Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) and Messaging Architects announced an OEM partnership to strengthen the search capabilities of Messaging Architects’ GWArchive. Messaging Architects will embed GWArchive with FAST InStream, an OEM-specific enterprise search solution developed specifically to meet the complex application-based search requirements of independent software vendors (ISVs). Messaging Architects’ GWArchive is a solution for managing the archiving, retention, regulatory compliance and retrieval of email messages and other documents electronically stored in GroupWise mailboxes. FAST InStream will enhance GWArchive by enabling dynamic categorization and instantaneous retrieval of critical information. http://www.messagingarchitects.com, http://www.fastsearch.com
Day: October 4, 2005
X1 Technologies, Inc. announced the immediate availability of X1 Workgroup Edition, an enterprise search solution targeted for small and medium-sized companies. X1 Workgroup Edition employs the same solution for information search and delivery as X1 Enterprise Edition but is scaled for smaller server environments. It combines the user interface from the X1 Desktop Search solution with workgroup-specific network content components and permits business users to search, preview, and act upon data, no matter where it resides in the corporation.
Based on the X1 desktop search solution, X1 Workgroup Edition locally indexes PC desktop content and integrates it with indexed server content for searching, viewing, and acting on information, including current and archived data. X1 Workgroup Edition is available for single-server installations of less than 200 seats, with no limit on the number of documents indexed. X1 Workgroup Edition starts at $5,000 which includes the desktop client, content connector for files, workgroup server, deployment manager, server manager, customer support and version upgrades. http://www.x1.com
IXIASOFT announced the availability of TEXTML Server 3.6. IXIASOFT has extended TEXTML Server’s functionality by providing users with new features enabling them to manage, search and sort extremely large document bases. Developed for the management of large volumes of content, the TEXTML Server “Meta Services” feature enables users to query multiple document bases from a single and/or multiple physical servers as if they were querying one single document base. TEXTML Server 3.6 now enables users to access fragments of a document upon a search result, instead of the whole document. This feature maximizes the speed at which search results can be obtained. For example, users can select to have only specific fields returned (ie. Title and Author) which optimizes the access of search results and reduces the amount of processing (XSLT) required on the application tier, especially when dealing with large volumes of documents. http://www.ixiasoft.com
CM Professionals founding director and all-around great guy Bob Doyle has a cute take on DITA in the current EContent Magazine newsletter. Bob makes a lot of very good points, and also offers perhaps the best plain-English explanation of DITA’s value to implementers I have read:
While it is doubtful that out of the box DITA will find widespread use without customization (called specialization in DITA speak), the ready-made generic topic, and three “information-typed” specializations called concept, task, and reference, will get documentation teams producing very quickly. These documents will also be easily exchangeable with others. Because specializations inherit (thus the Darwinian name) properties from the general topics, their default behaviors–like printing, conversion to PDF, or XHTML Web pages–will produce decent results when transformed by default DITA XSLT style sheets.
One detail deserves mention though in Bob’s writeup. He refers to a “rumor” that Adobe recently used DITA to produce documentation. We know this rumor to be true, and have written about how Adobe used DITA to produce localized documentation for the recent release of Creative Suite 2. And, to all of Bob’s positive points we can add this one–at least two major companies (Adobe and Autodesk) have already used DITA to produce major documentation releases. Interestlingly, both Adobe and Autodesk used the same core technology to work with DITA–FrameMaker on the authoring side and Idiom World Server for content management and localization.
