Delivery, which includes four pre-built reference portlets for content display and provides developer interfaces and documentation for building additional portlets; and Administration, to help administrators manage asset types and publishing processes. Sun and FatWire plan to share technical support responsibility, with Sun taking the initial customer call. FatWire Spark pCM runs on the Solaris 10 Operating System, supporting both SPARC processor-based and x86 platforms. http://sun.com, http://www.fatwire.com
Pageflex (NASDAQ: BITS) introduced Pageflex Persona Cross Media Suite, a completely new desktop software application enabling targeted and personalized content in both print and email. The product incorporates variable data and cross-media functionality from Pageflex into a desktop application. The core technology features an XML composition engine, designed specifically for variable data, and “flex” technology that automatically resizes items on a page based on the amount of custom content added. Among the features are cross-media capabilities for creating coordinated print and email campaigns, variable-length document capability, flexible layouts, and the ability to compose text in more than 60 languages, including Japanese and Chinese. These features enable users to produce database-driven, one-to-one business collateral materials and other personalized documents including direct-mail postcards and mailers, coupons, business cards, event-related collateral, marketing materials, travel itineraries, personalized booklets and many more. As a design application, the package includes Pageflex Studio, which has a drag and drop interface and graphic design tools including standard layout, typography, image and color controls. It also includes a plug-in for Adobe InDesign and a QuarkXTension enabling users to convert InDesign and QuarkXPress documents into the Pageflex XML format.
TeamPoint Systems, Inc. announced it has launched DayPoint Access, a hosted version of its team collaboration application, DayPoint Enterprise. TeamPoint adds DayPoint Access to its family of DayPoint products to provide a full offering of team collaboration solutions to meet the needs of organizations of all sizes – from non-profit organizations to small businesses to large enterprises. DayPoint Access is a secure, web-based ASP/XML application designed as a tool for organizations to promote communications and collaboration among teams. Hosted and maintained by TeamPoint Systems, DayPoint Access clients need only an Internet connection and browser.
Authentica, Inc. announced updates to its products and partner program. The company has new versions of Secure Mail (formerly Mail Recall) and Secure Documents for PDF (formerly Page Recall). Authentica Secure Mail 4.0 provides users with a rights management solution for secure e-mail, helping to ensure e-mail is kept confidential and the content associated with it is only accessed by authorized users. The new version of Secure Documents for PDF adds additional, high levels of protection to Adobe PDF files. The solution supports Adobe Viewer 5.0 on Solaris 9 and 10 and works with Secure Mail and existing content management and workflow solutions such as Documentum eRoom, Filenet Content Manager, Hummingbird DM, Lotus Notes Domino and Microsoft SharePoint. Secure Documents for PDF 4.0 provides enhanced watermarking features to ensure legitimacy of the document and alleviate any ability to tamper with the document. As an Advanced-level IBM Business Partner, Authentica has integrated secure e-mail capabilities within the IBM Lotus Notes and Domino environment.
