Vignette Corp. announced the upcoming release of the Vignette Enterprise Application Portal. The Vignette Enterprise Application Portal is a fully configurable, J2EE-based, out-of-the-box solution that provides the necessary infrastructure for a company to deploy an enterprise-level portal to carry out e-business transactions; manage relationships with customers, partners, suppliers and employees; and perform many mission-critical business functions through a common, enterprise-scale interface. The Vignette Enterprise Application Portal features browser-based management dashboards that enable business and technical users to control a host of functions from a central location. Site administrators can configure the portal to manage content from disparate sources and deliver what is relevant to users on a contextual basis. A customer-facing portal deployed using the Vignette Enterprise Application Portal can gather information about users as they move through the digital environment and make recommendations about content and presentation based on behavior and usage patterns. The Vignette Enterprise Application Portal enables out-of-the-box collaboration through virtual team rooms, threaded discussion groups and shared calendars, bringing a community of users together online. Delegated administration capabilities help organizations to reduce overhead costs for customizing, configuring and deploying their portal structure by putting administration responsibilities in the hands of business owners while allowing information technology workers to retain technical and architectural control. The Vignette Enterprise Application Portal will be available to customers in early July 2001. www.vignette.com
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TRADOS Incorporated announced the availability of TRADOS 5, its new platform for translation and localization of business content worldwide. Using TRADOS 5, international organizations can easily and quickly adapt all their corporate language content including products, websites, marketing materials and business documents to compete in foreign markets. New features include: WorkSpace – a single interface that integrates project management capabilities with the suite of TRADOS computer aided translation (CAT) tools; ExtraTerm – a terminology extraction application that automates the process of compiling specialized term lists, dramatically shrinking cycle-times for the terminology management process; XTranslate – eliminates the need to review new versions of previously translated documents late in the project-update cycle; TRADOStag – an XML-based tool that unifies the translation process for all DTP and tagged formats such as HTML, XML and SGML. Currently available, TRADOS 5 offers a preferred-pricing discount structure for orders placed before June 25, 2001. Pricing is dependent on configuration. www.trados.com
Ektron, Inc. has released Version 2.0 of its eWebEditPro, a multi-language, browser-based WYSIWYG Web content authoring and editing tool. A “go-to” Web content editor for Web developers, VARs, ISVs, consultants and hosts, eWebEditPro delivers a familiar Word-like environment for business end-users, along with server-side controls for IT staff. Major updates to Version 2.0 include simplified installation/integration, enhanced IT-side controls, new features for customization, and new content formatting functionality. eWebEditPro works with all Web application servers and ships with sample code for Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP), Macromedia ColdFusion, JSP, PHP and Lasso. Sample code for Lotus Domino and Perl will be released soon. eWebEditPro replaces an HTML text area field in dynamic Web sites or browser-based applications – giving users a toolbar that lets them apply fonts and headings; copy and paste from most Windows applications without losing formatting; insert tables, images, and hyperlinks; and check spelling. Version 2.0 offers new buttons such as redo, horizontal rules, special characters, superscript/subscript, strikethrough and more. eWebEditPro 2.0 includes a fully customizable and extensible XML-based programmable toolbar as well as new JavaScript API for custom development and extended functionality. eWebEditPro 2.0 includes support for Netscape 4.7 and 6.0. Additional features in Version 2.0 include cascading style sheet support and style sheet override; document formatting enhancements to more closely match MS Word; and options for output as “clean HTML” (to protect against overlapping tags) or XHTML (useful for WAP, XSLT, etc.). eWebEditPro 2.0 can be used to edit the text only, HTML body only, or the entire document. www.ektron.com
UN/CEFACT and OASIS announced that participants from around the world approved ebXML specifications at a meeting in Vienna, Austria on 11 May 2001. ebXML, which began as an 18-month initiative sponsored by UN/CEFACT and OASIS, is a modular suite of specifications that enables enterprises of any size and in any geographical location to conduct business over the Internet. Using ebXML, companies now have a standard method to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes. ebXML specifications and technical reports are available at no charge on www.ebxml.org. Approved specifications include ebXML Technical Architecture, Business Process Specification Schema, Registry Information Model, Registry Services, ebXML Requirements, Message Service and Collaboration-Protocol Profile and Agreement. Accepted ebXML Technical Reports include: Business Process and Business Information Analysis Overview, Business Process Analysis Worksheets & Guidelines, E-Commerce Patterns, Catalog of Common Business Processes, Core Component Overview, Core Component Discovery and Analysis, Context and Re-Usability of Core Components, Guide to the Core Components Dictionary, Naming Convention for Core Components, Document Assembly and Context Rules, Catalogue of Context Drivers, Core Component Dictionary, Core Component Structure and Technical Architecture Risk Assessment. RosettaNet plans to integrate support for the ebXML Messaging Services Specification in future releases of their Implementation Framework (RNIF). The Global Commerce Initiative, which represents manufacturers and retailers of consumer goods, chose to base their new Internet protocol standard for trading exchanges and B2B communications on ebXML. Other industry organizations, such as the Automotive Industry Action Group, Health Level Seven, Open Applications Group, Open Travel Alliance, SWIFT and formal international and North American EDI standards bodies, have also been active participants in the ebXML initiative. www.ebXML.org, www.uncefact.org, www.oasis-open.org
AuthentiDate, Inc. announced that AuthentiDate will be used to provide support for the secure authentication of digital files stored in Tamino, Software AG’s native XML database. This joint effort offers e-business and enterprise applications customers a secure way to protect and ensure the originality of digital content at a specific point in time. The Tamino platform is a native-XML database management system suited for storing, publishing and exchanging Web- based electronic information. Tamino users that employ AuthentiDate services will be able to take advantage of time-stamping and digital signature technology to authenticate any type of file. www.authentidate.com; www.softwareagusa.com
Documentum announced the availability of Documentum Web Development Kit (WDK). The new J2EE-compliant toolkit allows for rapid application development and deployment, and provides partners with the basis for quickly building new products and solutions on Documentum 4i eBusiness Platform. Based on Java, WDK allows developers to work within environments that are familiar to them, thereby reducing the time, learning, and costs required to develop Web applications. WDK addresses developers’ needs by making it easier and faster to develop Web-based applications on top of Documentum 4i eBusiness Platform. The toolkit includes a library of more than 50 components — reusable, pre-built objects that perform common Documentum functions — that developers can use to quickly create and deploy new Web-based applications that leverage the strength of the Documentum 4i eBusiness Platform. Developers will also benefit from the advanced XML capabilities of the Documentum 4i eBusiness Platform and WDK. The new toolkit makes XML available to Web applications on an application server, so content management processes such as lifecycle and workflow can be applied, further extending the functionality of the traditional Web content management application. The native XML support includes the ability to chunk content, manage links and XML components, and import XML content into a Documentum repository. www.documentum.com
SearchCube, Inc. announced SearchRocket, their Internet software with a new user-interface paradigm that facilitates rapid searching on the Internet and presents results in a compact, hierarchical format. SearchRocket is a Windows application that searches search engines such as Google and Yahoo as well as search engines in fields such as Information Technology, Medical, Finance, and Genealogy. The search results can be viewed in different ways, rapidly filtered, and selected links can be deleted, annotated or bookmarked. The results are saved using XML in a document known as a Search Cube that can be sent to other users or refreshed later. SearchRocket has features not available with other Internet search applications and bots. For example, a selected search result can serve as a “launch point” from which the user can initiate a new search, the results of which will be encapsulated under the selected search result. SearchRocket also can understand and expose individual search engine “power features” such as allowing a user to find other results similar to a chosen result. If a SearchRocket user chooses this option on a result then the similar pages are retrieved from the search engine and gathered and encapsulated under the selected link. SearchRocket also has the ability to expose search engine categories like Yahoo’s Category Matches as separate folders. The company is seeking co-branding opportunities with other suitable companies especially in the fields of Information Technology, Medical and Finance. The company also emphasizes that SearchRocket was designed to plug into almost any search engine with minimal effort and uses XML to configure it. SearchRocket can be downloaded for free from www.searchrocket.com. Download size is 1.1 MB. SearchRocket requires one of the following browsers: Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL, Opera, or MSN Explorer. www.searchcube.com
Mediasurface introduced the next version of its content management application software, Mediasurface 3.5. The new release has three key attributes designed to distinguish it from other content management applications: Interaction – supports user roles, rules and processes and allows contributors, whether inside or outside the organization, to interactively create content while adhering to business processes through its flexible workflow capabilities; Intelligence – Combines knowledge and content management into Mediasurface 3.5, enabling the user community to intelligently store and retrieve content when needed; and Integration – New integration capabilities, including pre-built adapters for application servers, commerce applications and content exchange tools, along with a software developer’s kit. Mediasurface 3.5 includes a deep integration at the server level with APIs from Autonomy Dynamic Reasoning Reason Engine and Oracle Intermedia. Mediasurface 3.5 includes integration adapters to provide out-of-the-box integration with e-business products in a wide range of categories (CRM, e-Commerce, B2B marketplace, application servers, localization, digital channels and content exchange). The Mediasurface 3.5 software development kit (SDK) provides developers with the facilities — technical interfaces, open standards including XML, J2EE, LDAP and SQL, sample code, and best practices — to develop their own adapters and leverage many of the core features and extension points of the Mediasurface architecture. Mediasurface 3.5 will be available by the end of May 2001. www.mediasurface.com
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